[DISCLAIMER: Thecus provided an N7700 Pro NAS unit for review in exchange for advertising space on PlanetAMD64 and PlanetX64. Seagate donated the drives to us with no compensation other than to be mentioned as our source of hard drives.] 

Appearance

Despite the “Pro” moniker, the Thecus N7700 Pro uses a mini-tower form factor. This is not a rack-mountable device. However, it is smaller than a typical PC mini-tower, so it does not occupy that much space. If stored in a rack enclosure on some sort for shelf, it will occupy a little over 7U of space, so plan accordingly. Clad in anodized black and silver, the mini-tower can hold seven drives in its chassis. That’s potentially 12 TB of RAID-5 storage with the largest drives currently available.

Status information is provided via an LCD display on the front. Several manual controls on the front can be used to modify basic setup settings in case the network gets misconfigured and the web interface is not accessible.

Features

Where to start? The unit is fully buzzword compliant and has recently been awarded VMware compatibility status. This means that VMware’s Hypervisor can reliably recognize the N7700 Pro as a storage device and even boot virtual machines from mounted iSCSI images.

Supported clients can be any combination of Windows, Mac, or Linux/Unix.

The N7700 Pro has Thecus’ Dual DOM architecture which means if the primary DOM gets messed up during an update, you can boot from a secondary DOM and reset the primary.

RAID modes offered include: 0, 1, 5, 6, 10 & JBOD. Up to 3 modes can be supported simultaneously.

The unit is managed via a browser-based UI that is clean, well-designed and easy-to-use.

During setup you are offered a staggering variety of filesystems (EXT3, XFS, & ZFS) to choose from. Most notable among them is ZFS, a 128-bit journaling filesystem designed and built by Sun Microsystems which packs upper storage limits so ridiculously large, you would have to use every atom in the Earth’s crust to fill it. ZFS also allows for data expansion via zpools, so you can start small and add drives later to expand. Combine this with RAID-6 (dual parity redundant) volumes and you have the makings of a storage device that can only be taken out of commission through acts of sabotage. By creating ZFS volumes you can enable Snapshot version control for the ultimate in data redundancy.

It supports online migration, online expansion, hot-swap, & hot-spares.

It can communicate directly via RS-232 & USB to UPS systems.

The 7700 Pro sports 2 GbE ports which can be load-balanced, 802.3ad (ganged) or setup in a failover configuration. But for real speed, there is a 10 GbE option (for all you bleeding-edge types.)

Add a wireless dongle and the N7700 Pro also acts as a wireless access point.

The N7700 Pro can act as a DHCP Server or Client.

The N7700 Pro includes backup software for Windows and Mac clients. Linux/Unix client can backup via cron+rsync, as can more gregarious Mac users. I tested the rsync facilities using ChronoSync for Mac. By mounting an iSCSI target volume, Mac user can designate the N7700 Pro as a target for Time Machine backups. If you are going this route, I highly recommend setting up the network as 802.3ad ganged for maximum throughput (unless you have access to 10GB switches and NICs for Macs.)

The N7700 Pro includes a print server, media server (Windows Media and iTunes), Download Manager (Bittorrent, FTP, HTTP)

The N7700 Pro provides a plethora (I love using that word) of methods to access your data:

• TCP/IP
• CIFS/SMB
• AFP
• NFS
• HTTP/S
• FTP
• FTP-SSL/TLS

The N7700 Pro is also extensible. Thecus offers several add-on modules to enhance the functionality of the device (as if it didn’t do enough already.) The list (as of this review) includes:

• Mail Server Module
• Backup to USB/eSATA External Drive Module
• RAID Volume Replication Module
• Twonky Media Server Module
• MySQL Module
• Web Server Module
• Bi-directional USB Copy Module
• IP Camera Server Module
• NZB News Server Module

Performance

In a nutshell, the N7700 Pro is FAST. I only had it configured with one GbE port and was able to back up my entire Windows Home Server (3.5 TB of data) via a Thermaltake BlackX USB drive toaster over the network in a matter of three days. The bottleneck there is the USB drive. In regular operation, I saw a noticeable improvement in my photographic workflow which includes saving a copy of all of my RAW image files to the NAS at ingestion.

The media server functions all work as advertised providing streaming audio, video, and photo services to any device on the network that understands the protocols. Installing the Twonky Media Server adds file transcoding to the N7700 Pro’s burgeoning resume. I was able to see videos on Macs, PCs and even my DirecTV HR200 DVR.

iSCSI targets are limited to 5 per filesystem but this is not really much of a limit in the N7700 Pro’s target demographic: SMB’s and advanced home networks.

