[John Straus]

Hi Paul,

Trying not to compress. It changes the whole computer. Any compression takes a crapload of CPU. I am running a 6 core Xeon 3.3 and it can handle a 5K file but chokes on 6K in ProRes… When running MPC-HC with an uncompressed file window size seems not to matter. When running the same file in ProRes in QT window size matters.

The playback should not take the 8 SSDs I have installed. I just did that to see if it actually made a difference. I started with 4 adding 2 at a time. Still got the 750MB ceiling.

[John Straus]

Hi Alex,

Media Player Classic-HC is the player. Win7 Pro is the OS. The Raid is 64 & file sys is 64 stripe block.

Thanks for the test ideas!!

John

[John Straus]

Hi Ricardo,

Sorry I didn’t see your reply before Alex’s! I have the Newertech MaxRAID which wasn’t working nicely with the Areca Expanders. It could just be the way that the Marvell chipset handles things? Anyway we got the 1320 and it works perfectly. Mounts everything past the 16 drive limit I was reaching with the Newertech, no muss, no fuss. Hotswaps easily unlike the Newertech which would require ejecting from the desktop as well as from the webGUI or the Areca controller would thing it lost a drive even though it was a “Passthrough” drive.

Thanks for the advice and help everyone! Areca 1320 works perfectly with the 24 bay expanders for a bunch of drives set up!
John

[John Straus]

Hey Bob,

I guess the point is that everything adds up and I’m trying to avoid spending extra on hardware that I do not need, or better yet could be used toward other things that I really do need (I’m saying I but other people control the $$). Even though the expander boxes are pro level (glad they are) it’s a very small company with shallow pockets. If I was to do raid I would buy the card you suggested but seeing there are other less expensive options from Areca and will seemingly do what I need at this time that’s what I need to suggest to go with. I know it’s only like $450 more for that raid card but that will end up going toward another expander box.

I would prefer making some raid arrays and get off these single drives but that just isn’t going to happen this season. Even if it does happen at some point we can always use this card for other things. Thanks for your advise and time responding!

Alex, I havent contacted Areca support but will. That newertech card seems to work in some situations and fails in others so I don’t even know if I want to trouble shoot with it. I didn’t purchase these items and am just trying to make it work! Thanks for the response!

I will post back when I get it running properly so this topic has a real solution no matter what it might be!!

Thanks again,
John

[John Straus]

Hey Bob,

We had this card from another PC project (that it failed in) & can buy a better card and I have a MacPro 3,1 that I can throw it in for true 64-bit love. Really didn’t think it would be such a hassle to “mount some drives”… But of course why shouldn’t it be difficult… What if I went non-professional 24 bay SAS expander. Would my POS card work then 😉 …don’t need raid… just mountin’ some drives…

But seriously since I do not need raid…

ARC-1320-8X This should work for me right…? It’s not $1k and it supports SAS Expander up to 128 devices… or am I missing something…?

Thanks in advance!!
John

• PCIe x8 lane 2.0 bus ( x8, x4, and x1 lane widths) • Up to 6Gb/s transfer rates per SAS port • Support 1.5, 3.0 and 6 Gb/s SAS and SATA link rates • Support a maximum 128 SAS/SATA devices using SAS expander • Available in a low-profile form factor • Low-profile bracket • BIOS PnP(plug and play) and BBS(BIOS boot specification) support • Legacy BIOS and EFI support • RoHS compliant