MacPro Hardware for HD?

We are using a new MacPro Dual 2.66
Radeon X1900
Blackmagic HD Extreme
1 HD for System
3 HD in RAID (250Mb each) reaching arround 180 Mb/s

So far we plan on using a mid-range mac pro. My 2.0 has been fine. X1900, 15K Cheetah content drive, and the blackmagic decklink extreme card. There is a possibility that you may need to buy more ram but it hasn't been determined yet. We will recommend a composite video card for the mac pro, and or give the option to purchase as an accessory. Solid specifications coming soon.

Leah and Gian,
Thanks for your answers. More questions, sorry I am a noob.
What SCSI controller card are you using?
Has anyone tried the CalDigit SATA RAID arrays? www.caldigit.com/ If so what do you think?
Thanks,
Michael

Michael,
We are using the ATTO Technology, Inc UL5D Dual Channel PCIe SCSI card. The current driver does work but it has shown some incompatibilities. They figured this out and will be releasing a new driver somewhere around the 25th of this month. The problem doesn't really appear unless you have 4GB of RAM on your MacPro. The ATTO Configuration tool that comes with the software does not work quite yet. I think this will be fixed with the new driver release this month.
This is a new machine. New technology. There are a lot of companies that will find some incompatibilties. It is good to have patience. It takes a bit to get the bugs out. We are dependent on other companies hardware and compatibilty with Apple.
I have not used the CalDigit SATA RAID array. Anyone else?

Leah

I am in the process right now of configuring a MacPro as well so I appreciate this thread.
I was looking at
the Dual 3.0 version
500gig system drive from apple
3x250gig 10000 rpm WD drives using the Apple RAID utility
1 gig apple RAM
6 gig aftermarket RAM ( too little? too much? )
and likely the decklink multibridge extreame card

my other question is which stock video card do I need?


Is this an appropriate starting system ( too little too much)

Thanks

-s

'S' -

500gig system drive from apple
3x250gig 10000 rpm WD drives using the Apple RAID utility

-Seek time is very important here. I cannot comment too much about using catalyst this way. I am sure other can and will. I use our spec SCSI set up.

1 gig apple RAM
6 gig aftermarket RAM ( too little? too much? )

-I doubt you need this much. I guess it all depends on what you are doing with it.

and likely the decklink multibridge extreame card

- Looks nice. Haven't used it. I like the ability to switch from SD to HD

my other question is which stock video card do I need?

-They normally come with the 7300. I installed the X1900 upgrade card. I haven't seen a gigantic difference, but with the pro av system it looks like you are interested in building, I think you may see it.


Is this an appropriate starting system ( too little too much)

- This is more than a starting system. What do you plan on doing?

I thought I read about not being able to use SCSI drives in the MacPro
and with a 10000 RPM drive that is near SCSI speed anyway as well they are a lot cheaper and are very easily dealt with in the machine.

Happy to scale the RAM back, maybe I will go for 3 gig now until the 2gig sticks come down a bit more in price.

The decklink multibridge seems to be the card that everyone is using from my research, i like the rack mounted box versus the long whip

My logic is to but this as a event/concert rental system, and not be spending a ton of money upgrading.

-Scott

For those who want to use SCSI with the Mac Pro, it is possible. We are using a bracket that fits snuggly inside the extra optical drive bay. Then we route the SCSI cable under the 1st SATA drive connector and out to the SCSI PCI-e controller card. We are most likely going to sell the brackets as an accessory or suggest someone elses. I don't know who makes them. I have tested the the Seagate Cheetah 15k and 10k, comparing them to the raptor 10k SATA. SCSI is till the way to go, offering faster seek times and better multi-layer performance.

I do not have any information comparing this to any RAID system though. Others would have to add their input on that.

[QUOTE=Leah_Durrett]For those who want to use SCSI with the Mac Pro, it is possible. We are using a bracket that fits snuggly inside the extra optical drive bay. Then we route the SCSI cable under the 1st SATA drive connector and out to the SCSI PCI-e controller card. We are most likely going to sell the brackets as an accessory or suggest someone elses.


to install scsi in the optical drive bay - you can buy 5 1/4 to 3 1/2 inch drive bay adaptors at many electronic stores - including places like frys.
they are a common and easily found piece of metalwork.
cost is usually about $5.
no need to get such a thing from HES.

[QUOTE=Leah_Durrett]- Looks nice. Haven't used it. I like the ability to switch from SD to HD



except catalyst doesnt do HD input at the moment.