Will this 27-inch Imac be sufficient for PT-12?

[jamesleonard]

Hello,

I have been in contact with apple and have expressed my preferences.

Below is the hardware - Is this too much hardware or just about right?

Hardware:

>4.0GHz Quad-core Intel Core i7, Turbo Boost up to 4.4GHz
>32GB 1600MHz DDR3 SDRAM - 4x8GB
>1TB Flash Storage
>AMD Radeon R9 M295X 4GB

What About OS X EL Capitan (incidentally, which is out in the autumn) do I wait for that or... buy now?

The price:

£3,508.00 (includes AppleCare Protection Plan for iMac - Auto-enrol £139.00)

BTW I will only run Protools on it!

Is there anything I can cut-down on (in regards to hardware)?

EDIT: Since my local music shop shut down, I don't know who to ask any more about products - so... I hope I haven't upset any one in the process (I just want to talk shop.... that's all really).

Regards

James

[AlexLakis]

What do you plan on doing with it?

I wouldn't hold out to wait for a new OSX, as it will most likely be a while before Pro Tools officially supports it once it is released.

[Righty27]

Originally Posted by AlexLakis

What do you plan on doing with it?

I wouldn't hold out to wait for a new OSX, as it will most likely be a while before Pro Tools officially supports it once it is released.

... and a Mac with El Capitan pre-installed won't run a previous version of OSX such as Yosemite, so you'd either have to wait for an El Capitan-compatible version of Pro Tools or risk it with an unsupported version (probably) of PT12. In other words, and notwithstanding any new Mac hardware/models, you'd probably be better off getting your iMac prior to El Capitan.

I'm far from the hardware guru in these parts (maybe Darryl will chip in?) but, whilst that sounds like a great specification, if you're only going to run Pro Tools ...

* Make sure you're going to use that 32GB RAM ... do you use a lot of big VIs ... disk cache (on HD) ... ?
* May be better/cheaper to use an external SSD and cut down on the internal 1TB SSD?
* Basic graphics card probably more than enough for PT

... so maybe some options for cutting back costs without affecting performance?

[jamesleonard]

Good morning,

Sorry for the late reply (have no access to a computer at the moment!).

I am only going to Run PT12 on it, maybe the occasional game - but that is all!

Listed below are a few concerns I have:

1. I was just wondering about hardware?
2. I use an extremely copious amount of plug-ins (well over 100) in sessions.
3. My songs are saved onto an external drive.
4. Additionally, I do not want it to keep crashing (like my MBP did).
5. What OSX is required?

I obviously do not want the 'bare minimum' on my imac for PT to run - but... I would like it to be very respectable - in terms of power and memory etc.

This idea came from a moderator (Craig F) - who advised me to order online - because they do not stock these versions of imacs in the store.

Just need to connect my imac to my 'Digidesign 003 workstation control surface' (digital mixer) - which has monitor speakers connected to [it] and a midi keyboard.

All I want to do is get back to my music asap! - but I do not want to get unnecessary hardware etc - especially if I'm not going to need it.

Thanks

James

[musicman691]

Originally Posted by jamesleonard

Hello,

I have been in contact with apple and have expressed my preferences.

Below is the hardware - Is this too much hardware or just about right?

Hardware:

>4.0GHz Quad-core Intel Core i7, Turbo Boost up to 4.4GHz
>32GB 1600MHz DDR3 SDRAM - 4x8GB
>1TB Flash Storage
>AMD Radeon R9 M295X 4GB

What About OS X EL Capitan (incidentally, which is out in the autumn) do I wait for that or... buy now?

The price:

£3,508.00 (includes AppleCare Protection Plan for iMac - Auto-enrol £139.00)

BTW I will only run Protools on it!

Is there anything I can cut-down on (in regards to hardware)?

EDIT: Since my local music shop shut down, I don't know who to ask any more about products - so... I hope I haven't upset any one in the process (I just want to talk shop.... that's all really).

Regards

James

Ram - it's like money - you can never have too much of either. But do NOT buy Apple ram. On the 27 inch iMac you can put your own ram in. It will be cheaper and doesn't void any Apple warranty. As to that - AppleCare is a good thing and it doesn't matter what you're using the computer for. It's cheap enough considering what you're investing in the computer to begin with (and if you buy third party ram the money you'll save on that will go towards AppleCare ).

The rest of the hardware sounds very good. At least you're not going for a Fusion Drive for the system drive.

Don't wait for ElCapitan - who knows how long it will take Avid to qualify PT for it? Best to get Yosemite working - it may be all you need. There's usually no need to be on the bleeding edge of operating systems unless you have some hardware or software that absolutely needs it.

As to keeping a computer from crashing when running PT - a lot of that is up to how the machine is optimized. Amongst optimizations do not forget to turn off AppNap for all applications.

[jamesleonard]

Hello Musicman691 thanks for your reply.

I am going to splurge out on [this] (just needed confirmation). But... there is one thing that is puzzling me and that is: 'Why have you not got PT12? - just curious. I see that you have PT11 with (OSX 10.8.5 & OSX 10.9.5) so there must be a reason!

I am looking at your specs and I think to myself: 'I may as well get what that dudes got' - after-all, I have been mostly obtaining all relevant information from yourself (no disrespect to the other contributors)... so, I may as well purchase PT 11 (me thinks boxed set).

Thanks

James

[musicman691]

Originally Posted by jamesleonard

Hello Musicman691 thanks for your reply.

I am going to splurge out on [this] (just needed confirmation). But... there is one thing that is puzzling me and that is: 'Why have you not got PT12? - just curious. I see that you have PT11 with (OSX 10.8.5 & OSX 10.9.5) so there must be a reason!

I am looking at your specs and I think to myself: 'I may as well get what that dudes got' - after-all, I have been mostly obtaining all relevant information from yourself (no disrespect to the other contributors)... so, I may as well purchase PT 11 (me thinks boxed set).

Thanks

James

The reason I don't have PT12 is really simple - it has nothing that I need or want to get my work done. Cloud collaboration - don't need it. Avid support - don't need it. Got a good running system here. The problem you're going to have is unless you can find PT11 for sale on something like eBay you're not going to be able to get it new from Avid. When PT12 was first announced people were told they would get a combo license asset that has PT10, PT11 and PT12 and from what I've read here PT11 has been dropped and it's just PT10 and PT12.

I can do 60 tracks of stereo vi's and a smattering of effects and my system doesn't even break a sweat. I spent a good deal of time setting up this system and sweating the details. There's one change I would make and that's to go with ssd's for the samples I use but that wouldn't be cheap as I'd need at least a terabyte to hold everything. Right now the 7200 rpm spinners do the job for the money invested.