[Frank Gothmann]

[Jeremy Garchow] “That Macs aren’t the fastest machines when all hardware is equal.

Windows is faster.
“

Then we are on the same page, I totally agree that Windows (and Linux) is faster. However, I don’t think thats because Apple favours stability over speed.
On the other hand, especially in our field, a lot of speed issues are not related to the OS but to codecs and video frameworks. Quicktime is notoriously slow on Windows, much slower than on the Mac. Some AVI codecs on the other hand totally blast QT and Prores even when compared with render times on a fast Mac (and with a lot less system load). So you may see an run into bottlenecks on both platforms.

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[Frank Gothmann]

[Jeremy Garchow] “You mean through the multiple Ae instance thing? If you only have one computer, what’s the point? Is it going to help? Are you saying that Macs are faster at distributed rendering than similarly specced Windows machines?”

I was talking about using Qmaster for distributed rendering on a render farm, and that works not only for Compressor and Shake but also for AE, Nuke and others. If you only have one computer, no, it doesn’t make sense. Only exception is Compressor which I’d never use in unclustered mode because it’s slow.
And, of course, Macs aren’t faster at distributed rendering at all. Not quite sure what your saying.

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[Frank Gothmann]

[Jeremy Garchow] “But does it really go faster? Sure, for some things I’m sure it does, but do you have tests on this sort of thing? What editor setup XGrid? QMaster is very hard to mange when using multiple machines. It does work well on single machines (virtual cluster), but it is for one application, Compressor. It used to be for Shake. FCP Legend doesn’t use it, and X only uses it when using Compressor. How does it help me when I’m Ae or any other application that is relying mostly on CPU cycles?”

Errr… you can use Qmaster to distribute render jobs for AE. Also for Nuke rendering. And it speeds things up significantly.

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[Frank Gothmann]

[Bret Williams] “FCP 7 only utilized 4gigs of RAM and 1 processor. Didnt utilize GPU. The best machine would be 6 core 3.66 Mac pro for it. Motion, shake and compressor however utilize all cores and Motion also utilizes the GPU I think. “

I don’t know where that myth comes from that FCP only uses on CPU. Totally untrue.

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[Frank Gothmann]

It’s a well known problem with Apple’s 64bit QT APIs, a bug out there for years and unfixed. You may even run into this when mounting your shares via Samba. Adobe is not the only one with that problem. Any app that uses those APIs runs into the same problem. Media Express from BMD has the same issue. If an when Aja or Smoke step up and use those APIs (or have to use those APIs) your SAN will essentially become unusable for Mac Clients.
Solution: Render out to something non-QT. Mount your volumes vis NFS or go iSCSI. Your San uses Open-E, it should be able to provide NFS shares. Or use your Dell Workstation and Premiere. QT under Windows seems to be all-32bit so you’re ok.

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[Frank Gothmann]

This is not how mixing 5.1 works at all, in any application. A Toslink cable and a regular AV receiver won’t do anything. It will pass a digital stereo signal to your receiver and that’s it (or, in case of DVDs, an encoded DD/DTS surround stream but all that has nothing to do with mixing surround).
You need a proper multichannel audio interface such as a Fireface from RME or M-Audio. You then need a receiver that has discreet outputs for each channel or active speakers that hook up to the interface. Then each channel needs to be assigned to the proper interface output/speaker.

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[Frank Gothmann]

When X launched they had several road show presentations, so nothing special, at least here in Europe.
Remember, this was right after the launch so the guys holding the presentation were right in the firing line and it didn’t seem they had been prepped on how to handle certain questions. I assume things went a lot smoother at your event.

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[Frank Gothmann]

Then you should update your website as it lists the EB800 as a 3GB box:

“The EB800MS offers world-class performance, leading 3Gb/s SAS/SATA interface design and industry-proven system compatibility. ”

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[Frank Gothmann]

Both the Proavio and the G-Raid are 3G enclosures, the Areca’s I’ve mentioned are 6G. However, to be honest, they all will do just fine (8bay enclosures will all give you transfer rates between 800 and 1000MB/s if you card is in a 8x slot, a single G-Raid obviously a lot less). They just provide cooling, power and interfacing (and some will allow remote management via Ethernet which may be useful to you), the much more important thing you should think about is the raid card, not the enclosure. You can have the best box in the world, if your card sucks things will go belly-up.

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[Frank Gothmann]

The Proavio looks nice but I would also throw Areca’s ARC-8040 or 4036Ml into the mix for consideration. Great enclosures at a good price.
As far as the actual raid card is concerned: do yourself a favor and go for either Atto or Areca. You’ll have great performance and stability. Stay away from HighPoint as far as you can and don’t let the price tempt you.

——
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