HDX3 in EB7 expansion chassis + additional PCIe card(s), what works?

[Delta Music Belgium]

Hi,

I am preparing for the installation of a HDX3 in a Magma EB7 expansion chassis with a Mac Pro 5.1 2012.

I also want to add an old Sonnet Tango Express - USB / FireWire-Adapter PICe card and an old NVidia GeForce GT 120 PCIe Graphics card.

This means there is one PCIe slot short in the Mac Pro, so which of those 2 cards can I put in the Magma EB7 next to the HDX3? Or maybe both?

Any experiences?

[arche3]

I have a usb3 card along side hdx3 in magma chassis and that works fine. I'm pretty sure anything works. It doesn't matter.

[Delta Music Belgium]

Originally Posted by arche3

I have a usb3 card along side hdx3 in magma chassis and that works fine. I'm pretty sure anything works. It doesn't matter.

Thank you very much for your answer!

I know I'm late to the party and it seems to be very difficult to find appropriate information about a HDX3 in a Magma EB7.

I'm just preparing installation now as I still have to wait for the delivery of the HDX3, there seems to be a worldwide shortage of HDX cards, apparently for a few months now.

I have a lot experience with Pro Tools cards in an expansion chassis. First I had a 13 slot PCI chassis with a MIX 4 + 4 x SampleCell TDM om a G4, then a 7 slot PCI chassis with HD7 on a G5 and now I still use a 6 slot PCI chassis with HD6 on a Mac Pro 2012.

I have one more question about the Magma EB7 (actually it is a Digidesgn branded EB7): how do I power the 3 HDX cards? Are all necessary power cables present inside the the EB7, or do they come with the HDX cards or maybe I need to find some special power cable?

[DetroitT]

Some cables come with the cards. You may or may not need to adapt the chassis connections.
PCIe power.

Do you have the chassis?
Keep the video in the mac.
Do you have another Video card as well?

[Delta Music Belgium]

I do have the chassis but no HDX cards yet.

I have a standard ATI Radeon HD 5770 + a NVidia GeForce GT 120 for the third screen (all screens are RAVEN MTi2's)

I just need one extra PCIe slot for the Sonnet Tango Express - USB / FireWire-Adapter PICe card.

[DetroitT]

The HDX (new) come with molex-PC and mini-PCIe-Mac to 3 mini 4 pin (HDX)

If you can, set it up and see if the OS sees the chassis with your xtra cards (Less HDX)

Are you planning on keeping both chassis?

Be aware HD3 is roughly 1 HDX card.
(Not apples to apples)

source should be PCIe Power (Maybe someone will chime in on this specific difference)
https://youtu.be/2CBdh1m3ICM
https://www.sonnetstore.com/products/hdx-power-cable

[Delta Music Belgium]

Originally Posted by DetroitT

If you can, set it up and see if the OS sees the chassis with your xtra cards (Less HDX)

Are you planning on keeping both chassis?

Be aware HD3 is roughly 1 HDX card.
(Not apples to apples)

I have set it up with the Sonnet Tango Express - USB / FireWire-Adapter PICe card inside and it seems to work fine. I have put the NVidia GeForce GT 120 inside the Mac Pro 2012.

For the foreseeable future I will keep both chassis, PE6R4-I 6 with HD6 and EB7 with HDX3. They both share the same PCIe Host card so it's just a matter of switching the PCIe Host cable. Or maybe I will setup 2 separate systems with a Mac Pro 2010 that I have in storage. In the end it's just a matter of maintaining backwards compatibility with old TDM sessions.

One HDX card should equal HD3-HD4-HD5 (depending session type and hardware configuration), so HDX3 should give me HD9-HD12-HD15. So That's definitely a step-up from HD6 + I will have a lot more voices and time slots anyway