Conumdrum: New Mac Pro?

[jauk]

Such an odd time right now with the discontinuation of the current (tower) Mac Pro in lieu of the "trash can" Mac Pro.

Here's the scenario:

Moving to Pro Tools 11.

As stated above:

The Mac Pro (tower) is discontinued (or in the process of being discontinued) and being replaced by the cylindrical (trash can) Mac Pro.

What would you buy for a machine to run PT11 on?

Find a discontinued tower?
Wait for the new Mac Pro?

Any other thoughts or options? All welcome...

Would love to get your input...

Thanks so much!

Kind regards-

[guitardom]

Originally Posted by jauk

Such an odd time right now with the discontinuation of the current (tower) Mac Pro in lieu of the "trash can" Mac Pro.

Here's the scenario:

Moving to Pro Tools 11.

As stated above:

The Mac Pro (tower) is discontinued (or in the process of being discontinued) and being replaced by the cylindrical (trash can) Mac Pro.

What would you buy for a machine to run PT11 on?

Find a discontinued tower?
Wait for the new Mac Pro?

Any other thoughts or options? All welcome...

Would love to get your input...

Thanks so much!

Kind regards-

If you are prepared to buy external drive enclosures and possibly PCIE chassis if needed, them why buy an outdated system?

[Drew Mazurek]

I'm in the same boat.

I am thinking one of two ways:

1. buy used Mac Pro and transfer everything over with no fuss (will take 10 min). For me, that would be big step up going from a single 2.8 from 2008 to a 6 or 12 core for example.

good- easy, fairly cheap. buys you a few years at least, depending on how bleeding edge you need to be.
bad- as guitardom stated, outdated already. You'll eventually need to make another change.

2. Mac Mini (wait for Apple to update first of course) with one of the TB chassis and all external peripherals.

good- clean, future proof (as much can be) upgrade.
bad- pain in the butt to do. for example, I need 2 ethernet ports, one for network and one for ICON, so I'll need a hub. Some speculate that OSX might eventually be opened up to run on any hardware which to me makes option 1 desirable to see how things shake out. Likely more expensive with all the extras needed.

That's all I can think of off the top of my head, will add more later maybe.

[JFreak]

The big question here (IMHO) is this:

"Will there be a HDX Thunderbolt" available, just as there has been a HDN Thunderbolt for a while? And if there will be, is that going to be HDX1 or an expansion chassis that can take more cards?

Before that is answered properly by Avid, I have a hard time buying into that new Mac Pro and HDX. Because if the only Thunderbolt device would be a HDN Thunderbolt, I'd skip HDX altogether and I would also skip the new Mac Pro. The current MBP's are performing really good.

So, to repeat myself, what is the Thunderbolt strategy?

[audiobob]

The 12 core MP's out now are monster machines that will last years. I bought one a year ago knowing this scenario was coming, so I'm set for the foreseeable future with a great machine that has been tested and works out of the box.

Who knows when the nMP will be blessed by Avid. As far as I can tell they haven't even blessed ML 10.3.5 from early October, much less Mavericks, much less a totally new machine. If you make your living by running Pro Tools or need to get up and running with a new system now, then an "older" machine will not be a bad decision what so ever.

This is an odd time in the life of a "pro" Mac user. Quite honestly, if I hadn't bought the 12 core when I did and couldn't find one on the market now..then I seriously would consider going Windows. Would hate to, but that's the reality as I see it right now.

[JFreak]

Monster for a HDN yes, but what about HDX? If it's not for HDX then why not take a MBP for HDN? Well maybe not many of us need mobility, but the only reason for Apple tower so far has been the Avid cards.

EDIT:
Sorry, I read your last post far too quickly and didn't quite understand what you said at first. My comment is for the recycle bins.

[propower]

We are sort of in the middle of the beginning to the transition to TB everything (interfaces - PCIe racks - HD arrays etc). There are still only a few solutions out there and many lack elegance to say the least (fans, ugly boxes, external power etc..).

The nMP will be a risky venture for people making a living off their systems for at least some amount of time (I predict March 2014 things will be reasonably stable).

There is nothing wrong with transitioning to the TB world now - it is just at the top of the expense curve with limited solutions available. the good news is that TB solutions for everything from HDN to HDX are up and working today! HDx will run on pretty much every modern mac (mini (I guess ), rMBP, imac) with an external TB chassis and the same machines will handle HDN (to varying degrees) as well.

Buying into old tech 3.33 MP Hex is a fine solution too and will probably have years of useful life (PCIe + storage in one box!). At some point a change will be needed but by then the TB world will be a lot more plentiful and most likely less $$$...

[jauk]

Right now I am on the Windows platform. Started out on a Mac G4 with PT 5.1. Moved off that and built a PC when the G5's came out due to cost. PC System has been crazy stable and just as powerful as the G5's of its time.

Been thinking a lot about moving back to the Mac platform (no real reason, I suppose). I'm not wanting to turn this into a Mac/PC debate. Just a little history is all.

Either way, right now, I'm faced with the need to purchase a new machine to move forward with PT11. I can stay on what I got for a while longer, too, until everything shakes out a little more.

Would really like to take advantage of PT11, though.

[guitardom]

Originally Posted by jauk

Right now I am on the Windows platform. Started out on a Mac G4 with PT 5.1. Moved off that and built a PC when the G5's came out due to cost. PC System has been crazy stable and just as powerful as the G5's of its time.

Been thinking a lot about moving back to the Mac platform (no real reason, I suppose). I'm not wanting to turn this into a Mac/PC debate. Just a little history is all.

Either way, right now, I'm faced with the need to purchase a new machine to move forward with PT11. I can stay on what I got for a while longer, too, until everything shakes out a little more.

Would really like to take advantage of PT11, though.

If your PC is as powerful as a G5, it must be pretty old!!! Sounds like a Pentium 4!!!

OS and cost is the biggest difference. They are now all built upon the same Intel Architecture. PC's (or Hackintosh) are typically ahead in processing power, and depending on the situation, typically quite a bit cheaper. This price gap is getting ready to widen substantially (by quadruple digits) with all of the outboard expansion that will be necessary to use the nMP for production.

But if you love the OS, or not as comfortable maintaining or troubleshooting your hardware, Mac is a better bet. I do work on both platforms and could care less which I work on, But no one can make that decision but you!

[jauk]

Thanks for the reply. Touche on G5 reference. . This was a Allenstein build from the days of Yore. However, it has been a very good machine. I am comfortable around the hardware (I built the Allenstein machine) and I guess don't really care about which OS.

Right now with Mac it's the outboard expansion that gets me the most. Mostly in terms of cost. I have a decent budget but can chew through it pretty quick with all this...