Recommended iMac Specs for Pro Tools 2021.3 (Pro Tools STANDARD) BigSur Compatibility

[Spoil the Child]

Originally Posted by Marsdy

I certainly wouldn’t be buying an Intel Mac at this point, even if it meant waiting a while for full Pro Tools M1 compatibility.

There are rumoured to be M1 iMacs released next month that are potentially 50% faster than a similarly priced Intel equivalent. 32” iMacs are also a possibility.

Whoa! That is something to seriously consider as well. Unfortunately, though, I might have to start my transition now as I've upcoming projects for this month and really do wish to finally get to use Kontakt. But, again, this is something I may have to consider, even in my final stages of pre-purchase. Thank you for this, Marsdy!

[Spoil the Child]

Originally Posted by Darryl Ramm

i5 does not mean you don't have hyperthreading, some more recent i5 do. Unfortunately Intel have confused the branding a lot. i9/i7/i5 now is more a continum, with where the line to draw depends on your needs. But with Mac's again I'll go back to most folks won't upgrade modern Mac CPUs (they will in classic Mac Pro Cheesegraters, oh I loved those) even if the processor is socketed. So you are often over configuring to ensure good life. (My purchase for my last three systems has been to buy the largest Mac Book Pro Apple makes, max CPU, memory an SSD and run it into the ground.. although recently I cap the internal SSD at 2TB).

Oh on backups I think Dave and I are on the same planet and I want to say you want something like three drives for backing up the one internal SSD, maybe one or rotating though offsite storage. Slow SATA HDD are great for archiving to, maybe faster SSDs for nightly backups, cloning the whole boot drive and sessions with Carbon Copy Cloner. But you are not even trying if you don't have several drives you are backing up to, at least one offsite, and hopefully add cloud as well. Archive sessions independently of cloning the drive as well. Nice library of all your work, stored carefully multiple times. On high quality HDD (not cheap Seagate) for hopefully longer archival life than current SSD.

"You are often over configuring to ensure good life", I believe, is a good way to go! I agree with you both regarding SSDs. I've got 4-5 for VIs, back-ups, and recording. And a big YES to Carbon Copy Cloner! I'm actually currently using that for back-up. Fortunately, when I purchased it around 2 years ago, it was still compatible with my old system. That CCC has saved me quite a number of times. Thank you for the reminder, Darryl!

[Spoil the Child]

Originally Posted by JFreak

I would, but then again I am a dinosaur. Bought a last generation PPC G5 Quad PowerMac when the earlier transition was going on and could not have been happier about that decision. That machine was good until 2009 when "Nehalem" Mac Pro models were released. Those (4,1) and the following 5,1 were the good ones.

As you can see from my post, I am a dinosaur myself, haha. Weirdly, I find some satisfaction in attempting to exhaust my system's possibilities within the realm of my very,VERY limited tech know-how, that is. It seems like everyone in this thread is very,VERY tech-savvy and knowledgeable that I'm learning a lot (while covering my face in embarrassment, haha).

[Spoil the Child]

Originally Posted by Darryl Ramm

Yep, as I said. I would not do this unless I had a audio business that needed the system *now*. Otherwise I'd be waiting. My little M1 MacBook Pro gives me so much hope for what is coming, ... even though I expect it's going to take a while longer to see some real high end machines. And maybe a while for Avid and the plugin vendors to release native arm support. Hopefully Avid realizes they have to get this done fast and well, or it's another driver for folks to leave their ecosystem.

I'd really wait, but, yes, I badly need new system now, sadly. But learning about the M1 from you guys is enlightening. I didn't know how powerful it could be and that it seems like many are awaiting this. Thanks for the heads-up!

[Spoil the Child]

Originally Posted by Darryl Ramm

And some comments on the 27" iMacs.

The 27" iMac DIMMs are accessible via a door on the back for easy upgrade. You have to crack open a 21.5" model to do that, another reason to run away from the 21.5" ones.

The CPU is socketed, but again I don't expect many mere mortals to upgrade this. I strongly suspect it's more done for manufacturing flexibility, QA and yield reasons.

