Worth replacing 2008 Mac Pro for upgraded 2010 Mac Pro?

[Barry Johns]

Originally Posted by Justin1524

Thanks everyone. Really good tips, especially Barry. I like the idea of buying locally if possible to avoid the heavy shipping charges (let alone potential damage during shipping). I'm holding out for that sweet deal.

I'm still a bit perplexed when it comes to the value of CPU speed and associated Geekbench single/multicore scores when it comes to Pro Tools and particularly latency when tracking through plugins. Suffice it to say that every detail matters to varying degrees. For example:

1.) Interface Speed - in my case Native HD card over digilink cable to a pair of digi 192 blue interfaces. How would Firewire 800, USB3 or Thunderbolt compare? A bit of a non-starter in my case because I really like my Digi 192 blues, they're an exceptional value on the used market right now. I also have such a great mix of IO right now with them, including analog, AES, SP/DIF and ADAT. No new interfaces offer this much, yet most people probably don't care. Any thoughts?

2.) CPU speed - 2.4, 2.66, 2.8, 3.33, 3.46 - to me differences matter a bit less here but I can't speak to this totally because I only really have experimented with a 2006 mac pro and 2008 mac pro. Thoughts on how much this aspect matters?

3.) Number of Cores - 4, 6, 8, 12? - I'd say this matters a lot for Pro Tools. More cores is better. Thoughts?

4.) RAM speed/Amount of RAM - yeah fast RAM is better and more RAM is better to a point. For me if you have over 20 GB you're fine unless you use huge samples on huge sessions.

5.) Hard drive speed - SSD's are without question the way to go for boot drives - do they matter much for working drives? Also worth it to get a PCIe card M.2 SSD drive and double speeds that are already pretty fast on the normal SATA bus?

6.) Graphics card power/speed. I'm less interested in this because I only need basic graphics supporting 1920 x 1080 resolutions.

7.) Computer's chipset speed - yeah here's a fun one. This kinda cuts to the whole architecture question, trash can mac vs mac pro tower.

It all adds up to a Geekbench score. And will we see greatly improved hardware out of Apple any time soon? I would say, probably not as the market for Apple is clearly less desktops and more mobile. Will prices come down on the trash can macs - sure they will - but feels like a slow drop right now. Meanwhile your 2012 and older mac pro towers will have hardware failures at some point, for example power supplies. And you don't want that during a critical session. Still I just love mine, feels like a sherman tank.

When you're ready PM me, I'll walk you through the whole process!!!!

[K Roche]

If it were me, I would get the 2010 mac pro you have mentioned. also as LDS stated I wouldn't put the SSD in a drive bay. But would go with the Samsung SM951 m.2 drive and an PCIe m.2 adaptor he mentioned in one of the remaining pcie slots

The PCIe SSD option as oppose to putting it in a drive bay it costs more but you will be creating a more future proof machine. The New Samsung SM 951 , 512 GD is the fastest option . Also for that era Mac (c MP) make sure you get the SM 951 in AHCI - M2 version, not the NVMe version.
As a quick comparison in that mid 2010 - 2012 westmere

And HDD give about 130 to 150 read/write speed
An SSD in drive bay about 250 - 350
A samsung sm 951 256 GB in pcie slot 3 or 4 about 500 to 750
A samsung sm 951 512 GB in pcie slaot 3 or 4 about 1200 to 1600

[Justin1524]

Well, I have a Mac Pro 2010 12 core 3.33 ghz (2010 not 2009 flashed) coming with 64 GB of RAM - got a deal on it - $1,470 shipped (has a 5770 vid card, an 240 GB SSD and 1 TB drive which I don't really care about). I'll definitely consider the M.2 on the PCIe card - great tip! I'm hoping that going from a geekbench multicore score of 11,000 on my 2008 Mac Pro to over 30,000 on this new machine will equate to being able to set the hardware buffer lower for lower latency tracking with native plugins. Of course, I could be totally wrong. I'll report back my results.

[K Roche]

So I have installed the Samsung SM 951, 512 GB PCIe SSD In PCIe slot 3 of myMid 2010 333 GZ 6 Core Westemere,

Here are some speed test results using the free (app store) "Black Magic Disk Speed Test".

The new SSD



And here is the old HDD

[Benny_Cha_Cha]

I have the same machine (but mine is upgraded 2009) and have never been happy with its power. I never felt like i got the PT 11 speed gain.

I might have to try this pcie SSD.

K Roche do you have your multi core before and after scores. I think mine is currently around 15kb

Originally Posted by K Roche

So I have installed the Samsung SM 951, 512 GB PCIe SSD In PCIe slot 3 of myMid 2010 333 GZ 6 Core Westemere,



Here are some speed test results using the free (app store) "Black Magic Disk Speed Test".



The new SSD







And here is the old HDD

[K Roche]

Originally Posted by Benny_Cha_Cha

I have the same machine (but mine is upgraded 2009) and have never been happy with its power. I never felt like i got the PT 11 speed gain.

I might have to try this pcie SSD.

K Roche do you have your multi core before and after scores. I think mine is currently around 15kb

I do not know what "multi core scores" are...... how do you test for them?
I do still have Mavericks installed on one of my two HDD drives, so I can run a before and after test by switching which drive I boot . Thats how I ran the BlackMagic tests shown.

[lucienpalmer]

I would definitely recommend getting a 2010 or 2012 12-core. You can find them for around $2k on Ebay.

Benchmark speeds are comparable to the new trashcan Mac Pro.

[johnnyv]

Originally Posted by Justin1524

Well, I have a Mac Pro 2010 12 core 3.33 ghz (2010 not 2009 flashed) coming with 64 GB of RAM - got a deal on it - $1,470 shipped (has a 5770 vid card, an 240 GB SSD and 1 TB drive which I don't really care about). I'll definitely consider the M.2 on the PCIe card - great tip! I'm hoping that going from a geekbench multicore score of 11,000 on my 2008 Mac Pro to over 30,000 on this new machine will equate to being able to set the hardware buffer lower for lower latency tracking with native plugins. Of course, I could be totally wrong. I'll report back my results.

I'd love to know your "results" if you have anything conclusive yet to share regarding latency and tracking with plugs...

[basslik]

Good evening everyone.


Old thread if I may revive. Still running my 2008 mac pro 2.8 quad core, and recently just got a deal on a 2010 2.8 quad core. Will remain on PT9 for a while longer. I don't know much about the technical aspect between the two, so any input would help my decision on which one to keep?


Please forgive for the small screeshots



THANKS

mac pros.jpg

[TNM]

i mean from memory the quad in the 2010 is a little more powerful clock for clock..

but if you really want a meaningful jump, i would get the 6 core 3.46 ghz model readily available from ebay or OWC.