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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 :)

HP 820 Tower - RED EDITION

http://www.red.com/learn/red-101/rmd-non-destructive-editing/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Saving_Looks

Windows interface in screenshots... Red is really gone PC !
 
PC Greene said:
Very well said. My hope & belief is that Apple creates a rack width 1 or 2 rack space thick box (server style-ish) with optional rack "wings" (that otherwise sits in a desk stand like an obelisk) without PCI slots but piles of TB & USB3 connects to connect to a Magma or other PCI chassis for those who need cards & not just CPU. It will accommodate crazy amounts of RAM as well. Small, modular, efficient & highly expandable. Towers form is long in the tooth & time to go away...
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I would be very surprised if that happened. Apple already killed off the Xserve with the intention of selling Mac Pros as servers instead. For those you can get rack kits. I imagine it will be something between the current Mac Pro and Mac Mini, with PCIe slots and but no 5.25" drive bays. Thunderbolt isn't fast enough to handle more than an x4 PCIe speeds. Maybe space for only a couple internal drives. At least 2 Thunderbolt ports and at least 3 USB3 ports. 3rd parties will make rack kits for it, like the Sonnet kit xMac Mini Server.
 
Jeff Kilgroe said:
Thunderbolt is to transition to PCIe v3.0 spec around the end of next year, which will increase its speed. And it may also gain 4 channels per port at that time, or within the following year. The mini-DisplayPort connector has the ability to hold 4 channels total.
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You should have a TV show with paid advertisers! Damn!

This is interesting. Is it possible we may not see the new Mac Pro until late next year (rather than just later, next year) so that Apple can incorporate that new spec and give us 2 Thunderbolt ports that can handle x8 on each? Maybe that's part of the hold up, in addition to the various other things.
 
Jarred Land said:
Yes ketch.. just for the heavy lifting. I have started to see DIT's move over to Windows machines.. the best DITs. It is really transparent when you are in the actual programs.. you would never know what os you are in, the windows machine is just way faster. You can hide it under the desk if you don't want anyone to know :)
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BRANDON JAMESON said:
INDEED!!!
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I'm curious... What do those DIT's do when they need to provide the media on Mac OS Extended formatted hard drives and in ProRes? I know there's Mac Drive, but is the performance equal to reading and writing to/from those drives on an actual Mac? And I know there's a couple solutions that are being worked on for encoding ProRes in Windows, but it's not a widely supported thing and I'm concerned how good the files are from those methods. I know all the other software is relatively equal, but what about those issues?
 
SSD update... Samsung 830 is a no-go in the Z820 as well... WTF? Spent over an hour talking to a couple different "support" people at HP. Not real happy. Their "solution" to the problem was to forget the SSD and replace it with an officially supported storage device. I'm seriously beginning to wonder if certain devices or types of devices are being intentionally crippled here. I'm not one for conspiracy theories, but I'm just about out of ways to explain this.

Looking for a solution or resolution or work-around here. I find it curious that the OCZ SSD worked fine with the older version of its firmware. Talked to OCZ again and got a bit further and they relaxed a bit after I explained the same thing was happening with the Samsung unit. I can't roll-back to pre v1.4 on the firmware as it was a destructive update. They have already sent me a new SSD yesterday to try, but they offered to send me another one that will have the older v1.3 firmware (in case the other does not). Not sure if that's the best solution, but it may be until I figure out WTF HP's problem is.
 
Jeff Kilgroe said:
Looking for a solution or resolution or work-around here.
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Sounds like you're having some seriously bad luck there Jeff!

If you have an Intel 520 on hand, I would definitely give that a try. If not - here's Anand's review of it so you can have a read and see whether it might be worth investigating further :)


What chipset is your motherboard? Have you got any others motherboards on hand with the same chipset from different vendors you could try with the SSD's? There's just so many variables when tracking down where the incompatibility lies with this stuff - can be a real nightmare sometimes.
 
