Mac Pro version for audio/video

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Am an artist/musician. Am upgrading my computer from a 2008 Mac book pro to a Mac Pro. I need to be able to simultaneously run Pro Tools and Premier at the same time. Sound hasn't been an issue. It's the addition of video. I have three Glyph external FireWire drives and an RME audio interface. One Cinema Display and will get a second Thunderbolt Display for the video.

My question is will an earlier model of Mac Pro run well, such as a 4 or 5. Would prefer to not have to put out the $ for the new 6 if the older versions are overkill as is. Also any recommendation for GB of RAM and video memory is greatly appreciated.

I do tend to keep computers way past their obsolete date. But if it works it works.

Thank you.
 
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When you get the whatever Mac Pro pop the Glyphs into the three additional bays. Internals will always run faster than externals. In your position my target would be a 5.1 model with 2.66GHz CPU's. GeekBench score for that unit is 20,048 and the MBP you now have is 3,332 for the 2.6GHz model. Bit of kickin' rear end eh?

And with your set up maybe 32GB of memory. The 2.66 will handle up to 64GB. Best video would be a late ATI Radeon such as 7900 series. Have a read of this link:-


http://www.reduser.net/forum/showthread.php?110451-Current-quot-best-quot-GPU-for-Mac-Pro-5-1
 
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An older Mac will work every bit as good today as it did when released. Obviously a newer, well-specced one will perform better, but what was top of the line a couple years ago will still get the job done as well as it did 2 years ago. I don't do audio work myself, but I'm guessing 16 GB is the minimum you should go with, probably 32 GB. As for a graphics card, get the best you can get.

One note... you said you plan to get a Thunderbolt Display. Only the current Mac Pros have a Thunderbolt connection, although I wonder if you can now get an upgraded graphics card for it. I don't know if you can use an adapter for a Mini DisplayPort with that monitor either.
 
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Thank you. That's very helpful.

For my application, is there a compelling reason to get an 8 core over a 4 core? There are quite a few preowned models available in both.

As for the Thunderbolt, I was assuming I would need one to keep the video from being glitchy. Or is the glitch I'm experiencing primarily related to the CPU?
 
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Personally I would go with the eight core. Much more bang for your buck and generally costs not that much different. And the gfx card you are using now, the 8800GT, or the ATI Radeaon X2600, which were standard, are wimps compared to 7900 series.
 
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Bought this last night. The bench test on the 2.4 looked close to the 2.66. Am planning in upping the memory to 64. The video card tests looked better than the standard ATI 5770 in all the other boxes. But if I need to upgrade to the 7900, I'm cool with that.

The degree to which I hate shopping is truly staggering. . Need a plug and play system with minimal to no tinkering. Am way more psyched on my next audio release. But if I'm an idiot and bought the wrong one, please let me know. May be able to cancel the order.

MP-24-8C-M10A Apple Mac Pro 2x 2.4GHz Quad-Core (8 Cores) Xeon (Mid 2010) MC561LL/A
[Condition:Excellent]
[Memory:8GB (4x2GB) (included)]
[Hard Drive:1TB Hard Drive (included)]
[Hard Drive 2:Additional Hard Drive Not Included]
[Optical Drive:Built-in SuperDrive-DL (included)]
[Video Card:BFG GTX 285 (1.0GB) (included) ]
[Keyboard/Mouse:Keyboard and Mouse (NOT INCLUDED)]
[Display:Display (not included)]
[Warranty:90-Day Warranty (included)] 1 $1,799.00

Btw. Here is an example of the type of sound I do. And yes, that album is made from cement.
Scot Jenerik: Soundtrack for the Dead: Eli - YouTube

Thanks for the feedback.
 
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MP-24-8C-M10A Apple Mac Pro 2x 2.4GHz Quad-Core (8 Cores) Xeon (Mid 2010) MC561LL/A
[Condition:Excellent]
[Memory:8GB (4x2GB) (included)]
[Hard Drive:1TB Hard Drive (included)]
[Hard Drive 2:Additional Hard Drive Not Included]
[Optical Drive:Built-in SuperDrive-DL (included)]
[Video Card:BFG GTX 285 (1.0GB) (included) ]
[Keyboard/Mouse:Keyboard and Mouse (NOT INCLUDED)]
[Display:Display (not included)]
[Warranty:90-Day Warranty (included)] 1 $1,799.00

I do a ton of video editing, and more than I like, sound correcting. That system will do nicely. Run it for a while. You may find a reason to upgrade to the ATI 7900 which is a much more beefy video card. I am a fan of the nvidia gtx family because Premiere will use the GPU acceleration but there are some ATI cards too just not sure which ones. I will tell you it makes a huge difference when you scrub. Way less rendering time.

You also might want to add more memory. The more the merrier. Both Premiere Pro and Pro Tools will use what you give them.