Reliability

While not empirically tested, the N7700 Pro’s design has reliability as a top priority. If I had to pick a nit in this area, I would cite the lack of a redundant power supply as the only missing feature. Still, with a nice strong UPS attached the N7700 Pro offers users a product that can be counted on to keep their data safe.

Price

I have seen the N7700 Pro as low as $843 USD (without drives) in some casual Google searches. The average price tends to hover around $950 USD and some places as high as $999 (the MSRP.)

The Contest

As part of the Save the Planets Sponsorship drive, we are giving away a Thecus N7700 Pro NAS with 8TB of hard drives. All you have to do is become a PlanetAMD64 Sponsor and follow me on Twitter (@etrigan63). That’s it. No guessing games, no scavenger hunts. The winner of the N7700 Pro NAS will be announced on Twitter at the end of May 2010.

Receiving the VMware^® Ready certified logo means that these Thecus^® NAS products have passed all relevant laboratory testing and met all the integration and interoperability criteria outlined by VMware^®. VMware^® Ready certification also means that these products are fully compatible with VMware^® ESX 4.0 and are ready to run in a production environment to carry out mission critical business applications and operations.

Besides VMware^® support, Thecus^® enterprise NAS servers are packed with all the essential technologies for modern businesses. Together with 10GbE or SAS HDD support, businesses have the speed and technology required to create a storage network that is able to efficiently and effectively manage their data, enabling them to provide timely services to their customers.

Users can now find these products listed on the VMware^® Compatibility Guide.

For more information on Thecus^® products, please go to:

http://www.thecus.com/products_over.php?cid=11&pid=198

For more information on VMware^®, please go to:

http://www.vmware.com/

For more information on Thecus^®, please go to:

http://www.thecus.com

About Thecus®
Thecus® Technology Corp. specializes in IP Storage Server solutions, including Network Attached Storage (NAS), DAS, External Storage and Wireless Media NAS (Bank) products. The company was established in 2004 with the mission to make technology as transparent and easy-to-use as possible, and to make products that are not only the best on the market, but are accessible to experts and novices alike. With a best-in-class R&D team highly experienced in storage hardware and Linux software and with a keen customer focus, Thecus® stays close to the market to develop high-quality products to fulfill the storage Server needs of today’s world.

Business users need to access data as quickly as possible, which is why the 1U4600 is built for speed. Powered by Intel® Celeron technology and 1GB of DDR memory, the 1U4600 delivers tremendous data transfer performance and quick system response even with multiple client access. For organizations that require cloud computing applications, the 1U4600 fits the bill nicely with its cloud networking ability. This feature allows multiple 1U4600 units to be accessed by a master system, forming a huge data pool. Being a Thecus® product, data security is also top-notch, featuring multiple RAID modes, including RAID 0, 1, 5, 6, 10 and JBOD. Best of all, administrators can take advantage of online-RAID volume management to handle such tasks as RAID expansion or migration with zero downtime.

But the 1U4600 is also incredibly flexible. For starters, it can be used in NAS, DAS, or iSCSI mode, depending on the needs of the organization. To keep things running smoothly, the 1U4600 is built with a dual DOM design, which enables the main system DOM to be reprogrammed by a secondary DOM should it fail for any reason. And to guard against sudden power supply failure, power redundancy is also available with the 1U4600R, which packs a 250W redundant power supply for uninterrupted service.

“Enterprises need superior storage at a price that fits within budget, and the newly updated 1U4600 meets these requirements,” said Florence Shih, Thecus General Manager. “With multiple redundancies and superior performance built-in, the 1U4600 sets the new standard in powerful yet versatile enterprise storage.”

For more information on the 1U4600, go to:

http://www.thecus.com/products_over.php?cid=11&pid=227&set_language=english

For more information on Thecus, go to:

http://www.thecus.com

CUPERTINO, Calif., July 23 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — Apple® today announced a significant update to Final Cut Studio® with more than 100 new features and new versions of Final Cut Pro®, Motion, Soundtrack® Pro, Color and Compressor. Final Cut Studio features Final Cut Pro 7 which expands Apple’s ProRes codec family to support virtually any workflow and includes Easy Export for one step output to a variety of formats and iChat® Theater support for real-time collaboration. Motion 4 includes enhanced tools such as 3D shadows, reflections and depth of field for stunning motion graphics and visual effects, and Soundtrack Pro 3 features new multitrack audio tools to streamline audio post production. Color 1.5 includes better Final Cut Pro integration and support for full color resolution, and Compressor 3.5 adds new features that make it easy to set up and customize your export options. At $999, the new Final Cut Studio is $300 less than the previous release and is also available as an upgrade for just $299.

“With 1.4 million users and 50 percent of the market,* Final Cut Pro is the number one professional video editing application,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing. “The new Final Cut Studio includes more than 100 new features and dramatically expands Apple’s ProRes family of codecs so editors can work in the studio with the highest quality video or on location at low bandwidths.”

