New Mac Studios AND an AS Mac Pro!

[uptheoctave]

Originally Posted by moogboy100

The Mac Studio is just the perfect professional desktop computer in Apple's lineup - I love mine and it's the best Apple computer I've ever used in 37 years of owning Apple desktops!

I have the Studio (Ultra) and a 2019 MP.
The Studio is great but only 3 slots is limiting for me.

I am currently using two expansion chassis and will need a 3rd if I want to add more cards.

The limitation of TB is annoying for moving large amount of data (which I do often).

Granted I am doing a lot with video as well as audio, but I am looking to sell both machines and get the new MP, once I know it supports all the PCIE cards I need it to and I've seen it is stable.

I am glad you like yours, I like mine too but not without a couple of reservations.

[Eric Lambert]

I've had trouble getting my M1 Mac Studio Ultra overloaded even when I've set out to do so. It can handle a massive film mix without issue. Full orchestral scores with lots of VIs, no sweat. Who are these people that are requiring +$10K machines and what are they producing?

My brother-in-law does visual fx for Marvel and I could see him benefitting from this new Mac Pro by saving time on rendering. Those guys/gals will love it. And while it's not a bad idea to be future-proof, these machines are FAR from "necessary" for this forum.

[JFreak]

^^ sure. I have trouble getting fully loaded normal M1 mini and fully loaded normal M2 air overloaded.

These new systems are heaven sent for video people. Rendering time has been cut to a fraction. Audio work however, I can live with these cheapos. Could live with a fully loaded 2009 Mac Pro and HD3 system, and these run circles around it.

[Darryl Ramm]

Originally Posted by moogboy100

The new Mac Pro is silly. Keeping the same old chassis was just lazy, though I guess they want to keep their investment in the tooling and machining equipment used to build that chassis.

The Mac Pro is just a $3k 6-slot expansion chassis in an absurdly large chassis with 3 fans that blow air through an empty box and over a CPU that generates virtually no heat, lol!!! The fans prob. use more wattage than the CPU.

A Mac Studio with an expansion chassis that holds as many or as few cards as you actually need is the way to go (unless you're an enterprise facility). The Mac Studio is just the perfect professional desktop computer in Apple's lineup - I love mine and it's the best Apple computer I've ever used in 37 years of owning Apple desktops!

Oh jeez where to start.

The M2 Ultra SOC has a TDP of 90W, it "generates virtually no heat" is a stupid statement.

The thermal design of the Mac Pro with large low RPM fans in the chassis and front and rear diffuser grills. Is intended too *quietly* cool both the SOC, PCIe cards, SSDs etc. It is an impressive design, esp. where noise might be a factor. How many complaints have there been on DUC about expansion chassis noise....

Slow Thunderbolt 3 expansion chassis might well suit you, and many other users, congratulations if so. For folks who want lots of fast storage, networking, or other high performance cards, or just don't want to deal with a desktop covered in expansion chassis and cables everywhere it can be a very compelling product.

[JFreak]

^^ what he said.

And to add to that, I am simply loving my M2 air that does not have a fan at all.

[RobertDorn]

You can’t go wrong with any M2 mac for audio. They’re basically all quite overkill , even for doing comprehensive mix sessions. Just pick the one you like :)

For those with pci cards using the computer in the control room, the Mac Pro makes sense because the avid/sonnet chassis is having that annoying high frequency noise.

Beyond any doubt pci ssd’s are faster, but when swapping multiple gigabytes between two usb gen 3.2 (not even Thunderbolt) ssd’s connected to my MacBook Pro m2 max in the amount of time of making a cup of coffee, I don’t see the issue here as well. (And moreover, I like coffee

[K Roche]

Originally Posted by Darryl Ramm

Oh jeez where to start.
How many complaints have there been on DUC about expansion chassis noise....

Indeed while my OWC Express 4M 2 holds 4 NVMe M2 SSD's very handy.
It gives me all of 2800 mbs, with fan noise so loud I cannot even think about using it while recording
It has become merely a moderately fast transfer, if somewhat overpriced, finished session and video file --storage unit

[Darryl Ramm]

Originally Posted by K Roche

Indeed while my OWC Express 4M 2 holds 4 NVMe M2 SSD's very handy.
It gives me all of 2800 mbs, with fan noise so loud I cannot even think about using it while recording
It has become merely moderately fast , overpriced finished session and video file --storage unit

And unfortunately the 4M only gives you that bandwidth in the aggregate/RAID... access to an individual M.2 drive is only at 1x PCIe3 speeds. Something that won't happen with chassis with PCIe switches in them, or better in the M2 Mac Pro with real PCIe slots... and while I don't expect it I wish Apple would support PCIe bifurcation of those slots so we could be adding dumb switchless PCIe multi-M.2 adapter cards to them. I can't imagine Apple going out of their way to enable this to even more help highlight how overpriced their own SSDs are.

The savior for me so far is having two Sonnet Echo Express SE IIIe (the half-length chassis)... the Noctura fan in those is very quiet for running multiple M.2 cards and any M.2 card with heatsink on it stays cool even when being hammered. Noise is fine if pushed back son my desk behind the displays. But repurposed eGPU chassis (with hot card) or full length Sonnet chassis fans are more than I could take close up.

[Carl Lie]

Originally Posted by K Roche

But comparing apples to cumquats is definitely rant based and specious or disingenuous at best.

Oh please Kevin. I said it was a rant. Feel free to tell me you've never done the same. Disingenuous? Just knock it off dude.

C

[Eric Lambert]

Coincidentally, I saw two different articles today, both attempting to summarize the difference between the new MacPro and MacStudio for Laymen. In essence, they listed four advantages to the MP: wheels, case, more ports, PCI slots. If you need wheels, a case, more ports or PCI slots, I suppose the MP is your thing.