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bxs

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Oct 20, 2007
1,151
529
Seattle, WA
I placed order for a MP7,1 today.

Hardware
  • 3.3GHz 12‑core Intel Xeon W processor, Turbo Boost up to 4.4GHz
  • 32GB (4x8GB) of DDR4 ECC memory
  • Radeon Pro 580X with 8GB of GDDR5 memory
  • 4TB SSD storage
  • Apple Afterburner card
  • Stainless steel frame with wheels
  • Magic Mouse 2
  • Magic Keyboard with Numeric Keypad - US English
  • Accessory Kit
  • AppleCare+
  • Promise Pegasus J2i 8TB Internal Storage Enclosure for Mac Pro (comes with Enterprise 8TB Toshiba and can add a 2nd 8 TB one for total of 16 TB)
This purchase is being done as a joint venture with my son's video-editing & film-making business.

  • Son and I like the fact this MP7,1 can be future proofed for years to come with its ability to upgrade its components.
  • We expect and plan an 8 year life span for this MP7,1.
  • Business discount is 6%.
  • We at first gave consideration of using grandson's skate board instead of the Apple's wheels for the MP7,1, but in the end thought what the heck.
    wink.png
  • Son and I agree the 12 core is our sweet spot for the types of Apps that will be used. OWC may possible offer processor upgrades in future.
  • My work is occasional consulting work for doing Computational Fluid Dynamics using personal software that is cpu, core and memory intensive.
  • We already have a Promise3 R4 that can be directly attached to the MP7,1's TB3 port if required.
  • The Promise J2i is convenient in that it keeps the disk storage integrated inside the frame. To be used for holding current project data, Time Machine backups, etc.
  • The Promise J2i probably can be made RAID-0 and/or can use 3.5"-to-2.5" adapters for using 2.5" SATA III SSDs.
  • There are 3.5" Toshiba spinners out there of greater capacity to stock 8 TB Toshiba that come with the J2i; 10 TB, 12 TB and 14 TB. This allows a growth to around 28 TB as required for future needs.
  • The abundant PCIe slot should allow for adding more SSD capacity when needed.
  • The base/stock Radeon can easily be upgraded when needed.
  • We like the 10G ethernet ports as we already have 10G networking in the office.
  • We went for internal 4 TB SSD for holding fast access to Adobe Premier cache space.
  • 8k projects are quickly becoming the norm.
  • We're hoping the Apple Afterburner will prove to be beneficial for the video editing and filming projects because have to ingest vast amounts of raw footage from the high-end cameras and work with the results.
  • Will upgrade Immediately the RAM offered by OWC and maybe trade in the Apple's 32 GB to save some brass.
  • We expect we will be able to add SSDs into the Promise J2i at some point for extra fast i/o when needed.
  • We feel adding in the 32 inch Apple monitor and stand is not useful for us at this time, and also blows the budget at this time. So will use TB2 and DP displays; Apple 27" and LGs that we have an abundance of.
  • May sell off one of our MP6,1.
  • Will be keeping the 2 yr old 10-core, 128 GB RAM iMac Pro in the 'family' and son will pay off my share over next year.
  • I will be sole owner of the MP7,1 and will allow son to use it when needed and allow for it to be rented out along with the iMac Pro and MP6,1s during office idle periods. Renting out the iMac Pro over past 2 yrs has paid for it several times over.

I'm open to any comments about the above, as I can easily modify the MP7,1 configuration up to the point it ships out, that at this time is early Feb 2020. Thanks...
smile.png
 

deconstruct60

macrumors G5
Mar 10, 2009
12,493
4,053
I placed order for a MP7,1 today.

Hardware
  • 3.3GHz 12‑core Intel Xeon W processor, Turbo Boost up to 4.4GHz
  • 32GB (4x8GB) of DDR4 ECC memory
  • Radeon Pro 580X with 8GB of GDDR5 memory
...
  • 8k projects are quickly becoming the norm.
  • We're hoping the Apple Afterburner will prove to be beneficial for the video editing and filming projects because have to ingest vast amounts of raw footage from the high-end cameras and work with the results.

I'm open to any comments about the above, as I can easily modify the MP7,1 configuration up to the point it ships out, that at this time is early Feb 2020. Thanks...
smile.png

Are these 8k (4k , 6K) camera recordings being captured in ProRes / ProRes RAW ?
At some point , Apple should put some work into getting Afterburner to convert some open formats to ProRes formats but for now that is grunt work done outside the scope of Afterburner. if the bulk of the grunt work is going to get thrown at the GPU then a swap of budget to the Vega II would probably be better. IF the camera or external recorder is going to ProRes then won't need to assign that work to the GPU.

Afterburner is a relatively narrow vertical where it plays out for the bang for the buck. https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT210748

Apple's proxy free , save storage , etc. sales pitch is kind of built on the implicit assumption using very high fidelity ProRes.
 

davidec

macrumors 6502
Jan 31, 2008
429
456
  • The Promise J2i probably can be made RAID-0 and/or can use 3.5"-to-2.5" adapters for using 2.5" SATA III SSDs.

Probably but according to their customer support No. Although they sounded 'outsourced' so what would they know. I can't see why an 2.5 > 3.5 adapter can't fit in the spare space and both 2.5's and 3.5' have the same connectors right?

We expect we will be able to add SSDs into the Promise J2i at some point for extra fast i/o when needed.

