MP 7,1 I've now received all my 'add ons' I wish to install into my MP7,1

[bxs]

Subject: I've now received all my 'add ons' I wish to install into my MP7,1

My MP7,1 will be delivered (per Apple's estimate) sometime between Feb 3 - Feb 13. It was to have arrived Jan 30 - Feb 3, but I changed my order that cause it to be delayed.

After much research and reviewing the items I needed to fill out my MP7,1 16-core order I'm now in possession of all the add-ons I think I will be needed.

Here's my list of add-ons....

• Promise Pegasus J2i. Have added a 16TB HDD to this. The stock 8TB Toshiba DD is for hold bulk data that is infrequently access. Use to stage in needed data for problem solving to a Sonnet/Samsung 4TB unit setup as RAID 0. The 16TB HDD will be rationed into 3; 8TB, 4TB and 4TB. The 8TB will be for backing up the 8TB Toshiba, 4TB for backing up the Sonnet/Samsung 4TB, and 4zTB for Time Machine.
• Extra RAM to the tune of 256 GB (8x 32GB R-DIMMs). This will be added to the stock 32 GB (4x 8GB R-DIMMs) giving me a total of 288 GB and access to all 6 memory channels. This RAM will be adequate for running my CFD codes that need around 10GB per thread (32 threads), allowing room for the macOS and a decent amount for the kernel buffer file cache.
• Sonnet/Samsung PCIe 16x card having 4 blades; 2TB, 1TB, 1TB, 1TB. The 2TB will be split into two equal 1TB pieces; one for holding a bootable macOS image created with CCC from the internal Apple stock 1TB SSD. This leaves 4x 1TB to be setup as RAID-0 for very high-speed i/o.

Our MP7,1 serves to handle three use cases.

• CFD problem solving. A consultation side business.
• Film editing business (primary business) using the Adobe suit of software and making extensive use of Apple's QT Player X.
• Occasional rental business, that has required the MP7,1 configuration to be setup to not rely on external storage.

We now have all that we anticipate needing...

• Today I received the Samsung blades and installed them in the Sonnet card without any fuss at all. $399 for the Sonnet and some $1000 for the Samsung blades.
• The RAM sticks are ready. Needed for the CFD type of work to be done. 3rd party RAM costing around $1000.
• The J2i is ready with its 8TB and 16TB HDDs installed. $360 (using EPP pricing) for the J2i + $416 for the 16TB HDD.
• The MP7,1 was ordered with the Apple's Afterburner ($1800 with EPP pricing) that we feel will benefit the Film editing side of the business.
• Using CrashPlan for Small Business (Code42) for backing up important data offsite and data restoration in case of a catastrophic data loss at the office.
• Waiting on a 30-foot HDMI cable that will be used initially for setting up the new MP7,1 and using its connection to a 65" LG OLED TV. Will later transition it to use LG and Apple Thunderbolt 27" displays. Maybe a year from now will spring for the fancy 32" display Apple offers.
• The new MP7,1 will complement our existing Mac platforms; 2x MP6,1s (6 and 12 core models), and 1x iMac Pro. These Macs will be interconnected using 10G ethernet. the data archive will be hosted by one of the MP6,1s

So now it's waiting time. ?

 

[chfilm]

Congrats! ? can’t wait for my machine on monday... I didn’t purchase any addons besides ram yet but considering a USB C card and definitely some NVME raid, though I’m gonna hold out for a bit and see what new products are gonna come out that have the thermal design of the nMP in mind. Not to keen to add noisy fans to the new machine and so far my promise Pegasus raids are going nowhere. Also hope for bigger nvme sizes eventually before purchasing some now. 4TB feels just to limited for any considerable editing job. 8TB would be minimum..

 

[bxs]

Congrats! ? can’t wait for my machine on monday... I didn’t purchase any addons besides ram yet but considering a USB C card and definitely some NVME raid, though I’m gonna hold out for a bit and see what new products are gonna come out that have the thermal design of the nMP in mind. Not to keen to add noisy fans to the new machine and so far my promise Pegasus raids are going nowhere. Also hope for bigger nvme sizes eventually before purchasing some now. 4TB feels just to limited for any considerable editing job. 8TB would be minimum..

Note that our MP7,1 will have 288GB RAM. Much of that will hold file data cached into the kernel buffer file cache for very fast access.

I agree, that the very high-speed Sonnet/Samsung i/o at 4TB RAID-0 is a bit on the small size, but we had budget limitations and will of course address this issue in 2020 sometime.

Yea.... hauling in 8K content from clients data is getting to be a huge task.

The beauty of this MP7,1 is its expandability and being able to accept a whole range of goodies. ?

 

[AidenShaw]

Extra RAM to the tune of 256 GB (8x 32GB R-DIMMs). This will be added to the stock 32 GB (4x 8GB R-DIMMs) giving me a total of 288 GB and access to all 6 memory channels.

Nice, but I wouldn't keep the default four small DIMMs. Intel CPUs adapt to many odd DIMM configurations - but often by dropping into lower performance modes.

Do some checking - it very possible that the mismatched bank (four 8 GiB DIMMs and two 32 GiB DIMMs) might be dropped down to single channel mode because of the mis-matched DIMMs.

That may or may not have any noticeable effect on application performance due to the caches, but don't assume that you're getting six-channel performance with an odd configuration just because you don't have any empty DIMM slots.

Pull the 8 GiB DIMMs and buy four more 32 GiB DIMMs.

 

[bxs]

Nice, but I wouldn't keep the default four small DIMMs. Intel CPUs adapt to many odd DIMM configurations - but often by dropping into lower performance modes.

Do some checking - it very possible that the mismatched bank (four 8 GiB DIMMs and two 32 GiB DIMMs) might be dropped down to single channel mode because of the mis-matched DIMMs.

That may or may not have any noticeable effect on application performance due to the caches, but don't assume that you're getting six-channel performance with an odd configuration just because you don't have any empty DIMM slots.

Pull the 8 GiB DIMMs and buy four more 32 GiB DIMMs.

Thanks Aiden. ? Advice about pulling the 4x 8GB and replacing with 4x 32GB has been noted. Adding another 96GB to overall RAM size will be appreciated I'm sure.

Question: Is there a means for determining how many memory channels are actually being employed with a specific distribution of DIMM sizes as I plan to configure ?