Mac Pro mid2012 12 or 6 core for PT2018

[SD70]

Would this be a good move for PT2018? Clock speed 2.66 or 3.33...older machine but would it make sense to invest in an older machine? I see they are Avid qualified.

[climber]

I wouldn't invest in a machine that old...

[skizzo]

I am using a early 2009 model and it does all I need it to do! Specs in my sign for reference

And that should be the question you ask yourself, does it actually meet your needs? I am more of a serious enthusiast/hobby kind of guy at this point in my life. I did this professionally for a few years when I was younger so I like having all the newest stuff but in my world as long as I am enjoying my time doing music and audio and not spending more of my time trying to fix bugs, find out what is compatible, doing hacks for upgrades, etc......I just want it to do what I want it to do. So it made sense for me to upgrade my old machine rather than buy a new one. If you need to be more prepared for future upgrades then the Mac pro mid 2012 will likely only be supported by Apple another year. Then you're looking at hacks and patches to get to latest OS and things of that nature. You will need to decide what is a better situation for yourself

If you are still interested and buying used, find one for under $500 and put in USB 3.0 PCIe card (under $50), as much ram as you can afford and fit in the machine ($200-400), likely 48 or 64 GB on single processor or double that for dual processor. Install a SSD (cost dependent on storage size) for OS, a and 2nd and or 3rd SSD for sessions and samples if that fits your needs and methods. You will need an OEM Apple GPU if you need to update firmware. 5,1 model (mid 2012's fall in that category) have that FW natively but if you want to continue updating High Sierra OS there is another new firmware version that will require an Apple GPU like the GT 120. This means if that mac pro doesn't already have latest version of HS (10.13.4) on it then you need an Mac EFI GPU to get High Sierra. There is lots of info at other sites that go into the nitty gritty of that if you need the details. Go with 3.33GHz clock speed also. The only better CPU you can put in is 3.46GHz so that investment will not yield enough of a performance boost

[lancemcv]

Tons of folks are using old mac pros, they are solid machines that can take a beating. Sure you can get a new mac but you can buy 5 old mac pros for one new
iMac pro. 12 cores is the way to go which gives you more processing and of course the faster the better. 2010 and 2012 are really easy to upgrade the processors to their max speed which is Xeon 5690s 3.46ghz.
I have a 2009 mac pro which is the cheapest way to go but upgrade is a little harder than the 2010 but only a little. You can buy a 8 core 2.26 and upgrade it to a monster 12 core 3.46. I have a Samsung SM951 M.2 PCIe SSD (must be AHCI model for boot) boots in 13 seconds. Blue Ray and DVD drives, usb 3 pcie you can now install a usb c card made by sonnet. I have a flashed 980ti but you can now install a RX 580 or even an RX Vega. So long story short the 2009 to 2012 are still great for pro tools and dirt cheap. Here are my videos on how to upgrade them if your interested. https://youtu.be/YAdgT-hJuXU
https://www.youtube.com/edit?o=U&video_id=01wo4uQ6x-c
https://www.youtube.com/edit?o=U&video_id=MuFokmEJ-ck

[Raoul23]

I brought a 2007 Harper town Mac Pro and bloody well love it. It’s damn reliable and runs Pro Tools 10 no problem. I no you will be running ProTools 2018 on your Mac Pro and I’m sure it will be great


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Meads]

Running PT 2018 on a 12-core MacPro with 48GB RAM. Working great. My other rig is a much more powerful Hackintosh (with recent hardware) and the only difference I see is when doing offline bounces.
But for recording, editing and mixing, i.e. working with PT in real time, there's literally no difference. Perfectly viable machine still.

[CygnusX-1Bk2]

Running PT 2018.4 Ultimate HDN on a 2010 Mac Pro with dual 2.66 and 24 GB RAM, now running Sierra.

[Samanthas Dream]

I run Protools Ultimate 44 in/40 out, 32 channel icon, on a 2009 12 core that absolutely kills any Mac in the sub 4K price range!

I ha e geekbench scores over 31k. If you require Thunderbolt, then go another route, if not, it’s a freaking beast. Oh, I have a total of less than $750 invested, including CPU/RAM upgrades as well as buying the computer. All out the door, less than $750!

[skizzo]

Originally Posted by lancemcv

Tons of folks are using old mac pros, they are solid machines that can take a beating. Sure you can get a new mac but you can buy 5 old mac pros for one new
iMac pro. 12 cores is the way to go which gives you more processing and of course the faster the better. 2010 and 2012 are really easy to upgrade the processors to their max speed which is Xeon 5690s 3.46ghz.
I have a 2009 mac pro which is the cheapest way to go but upgrade is a little harder than the 2010 but only a little. You can buy a 8 core 2.26 and upgrade it to a monster 12 core 3.46. I have a Samsung SM951 M.2 PCIe SSD (must be AHCI model for boot) boots in 13 seconds. Blue Ray and DVD drives, usb 3 pcie you can now install a usb c card made by sonnet. I have a flashed 980ti but you can now install a RX 580 or even an RX Vega. So long story short the 2009 to 2012 are still great for pro tools and dirt cheap. Here are my videos on how to upgrade them if your interested. https://youtu.be/YAdgT-hJuXU
https://www.youtube.com/edit?o=U&video_id=01wo4uQ6x-c
https://www.youtube.com/edit?o=U&video_id=MuFokmEJ-ck

I actually watched your video in preparation of doing my own upgrade. Certainly was informative and educational! After looking at other videos of single processor upgrades I went from the slowest to the fastest CPU. Really glad people made these videos because that type of upgrade seemed, well, scary. I did not want to ruin my machine by creating damage or putting in an incompatible part but it was very straight forward after educating myself on the process.

The RX580 works out of the box. I put one in recently. The Sapphire Pulse 8GB OC edition. I think you need to be on High Sierra 10.13.4 though for that out of the box compatibility

[CV]

I also upgraded my 2009 Mac Pro to a 3.46 12-core.
I have to say I wasn't completely happy with the performance boost but I also work with a lot of VI's and CPU intensive plug-ins like Acustica Audio.


I'm also still on Yosemite and about to do a clean install with Sierra.
(Hopefully that may yield some performance boost)


I'm curious as to what kind of "real world" throughput you're seeing with the Sonnect USB-C card ? Is it quick enough to run an external SSD as your OS drive ?