iMac or new Mac Pro? Need some advice.

[music1620]

Ableton Live 9 is the main program I use for making music. I'm currently looking into getting a new computer and was wondering if I could get some advice. I know Ableton has Multicore/Multiprocessor support, but how many cores can ableton 9 utilize? I don't want to spend a bunch of extra money on more cores if Ableton can't make use of them. I use a lot of plugins, and work with a lot of tracks in my sessions. The two computers I'm having a hard time deciding between are the iMac and the new Mac Pro. The Mac Pro is more expensive than the iMac, but I would hate to get the iMac only to realize later that its not powerful enough. I would really appreciate any advice that could help in making a decision. Here is more information about the computers and the configurations I'm considering. -

iMac:

- 3.5GHz Quad-Core intel Core i7, (Turbo Boost up to 3.9 GHz)
- 32GB 1600MHz DDR3 SDRAM

Mac Pro:

- 3.5GHz 6-Core Intel Xeon E5 with 12MB L3 cache (Turbo Boost up to 3.9 GHz)
-Configurable to 3.0GHz 8-core processor with 25MB L3 cache or 2.7GHz 12-core processor with 30MB L3 cache
-32GB of 1866MHz DDR3 ECC memory (configurable to 64 GB) .

On a side note, I noticed how the chip speeds decrease as the number of cores increase, the Qaud Core (3.7 GHz), 6-core (3.5 GHz), 8-core (3.0 GHz), and the 12-core (2.7 GHz). Whats the best configuration to get for a studio computer?

[login]

If you ask this question I will certainly recommend thew new mac pro.

[BPmusic]

A little kick here...

I'm doubting between:

- Latest iMac 27" (Quadcore 3.5 GHz i7 - 32 GB RAM - 1TB Flash)
- Latest Mac Pro (Eight core 3.0 GHz Xeon E5 - 64 GB RAM - 1TB PCIe)

What is the best one for Ableton?

[Tarekith]

A Mac Pro obviously has more power, so technically that will be the best. But it's probably also overkill for most audio work, the new iMacs are incredibly powerful too.

[jlgrimes]

Ableton Live 9 is the main program I use for making music. I'm currently looking into getting a new computer and was wondering if I could get some advice. I know Ableton has Multicore/Multiprocessor support, but how many cores can ableton 9 utilize? I don't want to spend a bunch of extra money on more cores if Ableton can't make use of them. I use a lot of plugins, and work with a lot of tracks in my sessions. The two computers I'm having a hard time deciding between are the iMac and the new Mac Pro. The Mac Pro is more expensive than the iMac, but I would hate to get the iMac only to realize later that its not powerful enough. I would really appreciate any advice that could help in making a decision. Here is more information about the computers and the configurations I'm considering. -

iMac:

- 3.5GHz Quad-Core intel Core i7, (Turbo Boost up to 3.9 GHz)
- 32GB 1600MHz DDR3 SDRAM

Mac Pro:

- 3.5GHz 6-Core Intel Xeon E5 with 12MB L3 cache (Turbo Boost up to 3.9 GHz)
-Configurable to 3.0GHz 8-core processor with 25MB L3 cache or 2.7GHz 12-core processor with 30MB L3 cache
-32GB of 1866MHz DDR3 ECC memory (configurable to 64 GB) .

On a side note, I noticed how the chip speeds decrease as the number of cores increase, the Qaud Core (3.7 GHz), 6-core (3.5 GHz), 8-core (3.0 GHz), and the 12-core (2.7 GHz). Whats the best configuration to get for a studio computer?

The fully blown Imac still sounds like a powerful machine. I would think with that power you would still be able to do serious production work and run plenty of softsynths including a few monsters like DIVA.


I think the IMAC might be fanless which means with the SSD it should be noiseless. I think the Mac Pro needs fans for all of the multiple processors.

[BPmusic]

Thanks!

Can Ableton 9 use all the 8 cores? I know it can use multiple cores, but can't find an answer how many it actually can.

Also, i've been told the clock speed of a core is more important than the number of cores. So, are four 3,5 ghz cores more efficient than eight 3,0 ghz cores?

[beatz01]

Peoples worries...

Why don't you just buy either an iMac or a Mac Pro and start make music ??

Either one of these machines is sufficient enough to do *anything*.

It's not like your music will improve in any way just because you're utilizing 8 cores.
And i bet your music doesn't *need* 8 cores either, does it ?

[BPmusic]

Peoples worries...

Why don't you just buy either an iMac or a Mac Pro and start make music ??

Either one of these machines is sufficient enough to do *anything*.

It's not like your music will improve in any way just because you're utilizing 8 cores.
And i bet your music doesn't *need* 8 cores either, does it ?

Uhm, I've been making music for over 15 years now with computers, so it's not i'm just starting.

