[Bob Zelin]

Hi –
the DS1817 is an older unit that is now obsolete. The DS1817 uses the horrible Annapurna Amazon CPU (QNAP uses this in the horrible TS-831x as well). The DS1817 comes for free with a dual port 10G card. Either way, this is not the unit you want. You want the DS1817+, and then you get the Intel X550-T1 or X550-T2 (the T1 is fine if you are getting the switch). You should also look at the QNAP TVS-873e with the QXG-10G1T 10G card. The DS1817+ uses the Intel processor, not the Annapurna.

you should ABSOLUTELY get all 8 drives. If you don’t have the budget, then get smaller drives, but get all 8 drives. Your overall bandwidth will depend on this.

This will work fine. Of course, if you don’t set this up correctly, nothing will work. This is not a plug and play Promise Pegasus.

Bob Zelin

Bob Zelin
Rescue 1, Inc.
bobzelin@icloud.com

[Bob Zelin]

Herb writes –
realize that you live in the best of all possible worlds, but did it ever occur to you that it could be better still

and the fan boys reply – “yes, only if Apple releases it !”.
I remember when Jim Janard was active on the https://www.red.com user forum. And all the RED fan boys would only comment “way to go Jim – can’t wait” – no opinion, no question, just could not wait to hand over their money. I think Mr. Janard got discouraged when pro users got active on the forums and started making negative comments. And when I hear that “this” forum is hostile to FCP X (how dare you, you professionals !) – I think of what else is there – https://www.fcp.co ? I saw a great article from Michael Kammes on building a Hackintosh on that site, with assorted comments, but my favorite comment was “you know, this is an Apple FCP X site, and we should only be discussing Apple products” (or something like that). You think my way – or it’s the highway ! Gee, isn’t that identical to the way religion works ?

ooh – I found the exact comment from the “non hostile” FCP X forum (a reply to the “rude” person that dared to question anything ) –

“While I can appreciate your comments, I don’t know if you are aware but this is a site dedicated to FCPX and Apple Pro Video apps, and therefore Mac users. There are great apps in our industry for all operation systems as they all help us make our best work. I’m glad you are doing well with your setup.”

Bob Zelin

Bob Zelin
Rescue 1, Inc.
bobzelin@icloud.com

[Bob Zelin]

Dave Bargen, key designer for CMX, ISC and GVG linear edit systems was a radar engineer in Colorado. He made this stuff up. Film editors did not like it. And so, a young generation of video editors in the late 70’s and 80’s took over.

Bob Zelin

Bob Zelin
Rescue 1, Inc.
bobzelin@icloud.com

[Bob Zelin]

Hi –
https://resources.avid.com/SupportFiles/attach/README_Avid_Editor_v18.5.pdf
from this document page -26

Mac Pro “Westmere” Two 2.66GHz 6-Core
Intel Xeon (12 cores)
ATI Radeon HD 5770

page 36 of this doc describes the setup of the NVidia Card for use with Media Composer 2018.5, but your computer is not qualified to be used with an NVidia eGPU card like the 580.

Bob Zelin

Bob Zelin
Rescue 1, Inc.
bobzelin@icloud.com

[Bob Zelin]

you are at the mercy of the speed of the SATA drives. With only 4 drives, you will be lucky to get 700 MB/sec.

Bob Zelin

Bob Zelin
Rescue 1, Inc.
bobzelin@icloud.com

[Bob Zelin]

Hi Hugh –
ok, seriously, if you wind up installing a later operating system on your Mac, it will not have support for the Nvidia based RX580 card, and you will wind up wasting your money on this – not because of Media Composer, but because of the macOS inability to run properly with the NVidia RX580 card.

If you wind up with a later operating system for your Mac, and you are serious about even trying this, I strongly recommend not purchasing an off the shelf card, but getting a card that has been flashed for Mac from these guys in LA –
https://www.macvidcards.com/

but Hugh – this is such a SHORT TERM investment. Apple will be releasing macOS 10.14 Mojave in December of this year, and this OS will NEVER run on your 5,1 Mac Pro tower. And you know very well, that by April 2019, AVID will release the new version of MC, and this may require 10.14, and you will NEVER be able to run it on your computer.

At some point – you just have to let go. Again, I would not invest in a new expensive (and possibly non functional) GPU card that will cost you a lot of money, you will go thru a lot of aggravation, and then by next year, you won’t be able to use it.

