Best Mac Pro for PTHD 12 with Native PCIe Card

[JB Retro City]

Hey,

I'm putting together a new PT rig for the studio. We already purchased PTHD 12 with a Native PCIe card. The last piece of the puzzle is a really solid Mac Pro to run it all. We currently have an HD3 Accel system on a G5 (I know, ancient right!) but its super reliable, and has served us well for 6 years, sad to see it go.

We have roughly $1500 to work with, so obviously the new "trash can" mac pros are out of the question. But in my research Ive found a lot of people were happy with the 2010 - 2013 westmere machines. It seems like a newer 12 core westmere is a little out of our price range but is the optimal setup. But i've found older (pre westmere) 8 core 3.2 ghz with lots of ram for around our price range. Is that worth looking into???

Ive read less cores, higher Ghz is preferable, then Ive read more cores are better put to use with the new software. I'm kinda all over the place. If anyone with experience running this setup in a professional enviroment help steer me in the right direction? It would be much appreciated. Again, our budget is around $1500 and were looking for the most reliable machine to specifically run PTHD12 with a Native PCIe card.

Thanks

[Brandonx1]

The only real advice I can give you is get the fastest mac you have afford. You bought a card with no built in DSP so the processing is done on the CPU.

[reichman]

If you didn't already have the PCIe card, I would suggest the Native Thunderbolt interface and a Mac mini.

But if you're stuck with the PCIe card, get a Mac Pro 4,1 or 5,1. I would get as many cores as possible and ignore the CPU speed. My old Mac Pro 3,1 with 8 cores lasted a long time. Pro Tools spreads the processing load across cores very nicely. I don't think 3,1s are supported by Avid with PT12, but there are some reports of them working. 16GB RAM minimum.

[JB Retro City]

So, more cores is preferable to a higher CPU speed? Ive literally read the exact opposite, less cores higher CPU. Jeez the internet is a crazy place. Since you actually ran this system and said it was solid, I will head in that direction.

[reichman]

Ha! Okay, to be clear I had a 3,1 Mac Pro with 8 cores, and a 8,2 MacBook Pro with 4 cores running PTHD10. Watching the native processing load opening the same session on each, it was clear that more cores were helping.

BUT, there's an interview on Pensado's place with a former Avid tech that pointed out that a given track can only be on one core at a time. So if you have a zillion plug-ins on one track, that could max out that core, so higher CPU will help. So if you're mixing music with 15 tracks and each track has a zillion plug-ins, CPU speed is probably what you need. If you're mixing TV with 150 tracks and 2 plugs on each track, cores are probably what you need.

That said, any Mac Pro 4,1 or 5,1 running 64-bit Pro Tools will feel like an HD system with like 10 HD cards. Seriously. You will be stunned by how much native power there is, so no matter what you get, it will be a great upgrade from your G5 HD3 Accel.

I'm using a Mac Pro 6,1 with 6 cores, and I probably really only needed 4. But that's because the 6,1 chips are wicked fast.

[JB Retro City]

Super helpful Reichman! That was exactly what I needed to hear, a clear breakdown of how the computers handle the processing. Just one last question; I found quite a few "upgraded" 2009 Mac Pro 4,1 with upgraded hardware and firmaware making it a 5,1 with a lot more power. Thoughts?

[reichman]

I found quite a few "upgraded" 2009 Mac Pro 4,1 with upgraded hardware and firmaware making it a 5,1 with a lot more power. Thoughts?

I've read about those machines, but never used one. Pro Tools Expert site seemed to like that mod, so it's probably fine. I did use a 4,1 for a while and it was noticeably smoother with the GUI than my old 3,1.

[Barry Johns]

Originally Posted by reichman

I've read about those machines, but never used one. Pro Tools Expert site seemed to like that mod, so it's probably fine. I did use a 4,1 for a while and it was noticeably smoother with the GUI than my old 3,1.

I can help you with it if you decide to go that route. I strongly recommend it!!!!!

[arche3]

Get a mac pro that has been upgraded from 41 to a 51 12 core. That's what I bought on ebay. Thing is a beast. As fast as the fastest trash cans on the geek bench tests.

[Mark Dann]

Originally Posted by arche3

Get a mac pro that has been upgraded from 41 to a 51 12 core. That's what I bought on ebay. Thing is a beast. As fast as the fastest trash cans on the geek bench tests.

Faster actually. You would need an $8 or $9K build-to-order nMP to beat it. A stock nMP would cower in it's presence And then you would still be stuck with external hard drives with cheapo AC adaptors, etc.

Short history: The Mac Pro machines from 2009, 2010, and 2012 (there wasn't a 2011 version) are all identical except for the Intel processors, and a firmware update in 2010. Same machine. Apple just kept putting in new processors as Intel developed them. Guess what? Intel kept developing faster processors even after Apple dropped the tower-ball. Pop in some recent ones, and you have a faster Mac Pro than Apple themselves ever offered.