Caldigit FASTA-6GU3 and Red Rocket together in a Sonnet Echo Express Pro Thunderbolt

[Matthew McGinity]

Hi,

Can anyone quickly confirm for me that a Caldigit FASTA-6GU3 and a Red Rocket installed side-by-side in a Sonnet Echo Express Pro Thunderbolt Expansion Chassis [ECHO-EXP2F] work well together?
Will be used on a new Macbook Pro (Retina/Mountain Lion) for moving data from a Red Station RedMag mini to two hard-drives.

Also, with such a setup, I'll have in total 4 USB3.0 ports and 2 eSATA ports, and will therefore have the choice of using either the eSata or USB3.0 version of the Red Station, with either eSATA or USB3.0 harddrive enclosures.
Has anyone had a chance to compare the speeds of the different configurations?

thanks,
Matt

[Matthew McGinity]

I should also add that any other suggestions for a new MacbookPro based DIT station are entirely welcome.

And if anyone has any word on when to expect the Caldigit T1 or T2 enclosures, please let me know.

Matt

[Tommaso Alvisi]

subscribed! badabump!

[Tim Jones]

Hi,

Can anyone quickly confirm for me that a Caldigit FASTA-6GU3 and a Red Rocket installed side-by-side in a Sonnet Echo Express Pro Thunderbolt Expansion Chassis [ECHO-EXP2F] work well together?
Will be used on a new Macbook Pro (Retina/Mountain Lion) for moving data from a Red Station RedMag mini to two hard-drives.

Also, with such a setup, I'll have in total 4 USB3.0 ports and 2 eSATA ports, and will therefore have the choice of using either the eSata or USB3.0 version of the Red Station, with either eSATA or USB3.0 harddrive enclosures.
Has anyone had a chance to compare the speeds of the different configurations?

thanks,
Matt

While it will cost you $399 more plus the ATTO Card, I'd recommend that you take advantage of that second Thunderbolt port and add an Echo Express SE unit to your list. Offload the Caldigit card to the SE and then add an ATTO H680 or R680 (depending on if you need RAID) to the EE Pro to give you true SAS connectivity. That will open your storage options up dramatically and you can now add SAS disk/SSD and LTO tape to your workflow.

Tim

[Shiblon Wixom]

I have found the two eSATA ports on the Caldigit FASTA-6GU3 seem to share one lane, if I use only one g-drive it operates around 120-140 MB/s, but if I run two g-drives at the same time then both are limited to around 95-100 MB/s. Or I can run one eSATA red ssd reader at around 200 MB/s but only around 100 MB/s if I'm also running a g-drive on the second eSATA connection at the same time. But you can run one drive off eSATA and one drive off USB3, and both will run at max speeds.

[Matthew Conrad]

I bought one of those Sonnet boxes and returned it... the technology is close, but I don't thing its completely there yet.

The few tests I did with it, the rocket moved pretty fast, but I feel there is too much data relying one port. The box is incompatible with alot of cards, (which for me meant buying more cards) ... and technically, the sonnet box doesn't support the rocket card. It may have a picture of it on the packaging, but I spoke with sonnet when I was returning it and they had no guarantee that it would work / responsibility for a dead card. .... also, a big bust for me was the sonnet box requires system restart when you turn it on...

For me from a bigger picture stand point, if we're going to be run-and-gun... and still need dailies at wrap, use a pix240, if I'm not moving/on a stage I'll bring the tower.

[Mike Halper]

Sonnet won't give you support for the Rocket card because they don't make the Rocket. Support for the Rocket card will come form Red. It's the same as if you were installing the Rocket in a normal tower PCI slot. The computer manufacturer or logic board manufacturer isn't going to give you support for the Rocket. I have a Rocket in the Sonnet Pro chassis and it works great with no issues.

As far as needing to shut down the computer to connect/disconnect the chassis with the Rocket in it is not Sonnet's fault. You have to do the same with any other TB PCIe expansion chassis because the drivers that Red currently has for the Rocket are not Thunderbolt-aware or Thunderbolt-certified drivers. That is on Red, not the expansion chassis manufacturers.