New Apple Comp OS Recommendation?

[paulmitch]

What does Avid suggest in terms of purchasing a new computer since the latest OS is two releases ago now? I'm looking to upgrade from a cheese grater to a new mac mini, but my cheese grater is on 10.13.3.

Just so you don't all jump down my throat, I just today realized today I could update to 10.13.6 with PT 2018.12.

[musicman691]

The question becomes: why are you looking for a new computer to drive PT?

Why not upgrade the cheesegrater to run Mojave? One issue to resolve is the video card as Mojave need a Metal compatible card to work.

If you really feel the need to get a new machine I'd do this:
Leave your old system as-is and get the Mini
Link the two via ethernet and run VEPro 6 with your current machine as a server and the Mini as client. If you go that route maybe pop in an ssd or two on pcie cards for samples. Once you get the setup sussed with VEPro the processing power and stability you'll have is a Good Thing.

One of the things I would research is are there any cpu speed throttling issues due to heat in the new computer you're looking at? Not to mention the noise a Mac Mini fan at full throttle sounds like.

[Darryl Ramm]

There are several recent discussions on DUC about running 2018 on Mojave that you can search for and read.

[paulmitch]

Thanks MM961.

I would like to start using Thunderbolt interfaces. I've got an Apollo 16 silverface, and I'm using FW800. I can't expand that system at all, and I can't employ a UA satellite for more processing power. That and file transfer is SO slow. It's a good machine, but it's old, and I would like to be ahead of the curve, without being on the bleeding edge.

[paulmitch]

Thanks Darryl. I was searching and didn't find anything specific to what I was looking for. Obviously, I'll continue to search.

[Darryl Ramm]

Originally Posted by paulmitch

Thanks Darryl. I was searching and didn't find anything specific to what I was looking for. Obviously, I'll continue to search.

You need to work on your search judo. Type this into Google...

“mojave" site:duc.avid.com

And if looking through those search results you will find gems like...

http://duc.avid.com/showthread.php?p=2505638

http://duc.avid.com/showthread.php?p=2508614

[paulmitch]

I appreciate the dig to my remedial search, and more appreciate the links.

Thanks Darryl.

[paulmitch]

So. After reading the posts concerning the new Mac Mini in relation to the latest operating systems, I can see what the community recommends.

Does Avid just want to stay quiet on the prospect of people buying new machines?

[Darryl Ramm]

Avid has said all they will very clearly in release notes etc. They are not likely to respond to you about this on this *user* forum. Want to get stuff done? Then get going on Mojave today, and know there seems to at least be a small size IO buffer issue holding up official Mojave support... but that disabling hyperthreading may well mitigate. I doubt most users are even going to notice that. Pro Tools official support often ladgs well behind Mac OS releases, if That is a huge problem you might want to look at Logic Pro.

Running 2018.12 very nicely on Mojave on my MBP... but without hyperthreading hacks and not pushing small IO buffers, I never really do.

[paulmitch]

I've been using Pro Tools for 15 years, and will probably stick with that medium, but appreciate your insight and recommendation to other systems if there are new deal-breakers for me. I'm maintaining three systems and try to stay close, but not on the edge of updates. I'm sitting behind a 256-channel desk, so the latency isn't an issue as I have other ways of making that work on this system. I've been having more trouble running the video engine lately, but maybe that will work itself out in 2018.12.

I've been seeing a lot that folks seem to think there's a pretty decent lag in this latest release from Avid. Lags are nothing new to me, but I agree this one seems a bit long.

I generally come here for a combination between practicality and an official stance. I've seen moderators reply here, as I'm not actually here with a specific tech support question. I could call them if I needed that. I try not to go outside the recommendations, but I assume Avid wants new users in addition, and thought maybe someone here had some more useful information on that.