2018 MacMini experiment on ProTools HDX

[685]

thanks!

[Darryl Ramm]

Get as big an internal SSD as you can... and put the audio/session and sample files if they will fit there... even with all that the performance will be better than with a much slower SATA SSD. But you are paying Apple tax for that super fast internal PCIe/NVMe SSD. Clearly if you have lots of sample libraries you'll need external drives.

Options for Thunderbolt 3/PCIe/NVMe SSDs have also got a lot better recently. These drives have the potential for performance in the same class as the internal PCIe/NVMe SSD.

Samsung X5
Sonnet Fusion (*stupid* name not related to problematic Apple Fusion drives).
OWC Thunderblade
... and more

(it would be grest to start seeing more user reports for those drives)

These Thunderbolt 3/PCIe/NVMe drives have IO performance a factor of several times faster than SATA SSDs, and those SATA SSDs can be several times faster than a HDD (especially for I/O latency under load, which is really critical). If you want a slow SATA SSD the Samsung T5 is nice (what I use... nice and portable).

But... use HDD not SSD for removable backup/archive. They have better known behavior for long-term powered-off storage, and lower cost for the handful of drives you can rotate backups through

[Grizzmixgood]

Originally Posted by khoop2112

Final setup, in detail:

2018 Mac Mini, 3.2ghz 6 core
1 TB SSD, 32 GB RAM (user installed)

2 Thunderbolt busses:

- TB buss 1: eGPU (Razer Core X with Sapphire Vega 64)
- TB buss 2: OWC Thunderbay 4 --> Sonnet Echo Express Pro (TB1) Avid HDX + UAD Octo ---> Highpoint 2 bay drive dock

2x4k monitor connected to Vega 64
1 small 1024x768 connected to MacMini

MacMini USB port1 --> Monoprice USB 2.0 extension able --> USB 2.0 hub --> 2 x USB keyboard + mice, 4xUSB midi interface
MacMini USB port2 --> USB 3.0 hub (iLok / eLicenser)

MacMini USB-C ---> usb 3.1 hub (external SSD drives)

ProTools 2018.10 Ultimate
UAD
Logic Pro

I highly recommend the 1TB SSD. You can always add SSD drives, but since you cannot change them, good to have a bigger drive for system.

Hey Khoop,

You're a little more than a month into your Mac mini experiment. How's it going so far? Have you hit any major show stopping issues? I have the same 6-core Mac Pro you upgraded from. And I've been teetering back and forth if I should make the move.

[khoop2112]

Sold the old 2013 Trash can and never looked back. I get the occasional stops while playing a session with the usual PT error messages, but I got them on my trash can. In fact I get them less with the Mini, and it feels much zippier.

Looking forward to the new "Mojave Compatible" update this year that hopefully will get rid of those...

kent

[Emi]

That’s good news, I will get the new Mac mini when mine (late 2012 i5 will die).

No stops here in a while since I did some tweaks like external SSD for sessions and enable SSD trim.

[Downtown_BE]

Originally Posted by Emi

That’s good news, I will get the new Mac mini when mine (late 2012 i5 will die).

No stops here in a while since I did some tweaks like external SSD for sessions and enable SSD trim.

I´m looking for external SSD´s for my new mac mini - which ones do you guys recommend to get as good performance as with an inetrnal SSD?

[Emi]

Originally Posted by Downtown_BE

I´m looking for external SSD´s for my new mac mini - which ones do you guys recommend to get as good performance as with an inetrnal SSD?

I'm not the right person to answer this.

I have cheap SSD's in mine:
-275 Gb Cruacial MX300 inside the Mac mini for MacOs and Protools
-480 Gb Sannobel (or something like that, dead cheap from Amazon) for sessions. But runs darn good.

I also do back-ups on spinners.

[Downtown_BE]

any external super fast ones around?

[Emi]

Originally Posted by Downtown_BE

any external super fast ones around?

Basically 👍

[steins]

Great thread,

I'm in the process of replacing our 2011 Cheesegrater with the new Mac Mini in one of our editing suites. I will need a PCIe expansion chassis for the HDX-1 card, and I also want a separate video card to handle output to a separate TV monitor in order to free up as much resources from the mini as possible.

I'm thinking of buying a Sonnet Echo Express SE III for the HDX-1 and graphics card. Would that work, or do I need a separate chassis for the HDX-1 card in order to get the best performance? I'm unfamiliar with the differences between today's video cards. Do I need a eGPU-card, or will a "regular" video card be good enough to output 4k video to a TV?

Stein Tore