Final Cut Pro 7, the latest version of Apple’s Emmy Award-winning editing software, includes new versions of Apple’s ProRes codecs to support virtually any workflow with the addition of ProRes Proxy, for offline and mobile editing at low bandwidth; ProRes LT, for general purpose editing; and ProRes 4444 for editing and visual effects at the highest quality possible. Easy Export allows users to continue working on projects while encoding is done in the background and the sequence is exported to YouTube, MobileMe(TM), iPhone(TM), iPod®, Apple TV®, DVD or Blu-ray. iChat Theater support allows real time collaboration by sharing Final Cut® timelines or individual source clips with iChat users anywhere in the world, even if they don’t have a copy of Final Cut Pro. Other new features include new speed tools to change clip speed with ease, alpha transitions to create dramatic effects using moving mattes, and native AVC-Intra support for the latest high quality Panasonic cameras.

Motion 4 extends award-winning, easy to use animation tools so video editors can quickly create everything from basic titles to animated credit rolls to stunning motion graphics. Enhancing 3D compositions is faster than ever with new customizable features that add point and spot lights to cast realistic shadows or turn any shape, video plane or paint stroke into a reflective surface. Motion 4 gives editors the flexibility to adjust the depth of field within a 3D canvas by selectively highlighting a single object or using multiple objects to create a racking focus effect.

Soundtrack Pro 3 adds powerful new audio editing tools including Voice Level Match which extracts volume information from the vocal content of one clip and applies it to another without altering any other audio content so editors can easily correct mismatched voice levels. An enhanced File Editor includes new tools to make sophisticated edits and fine tune volume adjustments by targeting specific frequencies such as the rustle of a paper or the bump of a desk without affecting dialogue. The new Advanced Time Stretch feature stretches and compresses audio with incredible precision using three Apple-designed algorithms or other algorithms available as third party plug-ins.

Color 1.5, Apple’s easy to use professional grading application, now works with a greater range of sequences and effects from Final Cut Pro and an integrated workflow allows editors to complete projects entirely within Final Cut Studio. New 4K support works natively with files from cameras such as the RED ONE and outputs directly to ProRes for HD or DPX for film. Expanded support for new high quality formats includes AVC-Intra, XDCAM 422 and ProRes 4444, for grading with the maximum amount of color information.

Compressor 3.5 makes encoding and delivering in multiple formats easier than ever with the ability to automatically detect QuickTime® settings and create an Easy Export template or a mini “droplet” on the desktop that automates specific Compressor actions. New, customizable sharing options make it easy to publish to YouTube and MobileMe, or export for iPhone, iPod, Apple TV and mobile phones. For the highest quality HD material, menu templates and encoding presets make it fast and easy to create Blu-ray discs. Final Cut Studio also includes DVD Studio Pro®, a powerful DVD authoring environment with drag and drop tools, on screen editing and real time previews.

Soundtrack Pro and Compressor are also available as part of the new Logic Studio®, allowing Final Cut and Logic® users to collaborate and share files.

Apple today also introduced Final Cut Server 1.5, the asset management and automation tool for Final Cut Studio. Final Cut Server 1.5 includes powerful new features like lightweight, offline editing with ProRes Proxy, production hierarchies to organize media, and support for still sequences to easily view and manage image sequences for graphics and effects workflows. Final Cut Server now includes unlimited client licenses and is available for $999 or as a $299 upgrade for existing users.

Pricing & Availability

Final Cut Studio is now available through the Apple Store® (www.apple.com), Apple’s retail stores and Apple Authorized Resellers for a suggested retail price of $999 (US) and existing Final Cut Studio and Final Cut Pro users can upgrade for a suggested retail price of $299 (US). Full system requirements and more information on Final Cut Studio can be found at www.apple.com/finalcutstudio. Final Cut Server 1.5 is now available through the Apple Store (www.apple.com), Apple’s retail stores and Apple Authorized Resellers and includes unlimited client licenses for a suggested retail price of $999 (US) and existing Final Cut Server users can upgrade for suggested retail price of $299 (US). Full system requirements and more information on Final Cut Server can be found at www.apple.com/finalcutserver.

*Based on data from broadcast and professional video market research firm SCRI International, Inc. showing Apple is the market leader for post-production with 50 percent of broadcast and post non-linear editor purchases in 2008.

Apple ignited the personal computer revolution in the 1970s with the Apple II and reinvented the personal computer in the 1980s with the Macintosh. Today, Apple continues to lead the industry in innovation with its award-winning computers, OS X operating system and iLife and professional applications. Apple is also spearheading the digital media revolution with its iPod portable music and video players and iTunes online store, and has entered the mobile phone market with its revolutionary iPhone.