Bob Zelin

Bob Zelin
Rescue 1, Inc.
bobzelin@icloud.com

[Bob Zelin]

Hello Hugh,
I am considering flying to your location and vandalizing your Mac Pro, so that you go out and buy a new computer. I know that I will go to jail, and I will get my teeth bashed in, while incarcerated, but at least I will know that you will either 1) buy a new computer or 2) retire from our industry.

this is the AVID spec for the latest version of Media Composer –
https://avid.force.com/pkb/articles/en_US/compatibility/en267087

and from this technical specification page –
12-core 2013 Mac Pro (Ivy Bridge 6,1 Cylinder) and dual 6-core Mac Pro (Westmere 5,1 tower) model CPU’s on Mac OSX 10.10.x (Yosemite) have known performance issues with playback, render, and transcode of RED material. If possible, customers working with RED material on these CPU’s should stay on Mac OS 10.9.5. (UPDATE: This is fixed with the latest RED AMA plugin v1.16.5 and later)

** 12-core 2013 Mac Pro (Ivy Bridge 6,1 Cylinder) and dual 6-core Mac Pro (Westmere 5,1 tower) model CPU’s on Mac OSX 10.10.x (Yosemite) have known performance issues with playback, render, and transcode of higher resolution material. If possible, customers with these CPUs should stay on Mac OS 10.9.5 as it does not exhibit the same performance issues, or upgrade to Media Composer 8.4 if not using RED workflows

this is the LATEST slot configuration that has been published by AVID in 2018 for the 5,1 Westmere Mac Pro –
https://resources.avid.com/supportfiles/attach/MacProIntelWestmereslotguideRevE.pdf

See – it’s up to MC 7.0, not the latest version 8.

as a matter of fact – here is the complete hardware compatibility guide for Media Composer Version 8 –
https://avid.force.com/pkb/articles/en_US/user_guide/en269631?popup=true

so do you know what happens now, Hugh? You are going into your RETIREMENT ACCOUNT, and you are going to buy a NEW COMPUTER. It’s time. BUY A NEW COMPUTER and run the software that you need to make your living.
Just stop it already with the 5,1 2010 – 2012 Mac Pro. It’s over. Stop putting money into this. STOP IT. Do you hear me ?

I will even help you set it up for free. JUST SPEND SOME MONEY !!!!!!!

Bob Zelin

Bob Zelin
Rescue 1, Inc.
bobzelin@icloud.com

[Bob Zelin]

hello Robert –
you are on a professional video forum. I work with professional video companies. Since the dawn of video shared storage (AVID Unity) and Transoft (I forgot !), you have a dedicated isolated network for your shared storage. If you want to run POE cameras for security (what does this have to do with Creative Cow, or the professional video market) – you buy a dedicated POE switch, and plug in your cameras, and run the QNAP QVR software. Your POE switch would plug into one of the 1G ports on your QNAP. Why would you do this on your professional video shared storage solution ?

As for your IoT switch – are you trying to turn the lights on and off in your office with the same switch you are using for your professional video shared storage ? Are you controlling it with your Amazon Echo ? Is this a serious post or are you just fishing.

If you are looking for a low cost 24 port 1G switch that is managed, that has 10G ports on it, the Netgear S3300-28X is a wonderful choice. As for use with security cameras and IoT – I really don’t care. This is a professional video forum, not a game or a hobby. If I am in the security business, I can purchase a Netgear GS724TP for $233 on
Amazon, that will supply 190 watts of power. If you can’t afford $589 for an 8 port QNAP 10G switch, and $233 for a 24 port POE switch – well, I really have no interest in answering any more of your questions. I work for countless charities and Christian organizations, and ALL OF THEM have professional equipment.

Bob Zelin

Bob Zelin
Rescue 1, Inc.
bobzelin@icloud.com

[Bob Zelin]

why would you buy a POE switch. The switches I specify are the Netgear XS708T, XS716T, XS728T and XS748T.
And if you have no money, and only need a few ports (8) you get the new QNAP QSW-1208-8C for under $600.
If you need only 1G speeds with a 10G uplink, you get the Netgear S3300-28X. I have no idea of why you purchased a POE switch.

If you have a small company, the QNAP QSW-1208-8C is perfect. Its tiny, and it’s silent. And if you think that you are going to use ONE switch for both your phone system, and your shared storage system – well, you are on drugs, and you should find another career (or hire someone to do this for you). It’s amazing how much money can be wasted when not following the correct advice.

Bob Zelin

Bob Zelin
Rescue 1, Inc.
bobzelin@icloud.com

[Bob Zelin]

Hi –
the QNAP TS-831X is a terrible unit (I know, I own the TS-531x). For the same money, you should have purchased the QNAP TVS-873e, which is fast and wonderful.

The TS-831X has a native dual port SFP+ 10G card in it. This will never go faster than 200 MB/sec. So when you say “I am connecting this to my MacBook Pro via the Sonnet TB3 adaptor” – the only way you can do this is (since the Sonnet adaptor for the Mac Book Pro is the Sonnet Solo 10G, which is a Cat6 RJ45 ethernet connector, not a SFP+ connector like the TS-831X comes with for free) – I assume that you purchased a 10G card for your TS-831X.
Is that correct ? There are few cards from QNAP that are compatible, and the one that is compatible – the QNAP
LAN-10G1TA using the Tehuti 10G chip, and it’s slow as well. So you have a slow card in a slow box. And that’s IF I am making the correct assumption about your system. You have not stated what 10G card is inside your QNAP.

Either way, if your QNAP is configured correctly, you should be getting much faster than 20MB/sec READ. There are native 1G ports on the TS-831X. Have you tried those ? You should get 100 MB/sec just from those. Of course, you must have SMB signing disabled on your Mac for this to work.

OK, let me know. I am here to answer your questions.

Bob Zelin

Bob Zelin
Rescue 1, Inc.
bobzelin@icloud.com