Time for a new machine?

[brianjanthony]

My trusty, super pimped out 2010 Cheese Grater is becoming a money pit. Parts are getting expensive. It's on its 2nd 580 graphics card in a year. And I believe that (non OEM) card is not letting me install firmware to upgrade to High Sierra. I'm paying yearly for HDX, but I can't even use it past 2019.6 or so. I'm spending lots to tread water.

I know I can try to find an old Apple GPU card and hope that's the issue. I've spent almost 700 on graphics cards in a year (which worries me the machine is having issues). Between that and Digi WUP, I feel that money should probably go towards newer tech.

But with Apple's chip architecture changing, I'd rather wait to get a "new" machine for a year or 2. I have tons of drives and peripherals. Is a 2012 grater with High Sierra my best option for now? Trash can plus a million chassis? I haven't pondered these things in a decade. So I feel a bit lost as to which my most prudent move is.

Anyone have a similar dilemma?

[XJENSEN]

You should absolutely be able to upgrade your current configuration. Also running Mid 2010 Mac Pro here on Mojave, HDX and PTU 2020.11.

[brianjanthony]

the problem is that, for some reason, I cannot upgrade the firmware. most likely due (so I've read) to the fact I don't have an Apple video card in the machine. I don't have one anymore. It died a decade ago. So I will have to buy an old card and hope that is indeed the issue. If not, I've sunk more money into crap. Did you upgrade to Mojave with a non flashed or Apple card?

[EGS]

Originally Posted by brianjanthony

... hope that's the issue...

My Windows self-build desktop was acting a bit wonky several months ago. It worked, but would intermittently throw a BSOD and also some internal fans were not always spinning. I suspected the 9 year old PSU might be dying, so I replaced it with a new top-of-the-line PSU. My issues were all fixed!!!

Perhaps your PSU is dying?

[the.engineer]

Hey Brian, I recently took the plunge and got a Mac Mini 2018 3.2Ghz with 64GB ram with the avid 1U HDX enclosure.

It totally smokes my old 2010 cheesegrater (which like you I have thrown a load of money at: NVMe SSD, RX580 etc etc)

I figure, get a Mac mini now for a reasonable about of money, spend on external drives and enclosures (I’m still using my RX580 in a sonnet breakout box along with the Avid 1U enclosure) and sit tight until the ARM chips are ready to go where I will hopefully only have to spend another £1,500 or so to just swap Mac mini’s.

Yes you’ll have to get a belkin dock or something and a new plug board (I now have 6 power leads instead of 1!!!!) but you’ll feel good knowing you’re safe for the next few years.

Best wishes,
James

[LukeHoward]

Originally Posted by brianjanthony

the problem is that, for some reason, I cannot upgrade the firmware. most likely due (so I've read) to the fact I don't have an Apple video card in the machine. I don't have one anymore. It died a decade ago. So I will have to buy an old card and hope that is indeed the issue. If not, I've sunk more money into crap. Did you upgrade to Mojave with a non flashed or Apple card?

This is a pain, yes you need the original GPU in there to upgrade the firmware, before you can upgrade to Mojave (which ironically has better support for the newer AMD GPUs). Perhaps you can borrow one? On the off chance you are in Melbourne, you can borrow mine.

I upgraded to a 2019 Mac Pro, which will hopefully last the next ten years. I'm sure the ARM Mac Pro will smoke it but, realistically it's going to be a couple of years before it is out and supported by HDX, plugins, etc.

[brianjanthony]

Thanks for this. So if I went the Mac mini route...

I’d need the mini. And some sort of chassis for the Hdx. I use 2 monitors (a 27 And a slate Raven.) Would I need my 580 GPU in a chassis for this? I use 8tb record drives and 6 TB sample drives daily. I guess I’d need some enclosure for all those? I use 3 or 4 USB 3 powered hubs for dongles, keyboards etc.

Would your setup suite that?

Thanks for your input.

Originally Posted by the.engineer

Hey Brian, I recently took the plunge and got a Mac Mini 2018 3.2Ghz with 64GB ram with the avid 1U HDX enclosure.

It totally smokes my old 2010 cheesegrater (which like you I have thrown a load of money at: NVMe SSD, RX580 etc etc)

I figure, get a Mac mini now for a reasonable about of money, spend on external drives and enclosures (I’m still using my RX580 in a sonnet breakout box along with the Avid 1U enclosure) and sit tight until the ARM chips are ready to go where I will hopefully only have to spend another £1,500 or so to just swap Mac mini’s.

Yes you’ll have to get a belkin dock or something and a new plug board (I now have 6 power leads instead of 1!!!!) but you’ll feel good knowing you’re safe for the next few years.

Best wishes,
James

[Ben Jenssen]

One thing about the mac mini; Bluetooth problems. Mac Minis 2018 and later have serious problems with bluetooth, it's all over the net. And people are reporting that it has not been solved in the M1 mini.
In short, my MM behaves like this: if I have only the screen connected and I don't sit very far from the mini, my bluetooth mouse and keyboard works OK. As I begin to connect stuff to thunderbolt and USB ports, I get more and more erratic behaviour and connection dropouts with BT, and shorter and shorter range.
I've tried everything including changing radio frequencies and using 3rd party BT dongles, with no solution. I agree with those who say that it's simply a design flaw. They crammed too many powerful ports around the BT antenna. I've got it functional now by using only one thunderbolt and one USB port, and making shure there are no physical objects blocking.
Of course, if you can use hardwired keyboard/mice there is no problem and the minis are great machines.

[tonejunkee]

I too am in this situation - although I'm still running a 2011 MBP, it has had 3 identical display chip problems. Not sure when the new 16" comes out but it seems smart to wait to see how it does with PT

[Ru_C]

Was caught in a similar predicament a few months ago.

I had three Mac 5.1 rigs, two running Mojave and my main one still on Mavericks running PT10HD.

Anyway, my main Mac died, & after much debating I built a mid-range Hackintosh tower running PT Ultimate under Catalina with an HDnative PCie card in it.

I figured it was the worst time to be buying new intel hardware (with the Apple Silicon transition on the horizon), so this setup should see me through until 2023 or so at the very least. Its been a very solid performer so far & cost under £1000