© 2009 Apple Inc. All rights reserved. Apple, the Apple logo, Mac, Mac OS, Macintosh, Final Cut Studio, Final Cut Pro, Soundtrack, iChat, MobileMe, iPhone, iPod, Apple TV, Final Cut, QuickTime, DVD Studio Pro, Logic Studio, Logic and Apple Store are trademarks of Apple. Other company and product names may be trademarks of their respective owners.

“The new Logic Studio is ideal for professional musicians, live performers and GarageBand enthusiasts who want to take their music to the next level,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing. “Guitar players are going to love Amp Designer and Pedalboard and the new Flex Time tools allow you to quickly improve your recordings and create tighter performances.”

The new Amp Designer and Pedalboard plug-ins give guitar players incredible new recording and sound design capabilities. Amp Designer recreates 25 legendary vintage and modern amp heads in beautiful detail with matching controls and 25 paired speaker cabinets that emulate the sound and feel of a guitar running through a real tube amplifier. Guitar players can create their own custom rig by mixing and matching amps, cabinets, reverbs and EQs, and can choose from three different microphone types that can be positioned in 3D space to capture the ideal guitar tone. Pedalboard adds an assortment of 30 guitar stompbox pedals that can be arranged in any order to produce a wide variety of lush, creative effects including overdrive, distortion, fuzz, delay, chorus, flange, phaser, tremolo, treble boost, wah and more.

Flex Time is a new collection of tools that allow musicians to quickly manipulate the timing and tempo of recorded audio, including vocals and instruments, to create tighter performances. Using the Flex Tool, individual beats in a waveform can be moved effortlessly with a mouse click, without the need for tedious slicing and editing. Audio Quantize can instantly fix or adjust the timing of an entire performance by aligning notes and beats to a musical grid with a single menu selection. Varispeed provides the ability to slow down and then speed up an entire multi-track production to help record challenging parts. Flex Time also enables recorded tracks to be moved between different Logic projects and matched together, even if they were performed at different tempos. All Flex Time edits are performed non destructively and in real time, even when using the highest quality settings.

MainStage 2 lets musicians use all the instruments and effects from Logic Studio to turn their Mac® into the ultimate live performance rig. The new Playback plug-in provides musicians with a backing band, allowing them to perform with pre-recorded audio, like drums, sound effects and other accompaniments that can be triggered to play while they are performing live. The new Loopback plug-in allows musicians to record, layer and jam along with their own performance so a single musician can lay down a rhythm and then play a lead over it.

Soundtrack Pro 3 adds powerful new audio editing tools including Voice Level Match which extracts volume information from the vocal content of one clip and applies it to another without altering any other audio content, so editors can easily correct mismatched voice levels. An enhanced File Editor includes new tools to make sophisticated edits and fine tune volume adjustments by targeting specific frequencies such as the rustle of a paper or the bump of a desk without affecting dialogue. The new Advanced Time Stretch feature stretches and compresses audio with incredible precision using three Apple-designed algorithms or other algorithms available as third party plug-ins. Soundtrack Pro and Compressor are also available as part of the new Final Cut Studio®, allowing Final Cut® and Logic users to collaborate and share files.

Pricing & Availability

Logic Studio is now available through the Apple Store® (www.apple.com), Apple’s retail stores and Apple Authorized Resellers for a suggested retail price of $499 (US) and existing users of Logic Studio and Logic Pro can upgrade for a suggested retail price of $199 (US). Full system requirements and more information on Logic Studio can be found at www.apple.com/logicstudio. Logic Express, a streamlined and even more affordable version of Logic for GarageBand® users who want more power and control, will ship in August for a suggested retail price of $199 (US) and will be available through the Apple Store (www.apple.com), Apple’s retail stores and Apple Authorized Resellers.

Apple ignited the personal computer revolution in the 1970s with the Apple II and reinvented the personal computer in the 1980s with the Macintosh. Today, Apple continues to lead the industry in innovation with its award-winning computers, OS X operating system and iLife and professional applications. Apple is also spearheading the digital media revolution with its iPod portable music and video players and iTunes online store, and has entered the mobile phone market with its revolutionary iPhone.

 With spam, spyware, identity theft (phishing), hacking (the unethical kind), viruses and trojans becoming more and more prevalent on the Internet, folks who want to run more than one computer in their home have to really consider the security benefits of edge devices. Edge devices are computers (either dedicated or appliances) designed to sit between your DSL or Cable modem and your internal network. Edge devices act as a first line of defense, protecting home computers and servers from intrusion and infection. Untangle has released version 4.1 of their amazing firewall distro for edge devices and we have been using it here in the lab for several weeks. What you will see will amaze you.

