Pro Tools HDX2 working on new Mac Pro

[johnnyv]

Just adding my name here as another user who has successfully gotten my HDX1 system working on a new Mac Pro. Everything about the install went well. Bought the Belkin cable kit so I could get everything plugged in all at once.

Installed an M.2 adapter loaded with a Samsung 970 Plus drive. Ran the Black Magic test on my old 2012 3.4ghz 12-core loaded with SATA SSD's, with results of 125 write and 250 read. Ran the same test on the new Mac Pro with M.2 storage, got results over 3000. WOW. Writing to disk about 25 times faster and reading from disk about 12 times faster. Unreal.

Ran Cinebench R20 on my old computer: 3350, ran the same test on the new computer which has just the base video card and got results of 6850; just a little over twice as fast. Nice!

Everything we've done has been fresh installs. NO migration manager or time machine backups. All starting fresh here in the new decade.

Will start carefully loading plug-ins over the next couple of days.

[louisenslinproduce]

Originally Posted by 7thheaven

ProTools 19.12.0.534
is working on NEW MacPro HD with 2 HDX Cards.
I had to updated the firmware for both cards.
I have never seen this update in all my years (20+) working in Pro Tools.
Hopefully that firmware told the cards to minimize the fans on the cards... as I have had to replace to both of them.

The OS 10.15.2 (19C57) Catalina did have a conflict with the HD Driver, which I had to tell the OS to allow it to be seen. I had a great rep from Avid in Poland help me to get this to work. But it is working. I am now installing all my plugins.

The HDX cards - the plug worked with the plug into the bottom card, port 1 on the Mac Pro to a HD I/O

Hi There can you send me a picture of the instalation and card slot order. Is the little tdm flex cable that comes with HDX card long enough?
Thanks

[MixerGuy]

Originally Posted by octatonic

I wrote that article, if you have any questions.

Hi Octatonic (and all others)

I am a little confused......

I will eventually buy a 2019 Macpro (later this year) and put either HDX2 Or HDX-3 into it.

Some people are saying that one must buy the $70 Belkin cable set you mention in your article.

but others say "not to bother buying the Belkin cable set - as the old HDX power jumper cords that worked in the 2012 Mac Pro work just fine in the 2019"



and also - now AVID is saying the HDX needs to be in slot 2-3-4 IIRC, but others use in slot 5-6-7 with good success....

also - Avid are recommending a 10" or longer SATA cable to connect the cards – does this seem a bit on the long side?

where would I buy these?
and
these SATA cables are different than the power cable, right?

thanks.

J.

[Coll]

Would love to see real world card order and cabling, power and ribbon specifically. I have dropped that Sonnet fusion dual 2.5" SSD Raid card in my machine and it is working really well. No, not super fast but totally solid compared to spinning drives.

C.

[DetroitT]

"
and also - now AVID is saying the HDX needs to be in slot 2-3-4 IIRC, but others use in slot 5-6-7 with good success....

also - Avid are recommending a 10" or longer SATA cable to connect the cards – does this seem a bit on the long side?
"

IF you have Avid Mac-cables that shipped with the HDX card (mini 6 pin to 3-mini 4pinhttps://www.instagram.com/p/B_VIbP7F...on_share_sheet)
no need for anything else if starting from slot 5 (good length)

[LukeHoward]

Originally Posted by MixerGuy

but others say "not to bother buying the Belkin cable set - as the old HDX power jumper cords that worked in the 2012 Mac Pro work just fine in the 2019"

Depends what other things need power, I guess, but I just used the "small" connectors that came with the original HDX card. (I stupidly bought the Belkin kit in advance of the Mac and didn't end up using them.)

and also - now AVID is saying the HDX needs to be in slot 2-3-4 IIRC, but others use in slot 5-6-7 with good success....

I believe you can put them in any old slot and they should be fine. Slots 1-4 have PCIe lanes directly connected to the CPU, but HDX does not need that bandwidth. I put mine 4 and 5, saving slot 3 for a SSD (and 1-2 for GPU).

also - Avid are recommending a 10" or longer SATA cable to connect the cards – does this seem a bit on the long side?

Yes, this surely is a mistake. The shortest SATA cable I could find (apart from the one included with the cards) was 20cm, that appears to work fine, although an even shorter one would be better.

[LukeHoward]

Originally Posted by Coll

Would love to see real world card order and cabling, power and ribbon specifically. I have dropped that Sonnet fusion dual 2.5" SSD Raid card in my machine and it is working really well. No, not super fast but totally solid compared to spinning drives.

1 W5700X
2 W5700X
3 Accelsior 4M2
4 HDX
5 HDX
6 UAD
7 UAD
8 I/O card (to USB hub, BM UltraStudio Mini)

Power cable is the small one that came with the HDX card, exactly the same as used in a MacPro5,1; SATA cable is a 20cm one I bought online.

[rinky]

I have my HDX (1) on slot 5 with no problem.
Will move to slot 4, as recommended, to see if it'll make any difference.

[paulschwotzer]

I have an HDX card in my cheese grater MacPro.
I just ordered a 2019 MacPro and want to get the HDX power cable.
I see mention of the 8-pin to dual 6-pin Belkin cable.
However... my HDX card has a single row 4-pin connector.
(center of attached photo)
Also attached is the HDX install guide showing a 4-pin connector
How is this supposed to work?

[paulschwotzer]

I'll take a stab at answering my own question:

The current HDX power cable is used in conjunction with the new Belkin cable.
So the new cable will go from 8-pin to 6-pin, then the existing cable goes from 6-pin to 4-pin.