Mac Mini with Ableton Question

[Jay_NJ]

Hey guys,

I've got a 2018 mac mini i7 with 16gb ram. I'm currently using just about all the ports with an external thunderbolt, an external SSD, Push 2, and my focusrite saffire audio interface. I've noticed the CPU tends to run a bit high even on really small projects. Is it better to get a self powered usb hub and offload some of the connections? Just wondering. Thanks!

[jlgrimes]

Hey guys,

I've got a 2018 mac mini i7 with 16gb ram. I'm currently using just about all the ports with an external thunderbolt, an external SSD, Push 2, and my focusrite saffire audio interface. I've noticed the CPU tends to run a bit high even on really small projects. Is it better to get a self powered usb hub and offload some of the connections? Just wondering. Thanks!

I would think you are better without a hub.

The hub will only add an extra processing layer I think.


The AUDIO INTERFACE, what connection type is it?

[Jay_NJ]

Thanks - yeah, I wasn't sure about that. The audio interface is USB 2.0. It's a saffire scarlett solo.

[TLW]

I have my MIDI stuff connected to a USB2 powered hub and some external drives connected to a powered U#B 3 hub. My interface connects to one TB2 socket using a TB-> firewire adaptor and I’ve an SSD with the audio library etc. off the other TB2 socket.

The hubs don’t seem to make any noticeable difference to cpu load.

Putting an audio interface on a hub however can sometimes cause issues as many interfaces don’t seem to like being on hubs.