 {mosimage}

Product: Untangle XD Server + Untangle Platform
Author: Carlos Echenique 
Category: Firewall distro/Edge Device
Reviewed on: January 21, 2007
Product cost: See article
Manufacturer: Untangle (formerly Metavize) 
Spelling and Grammatical editor: Paul Mercer

Introduction
Even with the launch of Windows Vista and its attendant security improvements, using the built-in firewall and the NAT (Network Address Translation) firewall built-in to the modem is not enough, especially if you are running a home (or small office) network. One can purchase security suites from various manufacturers (Trend, Symantec, CA to name a few) to add layers of security to your home systems. However, these solutions steal more and more cycles from your CPU, degrading performance in the name of security. At the rate things are going, you will need a quad-core machine to read your e-mail because of all of the security layers/protections/encryptions that you will have to dynamically use in day-to-day operation.

This is where edge devices make sense. By placing these security checkpoints in between the router/modem and the network, you force all data entering and leaving your network to be scrutinized and checked. Linux afficionados have long enjoyed this ability but had to endure the complexity of administering complex firewall rules and the arcana of trying to mix together various security technologies. Windows firewall offerings for edge devices can be very expensive (Microsoft's ISA Server 2006 Standard lists for over $2,000 USD) and lack features compared to their Linux bretheren.

Enter Untangle (formerly Metavize) with their Untangle Server and the Untangle Platform. This product is a pre-assembled Linux-based firewall distro that combines best-of-breed security technologies with a dynamite front-end to manage the whole thing. Add to that a laundry list of features and regular support updates, and you have yourself the makings of top-tier security product. The Untangle Platform can be downloaded and installed on your own server or ordered on one of three preconfigured severs. Untangle kindly sent us their XD (rackmountable) server preloaded with UP 4.1.

{mospagebreak title=Features}
Features
First and foremost, the UP is an SPI (Stateful Packet Inspecting) firewall and full fledged router based on a hardened Knoppix distro. If you purchase a preconfigrued server (or "roll your own" with three NICs) the Untangle Platform fully supports Internal, External and DMZ network connections. The external connection can be static or dynamic and includes PPPoE (Point to Point Protocol over Ethernet) support.

User authentication can be from either the built-in LDAP server or going against your internal Active Directory server (if you are crazy enough to have one, like me). The software includes a utility to allow the UP to track users via Active Directory and apply policy based on their logins instead of their IP addresses. This is very convenient when you have rules that apply to certain folks (the youngsters for example) and others are exempt (the adults).

The UP offers the following features:

The system automatically checks for updates at a designated time every night. The update check also occurs whenever you log on to the Administrative Console.

If I had one nit to pick it would be the lack of a transparent proxy to speed up surfing for large amounts of users behind a single DSL/cable modem. This should not be difficult to implement as Squid is a popular open source proxy. [Editors note: I have been informed by Untangle Support that proxy services are on the roadmap for deployment in the future.]

Feature Score: 4.95 out of 5

{mospagebreak title=Interface}
Interface
Untangle has gone the extra-mile with the administrative interface. Instead of using the web-based solutions favored by other distros, Untangle sports a Java based interface that uses a "rack of machines" paradigm (see image below). This allows the system to provide status and statistics in real-time (the graphs on the interface are live) and a drag-and-drop metaphor for system configurations. Racks may be added for different groups (admins and users for example) with different "machines" mounted on each rack.

Clicking on each "machine" on the "rack" expands the display and allows access to the detailed settings for each area. The method is intuitive and elegant. I have shown this interface to several IT professionals and they unanimously agree on the elegance of the design.

By using Java to power their interface, Untangle has made it's client platform independent. I have tested this Interface on Windows XP (32 and 64 bit), Windows 2003 Server (32 and 64 bit), Fedora (Redhat) Linux, and Mac OS X (Tiger). Vista users had some issues during the beta, but Untangle support has removed this incompatability and Vista is now fully supported. In order to run the Untangle Client on Vista, you must install Java 1.6 as the previous versions of Java do not work correctly with Vista.

View a live demo here.

Interface Score: 5 out of 5

{mospagebreak title=Performance and Support}
Performance
The Untangle Server XD is a Pentium D based machine with 1 GB of RAM. If you decide to "roll your own" firewall box for the Untangle Platform be sure to meet or exceed the hardware requirements listed at Untangle's website. YMMV. The XD is more than enough to handle well over 100 users without even getting warm. I get copious amounts of spam every day and the Untangle Server/Platform has helped me reclaim my inbox. Looking at the logs and reports will amaze you as to the amount of traffic/garbage/hack attempts pouring in through your DSL/cable modem. Web control is smooth and efficient. When coupled with an AD server, the policies follow the user account, not the IP of the machine.

