[Jimmy Brunger]

I agree, get minimum RAM and HDDs from apple (even get basic GFX card installed and add a better one yourself later if you need it – that will save $$$£££)

Also, I could be wrong here, but I woudn’t think there’s any need to get 3 GFX cards in there…unless you’re running more than 2 x DVI monitors off it.

I’d be interested to hear some real world benchmarks between the basic ATI card and the NVidia mid-range when used with Color & Motion?…

*Production Studio Premium CS2 / *Combustion 3 / Mocha v1.0.1 / Elastic Reality
————————————-
Win XP Pro 32 / Intel P4 3GHz / 2GB RAM / GeForce FX5200 / DeckLink Pro / Roland DS-5s / Sony BVM-20G1E / 2 x Dell 2007FP / DVS SDI Clipstation / Wacom Intuos 3 A4 / 110GB/80GB/600GB RAID-0

[Jimmy Brunger]

One NAS system that does work very well in a collaborative environment apparently is the Max-T Sledgehammer. It runs a variety of drive types and configs, which connect to the server via 10GigE or Fibre Channel. Clients can either connect to it via 10gigE, Fibre, Infiniband or 1GigE.

Still not cheap by any stretch, but depending on capacity and number of concurrent users it will still be cheaper than a comparable XRAID or similar I think.

Haven’t got one myself, but have been in talks with them and got quotes/setups. Worth a look.

Does anyone here run one that might have some experiences to share?

I think they’re mainly for use with Autodesk systems and FCP/VFX stations, but I presume they fit into most workflows.

How do the Terrablocks compare btw?

*Production Studio Premium CS2 / *Combustion 3 / Mocha v1.0.1 / Elastic Reality
————————————-
Win XP Pro 32 / Intel P4 3GHz / 2GB RAM / GeForce FX5200 / DeckLink Pro / Roland DS-5s / Sony BVM-20G1E / 2 x Dell 2007FP / DVS SDI Clipstation / Wacom Intuos 3 A4 / 110GB/80GB/600GB RAID-0

[Jimmy Brunger]

Cheers for all the info guys.

Another quick one – can you stripe the 4 internal HDDs of the new MacPro in RAID-5 so it’s fast enough to capture/playout 1 stream of 1080i? I’m just thinking about for our VFX/encoding stations.

Only thing is, I’d need to use the 2nd optical drive space for the system drive…can you still do that with the new mac?

Cheers

*Production Studio Premium CS2 / *Combustion 3 / Mocha v1.0.1 / Elastic Reality
————————————-
Win XP Pro 32 / Intel P4 3GHz / 2GB RAM / GeForce FX5200 / DeckLink Pro / Roland DS-5s / Sony BVM-20G1E / 2 x Dell 2007FP / DVS SDI Clipstation / Wacom Intuos 3 A4 / 110GB/80GB/600GB RAID-0

[Jimmy Brunger]

Thanks, that’s definitely something to chew on.

So I see you went with the 2 x RaidPro setup, rather than 1 x EvoHD? Any particular reason Walter?

*Production Studio Premium CS2 / *Combustion 3 / Mocha v1.0.1 / Elastic Reality
————————————-
Win XP Pro 32 / Intel P4 3GHz / 2GB RAM / GeForce FX5200 / DeckLink Pro / Roland DS-5s / Sony BVM-20G1E / 2 x Dell 2007FP / DVS SDI Clipstation / Wacom Intuos 3 A4 / 110GB/80GB/600GB RAID-0

[Jimmy Brunger]

Hi Walter,

Hmmm…they do seem cheaper and faster. Ugly mothers though aren’t they!? …Not that it’s massively important – just keep it hidden! 😉

There’s hardly any info on that site about the units though. As an owner Walter, would you be able to answer me a couple of questions about them?…

– Do they ship abroad (UK) they don’t *seem* to judging by the site. Would there be any voltage issues if they’re built to US spec?

– How scalable are the units? The CalDigits are configable to almost unlimited amounts via switchers.

– How advanced/useful is the RAID software on the Evo HD units? Can you set it up to email you if a drive is on the way out? (Another nice feature of the CDs)

– Is all the RAID processing done onboard, or does it drain any of the Mac’s CPU?