The SSD is at least in part soldered to the motherboard. But there things get interesting, in some configs you get a SSD only soldered to the motherboard, in others you get the SSD soldered to the motherboard *and* an Apple proprietary PCIe SSD slot populated with a SSD card. In the configs with only the SSD soldered to the motherboard, ******* Apple does not solder on an SSD card connector--now who's brave enough to find a connector and solder that on? If it was me I'd probably try to find a model that comes with the SSD card connector, hoping that OWC or others will offers larger cards in future. I would also hope you would be getting 4 separate PCIe lanes to the onboard SSD and 4 separate lanes to the SSD card, offering a significant potential increase in IO performance (which is already fast).

e.g. Compare this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e8PVW2E0ogI (with soldered on SSD and SSD card) to same family product here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GIHSyamWnh4 (with only soldered on SSD).

But yeh finally no internal HDD, no SATA, no Fusion stoopidity.

Whoa, okay, so I'm really, really sold on the 27", then! Imagine me, much lower than a mere mortal, lol, trying to pry that 21.5" open. Thanks for your SSD and motherboard advice though I'd need to study that really well as that's way beyond my abilities, lol. Bu thanks!

[Spoil the Child]

Originally Posted by Eric Seaberg

I just bought a 27" in November. Got the fastest processor available and bumped up the graphics to the max. Ordered it with stock 8GB RAM as I could get 64GB from Other World Computing for $300 (Apple wants $1000), and as Darryl just said, the 27" RAM is accessible behind a door... takes minutes to install or upgrade.

Since there are four RAM slots, my thought was adding 64GB now for total of 72GB, then I can pull the 2x4GB a little later and add another 64GB.

Honestly, this machine with 72GB in this configuration seems much snappier than one of the iMac Pros we have at the studio... and less than HALF the price!

In my opinion, the cost difference to go BIG now is worth it.

Thank you for your thoughts, Eric! I was thinking of going big although via the Apple upgrade upon ordering, from 8GB to 16 or 32. But you're right, I could get the 8GB stock and just purchase the cheaper RAMs for installation later on. Sound advice! Thank you.

[Spoil the Child]

Originally Posted by albee1952

I'm not quite sure what planet I'm on, but if Darryl is there, I'm okay with it I will willingly bow to his comments on the nuts and bolts(I know he has put in the time to learn that stuff).

One more note on the backups, we(me, anyway) are always on about it because we know a few things;
#1-never assume any drive(even brand new) will be great for any assumed amount of time.
#2-In my 18 years of DAW use, I have had 2 brand new WD drives fail within weeks, a 6-month old SSD start deleting data by itself(it needed a firmware update) and a quality spinner lose data because my partner kept setting headphones down, directly on the drive(in a USB drive tray). Then there was 1 more drive that was plugged straight into a wall outlet when a power surge hit the house(the computer was on a surge suppressor and the drive SHOULD have been).
#3-Anything you hate to lose needs to exist in at least 3 places, and 1 of the 3 should be NOT in the same building

Thank you for the reminder, Dave. Yes, better safe than sorry, definitely!

[Spoil the Child]

Originally Posted by Darryl Ramm

OK so on Pro Tools 10 Standard so crippled to 32-bits, but maybe some of your VIs are using their own extra memory caching. You'll see lots more memory usage just getting going on modern Pro Tools. And you now will have disk cache which you will want to turn on (set to a size to fully cache your sessions). So that 16-32 GB as a starting point is a good one, based on you running on 10 now... and you can always easily upgrade.

So how much space do your current external samples take? If you can afford to get an internal SSD that can store all those samples it would save you the mess of external drives, and you will likely be blown away by the session startup time. remember with these very fast internal PCIe/NVMe SSDs you do *not* need seperate session/sample drives. (even though the Avid doc has not been updated).

I do think 27" is the way to go... you really want to config these machines up, and that 5K screen real estate is lovely (I work on a LG 5K monitor and would never go back), the memory upgrade access etc. but the price does adds up. And you have that Apple/ARM silicon coming. And (guessing) maybe an EOL for latest Pro Tools +new macOS release support on Intel say 3 or so years out (which is still good return on investment if you will really use this Mac).