Support
The support staff at Untangle have been incredibly responsive to the needs of their user community. The Untangle Platform includes a mechanism for remote support by Untangle Staff and there is a 24 hr Support Package that can be purchased. This package, when purchased online, allows the folks at Untangle to monitor and take snapshots of your server's configuration. Should your hardware fail, a new server is prepared and loaded with your config and sent to you overnight express.

Untangle also provides a user forum that is very helpful and is constantly monitored by the support staff. I have used it extensively in my testing and the staff is very knowledgeable. The forum is also a venue for suggestions and improvements and several of my own suggestions are being realized.

Performace & Support Score: 5 out of 5

{mospagebreak title=Pricing}
Pricing
When I started this review, Untangle (known as Metavize at the time) had a pricing structure geared towards business customers only. Subsequently, they renamed their company, released a new version of their software, and completely restructured their pricing.

Here is the current pricing:

Other packages and discounts are available as well. Please see the Untangle web site for more details

Pre loaded servers are also available (if you don't feel comfortable building your own or wish to take advantage of the 24 Hour Replacement feature). Again see the Untangle web site for pricing.

As you can see, the only cost of setting this up in your home or small office is the cost of bulding a machine to house it. The hardware specs are not unreasonable:

Intel? or AMD CPUs will work.

Operating System
The server does NOT need an Operating System; the Untangle CD installs an operating system.

Other
CD-ROM drive to boot the Untangle Server software CD. A bootable DVD drive will work as well.

With the imminment release of Windows Vista (and the required hardware upgrades), there is a high likelihood that a machine meeting these requirements will be available for use as an edge device.

The process is simple: Download the ISO, burn it to CD, boot off of said CD, request a key, install key on the system.

Pricing Score: 5 out of 5
{mospagebreak title=Conclusion}
Price, performance, features, suppport and a killer interface all come together to produce a near perfect product. Ongoing development and a support team that listens to the needs of their customers makes the Untangle Platform your best bet for securing your network.

Scores:
Features:  4.95 out of 5
Interface:  5 out of 5
Performance & Support: 5 out of 5
Pricing:  5 out of 5
Total Score:  19.95 out of 20

PlanetX64 proudly awards Untangle Platform the Best on the Planet.

{mosimage}

PlanetX64 wishes to acknowledge Corky Brown and Dirk Morris of Untangle for their assistance and support during this review.

 Discuss it here.

NewTek has released the 64-bit version of their premier 3D modelling rendering software. Emmy Award winning VFX artist Jose Perez and I put this package through it’s paces and the results are pretty astounding.  {mosimage}

Introduction
Not too long ago, modelling realistic 3D imagery took a rather esoteric mix of math skills, really expensive software and a room full of Crays. These days, 3D modelling and rendering is used in practically every film Hollywood produces and has allowed filmmakers to achieve a level of realism that was unthinkable 10 years ago. Impossible camera angles, ultrarealistic creatures and effects, and superhuman stunt work are all de rigeur for the 3D VFX artist.

NewTek started out on the Amiga platform with their Video Toaster software. They later branched out into 3D with LightWave. When WIndows NT was released, LightWave was ported to that platform (and others) and then things really began to take off.

We had the opportunity to take LightWave 3D 8.5 x64 out for a spin and put it through its paces. To assist me in this little romp, I contacted an old friend (and Emmy Award winning VFX artist), Jose Perez, to really test it thoroughly. In fact, the 3D models used in recent episodes of Stargate SG-1, Stargate Atlantis, and Battlestar Galactica  were all textured and test rendered (approval shots) in LightWave3D 8.5 x64 on a 64-bit box provided to Jose by PlanetX64.

{mospagebreak title=Description and Benefits}
Description
The latest version of LightWave (8.5) is a free ugrade to registered users. However, this release is not short of new features and enhancements to existing workflow. To see a list of these, you should visit NewTek’s website . For this review, we focused heavily on the 64 bit aspects and speed improvements.

Benefits of 64-bit vs. 32-bit
Jose: As an Artist, I have no real desire to delve into the technical aspects of how things work in the background of a 3D application. In this case however, what goes on in the background in 64-bit vs 32-bit is astounding for people in the Visual FX industry. Among the most notable workflow improvements is the rendering (mathematical computations of lightrays bouncing off of 3D geometry to make up a CG image). Speed is improved dramatically. Each scene is different, but I have seen improvements of 2x, 3x,4x, and even higher in some cases. Needless to say, if a frame under 32-bit takes you 1 hour to render, and in a 64-bit environment the same frame renders in 15 minutes, the results speak for themselves. Time, after all, is money.

