Re: new Maxx Digital Expando SATA array !

Simon writes -
Sounds interesting but who would be mad enough to hang that much storage of a single workstation!

REPLY - no one. You can hang it on a server, which is nothing more than a MAC Pro. 12TB on a single workstation seems too much to me, but everyone these days seems to want a minimum of 8TB on each FCP workstation - so what the hell do I know.


Seems everyone is getting into expansion boxes and it's good to see a desktop soloution for when on a project 1 chassis just isn't enough.

REPLY - Both Cal Digit and Dulce have expansion chassis, and both are great, but this is the first one that has the expander built right in. AVID's VideoRAID ST is based on the Advanced Industrial Computing built in SAS expander port, and this is where the concept started. It's real simple - people don't want to spend thousands for an expander box. Like I said, the Cal Digit and Dulce are great (and I have been using the Dulce ProEX ever since it came out), but it costs over $3000, and no one wants to spend this money. Now, that it's built into the box, you don't spend anything.


John, any thoughts on doing a rackmount version?

REPLY - there is a rack mount version, but it costs more money.


With all this expansion possibilities the only issue I have is that your relying on a single workstation.

REPLY - as Walter stated, you don't rely on a single workstation - you setup a server. You get a dedicated MAC Pro, and plug these monster drives into the MAC Pro. You can now either setup an XSAN network, or follow my instructions for doing a Gig E link aggretation network, using products from Small Tree (which is cheap).



Now if someone could come up with a sas expansion box with a HBA extender where the raid card is in the chassis and rather than 1 host extender card there are 2 coming out so you can link 2 machines (1 for fallover)

REPLY - Cal Digit HAS a SAS Expansion box where the RAID card is in the chassis - it exists right now. It's called the HD Pro, and it's a great product. It just costs more money.

Once you have a server configuration set up, you can have anything you want. You can have a redundant server - you can do anything - IT JUST COSTS MORE MONEY. The exciting thing about this new product from MAXX Digital is that it doesn't cost a lot of money.

Bob Zelin