Anyone Running a Intel Mac Pro
Anyone Running a Intel Mac Pro
Just Wondering. Thinking of making the switch from PC. And i figure if i am going to do it might as well do it right. How Does it perform with ableton? I am running Live 6.0.5, Sylus RMX, Absynth 4, Battery 3, and FM 8 and a Novation Remote sl 0 and a 37 key versions. I will have to get a new Audio interface. Any comment\suggestion are much appreciated.
I'm running a Mac Pro (2.66Gx2) with Live 6.0.5. I use an X-station, ReMOTE 61 and M-Audio Firewire Audiophile. I played the Absynth 4 preset "A Dark Place" (which is in the included Ab4 presets). With 4 notes played (the patch's default polyphony is 4 voices) Live's CPU meter is at 10%. If I play the FM8 preset "Actionurlaub" with polyphony set at 16 voices and all 16 voices played Live's CPU meter is at 8%. If I play the Simpler brass preset "1984" with 8 notes played Live reads 10%. This is using the stock internal soundcard.
I have 2 gigs of RAM which I would suggest be the minimum (especially if you have plugins that load samples into memory). Don't buy the RAM from apple though - you can get cheaper (but still up to Apple's specs) RAM from places online. I got mine from crucial.com and installed it myself.
hope that helps.
I have 2 gigs of RAM which I would suggest be the minimum (especially if you have plugins that load samples into memory). Don't buy the RAM from apple though - you can get cheaper (but still up to Apple's specs) RAM from places online. I got mine from crucial.com and installed it myself.
hope that helps.
Thank you any help is helpful. It is a big investment and a big change. Been with the Pc world my whole life. Never really used a mac for music only played on one for 10 minutes. The other ram does it have a heat sink on it like apple ram? the heat sinks keep the fans running less apparently. Is the Mac pro loud? Heard one post that said the machine was loud and another said that the Apple hard drives are loud and not to use them. Thank again
yes the RAM has a heatsink on it. if you do buy ram from another vendor make sure that it has the apple-spec heatsink (which is different from the standard heatsink). As far as i know, Ramjet, Crucial and Other World Computing all sell ram with the apple-spec heatsink. I read similar reports as you have regarding non-spec ram causing increased fan noise/operation and system problems.
As for the hard drives - mine came with a couple of Seagates installed. They seem noisier than the hard drives I used in my previous computer which were Hitachi, however I think this is because the fan on the Mac Pro runs *extremely* quietly so I can hear more of the disk activity. So I'd say yes, the hard drives sound loud, but only because the rest of the system is so quiet. Perhaps a different brand of hard drive operates more quietly but I'm not sure.
As for the hard drives - mine came with a couple of Seagates installed. They seem noisier than the hard drives I used in my previous computer which were Hitachi, however I think this is because the fan on the Mac Pro runs *extremely* quietly so I can hear more of the disk activity. So I'd say yes, the hard drives sound loud, but only because the rest of the system is so quiet. Perhaps a different brand of hard drive operates more quietly but I'm not sure.
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muscleandhate
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Macs are quite good in terms of low noise. I'm not sure about the Mac Pro, but I assume it is the same technology as the G5 Powermacs, which had an intelligent cooling system. Apparently the computer would detect what part of the system was heating up, and activate one of a large number of little fans to cool that sector specifically. Pretty cool.
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kenn michael
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So would you suggest the apple hard drive or a regular hard drive. does anyone know what kind of hard drive apple uses. And the 3 gb/s is real nice. Does the Sata II interface really transfer that fast. I have trouble finding one to match the apple performance. One reason i was interested in a mac was that if you buy all approved gear for the mac. then there will be less compatbliity issues as far as ram hard drive. And someone suggested using matching pairs of drive for a raid system. Does that include size, RPM , and transfer speed. I know plenty about PC and nothing of Mac. Just want to reduce the chance of a problem piecing together a system. I would spend the extra money to have a nice integrated system. Sorry about sounding like a noob but i would like to find out a much a possible before investing in a 3000 dollar machine
my mac came with Seagate drives (250 GB 7200rpm). as far as compatability - any 3.5" Serial ATA drive will work with the mac pro.