A silent, more notable advent in this arena, is the ability to address memory of 4 Gigs and upward. To the average home user this might not seem like something drastic. But if your system can adress 16 gigs or 32 gigs of ram, or higher, not only can more complex scenes be loaded into memory, But the response of the workstation seems more realtime as well. Hence more power to the average pixel pusher.

Carlos: As a Gearfreak, I respect NewTek’s decison to bring LightWave out as a fully 64-bit application. The enlarged memory address space and larger registers allow for the complex mathematics of raytracing to be carried out at speeds unheard of as little as a year ago. Renderfarms (large groups of computers used to crank out 3D animations) composed of 64-bit machines will provide higher quality images in a fraction of the time and cost. This is truly desktop supercomputing.
{mospagebreak title=Tests}
Tests
To test this new technology, I decided to throw the most complex CG elements I was working on at the time, which happened to be complex spaceships and entirely CG constructed cities, from shows like Stargate SG-1, Stargate Atlantis and Battlestar Galactica. For an added comparison, I loaded up my Mini Cooper Robot from the the viral Ad Mini Cooper/BMW had me build for Zoic Studios.

Aside from the robot, which was completely modelled and textured in an earlier version of LightWave, the rest of the elements were all textured, lit, and rendered in LightWave 8.5 64 bit (beta at the time).

Test Rig Specs
Jose’s Rig:
Dual Opteron 850′s
OCZ 4GB DDR400 ECC Reg SDRAM
Tyan Tiger K8W Motherboard
Custom CM Wavemater case from Performance-PCs.com
LSI MegaRAID 150 SATA controller
3x 250GB Seagate Barracuda 7200.8 SATA HD’s
3DLabs Wildcat Realizm 200 video card
Windows XP Professional x64

Carlos’ Rig:
Dual Opteron 875′s
OCZ 8GB DDR400 ECC Reg SDRAM
Tyan Thunder K8WE
Custom CM Stacker
Seagate Barracuda  7200.8 400GB
Dual eVGA 6800 Ultra Video cards in SLI
Windows XP Professional x64

Carlos’ rig was used for renderfarm style tests while Jose’s was used for modelling, design and test renders.
{mospagebreak title=Analysis}
Analysis

Jose: Lets begin with the Battlestar Pegasus from the second season of Battlestar Galactica.  After I completed the model in its full, high resolution assembly, the polygon count was at around 3.1 million. Of course this was including fully detailed guns and other details to handle closups.  Normally we don’t load the full model up for shots, only the neccessary pieces. That being said, she is bigger than the Galactica in physical size, but not in polygons. Galactica herself has more detail.  However 3.1 million poly’s in 32-bit Lightwave is nothing to sneeze at either.

I textured the Pegasus and ran test renders in the 64-bit version of LightWave, for approval of the look and feel of the ship.  My first impression was "This workstation handles the geometry in OpenGL much faster than in 32-bit". So this was a pleasant surprise, as I found myself spinning the ship and and checking textures at almost realtime, compared to a choppy slow movement in the 32-bit version. Hence I was more productive and found myself getting things done faster on a ship of this magnitude.

The ringer was when I started to run test renders with the ship.  In 32-bit LightWave, a full frame shot was rendering in about 30 minutes, with a full light kit in there. In 64-bit however,  the same identical frame flew by at around 7 minutes, give or take a few seconds – this was jaw dropping. For a single Freelance artist like myself, to wait around 30 minutes for a test render twiddling thumbs, as opposed to 7 minutes, just enough time to go get a cup of coffee and move on.

Now I’m no math genius, nor would I pretend to know what fraction of time that shaved off.  But from 30 minutes to 7 minutes for the same exact High definition frame with a decent amount of antialiasing, I would say that’s a vast improvement.  Granted, NewTek has also sped up LightWave’s rendering technology. This 64-bit workflow just lends itself to so many more possibilities from an artist standpoint, not to mention a studio’s deadlines on high profile projects. One machine is impressive, a farm of 250 or more 64-bit nodes is just incredible.

Carlos: Fortunately for Jose, my kung fu (in mathematics) is much stronger than his. His test renders with the Battlestar Pegasus were clocking in at just over 300% performance increase (328.6% to be exact). The 64-bit platform’s ability to manipulate very large numbers and access to far larger amounts of storage vs. 32-bit are what gives it the edge.
{mospagebreak title=Analysis continued}
For my next tests, I loaded up a few models I had just modelled for Stargate SG1 & Atlantis.  They included the new Daedalus battlecruiser , new F302 fighters, and a new version of the City of Atlantis which I modelled for Season 2.  Again Texturing them in 64-bit Open GL was a joy, nothing held me back.  Just some stats here to give you an idea of how these models fared. The Hero version of the Daedalus weighed in at around 1.3 million Polygons without the full rez guns in there. Guns added another 300-400k polygons. Once done texturing, the test renders began for approvals from the studio.  On my 32-bit workstation, the Daedalus was running 14-15 minutes for a full frame, high definition shot.  When the same frame was tested on the 64-bit box, it came in at around 4-5 minutes. These tests can vary a little since different models use different amounts and sizes of  texture maps, but over all, I’m seeing a boost in all rendering, making the performance alone worth upgrading for. Again, time is money.  

