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  • Hey all, just changed over the backend after 15 years I figured time to give it a bit of an update, its probably gonna be a bit weird for most of you and i am sure there is a few bugs to work out but it should kinda work the same as before... hopefully :)

Cyclone 600-2707

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Dustin Cross

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Anyone use the Cyclone 600-2707 PCIe expander?

http://www.cyclone.com/products/expansion_systems/600-2707.php

x16 gen 2 Host connection
3x x16 gen 2 slots
2x x8 gen 2 slots


I am planning to get one unless I hear someone has had a bad experience. The engineers told me they have customers using them with Red Rocket. Are any of those users here?


Thanks,
Dusty
 
This one clearly shows the possibility for two GPUs and two Rockets without compromising. But peeps say Mac Pro only provides total of x40 lane. GPUs taking total of x36 and RRs taking x16 which totals 52. Host (Mac pro) would probably switch which ever slot down to x4 maybe?
 
I just ordered my 600-2707 today. There is a backorder, but I will let you know how it works once I get it.

Basically the Mac Pro has a total of 40 PCIe v2 lanes. 16 of those v2 lanes are used by the 600-2707 host adapter.

The 600-2707 has 64 PCIe v2 lanes that go through a switch and connects to the Mac Pro via 16 v2 lanes. So anything you put in the 600-2707 will be limited by what the switch can get though the host adapter. Until I test, I don't know how that is going to effect performance.

I do know the Rocket is only x8 v1 PCIe, which is the same throughtput as x4 v2 PCIe, so there is lots of leftover room for other cards.


Dusty
 
Very interested in your findings Dusty. Yes, the Mac has a limited number of lanes but the number of actual slots is worse. Thanks for taking the plunge.
 
Dustin Cross said:
I just ordered my 600-2707 today. There is a backorder, but I will let you know how it works once I get it.

Basically the Mac Pro has a total of 40 PCIe v2 lanes. 16 of those v2 lanes are used by the 600-2707 host adapter.

The 600-2707 has 64 PCIe v2 lanes that go through a switch and connects to the Mac Pro via 16 v2 lanes. So anything you put in the 600-2707 will be limited by what the switch can get though the host adapter. Until I test, I don't know how that is going to effect performance.

I do know the Rocket is only x8 v1 PCIe, which is the same throughtput as x4 v2 PCIe, so there is lots of leftover room for other cards.


Dusty
Click to expand...

Kudos to Dustin.
 
From my Magma experiences, many cards work fine in PCIe expansion.

So far, RED ROCKET, SmallTree 10Gb ethernet card, ATTO R380 (which works for Mac Pros and Xserve but not when connected to Mac Book Pro), eSATA card, Matrox MXO2 host card and so on. Only thing didn't work was LSI and ATTO fiber channel card.
 
I am planning to have these cards in my system:

GTX 285
PCIe Expander card
Red Rocket
Atto R60F
Sonnet PCIe for QIO
Matrox PCIe for MXO2 LE

I was planning to put my Sonnet eSATA card in, but the QIO takes care of that right now. Might still put it in.

Might add a Kona 3G if it doesn't interfere with the MXO2

If I get Resolve I'll need a second video card

With the 600-2707 I should be able to get all of this in one system and organize things so I have proper performance.



Dusty
 
Kaku if you don't mind me asking, can you write out your full set up at the moment? Which magma expander, what cards you have on your mobo, what slot you have connected with magma, and what cards are in magma right now? I want to expand out too, hopefully prep for a resolve soon, and would like to gauge to see results of what works, here and now.
 
Dustin,

Kona does not take any other similar card at all. You won't be able to run both MXO2 and Kona.

Tom,

I have the ExpressBox2 which expands one slot (so the box has two slots, take away one slot in the host computer). I chose this model because it runs at x8 when you connect it to Mac Pro and also works at x1 when you connected to Mac Book Pro.

I had the RR and an eSTATA card in the magma, they worked fine both with Mac Pro and Mac Book Pro. When I connect it to Mac Pro, I have the host card plugged in the second x16 slot and RR is recognized at x8 speed no problem. I was hoping something like R380 works for the Mac Book Pro combo, but unfortunately did not (it could be the firmware issue with R380, I should give a try again since it is working with Xserve right now).

Now I have a iStoragePro Express 1 with 1 slot expansion which holds RR better with same footprint of Mac Book Pro 17inch, so for portable DIT system, I take this for RR mobile use. So my magma went to Xserve to provide extra PCIe for connecting extra R380 and it is working fine.

For MacBookPro, something like Express 3 could be the best (http://www.istoragepro.com/prod.php?id=id8exp3). But for Resolve, I'd choose Cyclone if we hear good things from Dustin.
 
Just got word my 600-2707 will ship tomorrow. I'll let you know.

