Older mac pro w expansion chassis HD7 system vs 12 core mac pro & HD3

[smokeydan]

I'm running an old system (2008 8-core clovertown I believe, I'm away from the computer at the moment so can't check the exact specs) and we've been tied into the older style PCIx cards, so bought an expansion HD chassis and filled it up with HD cards when we bought this mac pro a few years ago.
I feel its now time to upgrade, as we can't upgrade past PT 8.0.1 (expansion chassis no longer supported) and working around various issues caused by the chassis is becoming too much of a chore (high latency and incompatibility with certain plug ins such as altiverb)

So I was wondering if there is a reliable source of benchmark tests- or if anyone here had experience- I'm wondering what kind of performance I can expect in terms of the amount of processing power available (number of plug ins I can run) with a new top of the range 12 core HD3 system (and obviously running more of my plug ins as RTAS) compared to the old system with HD7 in the chassis and running most plug ins as TDM.

many thanks

[WernerF]

The only chassis that works with zero latency, and really no other issues as well, is the Magma PE6R4. You can use that with P Tools 9 and whatever plugins that you like. I run HD 6 in the chassis with a 2008 Mac Pro and can't even get close to maxing out the RTAS capabilities of that machine. You'll get way more bang for the buck with the proper chassis combined with the old machine than you would with a new 12 core and only three cards.

As an aside, I did not know that the Expansion HD was able too convert PCI to PCIe for the Mac Pro.

[smokeydan]

Thanks for the response- yes, we're running the expansion hd with a PCIe host card.

If what you say is right, the Magma chassis looks like the best bet for us- but after 4 years of problems with the Expansion HD chassis we're a bit nervous of getting another chassis.

One specific issue we had with the current chassis is that if we had too many instances of Altiverb, Protools would get bored of waiting for them all to load up when the session was booted- can't recall the error message, something like "expansion HD bus time out" error, which stopped the session from loading- have you ever encountered anything similar to this with the Magma? Or any other issues?

[Johnny2Laps]

I can't answer your question directly, but I can tell you why I bought a 12 core last fall.

My system is only an HD2, with the third slot containg a video capture card. I didn't get the 12 core so much for ProTools performance, but more for all the other tasks my PT computer is handling these days. It seems that while I am working in PT these days, I am also uploading, downloading, importing, exporting, converting Quicktimes, searching for sound effects, iChating, disc burning, etc., etc. I can have a bunch of heavy programs open (and doing something) at the same time, and never know it (performance-wise). It never bogs, no matter what . Most of my work is not plug intensive, but no issues there either.

Too much power is just right, and it's useful life should be longer too.

[WernerF]

Originally Posted by smokeydan

Thanks for the response- yes, we're running the expansion hd with a PCIe host card.

If what you say is right, the Magma chassis looks like the best bet for us- but after 4 years of problems with the Expansion HD chassis we're a bit nervous of getting another chassis.

One specific issue we had with the current chassis is that if we had too many instances of Altiverb, Protools would get bored of waiting for them all to load up when the session was booted- can't recall the error message, something like "expansion HD bus time out" error, which stopped the session from loading- have you ever encountered anything similar to this with the Magma? Or any other issues?

The Magma PE6R4 has none of these issues. It's the only Avid approved chassis and it performs, trust me on this, as if the cards were actually in your computer. Many many of us here are using this configuration. None of the old chassis performance problems have any relevance to the PE6R4 and it's use with a Mac Pro and Pro Tools.

[smokeydan]

The Magma PE6R4 has none of these issues. It's the only Avid approved chassis and it performs, trust me on this, as if the cards were actually in your computer. Many many of us here are using this configuration. None of the old chassis performance problems have any relevance to the PE6R4 and it's use with a Mac Pro and Pro Tools.

Thanks very much WernerF- I am suitably re-assured!

[Mt.Everest]

+1

I just went thru what I thought would be a nightmare - PT 7.4 / PPC / Tiger to PT 9 / Mac Pro 8 Core / Snow L with the Magma Chassis.

Aside from the fact my Core Card was a Rev K which is NOT compatible with the Magma, as soon as Avid shipped me a different Rev, all worked FLAWLESSLY.

I mean, I took 4 hours to do it just to make sure I followed every instruction guide possible, but it could have taken 30 min.

Some great things:
Pulled my SATA drives from my PPC and popped em in the new Mac Pro. Worked wonderfully.
Forgot to turn things on in the " proper " order (being Chassis, Avid, Drives, Mac) and it still ran wonderfully.
Quite a few crashes but ALL PT9 related or plugins I forgot to update.
Magma-..64-I sooo quiet!
Bought 2 more Accel Cards for $1200 TOTAL. Now I can use HUGE mixers, Long Delay ADC time, and the few plugs that are TDM only, with plenty of chips left. When sessions get massive, (or when I feel like it) I use RTAS on audio tracks and TDM on AUX/Master.

Was so nervous but now am so happy that I chose to stick with my PCIx Cards for WAY cheaper getting the Magma and 2 new Cards.

Go for it !
MT

[kooz]

End User Testimonials: This is very reassuring, having a potential HD5 (2 Accel and 2 Process).

I'm tempted to push the go button on a hexacore MacPro this afternoon...then all I would need is the chassis.

[studiojimi]

Originally Posted by Mt.Everest

Was so nervous but now am so happy that I chose to stick with my PCIx Cards for WAY cheaper getting the Magma and 2 new Cards.

Go for it !
MT

the enlightened choice!

[WernerF]

He's running P Tools 9 on a Mac Pro with his cards in a Magma PE6R4, not 7.4 on a PPC Mac with a chassis. Just wanted to make sure that that remains clear. Mt Everest did not "Hold Fast".