Thanks.

*Production Studio Premium CS2 / *Combustion 3 / Mocha v1.0.1 / Elastic Reality
————————————-
Win XP Pro 32 / Intel P4 3GHz / 2GB RAM / GeForce FX5200 / DeckLink Pro / Roland DS-5s / Sony BVM-20G1E / 2 x Dell 2007FP / DVS SDI Clipstation / Wacom Intuos 3 A4 / 110GB/80GB/600GB RAID-0

[Jimmy Brunger]

Yes, I was going to say I couldn’t get hold of any of the new RAM from Crucial – I think you might have bought RAM for the ‘old’ 8-core Walter.

*Production Studio Premium CS2 / *Combustion 3 / Mocha v1.0.1 / Elastic Reality
————————————-
Win XP Pro 32 / Intel P4 3GHz / 2GB RAM / GeForce FX5200 / DeckLink Pro / Roland DS-5s / Sony BVM-20G1E / 2 x Dell 2007FP / DVS SDI Clipstation / Wacom Intuos 3 A4 / 110GB/80GB/600GB RAID-0

[Jimmy Brunger]

Nils,

Look at the Decklink Extreme (should have same features as AJA cards, but just not as popular for Mac enthusiasts. That will give you much more flexibility than the Intensity. Then look at getting another Dell 24″ or Cinema Display and try a Matrox MXO to turn it into a b/cast monitor. I’m looking into one of these next week.

If you don’t need proper HD monitoring then get a decent secondhand CRT to use with the Decklink.

*Production Studio Premium CS2 / *Combustion 3 / Mocha v1.0.1 / Elastic Reality
————————————-
Win XP Pro 32 / Intel P4 3GHz / 2GB RAM / GeForce FX5200 / DeckLink Pro / Roland DS-5s / Sony BVM-20G1E / 2 x Dell 2007FP / DVS SDI Clipstation / Wacom Intuos 3 A4 / 110GB/80GB/600GB RAID-0

[Jimmy Brunger]

Will the MXO give the same results with a 24″ Dell Ultrasharp, rather than the ACD 23″? I use 20″ Dell for my GUI and they are excellent…I hear the Dells have the same screen in them as the ACDs?

Will the MXO be able to be used instead of a Decklink or AJA I/O card, or is this an add-on?

Thanks for any advice. It seems we were upgrading to HD on a ‘tight budget’ at the moment, so I’m trying to save wherever possible (it’s for an AE/Shake/PShop VFX station, with option to playout/capture via Premiere/FCP – no intensive editing/fininshing would be done from this station.)

The main FCP HD suite would probably use a TV Logic b/cast monitor and be attached to a CalDigit HD Pro and networked with the VFX stations..which I was hoping we could run on an internal RAID 5 via 4 x internal drives…would this be sufficient? (I presume you can still use the spare optical drive bay for your system drive in the new MacPro?)

Sorry for all the questions, it’s just that budgets/plans have changed rather suddenly and I need to find some solutions ASAP!

Thanks.

*Production Studio Premium CS2 / *Combustion 3 / Mocha v1.0.1 / Elastic Reality
————————————-
Win XP Pro 32 / Intel P4 3GHz / 2GB RAM / GeForce FX5200 / DeckLink Pro / Roland DS-5s / Sony BVM-20G1E / 2 x Dell 2007FP / DVS SDI Clipstation / Wacom Intuos 3 A4 / 110GB/80GB/600GB RAID-0

[Jimmy Brunger]

My apologies…I didn’t realise that. Sounds definitely worth a look…I’m speccing up an FCP system at the moment and saving on a

[Jimmy Brunger]

The Cinema Display won’t display fields though and your blacks won’t be quite as they should. Colours are displayed pretty well though.

*Production Studio Premium CS2 / *Combustion 3 / Mocha v1.0.1 / Elastic Reality
————————————-
Win XP Pro 32 / Intel P4 3GHz / 2GB RAM / GeForce FX5200 / DeckLink Pro / Roland DS-5s / Sony BVM-20G1E / 2 x Dell 2007FP / DVS SDI Clipstation / Wacom Intuos 3 A4 / 110GB/80GB/600GB RAID-0