I've been using my Mac Pro from 2008 every day (best investment i've ever done). I'm starting to notice that it has trouble using the many plugins i use. My 2013 MacBook Pro is now faster than my desktop, which is the sign to me it's time to upgrade.

Just want to make sure i buy the right machine for the next 6 years. It's hard to make a decision if there are so many factors that can be of influence of the performance.

[H20nly]

iMac will run silent. 4 Cores at 3.Anything will serve you well.

just throw RAM at it - but purchase and install it yourself to save hundreds of dollars.

[fishmonkey]

noise is not an issue with the new Mac Pros. they are very quiet. nothing like the old jet plane towers.

[studiojohnny]

You want a Mac Pro.

CPU is the single most important factor with Ableton Live performance.

I actually started a thread here about this as well a while back. (Link: What is the absolute best computer for Ableton Live?)

I wound up buying the new 12 core Mac Pro. Let me tell you: it screams. I can have tons of tracks with tons of plugins and still have my buffer at 64 samples with no latency. You want as much CPU horsepower as you can possibly get. Unless you're a DJ who has projects with hundreds and hundreds of long songs then the RAM doesn't make much of a difference. I'm still running 32bit Live which means I'm technically only using 4gigs of RAM despite having more available but it's still performing beautifully. (I use 32 bit Live because a lot of my plugins are 32bit.)

So if you're trying to buy a Mac Pro on a budget then I recommend the following approach: choose the highest number of CPUs, the least amount of RAM (12gb), the worst graphics card (still amazing) and the smallest hard drive space (256gb). You can buy SSD USB3 external hard drives for way cheaper than the internal drive and those things fly. I recommend you keep all your music projects on an SSD USB3 external HD. Then you can easily work on any computer and this setup allows you to keep your internal drive relatively empty and small (cheap!). Ideally you would have nothing on your system drive except for... your system. Everything else goes on the external drives. You can also setup Ableton to put it's cache and temp files on the external HD. And while we're talking shop I'd also recommend having a second external drive and doing nightly backups using Carbon Copy Cloner.

Hope this helps man.

--John

tl;dr: Get the Mac Pro with as much CPU horsepower as you can.

[fishmonkey]

minimum RAM is not good advice if you tend to use big multisampled libraries.

[H20nly]

minimum RAM is not good advice if you tend to use big multisampled libraries.

agreed. especially on a new machine that comes with a 64 bit OS.

[BPmusic]

You want a Mac Pro.

CPU is the single most important factor with Ableton Live performance.

I actually started a thread here about this as well a while back. (Link: What is the absolute best computer for Ableton Live?)

I wound up buying the new 12 core Mac Pro. Let me tell you: it screams. I can have tons of tracks with tons of plugins and still have my buffer at 64 samples with no latency. You want as much CPU horsepower as you can possibly get. Unless you're a DJ who has projects with hundreds and hundreds of long songs then the RAM doesn't make much of a difference. I'm still running 32bit Live which means I'm technically only using 4gigs of RAM despite having more available but it's still performing beautifully. (I use 32 bit Live because a lot of my plugins are 32bit.)

So if you're trying to buy a Mac Pro on a budget then I recommend the following approach: choose the highest number of CPUs, the least amount of RAM (12gb), the worst graphics card (still amazing) and the smallest hard drive space (256gb). You can buy SSD USB3 external hard drives for way cheaper than the internal drive and those things fly. I recommend you keep all your music projects on an SSD USB3 external HD. Then you can easily work on any computer and this setup allows you to keep your internal drive relatively empty and small (cheap!). Ideally you would have nothing on your system drive except for... your system. Everything else goes on the external drives. You can also setup Ableton to put it's cache and temp files on the external HD. And while we're talking shop I'd also recommend having a second external drive and doing nightly backups using Carbon Copy Cloner.

Hope this helps man.

--John

tl;dr: Get the Mac Pro with as much CPU horsepower as you can.

Thanks for your answer John, really helps a lot. I'm going for the fully blown 8 core in this case!

[studiojohnny]

Thanks for your answer John, really helps a lot. I'm going for the fully blown 8 core in this case!

Right on brother! You're going to love it.

Just to defend myself: when I was typing about how you wouldn't need much RAM unless you were a DJ, I thought to myself, "Some OCD person is going to call me on this and mention large sample library soft synths." Sure enough... so yes, if playing with huge, multi-sample libraries is a high priority to you then yes, getting the "least" amount of RAM is bad advice. But let me counter with this: 12GB of RAM is still a whole lot of RAM. I was just giving you advice specifically for "buying a Mac Pro on a budget" so I stand fully by my advice. But obviously if budget *isn't* an issue then max everything out. If you can do this then I recommend buying your RAM from www.macsales.com and installing it yourself. Way cheaper than buying it from Apple.

Also, just an anecdotal story: I have Kontakt 5, which is a "big multisampled library" and I can run multiple instances of it just fine on my 12 core Mac Pro with "only" 12 gigs of RAM.

Good luck, my friend!

--John