[Alex Gerulaitis]

[Bob Zelin] “But when you recommend “garbage””

Which part? (Do consider OP’s specific request for an archiving-class storage solution – not (collaborative) editing – along with his request “non sales weaselness”.)

[Bob Zelin] ” I enjoy the aggressive banter on open forums”

Yes, I can see that. 🙂 If anyone else wants to avoid a pissing contest – it’s not you. 🙂

Speaking of “sales weaselness”. To me, a bare-knuckled plain vanilla sales pitch in the middle of someone else answering technical questions is not the most ethical thing to do – and disrespectful to both the OP and to the techie answering questions. Am I wrong? Or is it OK to do just because “everyone else does it”?

The really interesting part to me is that the OP (Andrew) responded to Ron’s sales pitch despite his asking for “retailers who have a history of non sales weaselness”. I can only guess he didn’t view Ron’s approach as “sales weaselness” – and with that, I may have to change my own approach however much I’d hate to.

Alex (DV411)

[Alex Gerulaitis]

I honestly thought that answering questions here on the forum was a better way (ethically and in terms of potential sales) than handing out virtual business cards while providing little actual information.

Was I wrong? (This isn’t a jab at anyone personally – I am just trying to figure out what is the more effective way to earn people’s business. Possibly trying to help and answering questions isn’t it.)

In this specific thread, I tried to answer all the questions; Ron then stepped in and basically said, “call or email me”, and Andrew went along and did just that. (Against, please don’t take it personally. It’s not.)

Is something missing in my approach of answering questions without sales pitches?

(Granted, Ron is a CC sponsor; DV411 is not; Ron’s company is probably given more leniency in terms of sales pitches on CC.)

Alex (DV411)

[Alex Gerulaitis]

Thanks for the nod Neil. I am still very grateful to Adobe for leaving the door open to easily add GPU acceleration with NVidia cards that aren’t officially supported. This way you can try different cards and choose one that works for your budget and performance requirements.

Avid would have been much more rigid in a similar situation.

Alex (DV411)

[Alex Gerulaitis]

[Chris Gwynne] “Mediafour’s MacDrive for Windows will let you format a Windows mounted drive with a Mac partition.”

Thank you! I was just looking at it yesterday wondering about the same thing (if it can do partitions and format them) – but couldn’t find it on their web site.

Alex (DV411)

[Alex Gerulaitis]

You would need screws to install drivers into trays unless they’ve changed their design recently.

It’s worth the extra money if you need the expansion capability. If you don’t, then it’s iT8MIS or the Sohotank. If you aren’t sure, there is still an option of going with the less expensive non-expander box, and then if you need to expand – sell it on eBay, replace it with the expander type. Yet another option is to buy a 3rd party expander (as long as it’s compatible with both the controller and the box) and add it in the mix when you are ready.

Nobody can make a decision for you, what it’s worth to you to have the expansion capability. 🙂

Alex (DV411)

[Alex Gerulaitis]

Thanks for letting me know Petros – and congrats on your setup.

The G+ photo you referred to does not seem to be public or otherwise accessible – even after I added you to my circles. 🙂

Would you mind making it public (or posting it here – whatever is easier) – so I could take a look at your setup?

Thanks!

Alex (DV411)

[Alex Gerulaitis]

[Robert Houllahan] “Astek A33606 SAS Multiplier”

Thank you for bringing it up. Looks like one of the least expensive SAS 6G expander solutions.

Did you install it into a PCIe slot, or in a chassis bay? If the former, does it come with a mounting bracket to be installed internally in a system?

What are the speeds you are seeing with 20 drives?

Thanks!

Alex (DV411)

[Alex Gerulaitis]

It’s one and the same, the two “appearances” are from two stores, Amazon and Newegg.

Alex (DV411)

[Alex Gerulaitis]

Like you said, the ST8-U5 is not an expander; iT8SAE6G is; I actually didn’t know you could pool two MiniSAS cables together to an expander unit and increase the bandwidth – nifty feature! That said, one 6G MiniSAS cable delivers 24Gbit/s or 3GB/s (theoretical), more than enough headroom for 8 mechanical drives (at 150MB/s ea. – combined will be less than 1.2GB/s).

There are other expander units in the market but very few sell them diskless.

Where are you thinking of buying the iT8SAE6G from?

Alex (DV411)

[Alex Gerulaitis]

Which unit is it, exactly? They have an iT8SAE6G expander, and an iT8MIS non-expander.

Alex (DV411)