Avid Pro Audio Community

Avid Pro Audio Community

How to Join & Post  •  Community Terms of Use  •  Help Us Help You

Knowledge Base Search  •  Community Search  •  Learn & Support


Avid Home Page

Go Back   Avid Pro Audio Community > General Discussion & Off Topic > General Discussion

Reply
 
Thread Tools Search this Thread Display Modes
  #1  
Old 01-24-2019, 10:17 PM
RedEyeJedi RedEyeJedi is offline
Member
 
Join Date: Nov 2011
Location: Pretoria
Posts: 61
Default New Computer time! - Mac Pro 2009 vs Mac Mini pros and cons..

Hi guys

Its new system time.. I have been having some unpleasant experiences with my current MBP 2017 - it doesnt have enough RAM. Im getting these weird CPU spikes all over the place to the point where my machine just shuts down - I ahve a seperate thread about that under VirtualInstruments

Anyway I decided to sell my MBP2017 and get a new machine. Im faced with 2 big options:

1) A used "souped up" Mac Pro 2009 with 12 cores - 2x6Core Xeon 3,46ghz Processor and 32GB 1666 DDR3 plus a Gforce GTX760 2047MB GPU
for around $1100 . - would add another 32GB ram making it 64
Its quite a serious system with 12 working cores

2) New Mac Mini 2018
- with i7 6 core 3,2 ghz processor
- 32GB ram
- 512GB SSD
will cost around $1500 (through Hong Kong istore)

The price difference is not a hug factor for me.
I want stability and longevity. I want to have a machine that will be good for decent audio post and music composing sessions for for the next 6+ years

What concerns me about option 1 - is that the machine is already 10 years old. I wonder if new macOS's will even support the hardware in a few years time. Not keen to buy something that will be redundant. Also wonder about new technology, Thunderbolt 3 etc and being limited in that regard.

What concerns me about Option 2 is the New Mac Mini having the T2 chipset in which people have reported weird audio things with USB interfaces and general CPU spikes and bad perfomance with macOS Mojave.
I dont like the fact that the unit ships with Mojave and you can not downgrade.
I dont trust Pro Tools and other software on new macOS's and I have a lot of work on the go at the moment - cant deal with stability issues!

Another option would be building a hackintosh - but interms of my priority of Stability and Longevity - i think that might rule that out?

Hope y'all can chime your 2cents on the matter
Reply With Quote
  #2  
Old 01-25-2019, 04:57 AM
musicman691 musicman691 is offline
Member
 
Join Date: Dec 2009
Location: The Sopranos State (NJ)
Posts: 19,136
Default Re: New Computer time! - Mac Pro 2009 vs Mac Mini pros and cons..

First thing to keep in mid is that you're going backwards in terms of cpu power. While quite capable you won't have the same capability as a newer chip.

Next is Thunderbolt or the lack thereof. While someone is working on a way to get a MacPro cheesegrater to work with a Thunderbolt expansion card it's not an easy proposition. First you have to boot into Windows, load some drivers and then boot into OSX. Phooey on that.

If you do go to an older MacPro cheesegrater I'd suggest getting a 2010/2012 model and not the 2009 one. Next get an ssd, put it on a pcie card and use that as your system drive. It'll be a happier existence doing that. Some people here would push for going to a nvme type drive but it's not really necessary. The current system I'm working on is a 2012 MacPro with 3.46 GHz hex core cpu, 48 gig ram and 1 TB Samsung 850 EVO ssd on a pcie card for my boot drive. Two 4 TB WD Black 7200 rpm spinners in the drive bays - one for samples and one for sessions. I used to run it via VEPro 6 with my now-dead 27 inch iMac but find it plenty capable standalone.

As to your other problem I'm not convinced the computer is the problem. I still think there's something else going on. Strip it down to basics - just the one computer with no internet connected and nothing else running. See how that works.

Almost forgot - if you plan on running Mojave you're going to need a Metal-compatible video card. Stock cards in those models don't support it. Also if you plan on running the new Massive that NI has now delayed until June the cpu's in those old machines won't run it. You need a machine that has a cpu that has AVX support. See the thread around here that talks about the new NI Massive for words about that.
__________________
Jack
See profile for system details
iMac dead & retired as of 11/4/17

QAPLA!
Reply With Quote
  #3  
Old 01-26-2019, 03:06 AM
RedEyeJedi RedEyeJedi is offline
Member
 
Join Date: Nov 2011
Location: Pretoria
Posts: 61
Default Re: New Computer time! - Mac Pro 2009 vs Mac Mini pros and cons..

Thanks Again Jack!

Thats good advice. i think it will be better, to look at getting a more modern system to save pain down the line. Im quite keen on the mac mini - i can get a really good deal on it and its a little beast. especially if i can get 64GB ram i it.

I have dropped the slave completely and turned off the internet
Did a Pro Tools session for about 4-5 hours yesterday - running prerty high on RAM at like 80%

Was working great - then computer just randomly shut down.
Im gonna pull up a session now, deactivate all background apps and processes and the internet and see if it still chokes out.
Reply With Quote
  #4  
Old 01-26-2019, 03:49 AM
musicman691 musicman691 is offline
Member
 
Join Date: Dec 2009
Location: The Sopranos State (NJ)
Posts: 19,136
Default Re: New Computer time! - Mac Pro 2009 vs Mac Mini pros and cons..

Quote:
Originally Posted by RedEyeJedi View Post
Thanks Again Jack!

Thats good advice. i think it will be better, to look at getting a more modern system to save pain down the line. Im quite keen on the mac mini - i can get a really good deal on it and its a little beast. especially if i can get 64GB ram i it.

I have dropped the slave completely and turned off the internet
Did a Pro Tools session for about 4-5 hours yesterday - running prerty high on RAM at like 80%

Was working great - then computer just randomly shut down.
Im gonna pull up a session now, deactivate all background apps and processes and the internet and see if it still chokes out.
A thought just came to me - do you have some kind of utility that measures/shows temps on what's inside the computer? I wonder if it's going into some kind of heat related shutdown or throttling? That's something I'd take a look at with a Mini. Like you say they're small (got a 2010 here for internet & Photoshop) and I know that when running YouTube video it gets way hot.
__________________
Jack
See profile for system details
iMac dead & retired as of 11/4/17

QAPLA!
Reply With Quote
Reply

Thread Tools Search this Thread
Search this Thread:

Advanced Search
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off

Forum Jump

Similar Threads
Thread Thread Starter Forum Replies Last Post
12.7 Pros Cons? ironbut Pro Tools 12 16 02-13-2017 06:25 PM
001 vrs mix 24, pros n cons westgate 003, Mbox 2, Digi 002, original Mbox, Digi 001 (Mac) 0 03-10-2003 03:07 PM
PT LE for Win. XP v. Mac Pros and Cons? storm-01 003, Mbox 2, Digi 002, original Mbox, Digi 001 (Win) 1 02-23-2003 11:00 AM
Pros and Cons SPstudios 003, Mbox 2, Digi 002, original Mbox, Digi 001 (Mac) 9 01-11-2002 06:05 AM
USD vs SSD+VSD, pros cons synthetic Tips & Tricks 2 08-22-2000 11:24 AM


All times are GMT -7. The time now is 07:15 PM.


Powered by: vBulletin, Copyright ©2000 - 2008, Jelsoft Enterprises Limited. Forum Hosted By: URLJet.com