I'm not sure about RAID as I've never done it. From what I've read it realy doesn't give that much of a performance boost and even introduces some risks
http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/archives/000335.html
Of course, your experience may be different.
If you are nervous about compatability issues you can always just buy everything stock from apple - you'll just pay more. But, you won't have to install it yourself.
I've bought many mac related things from OWC (other world computing). They are well respected in the mac community. Here's their address:
http://eshop.macsales.com
if you email them with questions they'll get back to you with some good answers.
I'm not sure about RAID as I've never done it. From what I've read it realy doesn't give that much of a performance boost and even introduces some risks
http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/archives/000335.html
Of course, your experience may be different.
If you are nervous about compatability issues you can always just buy everything stock from apple - you'll just pay more. But, you won't have to install it yourself.
I've bought many mac related things from OWC (other world computing). They are well respected in the mac community. Here's their address:
http://eshop.macsales.com
if you email them with questions they'll get back to you with some good answers.
Those things were like having 3 hairdryers going at once.-
Michael-SW
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You are paying like many 100s of dollars (or much more) and many hours of learning to move to a platform you only used for 10 minutes?mrnymms wrote:Thank you any help is helpful. It is a big investment and a big change. Been with the Pc world my whole life. Never really used a mac for music only played on one for 10 minutes. The other ram does it have a heat sink on it like apple ram? the heat sinks keep the fans running less apparently. Is the Mac pro loud? Heard one post that said the machine was loud and another said that the Apple hard drives are loud and not to use them. Thank again
Not bashing Macs, they are excellent platforms with a good price performance, but are you really sure about this? Are all you favorite non commercial plugs available in UB? Have you really calculated about the upgrade cost for all those NI plugs to UB/Mac? Etc.
New Mac Pro...?
FWIW
There is an imminent refresh of the MacPro line sometime in the next 4 - 8 weeks all seem to agree...most likely announced around the end of March (with the launch of Photoshop 3) or around NAB in April (with the launch of a new Final Cut Studio). Most definitely with the launch of Leopard ('Spring 2007).
A really good site for refresh info is here: http://mactactic.com/
They look at Apple's historical pattern of refresh times to estimate the next round of updates. Given Apple's adherence to a pretty defined refresh cycle, I think they have a good track record. And they are concerned only with dates; they don't speculate on what the refresh might be.
Other places do that. To wit, what follows is rumor, but most of the grape vine seems to agree that we will see Octo-Core Mac pros (2 quad cores), Blu-Ray as an option, and smokin' graphics. Some say a redesigned case.
If you can't wait, the current machines are pin-compatible with the new quad core chips so theoretically you could upgrade the chips later. Me, I'm holding my cash for another month....
Peace,
GN
There is an imminent refresh of the MacPro line sometime in the next 4 - 8 weeks all seem to agree...most likely announced around the end of March (with the launch of Photoshop 3) or around NAB in April (with the launch of a new Final Cut Studio). Most definitely with the launch of Leopard ('Spring 2007).
A really good site for refresh info is here: http://mactactic.com/
They look at Apple's historical pattern of refresh times to estimate the next round of updates. Given Apple's adherence to a pretty defined refresh cycle, I think they have a good track record. And they are concerned only with dates; they don't speculate on what the refresh might be.
Other places do that. To wit, what follows is rumor, but most of the grape vine seems to agree that we will see Octo-Core Mac pros (2 quad cores), Blu-Ray as an option, and smokin' graphics. Some say a redesigned case.
If you can't wait, the current machines are pin-compatible with the new quad core chips so theoretically you could upgrade the chips later. Me, I'm holding my cash for another month....
Peace,
GN
Re: New Mac Pro...?
gnapier wrote:
Other places do that. To wit, what follows is rumor, but most of the grape vine seems to agree that we will see Octo-Core Mac pros (2 quad cores), Blu-Ray as an option, and smokin' graphics. Some say a redesigned case.
I just want to second this, I've been considering making the switch myself and doing quite a bit of research on Appleworld lately. I have also heard some rumors about the Mac Pro line being updated in the near future. If you want to buy an Intel Mac now, I think it's a good time to buy a laptop but I would hold off on a Mac Pro.
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kenn michael
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