[Paul King]

It’s not Apple tech. Apple did not develop any of this technology, they simply implemented it. They did so after it was long available on the PC. So why should Davinci change gears just because Apple decide not to go Nvidia?

[Paul King]

Hi John

2:1 is not as compressed as Prores. Maybe try a loss-less CODEC if you can. The alternative is the Adaptec controller I mentioned, which is not expensive, unless it turns out not to be drives.

The other suggestion mentioned was the RAM disk which is a cheap way to check it’s not a drive issue.

Also, what GFX card do you have and how much RAM does it have?

[Paul King]

My point was if Open CL was the right direction, why does it require Apple to bring out new hardware before developing it?

[Paul King]

Hi John

Can you try compressing the file maybe 2:1 and retry.
If it plays then it’s disk IO, if not then it’s somewhere else.
Can WMP classic even playback 6k?

Also, is there a difference between full screen and playing back in a window.

8 x 840pro is over 4GB/sec so you have reached the limit of the Areca/LSI CPU. I know that prior to LSI buying Areca they had deeper level access to their controller BIOS. In there you could make adjustments to the way the controller dealt with streaming.
You could ask Areca and see if they’ll give you access – if it still exists.

Adaptec controllers can go up to 6GB/sec and they’re not too expensive if you feel like trying.

[Paul King]

If those GPUs are so powerful (really they’re just off the self products) then why haven’t we been using them before Apple implemented them in the new Mac Pro?

It smells of pandering to Apple and the decisions they make for their hardware. Right now Davinci think the Nvidia is the most powerful solution. Apple go the AMD route and all of a sudden Davinci are singing the praises. I know who has the better track record of GPU performance and I also know how Apple behave when it comes to their hardware suppliers. Nvidia wouldn’t put up with Apple’s crap so the Mac Pro ends up with AMD cards.

Really AMD should tell Apple the deal includes their CPUs as well.

[Paul King]

If MTBF meant something real then we could all use RAID 0.

If I can use desktops (because they are tested and approved by the RAID vendors) then I will for my own in-house RAIDs.

We only used desktops in customer RAIDs because the drive vendor also sanctioned them (Hitachi approved the Deskstars before WD got hold of them – for workstation RAIDs 24/7).

It’s all pretty simple and inarguable.

[Paul King]

Hi Rainer

If you’re running Avid then you can build a clone based on a Supermicro board. We’ve been doing them for a while now due to poor support for HP in our region.

The most recent system is a 16 core PC with 64GB of RAM.
The case we use can run 16way RAID plus boot and burner.

I think you get more power out of a PC Avid than a Mac.
Best thing now with Avid is the ability to use third party hardware.

[Paul King]

Regardless of TB2, the expansion will be limited to 40 lanes of PCIe. Because there are 40 lanes internally, there are only 40 left for TB2 expansion.

And those 40 lanes will be CPU dependent. Install one CPU and you only get 40 lanes, you need both to get all 80, the controller is on the CPU.

Really who cares, just get a Supermicro and run Windows. What apps are available to Apple that you cant get on PC? FCPX – who cares.

Would anyone have waited for AMD to release architecture for 3 years and not bought an Intel?

I really wonder what Apple devotees owe Apple, it’s almost like Apple hold their mortgages or something.

[Paul King]

Sorry Ron

I did not advocate using drives that are NOT recommended by controller vendors. Hitachi desktop drives were certified for 24/7 RAID use before WD bought them. Also Toshiba do all their own testing and they had desktop drives compatible with RAID (but maybe not now). Barracudas are on the approval list for Adaptec Series 5, 6 and 7.

A Barracuda here is $92 and a Constellation is $172. There’s a decision to be made here when both drives are tested and approved.
What’s likely to happen is Seagate will change their firmware to stop them being used. They wont tell Adaptec and then customers will get stuck with drives that wont work. Adaptec’s get-out-of-jail will be “we dont recommend the use of desktop drives”. This is what I mentioned happened to me with WD FAUX Blacks. However the same thing happened with WD RE drives. Difference was that WD had to fix their firmware which they had to do because they were an enterprise product (although I’m not sure they fixed them completely as they still had to be jumpered as SATA150 to work on Series 5 controllers – SATA300).

So I’m just pointing out that THEY have approved the use of certain desktop drives. It’s just that they don’t recommend them due to TLER. So if you’re RAID6 then you would be fine to use them. RAID5 puts you at too much risk.

So everything I have said is supported by vendors.
The technical stuff is to clarify these positions and so there is no confusion (as it seemed there was here}.

[Paul King]

Bob

I haven’t lost any data.
Using desktop drives doesn’t make a difference to overall data integrity, just TLER susceptibility.

Was it Areca? Tell me if it was.

There are other reasons for RAIDs failing than drives themselves, but it’s easy to blame the drives rather than the controller.

But Bob, if they say “DONT USE THEM AT ALL” why do they test them and approve them for use? Why are desktop drives on their compatibility list?

WD introduced head parking into their Black drives when idle for 12.7 seconds and claimed it was an environmental feature. This stopped them from being used in RAIDs but also made them terrible drives for desktop use. Yes they were the fastest desktop series, but they took 1.5 seconds to unpark the heads and had a head parking limit of 300,000 times over their life cycle. That’s the kind of BS they went to, to stop desktop drives being used in RAIDs. No other vendor had head parking so why did WD introduce it in a performance line?

Again the only technical issue is TLER. If you’re RAID6 then it’s mostly mitigated.

Please Bob, you have every right to mention who’s controller you had catastrophic failures with. I might have answers for you that could get you out of trouble next time. Because if it’s a controller issue then there will be a next time. Lets face it, the controller vendor hung you out to dry when the customer called them.