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I cant stand to see Jeff in this drama with his Z820, someone please throw him a Mac Pro ;)

Sorry I couldnt resist :)
 
Eric Santiago said:
I cant stand to see Jeff in this drama with his Z820, someone please throw him a Mac Pro ;)

Sorry I couldnt resist :)
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heh heh heh.. post of the week.


Jeff, Let me see if I can get you some help.
 
Jeff,
Sorry to hear the Samsung 830 didn't work out for you on the Z820.


But if anyone needs this model, it's on sale now on NewEgg:
Samsung 830, 256GB, 2.5" SATA3 SSD - $190 with coupon code EMCYTZT1815 (instead of $250), and free shipping.
That's a pretty low price, and the coupon is only valid for today (June 28th).
Link: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...-_-na-_-na&AID=10446076&PID=1727683&SID=73681
 
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Peter Chang said:
Jeff, why don't you try the Crucial m4 512GB SSD?
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Hehe. I just tried a 256GB one a few hours ago and it does work. Unfortunately, I don't find the m4 to be an acceptable option. IOPs are too low and read times are not bad, but write times are really no faster than a good hard drive at about 160MB/s. They advertise 500MB/s read and 185MB/s writes... BMD speed test gives me about 410MB/s reads and 160MB/s writes. pass... At this point, I'm honestly only interested in the Vertex 4 or Samsung 830 in this system. They're the only standard SATA interface SSDs on the market that will give me reads AND writes in excess of 420MB/s. And they both do this admirably in every system I've been sticking them into, Mac or PC... With the exception of not working at all in the Z820. And it pisses me off that the Vertex 4 worked just fine in the Z820 (other than known performance issues with that firmware) until I upgraded it.

I also tried an OWC Mercury Extreme Pro 6Gbps 480GB SSD and an Intel 520 that I've borrowed. The Intel 520 works, the OWC does not. No real surprise there based on what I'm finding. HP seems to be shipping Intel 520 SSDs if you buy an SSD through them.

What I find curious is that all the SSD units that don't work are all exhibiting the exact same issue. The BIOS sees them just fine and reports them just fine. They run so incredibly slow that it's like they don't work. If I boot the system from a Windows Repair Disc and drop to a command prompt I can load diskpart. It pops up and then sits there for almost 15 minutes (no joke) before it finishes its scan and gives me a prompt. Booting Win7 Pro 64bit from one of these SSDs literally spends 20 minutes or so on the "starting windows" screen....

I posted a more detailed account, listing all the SSDs I've tried up to now, in a post on the HP support forum. I've also cc'd it to a couple people that I'm now in contact with. I'm going to get to the bottom of this.
 
Thanks for all the suggestions guys. I've been working at this quite diligently and have tried every SSD I can get my hands on. Not that many, but I've tried the OCZ Vertex 4, Samsung 830, OWC Mercury Extreme Pro 6G, Crucial M4 and Intel 520. The Crucial and Intel work just fine. The other three do not and they all do not work in the same way with the exact same speed / performance / symptoms.

I'm up and running off a hard drive now. Have put in a plea to HP, hoping they will let me try a different BIOS revision or something that may help. They had a v1.07 version of the BIOS a couple weeks back, but it was pulled since they found a problem, so I never saw it. Supposedly a new BIOS update is releasing soon.

I'd be happy to throw an SSD or two at their support people if they'll take the time to investigate and if they promise to return them. ;)
 
Agreed if bandwidth stays @ only 10GBps @ 2 lanes, but TB max spec is supposed to be ultimately be capable of TB (Terabit)ps speeds as soon as next year which is exactly when MacPros are supposed to get big redesign. Dunno if that's optical or copper TB, but I think the idea makes sense for a company that's decided to solder Ram onto motherboards & use non standard ssds in currentv laptops to save $ & efficiency. Break out PCI from big CPU & RAM so It can be easily moved where & when needed. I've been using nubus then pci chassis' since the 90's & can attest to the usefulness of this approach. Course it's predicated on TB increased bandwidth as you rightly point out is currently limited.
 
Cue cheesecloth / vasaline & soft boxes lol
 
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