Well I have the Pegasus J2i here but no MP to test it on!
 

deconstruct60

macrumors G5
Mar 10, 2009
12,493
4,053
Probably but according to their customer support No. Although they sounded 'outsourced' so what would they know. I can't see why an 2.5 > 3.5 adapter can't fit in the spare space and both 2.5's and 3.5' have the same connectors right?

Technically Yes can get RAID 0. Just not using their products. https://www.softraid.com/ version 5.8.1 picked up some crude, but basic Catalina capability. I think there is a version 6 coming that will be more robust. At some point Apple and Softraid hopefully will sync up on bootstrap driver support in the secure boot context.

But with Promise products only? No. It is just a bracket with zero electronics.
 

bxs

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Oct 20, 2007
1,151
529
Seattle, WA
Technically Yes can get RAID 0. Just not using their products. https://www.softraid.com/ version 5.8.1 picked up some crude, but basic Catalina capability. I think there is a version 6 coming that will be more robust. At some point Apple and Softraid hopefully will sync up on bootstrap driver support in the secure boot context.

But with Promise products only? No. It is just a bracket with zero electronics.
Why couldn't Apple's bundled Disk Utility allow for configuring RAID for the J2i ? I do have SoftRAID software.
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Are these 8k (4k , 6K) camera recordings being captured in ProRes / ProRes RAW ?
At some point , Apple should put some work into getting Afterburner to convert some open formats to ProRes formats but for now that is grunt work done outside the scope of Afterburner. if the bulk of the grunt work is going to get thrown at the GPU then a swap of budget to the Vega II would probably be better. IF the camera or external recorder is going to ProRes then won't need to assign that work to the GPU.

Afterburner is a relatively narrow vertical where it plays out for the bang for the buck. https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT210748

Apple's proxy free , save storage , etc. sales pitch is kind of built on the implicit assumption using very high fidelity ProRes.
Will be testing the benefits of the Afterburner device ASAP after receiving the MP7,1. Will compare things on our iMac Pro 10-core and the new MP7,1 with its Afterburner. If it turns out to be ineffective it can be sold off or maybe Apple will allow for it to be returned with refund. We will have a test case setup and run on our iMac Pro ahead of the MP7,1 delivery so we can see the results within the 14-day Apple provides for returning.

As an aside, I really do like the Promise storage devices for the MP7,1 because they are internal (just like for the beloved MP4,1 and 5,1 models). With Toshiba 12 TB spinners the J2i will support some 24 TB - awesome IMO. Will have to update our Code42/CrashPlan (offsite storage) configuration for our small business - https://support.code42.com/CrashPlan/6/Backup ;)

Gosh, with the MP7,1's 1.4 Kw power supply I'm mightily please our office electrical use is embedded in the lease/rent payments (that is, use is free).
 
Last edited:

deconstruct60

macrumors G5
Mar 10, 2009
12,493
4,053
Why couldn't Apple's bundled Disk Utility allow for configuring RAID for the J2i ? I do have SoftRAID software.

For HFS+ HDDs it is an option. It is a bit on thin ice in terms of long term support, but should work for now. But where the conversation had drifted to was SSDs. APFS is better aligned with SSD and is under active support. (HFS+ is in the "good luck" zone and RAID codes is even more abandoned.).


However, given Softraid drive health monitoring.... I'd be more comfortable with the Softraid's even super lightweight monitoring with the SSDs in the CPU heated downstream air. HDDs (that has better health metrics it is no contest. Especially in that higher wear context. )



[automerge]1576219347[/automerge]

Will be testing the benefits of the Afterburner device ASAP after receiving the MP7,1. Will compare things on our iMac Pro 10-core and the new MP7,1 with its Afterburner. If it turns out to be ineffective it can be sold off or maybe Apple will allow for it to be returned with refund. We will have a test case setup and run on our iMac Pro ahead of the MP7,1 delivery so we can see the results within the 14-day Apple provides for returning.

Not much huge testing is needed if don't already have a sizable pile of high fidelity ProRes files. If have to transcode/encode some major stuff into ProRes then probably want o keep the metrics on that time to and compare to your 580X powered Mac Pro. but if there nothing for the Afterburner to "chew on" it isn't going to do much.
 

bxs

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Oct 20, 2007
1,151
529
Seattle, WA
For HFS+ HDDs it is an option. It is a bit on thin ice in terms of long term support, but should work for now. But where the conversation had drifted to was SSDs. APFS is better aligned with SSD and is under active support. (HFS+ is in the "good luck" zone and RAID codes is even more abandoned.).


However, given Softraid drive health monitoring.... I'd be more comfortable with the Softraid's even super lightweight monitoring with the SSDs in the CPU heated downstream air. HDDs (that has better health metrics it is no contest. Especially in that higher wear context. )





Not much huge testing is needed if don't already have a sizable pile of high fidelity ProRes files. If have to transcode/encode some major stuff into ProRes then probably want o keep the metrics on that time to and compare to your 580X powered Mac Pro. but if there nothing for the Afterburner to "chew on" it isn't going to do much.
Thanks... Of course one could format the spinners as APFS, as I've done on several externals I own today.... and yes, SoftRAID is a good choice so long as it does not interfere with the macOS software driver codes. In the past I have had problems with SoftRAID in this respect.

I'm wondering if there is or will be some 3rd party App that can monitor the use of the Afterburner, or maybe Apple has already thought of that and has it built in and bundled with Catalina installation for the MP7,1 ?
 
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