Vienna Symphonic Library Forum
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  • Recommendations for Gigabit Ethernet switch, Router, etc?

    As I have no knowledge about ethernet cards except for the obvious (1 gigabit), I was hoping, if some of the more tech savvy guys could give me hint what to buy without spending more than necessary. :-) But I don't want to be cheap either, where this could boost the performance, so, here we go ...

    So far, I have been using the built in ethernet ports of my two slave PCs and the (upgraded) Mac pro 2009 model. I connect one of the slave PCs directly to the second ethernet port of the Mac! For this connection I created a dedicated network. The Mac's first ethernet port and the ethernet port of the second slave go to a Fritzbox 7390 with four gigabit lan ports.

    What model would be a good choice to buy as dedicated NIC for the PCs? Is it worth it, if I buy it only for the PCs, as I have no free PCIe slot left on the mac pro (actually, there is one, but it is not accesible due to the second slot of my RME Madi FX card)? Would a dedicated switch (what brand?) be better?

    The thing is, all is working decently and I can get about 32 audio streams from each slave. But I suppose, it could get better, can it?


  • So far, my conclusion for the best solution is:

    1. Both Slave-PCs connected to the Mac pro via ethernet directly, each having it own subnet.
    2. Internet on the mac pro via wifi (own subnet, again?).
    3. Internet on the PCs via a second ethernet controller, connected to the router with integrated switch (fritzbox 7390) using one subnet together to enable filesharing between the PCs.

    This way I should have the best VEpro performance, internet on both PCs and the Mac, file sharing via the VEpro network between Mac and PCs and filesharing between the PCs via router.

    The only missing Puzzle pieces: What ethernet card to buy for the PCs to get the best possible performance for VEpro? Are the onboard ethernet controllers on the mac pro decent enough? I could veryfy, they support jumbo frames, but nothing else ...