Buying a new Mac.

[xtratorque]

Hi everyone I'm looking to buy a new Mac this weekend and upgrade to PT11.I'm familiar with Mac OS and want to stay with them. I almost never use more than 32 tracks but ideally I'd like the most bang for my buck. I would be hooking up a 3tb Glyph to it and possibly a 1tb Seagate. I do use some fairly intense plugins, like Play, Ivory and Superior Drummer and reverbs. I am using a pile of Slate and Waves plugins as well. I don't want to have to worry about what the computer is doing when I'm doing a session. Yes I know we all want that. What I'm looking at is a 21.5 inch Imac with a quad core i5 8gb of ram and a 5400rpm hard drive. Would this handle what I want to be able to do or would I need the 7200rpm hard drive offered in the 17inch model to have more peace of mind? Ideally I'd like to keep the cost around $1800 at most and less would be better. Thanks

[Craig F]

skip the i5, get the i7
check that the plugs you want to use are available in the new AAX 64bit format, your current RTAS plugs are DOA. Slate has only released a few of theirs
5400 for the OS is OK plugs will load a little slower than the 7200

[musicman691]

Originally Posted by xtratorque

Hi everyone I'm looking to buy a new Mac this weekend and upgrade to PT11.I'm familiar with Mac OS and want to stay with them. I almost never use more than 32 tracks but ideally I'd like the most bang for my buck. I would be hooking up a 3tb Glyph to it and possibly a 1tb Seagate. I do use some fairly intense plugins, like Play, Ivory and Superior Drummer and reverbs. I am using a pile of Slate and Waves plugins as well. I don't want to have to worry about what the computer is doing when I'm doing a session. Yes I know we all want that. What I'm looking at is a 21.5 inch Imac with a quad core i5 8gb of ram and a 5400rpm hard drive. Would this handle what I want to be able to do or would I need the 7200rpm hard drive offered in the 17inch model to have more peace of mind? Ideally I'd like to keep the cost around $1800 at most and less would be better. Thanks

For what you want at the price you're looking at I'd take a look at a refurb from the Apple Store. They come with full AppleCare so that's not an issue. Some things to keep in mind if you do go new on the iMac: on the smaller one you can't add your own ram as the case is glued together - you have to buy from Apple and that ain't cheap. The 27" has a door on the bottom to where you can add your own ram and that's much cheaper. And you're going to want as much ram as you can fit in the machine. That way you can take advantage of the capabilities of PT 11 as well as the memory server in Play 4 (which is the one you'll need for aax 64 bit). Now the 27" with the i7 cpu will run you over your budget but considering what you're planning on running you'll be much happier with the 27" i7.

Keep in mind the 21.5" iMac only has 1 Thunderbolt port where the 27" has two and current iMacs are USB3 ports.

I use the iMac in my sig file and at 60+ tracks it's barely straining in PT11 with heavy vi use (Play 4 EWQLSO, Ra, Stormdrum 2/Pro, etc.).

[JFreak]

Originally Posted by Craig F

skip the i5, get the i7

YES!

[Cowboy Bob]

Kind of in the same boat here. I am considering a switch from win to mac, and the 27" I7 imac looks good to me. Buy it with 8gb of RAM and upgrade it to 32 myself for less than half.

I've priced out a new build win machine using the recommendations for members here, and to get the same kind of performance, AND a hi res 27" display, the price seems to be a wash between the two.

However, i see that OSX 10.8.4 is the Avid supported OS and they are shipping with 10.8.5 and now 10.9.

I know NOTHING mac, so is there a way to back off the OS to 10.8.4?

[Craig F]

10.8.5 seems to be OK
10.9 to 10.8 requires wiping 10.9 and installing 10.8 and that is not always doable

[JFreak]

Originally Posted by Craig F

10.8.5 seems to be OK

Yes, it is. Avid has not blessed it but it works just as good as 10.8.4

[propower]

This guy has trouble with 10.8.5
http://duc.avid.com/showthread.php?t...highlight=6101

[propower]

Originally Posted by Cowboy Bob

Kind of in the same boat here. I am considering a switch from win to mac, and the 27" I7 imac looks good to me. Buy it with 8gb of RAM and upgrade it to 32 myself for less than half.

I've priced out a new build win machine using the recommendations for members here, and to get the same kind of performance, AND a hi res 27" display, the price seems to be a wash between the two.

However, i see that OSX 10.8.4 is the Avid supported OS and they are shipping with 10.8.5 and now 10.9.

I know NOTHING mac, so is there a way to back off the OS to 10.8.4?

- I bought a 2013 imac BTO and it came with 10.8.4 last week. Crucial to make an image of the base OS and keep in safe storage!
- Although Apple ram is more $$$ than everyone else - there are some weird fit issues with many of the modules on the newest imacs. THere is also some discussion of 1.35v vs 1.5V ram. The apple upgrade to 16G replaces the two 4G sticks with two 8G ones for $200 (cheapest 16G is $135 - most is OWC $200). Starting with 16G can either be enough or a more direct and only slightly more expensive path to 32G (I always spring for OWC am anyway).

[guitardom]

Originally Posted by Cowboy Bob

Kind of in the same boat here. I am considering a switch from win to mac, and the 27" I7 imac looks good to me. Buy it with 8gb of RAM and upgrade it to 32 myself for less than half.

I've priced out a new build win machine using the recommendations for members here, and to get the same kind of performance, AND a hi res 27" display, the price seems to be a wash between the two.

However, i see that OSX 10.8.4 is the Avid supported OS and they are shipping with 10.8.5 and now 10.9.

I know NOTHING mac, so is there a way to back off the OS to 10.8.4?

To be fair, you would have quite a bit faster processor on the windows (or hackintosh) build. Another thought is that in 3-4 years when your computer is archaic in terms of computing power, your seperate monitor(s) would still be usable on your next computer. I am at 3 computer upgrades on my same monitors. Something to put into the cost factor.