Magma Box alternatives

[Atomic Marshmallow]

I have recently written a few posts asking opinions on whether you think Scope is obsolete. All of you so far have said no way. I had my doubts at first but playing around with Pulsar in the last few days has made me re-evaluate my viewpoint. I'm falling in love again with Scope!

My main concern is that PCI slots will become obsolete, but after a bit of reading around I came across this:


http://www.virtuavia.eu/shop/index.php? ... 9893&sl=EN


Magma boxes seem like such a great idea and will definitely prolong the life of my PCI cards, but I find the Magma boxes to be too expensive. The above link though may provide hope.

Any opinions or experience with that company? Does it work? What compromises would I make? Would less bandwidth be a significant loss? Is it a good idea? What are the disadvantages?

I am so excited that this possibility could be viable. If I can connect Pulsar to my laptop, I'd be a happy man as long as there are no major compromises. It would streamline my setup nicely and I can keep using my cards.


Thanks

[helldriver]

Hey I´m running successfully a Magma 4PCI Box hosting 1 scope 14dsp and 3 UAD1. When it comes to magma there is no alternative for a pci based laptop solution. forget all the cheap pci expander which are not from magma. they are simply not working stable.
Magma is expensive, but you can get them pretty cheap on ebay, just like i did. i paid for the 4 slot magma and a express card 34 around 300 US $.

[Tau]

Can't tell about the Magma alternatives, but Magma boxes do work well with Scope.

Like Helldriver said, you can get them 2nd hand, much cheaper than new. And if you browse Z's Scope Purchasing Section, I'm sure you'll find at least a couple of them...

Cheers,

T

[garyb]

but gee, if you manage to afford to buy a magma box, you could seriously consider just getting an XITE which would solve all problems and add almost 20x the power with mic pres!.....

[Atomic Marshmallow]

but gee, if you manage to afford to buy a magma box, you could seriously consider just getting an XITE which would solve all problems and add almost 20x the power with mic pres!.....

I can't really afford a Magma box. If I could, I'd buy the XITE as you say. I was looking at this as a much cheaper alternative.

http://www.virtuavia.eu/shop/index.php? ... 9893&sl=EN

www.virtuavia.eu/shop/

[garyb]

nope, someone tried that one before and had poor results, sorry....

[djmicron]

The virtuavia adapter works fine on version with dedicated power supply.

http://www.virtuavia.eu/shop/index.php? ... 9891&sl=EN


Or you can take a look to remote desktop alternatives :

http://devz.org/tutorials.html

Sal

[dawman]

Nice article Sal,
So the video is sent over Ethernet.?
I am waiting for more 3rd party support so I can use a server that uses audio over ethernet, but what you have is like a KVM port over ethernet if I understand correctly.
I am going to be downsizing and using 2 MINI-ITX's in 1U ATX chassis, I would really like to ditch my 4 port QWERTY 1U drawer and go with something like this. My ethernetr cable only needs to be 8 inches in a loop on the backside, and then the PCI-e 1X to the XITE-1.
In this way I could buy a great stage laptop that is super low power like the Atom CPU type that do not need much power or speed. Heat and noise have kept me from getting a laptop, but if I go for low heat and low power I could actually use a NetBook.
I want the power and speed in my racks where the design for noise and heat are acceptable.
http://vsl.co.at/en/211/497/1685/1693/1342.htm
There's the link for the audio server app.
I would love to keep my rig down to a 4U ATA SHock rack.

[djmicron]

Hello Jimmy,
still have not tried the Vienna server, but i have done some project using fx teleport together with radmin remote desktop and it's fine, so i think it should be fine with the vienna server too.

Sal

[vitusya]

How about this card http://cgi.ebay.com/PE4L-EC2C-ExpressCa ... 27ba3fa227 + http://cgi.ebay.com/PCI-PCI-E-Expressca ... 27b967fc3f

will this setup work?

[garyb]

the second one might work, but since the Scope card is not low profile, it won't fit in the case so well...

[lunaorbit]

http://cgi.ebay.com/PCI-PCI-E-Expressca ... 27b967fc3f


This is working on my system but seems not all DSP chips are running using this..

[astroman]

Last week I've ordered a similiar slot-extender, but 3 PCI to 1 PCIe 4x, just for curiosity's sake...

cheers, Tom

[JoPo]

Could one give me a link to a pcie -> at least 3 x pci magma box ?
I'm a little lost to choose the right one....

Thanks!

[jksuperstar]

Here's a four slot:
http://www.startech.com/product/PEX2PCI ... ansion-Bay

Newegg in the states carries it here for much less:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... -_-Product

Also a 4 slot, full length:
http://www.startech.com/product/PEX2PCI ... ansion-Box

[JoPo]

Many thanks !

[JoPo]

Are you sure in this one :
http://www.startech.com/product/PEX2PCI ... ansion-Box
, I can put at least 3 pci cards ?

Why do they say 2 full length (38cm) PCI slots (32-bit/33MHz) ans 2 PCIe x1 (single lane) slots ?
This is why I asked some links...

[jksuperstar]

Nothing for sure, I just happened to be shopping for a rackmount case for a PC, and that happened across my eyes after reading your request. Looks like it is only for 2 PCI and 2 PCIe cards

[JoPo]

!!!

Maybe someone could give us some more information............?

[astroman]

the information about that box is absolutely clear and unmistakable.
As JK wrote, it's got 2 slots of each type.
considering the price tag of these boxes, an industrial mainboard in a proper enclosure is likely much cheaper...
http://www.comp-mall.de/IMBA-XQ354-295.html
(dunno if PCIe 4x is downward compatible with 1x regarding your cards)

as I'm just back from the PC dealer, I bought an Intel DH67CL board for just 95 Euro...
3 PCI slots, 2 PCIe 1x, 1 PCIe 16x. Will try it with CPU graphics first as I never had a problem with that.

cheers, Tom