I have also thought about getting the iStorage Express 3 to use with my macbook Pro when I need to be more mobile. If I use the RR and Qio, then I just need to figure out what raid card to use in the Express 3 for the 8 internal drives. You are limited to a half height card in two of the slots in the Express 3.


Dusty
 
Great, can't wait to hear your report!
 
Can't wait to hear the report here!

With proper PCIe switching, you can theoretically gain the benefits of the PCIe 2.0 bandwidth of the host system using PCIe 1.x cards in the expander. Theoretically, it means that expander could host 4 RED Rocket cards at full bandwidth.

There will be a performance hit from the switching and cabling in the form of latency, but how much remains to be seen. I tested an older Cyclone expander several months back -- The host card was PCIe X8 version 1.2. It worked fine, but it didn't offer me enough bandwidth to be worth the cost at the time. Essentially I was sacrificing a PCIe 2.0 X16 slot to cram 2 or 3 cards into an interface that had 1/4 the throughput, didn't make sense to me.

Anyway, I think this new Cyclone unit as well as the upcoming JMR unit with 3X PCIe X16 v2.0 slots look to be the most promising. I'd love to know if it switches and re-delegates bandwidth so we could indeed use multiple v1.x cards and capitalize on the v2.0 interface bandwidth... Or if it divides up access on a lane per lane basis. If the latter, then there's going to be wasted bandwidth no matter how you look at it.
 
Aloha,

I received my Cyclone 600-2707 today. Got it all connected and did a little testing.

My configuration is a MacPro4,1 Octo 2.26Ghz with 6GB ram

In the Mac Pro I have a GTX 285 in slot 1, Cyclone PCIe card in Slot 2, Matrox MXO2 PCIe card in slot 3, Sonnet Qio, PCIe card in slot 4.

In the Cyclone I have Red Rocket in x8 slot, Rocketraid 2322 in x8 slot, Decklink HD Extreme in x16 slot. I have two open dual width x16 slots. I put the cards in that order just because it seems the Red Rocket would get better airflow.

RAID TEST
I did a quick Decklink Disk Speed test with the 2322 in the Mac Pro x4 slot and in the Cyclone x8 slot.

Mac Pro x4 Slot Rocketraid 2322
Read 396.9MB/s
Write 446.7MB/s

Cyclone x8 slot Rocketraid 2322
Read 637.9MB/s
Write 518.7 MB/s

RED ROCKET TEST
Did a quick test of playback performance in RCX. Full resolution and Half resolution both at 100%.

Mac Pro x8 Slot Red Rocket
Full Res 27.96 fps
Half Res 29.97 fps

Cyclone x8
Full Res - wouldn't give me a reading
Half Res 29.68 fps

The Red Rocket seems a minor bit slower in the Cyclone, but it is very hard to see the difference.


My next test is to put the GTX 285 in the Cyclone and see how Color compares in fps.

What other tests can you guys think of?


Dusty
 
are you running rocket, to the raid all from within cyclone when you do the rocket tests?

how about using multiple areas at once, like decklink capture (if possible) or at least playback from a timeline, while rocket is encoding to the raid... etc. etc. Stress tests to see what's the farthest you can push it before it chokes out or takes a performance hit...
 
Tom - Yes, my Red Rocket is in the Cyclone. I tested it both ways.

So I just put my GXT 285 in the Cyclone and opened Color to see how many fps it would play and there was no difference with the GTX in tower or in Cyclone. 6fps at full resolution and 15 fps at quarter resolution playback in Color.

Now I am doing some stress testing. I have all my cards in the Cyclone (GXT 285, Red Rocket, Raid, Blackmagic). I am rendering prores files out of RCX, rendering prores files from Red footage out of Color, playing a Motion template in HD, running Black magic disk speed test, and playing a 1080p prores timeline in FCP. Everything is going great. FCP does stumble a bit on playback, but is responsive. I think the fact that this system only has 6GB ram is more of an issue than the Cyclone on this test.

So far the Cyclone is looking very good.


Dusty
 
The Cyclone is at the top of my list unless the new JMR 3-slot 2.0 X16 comes in at a comparable price and has something more to offer. Still waiting for actual specs on that new unit and I'm only willing to wait a bit longer.

I'm thinking my configuration is going to be this for the Mac Pro:

1: GTX 285
2: PCIe Expander
3: AJA Kona 3G
4: ATTO R680

Inside the Expander:

RED Rocket
nVidia GT120
CalDigit 4-port eSATA

I'm thinking I may also do an ATTO H644 (in place of the eSATA card) in the expander and drop an internal LTO-5 inside the expander chassis.

How are the fans on the Cyclone chassis? Are they quiet or would I need to replace them?
 
You're probably still gonna need the BM card if you want resolve ( i assume you do since u have the video card set up for it) Since BM owns da vinci now, I earnestly think that Da Vinci will never have Kona support...
 
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