If, after you start editing, the video is still "glitching" or "jerky" check your hard drives. I have found if everything resides on one drive or the drive is getting full this will be the problem. Raiding helps but you still have a lot of mechanical moving parts unless they are SSD's.

Lisa
 
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Good buy and as OP states upgrading to 64GB of memory.

Sure you will enjoy Scott.
 
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If, after you start editing, the video is still "glitching" or "jerky" check your hard drives. I have found if everything resides on one drive or the drive is getting full this will be the problem. Raiding helps but you still have a lot of mechanical moving parts unless they are SSD's.

This is an excellent point raised. We generally recommend keeping a minimum of 20% free disk space so it has room to breathe. Also, media professionals would see a lot of benefit from regular use of a defragger. There's a myth that OS X doesn't need a defragger because it does it automatically. That's partly incorrect... it auto defrags very small files only. Anyone who works heavily with large files should see noticeable improvements by regular defragmentation (though not on an SSD... never defrag those!).
 
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Thank you all for the advise. Computer showed up today. Now I just need to get the cables to connect my two cinema displays to the VGIs on the video card . Or get a different video card with mini display ports built in. Oh, and order the SDRAM.
 

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All excellent advice so far. The only thing I would add concerns the hard drive. If you ever need to add new drives don't bother trying to capture to a 5400 rpm drive.

I haven't done nearly as much capturing as you do but I borked up some footage capturing to a brand new 5400 rpm drive a while back. I was shooting for a 7200 and got the wrong drive Everything captured too that drive had out of sync audio.
 

Slydude

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You're right those beasts are pretty well set for storage opportunities. Until my 2006 version died I had two smaller drives each with a different OS that were mostly for the OS and the occasional need to dump a file if I was at a loss for space elsewhere. The other two bays held either 500 GB or 1 TB drives (don't remember which). At the time larger drives were a bit pricy. Since I wasn't doing video professionally I couldn't justify the cost.
 
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Found memory to upgrade to 64GB. But the shop says there is a 48GB max on a 4 slot machine. So rather than installing 4-16GB they recommend 3-16GB. Does anyone know if this is true? and if so why?

Was going to get
64GB kit (4x16GB) DDR3 PC3-8500: • (x72) ECC• DIMMs for 8-12 Cores Mac Pro Models with 8-Memory Slots

Recommended by MaxUpgrades
48GB kit (3x16GB) DDR3 PC3-8500: • (x72) ECC• DIMMs
maxupgrades.com: 48GB kit (3x16GB) DDR3 1066 MHz :ECC x 72 PC3-8500 - 240-Pin SDRAM DIMMs for Mac Pro 2009-2012 [Model ID: 4,1 : 5,1]
 
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Updated response with more info.

Hello,

The system with 4 - Memory slots restricts the memory available on it to 48GB....it wont let the system to boot with all four 16GB populated...at this moment.

Although it sounds not that great ....but apple system ...does not allow 64GB on 4 Slots machines...yet.

It is a Hardware limitation...so far.

Best Regards
 
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Updated response with more info.

Hello,

The system with 4 - Memory slots restricts the memory available on it to 48GB....it wont let the system to boot with all four 16GB populated...at this moment.

Although it sounds not that great ....but apple system ...does not allow 64GB on 4 Slots machines...yet.

It is a Hardware limitation...so far.

Best Regards

EveryMac.com says it can recognize up to 96 GB, according to testing done by OWC.
Mac Pro "Eight Core" 2.4 (2010/Westmere) Specs (Mid-2010, MC561LL/A, MacPro5,1, A1289, 2314-2) @ EveryMac.com
 
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48GB for the Quad Core and 64GB for the 8 and 12 Core3 models. Four memory slots in the Quad, eight in the others. In fact Mactracker advises the 8/12 can handle up to 128GB. Great little app Mactracker. for all model Macs. Changes come about as memory manufacturers improve modules:-


http://www.mactracker.ca
 
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I thoroughly apologize for my idiocy and incompetence. It does indeed have 8 slots. Being the first time I looked inside one of these units, I didn't realize that there are 4 slots hidden on the opposite side. Well.... it wasn't obvious.
 
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No apologies buddy ~ we are all learners just at different stages of our development!

And we make allowances for musos lol (joke joke joke).
 
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Haha thanks.

Getting closer to launch. Still waiting on the DVI to Mini Display converters....

So in the meantime, the memory showed up. I put the (4) 16GBs in slots 1, 2, 5, 6. Replacing the (4) 2GB memory that was loaded in those slots.

Can I use the (4) 2GB modules in Slots 3,4,7,8? Or would they need to be 16GB to match?
For reference the new ones are 16GB DDR3 1066 MHz 240-pin DIMM Modules
The old ones are 2GB 1RX8 PC3-10600E-9-10-D0
 

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