Anyone using the Digidesign Expansion|HD chassis?

[MDog]

I'm thinking of getting a Mac Pro Quad and an exansion chassis for my PCI-X cards. I came across the following blurb though, and was wondering if anyone could tell me how bad the latency is in actual practice? I'm not using too many RTAS instruments, but use Amplitube and SVX on a regular basis. If the latency is 256 or below it could be workable for me.

Thanks!


"Systems using the Digidesign Expansion|HD chassis will incur slightly increased RTAS® real-time monitoring latency compared with systems in which HD cards are installed in the host computer. This monitoring latency will be most noticeable when playing RTAS instrument plug-ins in real time."

[minister]

hi.

i use one on a PPC. there is some increased latency with RTAS. sometimes, i use a LOT of RTAS instruments. what i do is go down to 256 or 128 for recording, and then switch to 512.

once i got some kinks worked out, and once Digi got the kinks worked out with 7.2 and Exp Chassis, 7.3.1 has been stable for me for about 2 months now with 7 day a week heavy use. again, i am on a PPC, but i think it is probably similar to the ProQuad.

hope that helps.

[rupert47]

Hi

This set up has worked well for me, other than the fan in the expansion chassis being a little loud. I use rtas instruments every now and then, for me the latency is very acceptable when set to 256.

Randy

Mac Pro 3ghz
Protools 7.3.1cs2
Hd3 accell

[Rail Jon Rogut]

I replaced the CPU fan in my chassis and it's MUCH quieter.

The chassis RTAS latency is twice that of the latency when no chassis is used.. so a setting of 128 with the chassis is equivalent to a setting of 256 without the chassis.

Rail

[K.I.]

Hi.
I use it, too, but a problem happens in Altiverb well. It was PCI, but the problem had nothing before.
However, the aspect of setting improved because a cable with Mac became long.

[minister]

Hi.
I use it, too, but a problem happens in Altiverb well. It was PCI, but the problem had nothing before.

was it Altiverb 6 TDM?

if so, there is a fix specifically for this.

[Vaphoron]

I replaced the CPU fan in my chassis and it's MUCH quieter.

Rail

Could you tell me what fan you used and how easy it is to replace? I am seriously considering a Mac Pro when they are updated next and that means I'm gonna need the Expansion HD.

[Rail Jon Rogut]

Zalman CPU fan:

Previous thread

Getting the original out was a little tricky but not too difficult.

It will void your warranty though.

Cheers,

Rail

[roberts]

Is the RTAS latency higher using a Magma 64 Bit chassis as well. Or is only higher on the newer Expansion Chassis HD?

[Rail Jon Rogut]

It's only on the Expansion/HD because it's a "smart chassis".

Rail