CUBIX Desktop 4 or Cyclone 2707 Expander for Davinci Resolve 5K r3d

[Shane Betts]

Thanks for the info Neil. I really like my 2707.

I have been thinking about going crazy and builing a Resolve system with two Cyclones. Each with two 480s and a Rocket. Raid in one and 10gigE in the other. That would be a smoking fast Resolve system.


Dusty

You could just about fit them both in the one case. Those Antec cases Cyclone use are stupid big - could be half that depth. Glad to hear everyone is loving their Cyclones. I bought ours before support and was worried I'd pulled the trigger too early.

[Tim Sutherland]

I have a single 480 in my Cubix and Neil is correct. It blows me away every time. One card can do realtime noise reduction on 1080 material. It's amazing.

Tim

[Tim Whitcomb]

.. lots of people still prefer the expensive heavyIRON approach.

but, but, but... I thought you said that HEAVY IRON was dead? ;)

[Jeff Kilgroe]

Do you think its better to get Cyclone as it has 3 x16 slots, especially helpful when using RCX converting dailies from R3Ds to other formats, because 2 Quadros wont be used during the conversion process of RCX. I am leaning towards Cyclone Expander rather than Cubix, because of this.

Doesn't matter how many X16 slots you have if you're going to use more than one of those cards in the expander at the same time. The Cubix Desktop Pro2 models have all X16 slots anyway. When it all comes down to it, I don't think you can go wrong with either the Cubix or the Cyclone. Pick the one that has the right number of slots for what you want to install. Just keep in mind that no matter what slots are in that expander box, they are alls still being pushed into your system via a single X16 slot interface. Other than your video cards, most PCIe cards are not X16 anyway. These expander boxes all give slots that are X16 electrically, so they can handle any PCIe card. If you will be installing video cards like the GTX480 that are double-wide, the Cyclone is probably the way to go. The 2707 or the 2710 would be the models to get and they both accommodate double-width cards. For Cubix expanders, at least the "desktop" ones, the double-width cards can put a real cramp on your choices.

[Jordan Livingston]

Hi All,

Not intending to hijack this thread, but I thought I'd ask if anybody was using (or has looked into using) the Magma ExpressBox 4 G2 (http://www.magma.com/expressbox41uG2.asp)?

I just heard about this unit recently, and what attracts me to it is the 1RU form factor. I'm currently using a Cyclone 2707, and while I'm a big fan in just about every way, lugging it's 4RU dimensions around on location on my cart is pretty burdensome. Currently, my 2707 houses x2 REDRockets and x2 RAID controllers. Any input on the feasibility of the ExpressBox 4 G2 as a viable replacement for a Cyclone 2707, and of course, in the context of a Resolve application, would be greatly appreciated!

Best,

- Jordan

[Jeff Kilgroe]

Meh... Those Magma 1U ExpressBox 4's don't look that good. They're on sale for $700 more than the Cyclone and have a slower host interface, as far as I can tell. They don't seem to want to come right out and give exact details. Looks like the attractiveness of their design is the 1U form factor and it seems you can link multiple units together to get up to 12 slots. Really, other than the thin, 1U design, I don't see anything about it that I like. Too many other compromises as far as I can tell.

[Asif Limbada]

Wow Neil,

I would not mind coming to LA to check it out. But I am bit of a traditionalist when it comes to hacking the graphics cards. I want something that works and can be returned if its burned out, hence Quadro 4000 is the only safe bet. But with anything, I get my mind into, need to know how these multiple GPUs work and is it worth having that extra GPU in the box for realtime plackback of native R3D with a dozen nodes.

