Which PT version for my system?

[Darryl Ramm]

Originally Posted by noxplode

Serial is XXXXX

EMC No: 2429

iMac12,2

27inch

OK thanks, we asked for the model number and EMC #. May not be a good to post your serial number publicly.

So this or close: https://everymac.com/systems/apple/i...olt-specs.html

Actually supports 32GB RAM ... and it’s the old easy to access SODIMMs behind a cover, so If this was mine and was going to dink around with memory I would just upgrade to 32GB. But depends on your budget, and local prices.

and that iMac is too old to support Mojave, Apple does not support metal on the GPU which is required by Mojave, and you cannot upgrade the GPU.

So sure, could upgrade to High Sierra (just get to the last supported OS) and go to 16GB or 32GB RAM and get on Pro Tools 2019.5 and likely get good performance and years of use.

BTW you do not mention what if any stability or performance problems you are having now... if you are having repeated issues you should say what they are.

[Sardi]

Originally Posted by noxplode

EMC No: 2429

iMac12,2

27inch

As I suspected.

That machine can accept 32GB of RAM. At the very least, rip out those 2GB modules and add 2 x 8GB modules which will give you 24GB total. If you can afford it, rip them all out and pop in 4 x 8GB modules and max it out.

As mentioned above, High Sierra is the latest Mac OS you can run on that machine. Not a problem though, as 2019.5 runs on that OS. I’m running it on Sierra with good results... so far.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[JFreak]

High Sierra is only needed (over Sierra) if you want to be using SSD's and the new APFS filesystem. If you have spinners Sierra is good enough, do not update. No need to stress old computer more than necessary.

[Darryl Ramm]

Originally Posted by JFreak

High Sierra is only needed (over Sierra) if you want to be using SSD's and the new APFS filesystem. If you have spinners Sierra is good enough, do not update. No need to stress old computer more than necessary.

And since the machine has a (Edit: SATA III) SSD getting onto High Sierra may well be a good thing. It's not _necessary_ but it is a much more robust file system. Performance is not likely important here, this iMac has SATA III SSD, not PCIe/NVMe based SSD.

As is being able to pick up updates and security fixes for longer in future. Apple as of recently is still rolling out security fixes for Sierra, that will stop at some point (Apple never makes that really clear). And yes you should not just wildly update, but there is value in knowing things get addressed. There are massive low-level security issues fixed over the last few years and recently.

But... the best reason to upgrade the OS, while making a major jump in Pro Tools versions, is simple to get on a perfectly clean system. unencumbered by past use and God know what changes. And do all that on a spare partition or small external SSD** and do a clean install there, and keep being able to use the current running systems until fully happy the new install is working OK, Pro Tools, plugins, everything.

** This iMac has SATA III SSD, and is capable of having two SATA III drives. It may well have those if it's been upgraded before. because those internal SSD are SATA III I'd not advocate putting audio/sessions on a single boot/systems/VI sample file. You might get away with it with Disk Cache, you can get away with a lot with that, but meh. If there are two SATA III internal SSD the using one of those dedicated to audio/sessions would be *fantastic*.

I'd not advocate opening it up to add extra SSD storage unless the owner was particularly brave or wanting to open it up for other reasons.

The iMac only has USB 2, which is slow... and nice Thunderbolt 1/2 eternal SSDs are hard to find now, there are Thunderbolt 1/2 docks or driver caddy's available that have USB 3, or SATA/eSATA etc. ... multiple ways to skin that cat but I would find a way to get an external SSD if the internal SSD(s) could not be shrunk/partitioned to add a new boot partition to install High Sierra on as a test/transition. Everything needs to be backed up anyhow first, hopefully that is already happening to external HDD.

It is probably showing but I tend to keep various Macs for a long time, upgrade the hardware, disk drives, memory etc. multiple times. the end up living lives as test machines etc.

[noxplode]

OK I will try to max out the memory to 32GB.

I am already on High Sierra, so I will stay to that for now.

[noxplode]

Do you think there is a difference in RAM quality between brands?

For 32GB, I can get a cheap quad of 8GBs of Mushkin RAM or I could go more with more expensive ones from G.Skill or even more expensive ones from Corsair or Kingston.

[JFreak]

Originally Posted by noxplode

Do you think there is a difference in RAM quality between brands?

As long as the sticks meet the spec, there cannot be a difference. However there is a reason known brands cost more and that is quality control.