Digidesign expansion chassis UAD and Powercore - G5 now fast

[conleycd]

Hey folks,

I'm wondering if people will weigh in on this one.

I purchased a Digidesign PCI expansion chassis (the SBS version or now Bit3 - I think). It was an older expansion chassis but I got for $200 including the cable. It was sitting in my basement for months.

Anyway... I have just transferred my Powercore Element and Unplugged along with the UAD1 into it (it can take 7 full PCI slots).

I fired it up. Not only were all the cards instantly recognized but it seemed that my Mac in everyway was faster! Perhaps I'm going stupid - but everything loaded faster and the interface was just darn quick.

I had installed an addition 4 gigs to make my total 8gigs (maxed out) about a year ago. I did not notice any change. Now the machine acts like it actually has 8 gigs (or at least how I imagined it).

It also no longer has the AMD bridge problem chip thing - you know when you have to check the AMD box in the UAD interface - so I think I'm going to end up with more plug ins! I will have to investigate this further.

Anyone have a reasonable explanation?

Christopher Conley

[James Steele]

Nope... but I think I want one of those chassis for myself!

[emulatorloo]

Does it have a model number or anything like on the host card????

Is it PCIHIF68?

I WANT ONE TOO!!!!

[conleycd]

I think everyone should get one. They are going for dirt cheap on ebay - well the PCI ones.

Mine is a Digidesign but it is actually a SBS with Digidesign label on the front. I believe it is one of the most compatible expansion boxes for Digidesign stuff but also works fine other PCI card (which is what it was initially sold for).

Mine is the Digidesign MH477 or the SBS DD007-R. They are the exact same unit. SBS was renamed and/or sold to Bit3. Bit3 was bought be GE electric. They still have some expansion chassis (actually interesting PCI-E to PCI) ones but they are very expensive new. It comes with a PCI card that goes in your computer with a ribbon. I see some that sell don't have the PCI card to go in your computer - that would make the expansion essentially useless.

Mine has 7 slots. So... I'm going to get another UAD card at least. I have the TC Electronics Element and Unplugged Card which works fine. I might even get another one of those (although I find the Powercore 3.0 software a little buggy).

I was even thinking I could put a hard drive controller and maybe mount some harddrives in there.

Good luck - drive up those ebay prices.

CC

[emulatorloo]

NO way --let's keep the ebay prices LOW LOW LOW.

Thanks for the information, I appreciate it. Will be trying to track one down.

[towerproductions]

I'm waiting for my 7 slot SBS to arrive and another used UAD card to use with my other 2 in DP. Picked up the SBS chassis for $102 on ebay and missd out on one that sold for $56. So prices are still good for PCI versions.

[emulatorloo]

A HEADS UP on these Magma's
------------------------------
While researching these I came across an issue in both the nuendo and UAD forums where people were having some trouble with some slots not recognizing cards.

It is an easy fix. Per Magma Website:

Here is a summary of why a load resistor is needed on the power supply when using cards that only use 3.3V in the chassis.

In order to create a clean 3.3V and 5V voltage, most ATX power supplies need some current to be used on the 5V line. This means that if a card only uses 3.3V and no 5V then the current supplied will not be steady and therefore not providing much power.

This small amount of power may only be enough to get the card through configuration cycles, which tricks the OS into thinking that the card is fully functional. When the applications are started and the main chips on the PCI card start processing data, there is not enough power to support them and the application or OS crashes or disappears.

Adding a load resistor to the 5V line causes more current to flow in the circuitry which controls the power and therefore enables it to operate correctly I.e. supplying clean and constant current to the 3.3V and 5V lines.

Even though a card might use 3.3V signaling some chips on the board might be using the 5V for some other function and therefore these 3.3V signaling cards might not need a load resistor.

Hard to post that link -- go to magma site, support, knowledge base and search for "5V Load Resistor Installation"

There are two ways to addres this issue:

1. Buy a $10.00 5VLoad Resistor from the magma store.

or

2. just install an old unused hard drive into your chassis and hook it up to the power supply.

I did the second in my recent lovely ebay purchase -- I just mounted an old tiny SCSI drive and hooked it up to the power supply.

I was having an issue with a couple cards being seen/functioning properly, this fixed it right up.

[giles117]

Now if that would solve my disappearing element issue....

It would be a long time coming.

[emulatorloo]

If you are looking for these magma expanders on ebay, you may find sellers are kinda fuzzy on what the host card looks like (so you can know if it will fit your G5). In fact one Windows-using seller of a digidesign expansion unit said "I doubt it is compatble with MACS, nothing is."

So here's a picture you can send to sellers to examine to see if their card has the same configuration of slot connectors:



Worth noting that the "AVID Extender" goes for less than the digi or magma branded expanders. That's what I ended up getting. It is a little noisy but I am changing out the fans and powersupply this week.

[emulatorloo]

The Chassis was very noisy because of fan noise, especially the power supply. So I purchased a Rosewill powersupply that was advertised as "quiet."

It is so quiet that I thought at first that it was dead on arrival. It was an easy swap, just be careful cutting the cable ties from the old powersupply so as not to damage the two wire connectors that connect the front panel of the rack (at least with the AVID Extender) and the main board.

$20.99 at newegg.com - Item#:N82E16817182023

Rosewill RV350-2 ATX 2.2 350W Power Supply 115/ 230 V UL, CSA, TUV, FCC -

There are three case fans at the front of the chassis that were pretty noisy too. I got some "silent" fans to replace those as well. The dimensions I got were:

92 x 92 x 25mm

Swapping these out required a trip to the hardware store for some new screws, as the original fans were thinner.

So now it is pretty much silent.

Just an FYI

[James Steele]

Wow... that is so cool!!! Congrats... noise was initially my primary concern about buying on of these. Then lately $$$ supplanted that concern... LOL!

[emulatorloo]

$$$

There's one today that looks like it will go for $25.00!

Now if I could just find a "bargain" UAD-1 to go with my Powercore. Little chance of that, I think.

[guitardude]

I obtained a magma 13 slot chassis and installed in a G5 2x2.7. The system profiler sees the pci bridge card and bus as it should, but does not see any cards installed in the expansion chassis. I've tried different cables, slots, etc. Also, the host card is the 2-slot version as indicated in the photo posted by emulatorloo. Any ideas?

[emulatorloo]

Did you try that "trick" of installing an old hard drive that I mentioned above? That fixed the slot thing for me.

[guitardude]

Sorry... forgot to mention that I had a hard drive installed the whole time. In the meantime I heard that the expansion interface card *the one installed in the expansion chassis itself) is required to have the "Pericom" chipset for this to work with a Powermac. Food for thought...