Yes, exactly! Been feeling kinda' crippled past 2-3 years but somehow always manage to make it through although the effort is probably more than twice as much as someone who has far better specs. (And working/transferring sessions between Pro Tools 10 on my iMac and Logic Pro X on my equally old Macbook Pro--just to access Kontakt--is a lot of work.) But, yes, I'll most definitely just go straight for the 16-32GB to help end my suffering now, lol.

Thanks for the internal SSD advice! If anything, more than the mess of external drives, it's the session start-up time you had mentioned that excited me!

27" it is, then! I can imagine the upgrades adding up, yes, so I guess I'll have to prioritize the items you had all mentioned and work my way up. Thanks to you guys and all your tips, hopefully, things work out well with my transition. I'll most probably be purchasing the new iMac week after next. *fingers crossed*

[GoButtonGuy]

Originally Posted by Marsdy

I certainly wouldn’t be buying an Intel Mac at this point, even if it meant waiting a while for full Pro Tools M1 compatibility.

There are rumoured to be M1 iMacs released next month that are potentially 50% faster than a similarly priced Intel equivalent. 32” iMacs are also a possibility.

New Apple Silicon Macs are slated to ship "third quarter" according to well respected leakers. Looks like July at the earliest, probably announced in Sept given the history of launches. It's meant to be a big performance boost. It's said to include iMacs and Macbook Pros.

OP if you need one now, buy one now. Given Avid's track record on architecture porting it could be months or even into 2022 before we see follow supported Apple Silicon. I'm hoping by fall but who knows.

Buy as big a rig as you can afford. As fast a CPU and as much RAM as you can afford. If you aren't doing visual arts, video, etc graphics are secondary. You can always add Thunderbolt storage to modern Macs. If you buy an Intel now it will be good for some years to come until until it's too slow to run modern software or OS.

When I need to take a computer to a gig right now I'm taking an Intel Mini with a foldable gaming screen. My former gig provided the machinery and when the show went on hiatus I lost access to those. For a personal machine I'm waiting for the next gen of Apple Silicon Macbook Pros.

OP may wish to consider a recent model used or off lease Mac from a reseller. Or perhaps a refurb from Apple. There are several reputable outfits on ebay and some not so reputable.

[Spoil the Child]

Originally Posted by GoButtonGuy

New Apple Silicon Macs are slated to ship "third quarter" according to well respected leakers. Looks like July at the earliest, probably announced in Sept given the history of launches. It's meant to be a big performance boost. It's said to include iMacs and Macbook Pros.

OP if you need one now, buy one now. Given Avid's track record on architecture porting it could be months or even into 2022 before we see follow supported Apple Silicon. I'm hoping by fall but who knows.

Buy as big a rig as you can afford. As fast a CPU and as much RAM as you can afford. If you aren't doing visual arts, video, etc graphics are secondary. You can always add Thunderbolt storage to modern Macs. If you buy an Intel now it will be good for some years to come until until it's too slow to run modern software or OS.

When I need to take a computer to a gig right now I'm taking an Intel Mini with a foldable gaming screen. My former gig provided the machinery and when the show went on hiatus I lost access to those. For a personal machine I'm waiting for the next gen of Apple Silicon Macbook Pros.

OP may wish to consider a recent model used or off lease Mac from a reseller. Or perhaps a refurb from Apple. There are several reputable outfits on ebay and some not so reputable.

Thank you very much for your thoughts and advice, GoButtonGuy! It indeed is tempting to wait for the Silicon Macs, but yes, I do need to purchase one already due to deadlines, unfortunately. Your recommendation on Thunderbolt storage is something I hadn't thought of as an addition to my current USB SSDs. I'd forgotten how much slower USBs are, especially given that the old iMac I'm on is still USB 2, yikes! You're right; that would also definitely add to a smoother workflow. With the good advice also of the other folks who replied here and with your thoughts on the more recent Mac, I have definitely become more confident in pursuing a Mac purchase within the month, given the consensus that it would really probably take a while before Avid/PT users are assured of fully-functioning, compatible, and reliable PT performance. Much appreciation for your advice!