Upgrade Options

[fastback]

Hey All,

Well, it's time to upgrade our computer. Currently operating with a Mac Pro PPC G5 and HD3 PCI cards. New computer means having to switch to PCIe, right? I'm hoping to gain from some of your experiences in upgrading. What did you find to be your best solution(s)?

Thanks in advance for any help!

Bryce Francis
[email protected]

[John_Toolbox]

For an HD3 I think the most cost effective solution is to run an expansion chassis. The only one worth getting at this point is the magma PE6R4. By the time you do crossgrades for all 3 of your cards it will be cheaper to use the chassis, then you have the option of adding more cards as well.

[Jamshied]

Are your cards HD or HD Accel? If the former, it might be worth considering the PCIe upgrade.

[Eric Seaberg]

We're budgeting for the same upgrade this year to four systems. We've opted to get the new Mac Pros and do the PCI to PCIe upgrade. There's been a lot of talk as to how much longer Digi will support the expansion chassis concept, and we're not going to get caught again.

Pay for it now or pay for it later.... it's all the same answer.

[fastback]

Originally Posted by Jamshied

Are your cards HD or HD Accel? If the former, it might be worth considering the PCIe upgrade.

Thanks for the insight thus far. Good point. I forgot to mention. We have an HD core card, and the other two are HD Accel. Also, the current comp is Power Mac, not Mac Pro. What do you guys think? Still worth the PCIe upgrade, or going with the expansion chassis?

[John_Toolbox]

The PCIe upgrade will gain you a slight amount of power because the core will be an accel, but I don't personally think it's worth it. HD is past the lifespan of it's predecessor, MIX, so investing in the upgrade might not be a good idea if something new comes out later this year. The PE6R4 chassis will probably hold it's value better if something else comes out, where as the HD cards would drop in value. This is merely speculation of course, people have been thinking that HD would be replaced for the last few years.. and still nothing yet.

As far as computer's go, a mac pro is going to be a huge improvement over your G5, and well worth the price you pay for it, especially if you do a lot of multitasking or use a lot of VI's.

[TLarvenz]

Same boat here. Same discussion as last year though... It would be nice to know if there is an update to the hardware arriving in the near or distant future. I'm having problems keeping my favorite VIs running as many have abandoned the G5 for Intel. Too bad it's not more like operating systems where they tell you that they're releasing Bad Kitty 10.x in Fall of 3020, or even many VI companies announce that they're releasing Trillian or whatever several months in advance. It's a drag that we can't plan our DAW purchases similarly.

[TLarvenz]

I guess the consumer market is more interesting these days. Products for the masses rather than the niche market. Makes sense.

[Sean Russell]

Bad Kitty. Haha.

That would work! 'are you running Bad Kitty yet?'. 'i'm having interface issues with Bad Kitty..'

I agree though. It sucks not knowing the 'when' and 'what'. I'm not sure Joe many studios would be chomping at the bit to buy new HW that has a Digi/Avid logo on it (API, BAE, shoot even AKG; yes, but Digi-Avid, no. Now, software? Different story, there!

Just make it work. We should have 3-5 years of MacPro lifespan, easily. Make the interface/GUI/Assertions work like it should. Cut out th 8.0.x,cs-x. Make it work. 8.1, 8.2, 8.3, 9.0. The converters could use a refreshing (16 I/O just seems it should be the minimum; the need for which is a poor excuse to 'just buy another one!'

Sort out ADC. Sort out MIDI. Support G5 until YOUR USER BASE claims it works. Make a new playlist shortcut, FFS. But DONT try to pass of new 10K cards that we just 'gotta have'. There are a lot of entrenched shops with your junx making it work daily and nightly. If that Mac boots, we'll keep running it until it doesn't. Don't tax us so hard to step up.

I'd wager half these threads are about the PCI-PCIe crossgrade (arguably extrortion to some), with the other half having old plug versions or updated OS's that weren't a clean instal.

[Jeffrey Talbot]

And of course, who's to say that the NEXT hardware upgrade will available in PCI at all? It's certainly possible that it will be PCIe only.... with a new PCIe chassis available for HD4+.... in which case investing in the PCI chassis would lead to a dead end..