[awcopus]

First, the hardware:
I am currently video editing on a PowerMac G4 MDD dual 1.42 with a Sonnet Tempo card that has enabled me to include three additional drives in my machine for a total of about 1 terabyte of storage. I am currently seriously considering a PowerMac G5 dual 2.5 machine because I want to be able to use Motion to create menus for DVDs and to make my general workflow more productive. Of course, the dual G5 has storage constraints my G4 does not have. Hence, this post.

My main question is this: Would it be possible to connect the G4 and G5 directly via ethernet and gain access to the G4's storage capacity while running FCP and DVDSP and Motion off of the G5, and to do so in a way that would pose no bandwidth problems for my work?

My G4's ethernet slot is currently used for internet access. Would doing the above involve using third party gigabit ethernet cards?

I am editing DVCAM footage primarily, which isn't very demanding from a bandwidth perspective.

Thanks in advance for any assistance you may be able to lend me here.

[kampl]

You could network them together with third-party NICs in each, a x-over cable and use a separate network for the new interfaces that does not fall within their current connectivity network. Your bandwidth constraints at that point would be IO on the backplane and drives.

[awcopus]

kampl, thank you for the reply. What I'm going to be trying first is a gigabit ethernet connection via the built-in gigabit port on the MDD and an Apple PCI-X gigabit ethernet card in the G5 2.5 duallie. I'll use the built-in ethernet of the G5 for my internet connection.

I'm not sure what NIC or backplane means, and would love it if you could enlighten me about what you're referring to. Otherwise, what do you think of the above setup? All of this gear will be here within a week, but any insights would be appreciated.

[kampl]

Backplane being the logicboard or motherboard. NIC being the Network Interface Card.

What I propose is that you have two NICs in both machines and network them accordingly on different networks.

At this point you could run different services on differnt NICs. The throughput problem would be in the individual comptuter logic board or network bandwidth side. When it comes to disk IO you would be in a pickle though since I assume that the volumes are the same on either machine.

Following me? I only suggessted a potential fix for one aspect of the problem.


I may not be reading this right. Sox thing and all.

[awcopus]

Originally posted by kampl:
Backplane being the logicboard or motherboard. NIC being the Network Interface Card.

What I propose is that you have two NICs in both machines and network them accordingly on different networks.

At this point you could run different services on differnt NICs. The throughput problem would be in the individual comptuter logic board or network bandwidth side. When it comes to disk IO you would be in a pickle though since I assume that the volumes are the same on either machine.

Following me? I only suggessted a potential fix for one aspect of the problem.


I may not be reading this right. Sox thing and all.

Sox thing, indeed! I'm from Framingham originally, so the Sox are actually my team. My parents are thrilled, and my wife, from CT is absolutely ecstatic. I've never been a huge baseball fan, but even I am swept away by what they achieved.

I'm beginning to wonder if I will encounter more or less bandwidth issues between the G4 as a server and the G5 as a client if I plug the gigabit ethernet cable into the G4's native port or into a third-party PCI gigabit card, like the Sonnet Presto Gigabit solution.

Do you think I will encounter problems if I use two different brands of NIC? The G5 will have an Apple PCI-X gigabit ethernet card in it but they don't sell one for the G4 anymore. Actually, I'll go look into this now. Maybe some place has inventory on Apple G4 compatible gigabit ethernet cards. Am I going to run into a problem with the data throughput of a G4 PCI slot? No, that can't be. DV is <4MB/sec.