Buying Mbox Pro and iMac

[rodney morris]

Hey folks. I will purchasing an Mbox Pro and a new iMac to run the system this week. I've been checking the compatibility pages to see which of the new iMacs have been qualified. It appears that the only 27" inch "Haswell" iMac that is qualified is the i7 3.5GHz. Anybody here using the 27" Haswell 3.2GHz i5 successfully with Mbox Pro and PT11? I want the 27" iMac, but I don't want to spend $2700 for one! I can get a closeout 2012 "Ivy Bridge" 3.2GHz 27" iMac for $1350 that is qualified with Mbox Pro and PT 11, but I cringe at buying a computer that is nearly 2 years behind the technology curve. Plus, the compatibility page doesn't specify if all versions of PT 11 will work with the "Ivy Bridge" iMacs (and OS 10.9).

Also, is it still recommended to use a dedicated separate hard drive for ProTools files? If so, I still have an OWC 7200 rpm (FW400 and USB 2.0) that might be usable.

I purchased an Mbox2 back in 2004 that I used for several years. Before that I worked as a staff engineer using a top of the line TDM system (late 90's, early 00's). But I've been out of the loop for awhile now and the technology has made quantum leaps. Forgive me if I ask ignorant questions...

Thanks!

[nst7]

Where are you getting a price of $2700? Are you planning on ordering with the SSD vs. a regular drive? If not, then it should be just $2200.

From what I understand, Avid recommends the I7 processor over the I5. Part of the reason for that, is that the Imacs only have hyper-threading on the I7 versions. PT11 seems to be optimized to take advantage of that.

Also, it is still recommended to use a separate drive for your audio, but it's not as big a deal as it used to be.

[rodney morris]

Thanks for the response. I was getting my price from Macmall but I didn't realize that price had the upgraded graphics and the fusion drive. $2200 is a more reasonable price but still more than I want to spend. Avid has qualified the 2.9GHz i5 haswell in the 21" iMac so it seems to me that the i5 should work well in the 27" also. But I'd like some opinions from those who may be using the system in question.

And thanks for the info on the drives!

[YYR123]

Originally Posted by rodney morris

and the fusion drive

these are bad news for PT.....I have seen people say on the forum that this was problematic for PT. FYI