Cyclone 600-2707

[Dustin Cross]

Anyone use the Cyclone 600-2707 PCIe expander?

http://www.cyclone.com/products/expa...s/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

[Nicos Ambatzis]

I am also interested to buy one 600-2707 PCIe expander. Any comment will be useful.

[Kaku Ito]

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?

[Dustin Cross]

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

[Shane Betts]

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.

[Kaku Ito]

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

Kudos to Dustin.

[Kaku Ito]

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.

[Dustin Cross]

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

[Tom.Wong]

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.

[Kaku Ito]

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.