andygriffiths wrote:I'm looking at some PCI HD cards with magma chassis running into a PCIe mac pro. Does it still function as a proper HD rig with TDM format? I have been told that it would function as a native rig.
Not true. Provided the chassis is compatible with an Intel Mac (Pericom bridge chips, nor Intel or DEC), it'll work fine. I have 3 HD cards in a Magma 4-slot connected to my Macbook Pro's ExpressCard slot. Works like a dream, except for the menu bar not being drawn properly. (But this is an issue with MBP 5,1 only and I've not read any thing like that in connection with Mac Pros.)
Check the date of manufacture, or the exact model number. The problem with Magma is they change specs without changing the model -- there have been several different 6- and 7-slot chassis. So you have to determine what the bridge chip is. At work we moved to Mac Pros and we had to try to work out whether our old Digidesign-branded chassis was compatible. It had no model printed on it and no stickers with the ID. That's apparently what they do, which is really smart considering the glue will dry out eventually and the sticker will fall off! I ended up having to email photos of the motherboard so they could tell me!
If it's a Digi-branded "64-bit" chassis, it's almost certainly not compatible with Intel Macs. You can spend ~$1500 for a new board and it's pretty easy to fit. That's what we ended up doing since it was cheaper than replacing the cards with PCIe versions.
I have an email from Magma somewhere that I can look up if you need help identifying the unit.
Good luck, David
Posted: Wed Mar 06, 2013 9:15 pm