 Carlos: That’s 200 – 250% speed increase for those of you keeping score.

A much smaller model, the F302 fighters that are housed inside the Daedalus, weighed in at around 200-300k polygons. Not a big deal in 32-bit Open GL. But once the rendering begins, it is apparent once more that the new render speeds alone blow the 32-bit box out of the water.  The 32-bit box rendered fighters at 1.5-2 minutes depending on the angle and lighting. Whereas the same frames on the 64-bit box rendered at 15-20 seconds.

Carlos: That’s a 500% speed increase, ladies and gents!

I followed up with my last model on Atlantis. This was a HUGE one – well it sure felt huge to me, in scale at least .  A new highly detalied version of the city of Atlantis for season 2 on the Sci-fi Channel. Total count with all medium rez buildings and piers loaded in was 2 million Polygons.  Textured it in 64-bit Layout, and threw a test light rig in there for some nice test renders.  On the 32-bit machine, the city rendered in about 20-25 minutes with fog, and BG radiosity in there, also medium antialising.  On the 64-bit box, the same High Definition frame came in at a whopping 7 minutes.  That sealed the deal for me. 64-bit LightWave is the way to go if you can afford the hardware upgrade, and the memory bump up.  Fortunately, Planet X64 took care of that for me.

Carlos: I’d like to thank Tyan, AMD, 3DLabs (Creative Labs) & eVGA for their participation here as well. Oh, and by the way, 257% speed increase.

Before I packed it up and said I’m done testing, I figured I’d load up an oldie of mine. My Mini Cooper from the viral ad campaign BMW ran a few years ago.  I remember specifically having a difficult time spinning the model in OpenGL, and handling the full model in Modeller. Why?  Well, 2 years ago 1.2 million polygons was a bit high for 3D apps to handle, and with less memory in your system – well you can imagine the rest.  Especially running LightWave 7 or 7.5.  The model was chock full of details, down to the engine parts, and a full dash under the chest, which was covered by the famous Mini Cooper hood.  It had to hold up in all sorts of mediums from magazine ads, to web content, to full animated video, and even a 37 foot tall billboard in Times Square, New York.

I can’t say I was surprised anymore, given the results I had just experienced with the other, bigger models, but a pleasant smile came over me when I loaded the Mini up in 64-bit, and just handled it, smoothly and easily. Finally the big test. I remember rendering all sorts of huge odd sizes and render formats for printable versions of this guy. So much so, that renders at one point were taking around 12 hours with full area lighting, assisted radiosity, all the bells and whistles. So I cranked up one of the big 1.2 million polygon scenes, set with all the good lighting, and full details, at around 6k rez. I had marked this at around 12.5 hours on my old box.  The new 32-bit box did it at 7 hours. On the 64-bit box, the same huge frame rendered in 55 minutes, just a little under 1 hour.

Carlos: I loaded up the same scene on my quad core Opteron system to simulate renderfarm performance. LightWave 3D x64 is multithreaded from the ground up and does take advantage of multiple CPU’s with only a couple of setting changes in the scene file. The quad core system shaved the render down to 32 minutes, 16 seconds. Here’s a table of the speed increases:

1) The original 32-bit machine used for the Mini Cooper Robot had the following specs (as best as Jose can remember):

• Dual Athlon MP 2000+
• 4GB RAM
• GeForce4 Video
• 500GB HD
  

2) Jose’s current 32-bit workstation:

• P4 3.02 Ghz (single CPU)
• Intel 875p Chipset from MSI motherboard
• 2 GB Ram
• 500Gb HD Sata drives
• Nvidia Geforce Ultra 6800

{mospagebreak title=Conclusion}
Conclusion
Jose: Performance, productivity, & workflow. Those are the keys to doing good work, on time and on budget. Sure there are many new features in NewTek’s latest version of Lightwave, and I urge you to check out their site (www.newtek.com ), but to me as an artist, the workflow and performance boost is what this is all about.  And Newtek delivers as always in a field constantly driven to do much more, and look better, in a shorter time frame. I definitely recommend the upgrade.

Carlos: NewTek has done an amazing job in porting LightWave3D to 64-bit. The application truly shines and is a showcase for the benefits of the platform. LightWave3D x64 + multicore workstations are the way to go if you want to make 3D graphics happen.

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