I need suggestions on what Mac Pro and OS works best.
 

Hello
I have attempted using a couple different computers. I had decent luck with my Mac mini until I got into a bit more complicated recording. It's a core 2 duo 2.66ghz, 4 gigs of ram, 500gig 7200rpm HDD. I'm willing to scrap using the mini for a Mac Pro but where should I start as in what year, OS, ram, MHz of ram, HDD or SSD. I just want to get this right this time!

Re: I need suggestions on what Mac Pro and OS works best.
 

The "right" Mac will have a quad core(minimum), 16 or 32GB of RAM, a fast SSD system drive, an approved recording drive and finally, for the ultimate performance, a 3rd hard drive for sample libraries:o A used Mac Pro 6-core is a great choice, and the faster i7 quad-core iMac's can also do a great job. As for the best version of OSX and PT, I will leave that to the Mac users:D

Re: I need suggestions on what Mac Pro and OS works best.
 

Generally speaking people are loving the last pre-trashcan model. Was it 2012 or so? Don't remember but trashcans came in 2013 so it is at least older than that.

Re: I need suggestions on what Mac Pro and OS works best.
 

I can tell you that you can, with PT10, go as far back as a 2008 four-core mac pro, 8gb ram, OSX 6.8, and get a very decent and stable performance. At a very low price.

Re: I need suggestions on what Mac Pro and OS works best.
 

Keep in mind that any new Mac or a refurb from the Apple online store will come with OSX Sierra and PT10 will not work right or at all with that even if you can get it installed. So the op's going to have to go to a newer version of PT to go with that new Mac. Then there's the whole thing of having aax64 support from one's plugins.

Re: I need suggestions on what Mac Pro and OS works best.
 

True. If you want to run an older system, you need to buy an older computer... :/

Re: I need suggestions on what Mac Pro and OS works best.
 

I have had a 2009 Mac Pro Nehalem since about 2010. It's only a quad 2.66 w/8GB. They are down in price now to less than $500.

I just bought a 2010 Mac Pro 12 core Westmere. Those are going for under $1,000. I bought it for running both PT 10 HD and PT11 HD (TDM/Native). I run the blue interfaces with 10 and use an Eleven Rack for 11. It works fine running a co-install with Mountain Lion.

FYI, the 2010 and 2012 Westmere Mac Pro have almost identical specs. Mine was a dual hex core, factory upgraded to Radeon HD 5870, 500GB SSD, 12GB and a 1TB, all for less than $1,000. It came preinstalled with Mountain Lion, which is necessary for the 10 and 11 co-install. Adding another 16 GB of memory is about $100.

The problem may be your Pro Tools licenses. If you do not have HD perpetuals for 10 and 11, things could get costly.

The HDX cards are approved for the Mac Pro 2012 12-cores. And you do not need an external box like you would for the Mac Pro 2013. There is some issue with the auxiliary power connectors (for the HDX cards), but there are work arounds. The TDM PCIe cards do not need additional power.

If you are at Pro Tools 12, the Imacs and MacBook Pros are pretty interesting. I have Pro Tools 12.4 vanilla on an early 2015 MacBook Pro running El Capitan. That has three external drives (a LaCie 6TB RAID 0 w/two TB connectors, a 3TB Seagate Backup Plus with (3) 3.0 USB connectors, and a G-Drive external 512 SSD drive). For audio I use an 11R, an Apogee Element 46 and a Focusrite 8PreX. The monitor is 28" at 3840 x 2160 and it has its own 4 port USB hub (two 2.0 and two 3.0).

Not including the external drives and audio, the brand spanking new 2015 MacBook Pro i5 2.7 cost more than the seven year old 12 core Mac Pro 2.66. The laptop has about 40% of the "Geekbench 64 bit" performance of the 2010 Mac Pro 12 core.

The site everymac.com has tons of info for the Macs. To summarize by 64 bit performance, the Mac Pro 2013 12 core 2.7 has a 64bit Geekbench of 27,865. Either the 2010 or the 2012 Mac Pro 12 core Westmere 2.66 have a Geekbench of 22,605 (they are technically identical). The 2009 Nehalem 4 core Nehalem 2.66 has a Geekbench of 9,237. The early 2015 Mac Book Pro 13" i5 2.7 has a Geekbench of 9,101. The 2009 Mac Mini 2.66 Core 2 has a Geek Bench 64 bit of 4,025.

So either the 2010 or the 2012 Mac Pro 12 core 2.66 would be 5.6 times faster than a late 2009 Mac Mini Core 2 2.66 and 80% as fast as a 2013 Mac Pro.

Re: I need suggestions on what Mac Pro and OS works best.
 

What is the highest/newest OS that PT10 will work with? I would assume I can use an older OS in a newer Mac Pro??

Re: I need suggestions on what Mac Pro and OS works best.
 

Your Mac Mini looks way under configured, esp. if you have no dedicated audio/session drive. You also don't say what errors you are getting with larger sessions. If you just need a band-aid for now, it could be as simple as adding more RAM (cheap) and/or an SSD (yes a Core-2 Duo is likely underpowered, but are you using much CPU?).

Mac Pro Cheese graters can be great but are getting old.

Mac Pro Trashcans are old already and not updated with Thunderbolt 3 for example and Apple has announced they are doing a completely new replacement for them (that is hopefully more like a Cheesegrater).

I'd just not invest a lot of money in any Mac Pro now.

A modern iMac or MacBook Pro may also be a good choice, as might buying a better Mac Mini.

You may also be better off biting the bullet and moving forward to Pro Tools 12.

Without knowing what type of sessions, plugins etc. you want to use nobody here can likely suggest too specifically what you need. And what is your budget? and how do you feel about spending that now on a computer likely to be well out of data in ~ 1 year?

Re: I need suggestions on what Mac Pro and OS works best.
 

Well I hadn't gotten too deep into plugins and virtual instruments but when I attempted to record is where it started to freeze and pop. I'm totally willing to spend what I need to this time around rather than cheaping out. I read that certain OS will not work with PT10 so I'm not sure I want a newer machine. My concern now is how new of an OS and system will suit PT10.