Magma Chassis x 2 ?

[priorytools]

Can I run 2 Magma Tbolt chassis off a Mac Pro 6,1. .
Both on separate Tbolt busses ?

1 chassis = pcei card Sonnet M.2 4x4 Silent PCIe Card with system on one of the blades

2 chassis = HDX & UAD cards

[Darryl Ramm]

Originally Posted by priorytools

Can I run 2 Magma Tbolt chassis off a Mac Pro 6,1. .
Both on separate Tbolt busses ?

1 chassis = pcei card Sonnet M.2 4x4 Silent PCIe Card with system on one of the blades

2 chassis = HDX & UAD cards

Hanging an expensive and high throughput PCIe 3 x 16 lane Sonnet 4x4 silent card in an expensive expansion chassis off slow old Trashcan Thunderbolt 2 ports with PCIe 2 x 4 = PCIe 3 x 2 lane performance makes little sense even if it all works. And it is such a nonsensical arrangement you might not find anybody who has done exactly that before. If you had to do this you are probably better off upgrading the Trashcan internal SSD and/or expanding in overall lower cost switch based Thunderbolt chassis with low cost dumb PCIe M2 adapter card(s) cards, and if you want maximum performance you will end up placing only one M.2 card on each Thunderbolt 2 bus. And hopefully using stuff known to work OK with Thunderbolt 2.

There is no way around how utterly terrible the IO expansion is on these bizzare bad experiment of an idea Trashcans. Instead of throwing all this money and effort at a slow old Trashcan maybe you should be thinking of upgrading to a modern Mac, at least you get multiple Thunderbolt 3/4 bus connectivity... but even that can be embarrassingly slow with modern SSDs and I would personally not be hanging Sonnet 4x4 cards off of a Thunderbolt 3 bus. If you want high performance SSDs you can configure more internal storage in say a Mac Studio, the high Apple tax may be worth it if you want high performance.

If you really really want maximum PCIe card expansion today then the Mac Pro 14,8 is the way to go, with its PCIe 4 lanes... which actually match current M.2 card lane performance. But it has nosebleed pricing. Be aware of its PCIe 4 lane constraints from the external PCIe 4 switch used in the Mac Pro, and well documented.. usually not a problem unless wanting to fill up a system with SSD and maybe very high end network cards.

If you really wanted/needed to stay on Intel then I would look around for a used Mac Pro 7,1 and just put all these cards into that.

The other thing I would be asking myself is do I really need/want all this DSP processing on a modern fast Apple Silicon Mac.

And whatever you do with third party SSD, the first thing you need to do is check their bloody firmware is up to date.

And no, I would not try daisy chaining chassis like this on any Thunderbolt 2 or 3 chassis, such high performance storage is likely to slam the bus and I would be worried that the HDX card(s) in particular might have issues, similar to how they do if placed in the same chassis with SSD storage.

[priorytools]

Originally Posted by Darryl Ramm

Hanging an expensive and high throughput PCIe 3 x 16 lane Sonnet 4x4 silent card in an expensive expansion chassis off slow old Trashcan Thunderbolt 2 ports with PCIe 2 x 4 = PCIe 3 x 2 lane performance makes little sense even if it all works. And it is such a nonsensical arrangement you might not find anybody who has done exactly that before. If you had to do this you are probably better off upgrading the Trashcan internal SSD and/or expanding in overall lower cost switch based Thunderbolt chassis with low cost dumb PCIe M2 adapter card(s) cards, and if you want maximum performance you will end up placing only one M.2 card on each Thunderbolt 2 bus. And hopefully using stuff known to work OK with Thunderbolt 2.

There is no way around how utterly terrible the IO expansion is on these bizzare bad experiment of an idea Trashcans. Instead of throwing all this money and effort at a slow old Trashcan maybe you should be thinking of upgrading to a modern Mac, at least you get multiple Thunderbolt 3/4 bus connectivity... but even that can be embarrassingly slow with modern SSDs and I would personally not be hanging Sonnet 4x4 cards off of a Thunderbolt 3 bus. If you want high performance SSDs you can configure more internal storage in say a Mac Studio, the high Apple tax may be worth it if you want high performance.

If you really really want maximum PCIe card expansion today then the Mac Pro 14,8 is the way to go, with its PCIe 4 lanes... which actually match current M.2 card lane performance. But it has nosebleed pricing. Be aware of its PCIe 4 lane constraints from the external PCIe 4 switch used in the Mac Pro, and well documented.. usually not a problem unless wanting to fill up a system with SSD and maybe very high end network cards.

If you really wanted/needed to stay on Intel then I would look around for a used Mac Pro 7,1 and just put all these cards into that.

The other thing I would be asking myself is do I really need/want all this DSP processing on a modern fast Apple Silicon Mac.

And whatever you do with third party SSD, the first thing you need to do is check their bloody firmware is up to date.

And no, I would not try daisy chaining chassis like this on any Thunderbolt 2 or 3 chassis, such high performance storage is likely to slam the bus and I would be worried that the HDX card(s) in particular might have issues, similar to how they do if placed in the same chassis with SSD storage.

Yup.
You’re right.
I agree.
This is me trying to find a quick fix for a dead rack Mac Pro, 7,1 2019. It died on Monday.
I have now arranged to hire one as a replacement so we can finish our project.
Palaver.



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[JFreak]

If you are only planning to run cards, then no, you cannot combine. But if you run cards on first and storage on second, then yes.

[priorytools]

Originally Posted by JFreak

If you are only planning to run cards, then no, you cannot combine. But if you run cards on first and storage on second, then yes.

Ok.
Thanks JF


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[Darryl Ramm]

Originally Posted by priorytools

Yup.
You’re right.
I agree.
This is me trying to find a quick fix for a dead rack Mac Pro, 7,1 2019. It died on Monday.
I have now arranged to hire one as a replacement so we can finish our project.
Palaver.



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Yes good call, just trying to stuff all the things you already had in the 7,1 into a Trashcan and get it all working esp. while under a deadline could end up in such a mess. If it's going to take longer you might find a used 7,1. I hear folks picking them up at appealing prices in the USA, no idea of UK prices. Heck maybe even buy a spare if you find good prices and you are going to be running them for a while longer.

[priorytools]

Originally Posted by Darryl Ramm

Yes good call, just trying to stuff all the things you already had in the 7,1 into a Trashcan and get it all working esp. while under a deadline could end up in such a mess. If it's going to take longer you might find a used 7,1. I hear folks picking them up at appealing prices in the USA, no idea of UK prices. Heck maybe even buy a spare if you find good prices and you are going to be running them for a while longer.

TBH, I had it running sweet on the trash can from the clone back up of the 7,1 rig, with the exception of one plug-in.
Sessions that didn’t contain that plug-in phase cancelled when I printed.

My takeaway from this is, if you’re gonna have a clone, make sure it’s current.

All good ideas though Darryl, thank you.

Have a good weekend dude.


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