Lets say we compare the following in terms of FPS (Native r3d at 5K, realtime playback) + Node Count:

Setup 1 (1 Card):

Mac Pro
Slot 1: Quadro 4000
Slot 2: RED Rocket
Slot 3: BMD HD Decklink
Slot 4: HBA for storage

Setup 2 (2 Cards):

Mac Pro
Slot 1: Quadro 4000 (GUI)
Slot 2: HBA for Cyclone
Slot 3: BMD HD Decklink
Slot 4: HBA for storage
Cyclone 2707
Slot 1: RED Rocket
Slot 2: Quadro 4000
Slot 3: Empty
Slot 4: Empty
Slot 5: Empty
Slot 6: Empty


Setup 3 (3 Cards):

Mac Pro
Slot 1: Quadro 4000 (GUI)
Slot 2: HBA for Cyclone
Slot 3: BMD HD Decklink
Slot 4: HBA for storage
Cyclone 2707
Slot 1: RED Rocket
Slot 2: Quadro 4000
Slot 3: Quadro 4000
Slot 4: Empty
Slot 5: Empty
Slot 6: Empty

I am assuming SETUP 1 will not give real time playback with even 1 node, so lets say we invest 4000USD on a expander + extra card, how many nodes are possible with realtime playback, again, no exact numbers but approximate (there are many variables I understand, like storage bandwidth, CPU speed etc), same goes for the SETUP 3 how much will that increase the performance approximately.

[Asif Limbada]

Doesn't matter how many X16 slots you have if you're going to use more than one of those cards in the expander at the same time. The Cubix Desktop Pro2 models have all X16 slots anyway. When it all comes down to it, I don't think you can go wrong with either the Cubix or the Cyclone. Pick the one that has the right number of slots for what you want to install. Just keep in mind that no matter what slots are in that expander box, they are alls still being pushed into your system via a single X16 slot interface. Other than your video cards, most PCIe cards are not X16 anyway. These expander boxes all give slots that are X16 electrically, so they can handle any PCIe card. If you will be installing video cards like the GTX480 that are double-wide, the Cyclone is probably the way to go. The 2707 or the 2710 would be the models to get and they both accommodate double-width cards. For Cubix expanders, at least the "desktop" ones, the double-width cards can put a real cramp on your choices.

Thanks Jeff,

I do understand that x16 is the bandwidth we get from any of these expanders. However, my question to all of this is that by installing 2 Quadros in the expander, how does it help achieve better performance when we have only x16 bandwidth.

So from my perspective why would I buy an extra GPU if it is not being fully utilized by Resolve.

[Mel Matsuoka]

+1 regarding the Cyclone love.

I had problems getting my 2707 chassis working with Resolve on a 2008 Mac Pro (bottom line: it DOESN'T work, and I wish BMD would be explicit about this fact in their Resolve Config guide), but since upgrading to a 2010 Mac Pro, everything works insanely great with Resolve 8.1.

And Cyclone techsupport is probably the best I have ever experienced in my near-20 years of being in this career.

As mentioned, make sure you get the 1500W version of the 2707 if you want to use it with Resolve.

[Neil W. Smith]

Wow Neil,

I would not mind coming to LA to check it out. ....

Setup 3 (3 Cards):

Mac Pro
Slot 1: Quadro 4000 (GUI)
Slot 2: HBA for Cyclone
Slot 3: BMD HD Decklink
Slot 4: HBA for storage
Cyclone 2707
Slot 1: RED Rocket
Slot 2: Quadro 4000
Slot 3: Quadro 4000
Slot 4: Empty
Slot 5: Empty
Slot 6: Empty

.... .

Asif,

Anytime you're in the West Hollywood area drop by and we'll show your around ... also, some good restaurants near by!

One quick thing, you may have mis-understood the slot configuration of the 2707 ... there are only FIVE slots available ... two of them have room for double-width cards .... the other three are single width cards only .... the first three are x16 lane PCIe slots and the last two only x8 lane.

However, the Quadro 4000 is a single width card so for optimum performance with Q4000 cards you could actually install 1 x Q4000 in the Mac Pro and then 3x Q4000 in the 2707 (first three x16 lane slots) plus the RedRocket (slot #4) and still have one slot free.

That would give you pretty good performance on DV Resolve 8.1

Let us know how you get on.

Cheers,
Neil