Quote:
Originally Posted by Trainwreckmusic
There are resellers that will configure a used Mac pro to my needs.
How should I have them configure the next computer I purchase?
What OS?
How much Ram
And is a SSD hard drive the way to go?
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If you want to be prepared for PT13/14 as well as you say I definitely would use one of the latest Mac OSX now,
maybe Yosemite. As from my experience Yosemite for example probably still will work with PT13/14 as well while
older versions of OSX probably will not anymore.
Because the Fireface is not the most current interface anymore Yosemite will be a good idea as well because there
still a Yosemite driver is available for it but sooner or later there will be no recent driver for it.
So if you install Yosemite for example your Fireface
still will work and probably even PT13/14 still will be compatible
with it in the future as well. I would not recommend to use any older Mac OSX actually.
As for how much Ram I strongly would recommend to put in 32Gb at least, maybe more. Enough that you would be
able to load your whole session into the memory.
Because even PT12 Native uses disk cache now this could be extremely helpful when recording 30 tracks or more at
a time.
Fact is that with 16GB it is not possible to load a complete mid-sized session into the memory at all. I use a Late 2014
2,5GHz Macbook Pro Retina with 16GB Ram and Pro Tools 12HD and I have tried it but it definitely did not work.
I can run it with the default setting without any problems, it works like a breeze but if I try to load it in 100% it fails.
Therefor if you have the chance to get as much Ram as you can afford, get it and use it.
As for the drive, yes, get a high quality SSD drive with 512GB at least for the OS drive and another even larger (1TB
minimum) SSD for the Pro Tools audio drive.
Me once used 2 Samsung 850 Pro SSDs in a 2012 i7 Quad Mini with 16GB Ram and those 2 SSDs completely changed
the character of the Mini. After having installed both the Mini started to fly and got super stable at the same time.
It is really worth the money!
If you got these 3 things (32GB+ Ram and 2 high quality SSDs with enough storage space) even the 6-Core Mac will be
more than enough for sure. Itīs not only the CPU but the sum of all components/the quality of all the components in the
computer all together which will make your machine fly at the end of the day.
As for the video card just get one which is officially qualified by Avid. This may be the most important requirement. And,
yes, of course itīs nice to use 2 monitors if possible, have the Edit Window on 1, the Mixer on the other for example.
However as you describe your intended kind of work it may not be necessarily needed.
The best of success to you and lots of fun with your new system!