We want to upgrade the drive array on our Symphony.  It is a Compaq Evo w8000 with Meridian running Win2k.  So I have been looking at Caldigit.

Has anyone been using the HDPro or HDOne arrays from Caldigit?  Any issues with AVID?

So then the other question is if it will even work with our current setup.  We are in need of the array NOW but not ready to upgrade our Symphony.  However, I would like to have an array that can also make the upgrade with us, when we do so.  The card that needs to go in the workstation is a PCI-x card.  I believe that the w8000 only has PCI slots.  Are PCI-x cards backwards compatible with PCI slots?

Finally, anyone know the best way to see what the fastest read/write speed is for drives connected to your AVID?

  Are PCI-x cards backwards compatible with PCI slots?

There are three types of PCI slots

the venerable PCI 32 bits, running paralel

the PCI-X 64 bits which you find in your workstation, running at either 100 or 133 M?hz, also paralel

the PCIe (also known as PCI express) slots found on the new computers, running in serial/paralel mode, allowing way faster connection to the cpu. These you can find in 4 tastes, x1, x2, x4, x8, x16. The number describing the number of paralel direct lanes to the cpu. The total amount of lanes available depends on the controller chip of your motherboard, which can be 16/20/24/40 and whatever the future will bring us. Don't trust on slot appearance for this... Most raid cards require x8 to run at full capacity, most videocards run best on x16.

PCI(X) and PCIe are not backwards compatable unless you use brute force to enjoy a nice sparkshow once you turn it on, after which your computer is dead. However most raid cards come in both PCI(X) and PCIe flavours right now, you not being the only one with the upgrade problem, though expect it to be fased out in 3 years tops.

to test drive speed i use hdtach, the drive speed you should care about is sustained speed, as data throughput usualy slows as the drive fills with data. As for HDpro working... i would have know what sustained speed your current drive setup delivers.

So I have found numerous articles that state that PCIx IS backward compatible with PCI, as long as the voltage matches.  I've read that if it is a standard 32 bit slot the PCIx card will just hang over the back of the slot.  For the 64 bit slots, the PCIx card fits right in.  The only issue with using PCIx in a PCI slot is that it will only run at PCI speeds, you don't get the advantage of the added speed of the PCIx card.  Thus with my 64 bit PCI slot, it's my understanding, that I would get a rate of 266MB/s.  Also Caldigit says that they use a PCI express - PCIx bridge to allow their product to work on PCI and PCIx machines.  I guess the unit is really PCI Express.

To answer your question about my current drives, I ran HD Tach and got a Burst speed of 74 MB/s and an average of 23 MB/s

 PCI and PCIx are indeed compatible as you described. Its PCIe which is new and will be on your new computer that isn't compatible with either, although you could use the pcie-pcix bridge solution you mentioned. I have no experience with those, but if caldigit says it works, it probably will. I've looked up your motherboard and it seems to have 2 pcix slots and 4 pci slots. Which ones are in use at the moment? if one of those pcix slot is free I'd use them, and when your new computer arrives just ditch the bridge and plug the array directly into on of the pci-e slots. As for speed, most modern arrays/drives will easially match that in raid, where i would use raid 10 (1+0) or raid 5 for redundancy. I noticed you are still running windows 2000.... be sure to ask if the drivers of the array you are going to use work on that operating system.

Good luck

Thanks for the reply!  Yeah, the Win2K is the holdup right now.  Caldigit is supposed to be checking their systems for me to make sure everything will operate correctly on a Win2K platform.