Sonnet M.2 4x4 PCIe Card fan noise or OWC Accelsior

[Marsdy]

Can anyone using a Sonnet M.2 4x4 PCIe card in a 2019 Mac Pro 7.1 comment on how loud the fan gets?

Would be great to hear from anyone using one to stream Kontakt samples in Pro Tools.

I’m weighing the Sonnet card up against the OWC Accelsior 4M2 card which doesn’t have a fan but is only x8 lane as opposed to x16 lane on the Sonnet card.

[JFreak]

OWC says 6GBps, how fast you need?

Accelsior 4M2 was designed with a PCIe switch to let your computer address each of the M.2 NVMe drives at full x4 PCIe speeds instead of hard-limiting each drive to x2 PCIe speeds.

[lucienpalmer]

Originally Posted by JFreak

OWC says 6GBps, how fast you need?

Faster is always better :)

The sonnet description says “SSDs formatted in a RAID 0 configuration, the card is capable of 8,500 MB/s transfers.”

I’m considering the Sonnet too. Any user feedback would be great to hear.

[JFreak]

RAID0 is daisy-chaining two or more cards before the data goes out of PCI-express. I guess real-world performance for single drives are just the same

[LDS]

Originally Posted by JFreak

RAID0 is daisy-chaining two or more cards before the data goes out of PCI-express. I guess real-world performance for single drives are just the same

I would expect RAID-0 to be a lot faster.

[Michael Carnes]

Originally Posted by lucienpalmer

Faster is always better :)

The sonnet description says “SSDs formatted in a RAID 0 configuration, the card is capable of 8,500 MB/s transfers.”

I’m considering the Sonnet too. Any user feedback would be great to hear.

I have exactly that configuration you're asking about--Sonnet card, set up as RAID-0 in a Mac Pro 7,1. I don't quite get 8,500MB/S in the Blackmagic speed test, but I'm up there around 7,600. It sure beats my previous setup of SSDs in an external TBolt enclosure. I got about a tenth that speed.

I have noticed one odd little thing with the Orchestral Tools libraries, if I'm building up a template, for example, adding articulations to a Kontakt multi, I'll often get a noisy, chattery playback. Strangely enough, I can add another articulation and everything will work. I suspect that Kontakt or OT is somehow reporting the samples are ready to play when they're not quite in place. This hasn't happened with Spitfire or NI instruments. OT is also somewhat slower to load than Spitfire. But compared to my previous system it's still a lot faster. I haven't had time to fully diagnose the problem, keep getting pulled away onto other things. Orchestral Tools believes this to be a fundamental issue with RAIDs. I think they're mistaken, although I can see how problems would arise with RAIDs made of spinning rust.

[Michael Carnes]

There is one thing I've run into that surprised me a bit. This machine is my going-back-to-composing machine and I'm planning to use only a single computer. It's clearly got enough power to run what might have taken 2-4 linked machines running VEPro. But in building my giant single-machine template, I've run out of MIDI tracks and nearly run out of instrument tracks. I've asked Avid to up the count, but they're all at home hiding under the bed just like I am (and lots of you). But I fully expect this to become a more compelling request as others move up to this machine.

[Marsdy]

Originally Posted by Michael Carnes

I have exactly that configuration you're asking about--Sonnet card, set up as RAID-0 in a Mac Pro 7,1. I don't quite get 8,500MB/S in the Blackmagic speed test, but I'm up there around 7,600. It sure beats my previous setup of SSDs in an external TBolt enclosure. I got about a tenth that speed.

I have noticed one odd little thing with the Orchestral Tools libraries, if I'm building up a template, for example, adding articulations to a Kontakt multi, I'll often get a noisy, chattery playback. Strangely enough, I can add another articulation and everything will work. I suspect that Kontakt or OT is somehow reporting the samples are ready to play when they're not quite in place. This hasn't happened with Spitfire or NI instruments. OT is also somewhat slower to load than Spitfire. But compared to my previous system it's still a lot faster. I haven't had time to fully diagnose the problem, keep getting pulled away onto other things. Orchestral Tools believes this to be a fundamental issue with RAIDs. I think they're mistaken, although I can see how problems would arise with RAIDs made of spinning rust.

Thanks for your insights Michael.

I’ve been wondering if RAID 0 is the best way to go in this situation. Obviously there’s the convenience of one big volume but other than that - I’m thinking the aggregate speed of multiple drives might be cumulatively faster in JBOD mode. Sonnet are quoting up to 12,000MB/S as an aggregate speed for all four drives running separately.

Your Blackmagic speed test for the Sonnet of 7,600MB/S is really good! I’ve seen a lot of reviews now and all have measured just under 7,000MB/S. that’s just over 1,000MB/S faster than the average speeds people are getting with the OWC Accelsior M.2 card... but that doesn’t have a fan!

Speaking of fans - can you comment on how loud the fan gets on the Sonnet card?

It sounds like Orchestral Tools might need to work on their Kontakt scripting! Many of us are moving to M.2 RAID 0 streaming it seems.

I’m guessing you’re not a keyswitch guy! I am so less likely to run out of tracks fortunately!

[Marsdy]

Originally Posted by lucienpalmer

Faster is always better :)

The sonnet description says “SSDs formatted in a RAID 0 configuration, the card is capable of 8,500 MB/s transfers.”

I’m considering the Sonnet too. Any user feedback would be great to hear.

Sonnet is quoting up to 12,000MB/S in JBOD mode!

Yes faster is better!

Kontakt sample libraries are getting VERY greedy if you start loading multiple mic positions.

Also the faster the disk, the lower you can set Kontakt’s preload buffer - which means using less RAM - which means more samples can be loaded.

[lucienpalmer]

Originally Posted by Marsdy

Sonnet is quoting up to 12,000MB/S in JBOD mode!

Technically they say “Aggregate transfer speeds” which I personally think is a little misleading advertising gimmick. All they are saying is that the total possible data moving adds up to 12GB/sec. because they allow each of the 4 chips their own direct PCI connection, that’s probably 3GB per chip and they add it up for advertising. I’ve never heard of JBOD being faster than RAID 0.