PCIe chassis and NVME recommendations for HDX and M2

[skylab001]

Hey everybody, my Mac tower is in need of replacing so I am planning on moving to a new M1 Max studio or M2 Pro mini. I am looking for recommendations for a Chassis, I assume the Avid one is safe and functional, I like the rackmount one too but haven’t read the best things about it, does sonnet make a single enclosure that is avid approved? I was also thinking an NVME drive would be a good upgrade, but I‘m new to them and about what setup works well. I’ve seen some of the threads about problems with chassis’s and nvme drives so I was hoping some feedback and guidance figuring out what works well and keeping a streamlined setup. With these new machines it seems your desktop can become covered in perhipherals pretty quickly. Many thanks in advance!

[BScout]

Sonnet makes the Avid ones. It is their older design.
Sonnet has their own newer design (the DuoModo line) which has rackmount versions. And yes, they make a single card version besides their 3 card version.

[uptheoctave]

I have the latest 3 slot Sonnet one.
I don’t love it.

The hardware RAID card doesn’t run nearly as fast as it does in the 2019 Mac Pro (like less than half the speed).

This is due to a few reasons, firstly, TB3 is limited to around 2700 MB/s.
Also the slots in the Echo III are:
Expansion Slots (Facing Rear, Left to Right)

• One x8 mechanical (x8 electrical) PCIe 3.0
• One x16 mechanical (x8 electrical) PCIe 3.0
• One x8 mechanical (x4 electrical) PCIe 3.0

It doesn’t hugely matter for audio but for complex video projects it could be a factor. I’ve gone back to the 2019 Mac Pro for video.

[skylab001]

The duomodo chassis looks great, a very clean solution…albeit a little pricey, but with the 2 NVMe drives in the chassis and being modular I like it. It might be overkill though, as I only have a single HDX card. I rarely dive into video, my old cpu couldn’t handle much, but maybe that will change with the new setup, but my main concern is audio. I’m making an assumption but it seems an NVMe drive is super fast compared to my current SSD’s so a 32-48 track audio session shouldn‘t even break a sweat?

[uptheoctave]

Originally Posted by skylab001

The duomodo chassis looks great, a very clean solution…albeit a little pricey, but with the 2 NVMe drives in the chassis and being modular I like it. It might be overkill though, as I only have a single HDX card. I rarely dive into video, my old cpu couldn’t handle much, but maybe that will change with the new setup, but my main concern is audio. I’m making an assumption but it seems an NVMe drive is super fast compared to my current SSD’s so a 32-48 track audio session shouldn‘t even break a sweat?

That will be no problem at all.

[BScout]

Originally Posted by skylab001

The duomodo chassis looks great, a very clean solution…albeit a little pricey, but with the 2 NVMe drives in the chassis and being modular I like it. It might be overkill though, as I only have a single HDX card. I rarely dive into video, my old cpu couldn’t handle much, but maybe that will change with the new setup, but my main concern is audio. I’m making an assumption but it seems an NVMe drive is super fast compared to my current SSD’s so a 32-48 track audio session shouldn‘t even break a sweat?

There are zero external video cards supported on the Apple M chips at the moment. It's a problem that Apple may (or may not) address but they've closed the driver access for video which is why. (so an eGPU with the new macs won't work anyway)

[BScout]

Also, to be clear, when you install HDX cards into a chassis, the switch (on Sonnet) needs to be flipped on that makes it PCIe 2.0 spec. It is no longer PCIe 3.0 spec. That's great for the HDX cards (required) but not great for NVMe drives on an add-on card. It is no longer able to operate at PCIe 3.0 speeds.

This is a problem caused by the HDX cards (their incompatibility with PCIe 3.0 spec in the chassis) and not the idea of NVMe + chassis.

[uptheoctave]

Originally Posted by BScout

Also, to be clear, when you install HDX cards into a chassis, the switch (on Sonnet) needs to be flipped on that makes it PCIe 2.0 spec. It is no longer PCIe 3.0 spec. That's great for the HDX cards (required) but not great for NVMe drives on an add-on card. It is no longer able to operate at PCIe 3.0 speeds.

This is a problem caused by the HDX cards (their incompatibility with PCIe 3.0 spec in the chassis) and not the idea of NVMe + chassis.

I'm not sure the current Sonnet chassis' have this switch, at least I've never seen it on mine.

Which one are you referring to?

[Darryl Ramm]

Any chassis that works properly/is officially qualified by Sonnet for these cards either has a PCIe switch or must just be PCIe 2, if the chassis is Thunderbolt 2 it is an only PCIe 2 to start with. The broken by design Avid cards need this as already stated. Why don't you open up the documentation for your chassis and have a read, or provide *exactly* what model you have.

[redmount]

for example, this one has landed here a few days ago and works great with HDX cards (switch inside).


https://www.sonnettech.com/product/e.../overview.html