PCIE 424 card in a Mac Pro early 2008 intel- X4 or X16 PCIE slot?
Posted: Sat Mar 02, 2024 1:32 pm
I currently have a MOTU PCIe 424 card in the top 4X slot on the Mac (slot 4). Does the PCIe 424 card REQUIRE a 4X slot or a 16X slot? I've experimented with both and it doesn't seem to make any difference. I've searched MOTU's site and can't find any reference as to what slot the MOTU PCIE 424 card requires
The reason I ask is that after recording and stopping, it can take several minutes before it will play (apparently while it writes the data to the slow 7200RPM drive and renders the tracks). Further, when switching between projects, DP will almost always crash when the current project closes. AND, it takes a long time to load project audio from the work drive when opening a project.
Observing the Mac activity monitor while recording a 48 track project in DP, the memory usage is right around 4GB (at peak) of the available 16GB of RAM, and the processor usage is right around 54% (at peak). The activity monitor shows disc usage (of the 7200 RPM project work disc) is very high (while reading AND writing) and appears to be the choke point.
I'm thinking I might add a OWC Accelsior S + OWC Mercury Electra 6G SSD as my work drive, but it requires a 16X PCIe slot in order to get the full speed capacity out of the SSD.
IF the PCIe 424 card only requires a 4X slot, I can use the available 16X slot (slot 2) for the SSD. If the MOTU PCIe 424 card DOES require a 16X slot I might just add a 3G SSD to one of the drive sleds and use it as my work drive.
Just trying to squeeze some more life out of my set up, and alleviate a few crash headaches...
The reason I ask is that after recording and stopping, it can take several minutes before it will play (apparently while it writes the data to the slow 7200RPM drive and renders the tracks). Further, when switching between projects, DP will almost always crash when the current project closes. AND, it takes a long time to load project audio from the work drive when opening a project.
Observing the Mac activity monitor while recording a 48 track project in DP, the memory usage is right around 4GB (at peak) of the available 16GB of RAM, and the processor usage is right around 54% (at peak). The activity monitor shows disc usage (of the 7200 RPM project work disc) is very high (while reading AND writing) and appears to be the choke point.
I'm thinking I might add a OWC Accelsior S + OWC Mercury Electra 6G SSD as my work drive, but it requires a 16X PCIe slot in order to get the full speed capacity out of the SSD.
IF the PCIe 424 card only requires a 4X slot, I can use the available 16X slot (slot 2) for the SSD. If the MOTU PCIe 424 card DOES require a 16X slot I might just add a 3G SSD to one of the drive sleds and use it as my work drive.
Just trying to squeeze some more life out of my set up, and alleviate a few crash headaches...