Audio-Engineers -- Help Me Buy a New Mac

[WhatstheUse?]

So it's time for me to upgrade -- I'm now using a MacBook Pro laptop that I purchased about 4 years ago.  I love it, but it has been having some issues lately, and for the type of audio production stuff I am doing, it just isn't cutting it.  Time for me to get a desktop.

Unfortunately, while I have a decent amount of knowledge with audio-engineering and Pro-Tools, I'm basically retarded when it comes to the technical aspects of computers.... processors?... ram?.... you've already lost me  :? (ok, not really, but somewhat)


So I've essentially decided on the Mac Pro, but I'm a little lost w/ the processor/ram necessities that are needed for working with ProTools and audio recording.  It seems the 2 most basic options are:

the quad core, with one 2.66GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon processor and 3GB memory

and

the 8-core, with Two 2.26GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon processors and 6GB memory

then, from there, there are plenty of other upgrades possible... should I be more concerned w/ processor speed, or memory? or both?

Really any input you guys have is appreciated  :-)

[fauxpaxfauxreal]

I thought this was going to be a sweet fundraising thread.

/thread doesn't deliver.

[WhatstheUse?]

Well donations are surely welcome....

[whyweigh5.0]

I thought this was going to be a sweet fundraising thread.

/thread doesn't deliver.

you can direct all of your paypals to whyweigh (at) hotmail (dot) com
I will be sure WTU gets his cut :mrgreen:

[WhatstheUse?]

:shakehead:

this thread is not looking promising for me....

[Marmar]

Ok man....

RAM.....as much as you can afford....you can NEVER have too much RAM in a DAW....

Once you get into the dual/quad/octo cores, speed doesn't matter that much....My new dual Xeon is 2.4gHz....plenty fast enough.....

The only other things left to consider are your storage subsystems....SATA and SCSI are the only way to go IMHO when it comes to this.....RAID is nice, fast, and redundant......but if you don't split your subsystems, at least configure your system for faster throughput.....again, the faster the better....I got 15k rpm scsi discs and sata discs for that....all my "storage" is on an IDE channel.....

[fauxpaxfauxreal]

It's saturday night, bruh.

I'm sure McGrupp, Caravan2001, Mattstick (especially), Hicks et al will be back soon enough with good suggestions.

[whyweigh5.0]

I can be like... your agent.  Just share your monies and milfs/cougars

[Marmar]

It's saturday night, bruh.

I'm sure McGrupp, Caravan2001, Mattstick (especially), Hicks et al will be back soon enough with good suggestions.

yeah...cuz I wouldn't know  :roll:

[fauxpaxfauxreal]

It's saturday night, bruh.

I'm sure McGrupp, Caravan2001, Mattstick (especially), Hicks et al will be back soon enough with good suggestions.

yeah...cuz I wouldn't know  :roll:

Yr in the et al.  I think I confused you with McGrupp, actually.  You know, the Mar names.  It wasn't personal, bruh. 

[Marmar]

I mean....WTU, gimme an idea of what kid of use the DAW will be seeing, and I am pretty sure I can point ya in the right direction...

You gonna recorod sessions?.....Desktop Production?......Post/Mastering......??

[Marmar]

It's saturday night, bruh.

I'm sure McGrupp, Caravan2001, Mattstick (especially), Hicks et al will be back soon enough with good suggestions.

yeah...cuz I wouldn't know  :roll:

Yr in the et al.  I think I confused you with McGrupp, actually.  You know, the Mar names.  It wasn't personal, bruh. 

lol...it's all good in da h00d brah

[WhatstheUse?]

I mean....WTU, gimme an idea of what kid of use the DAW will be seeing, and I am pretty sure I can point ya in the right direction...

You gonna recorod sessions?.....Desktop Production?......Post/Mastering......??

Essentially, recording sessions and post production.  I plan to be doing a lot of recording with full bands, as well as fusing  electronic music w/ live audio, probably using re-wire w/reason or other similar programs

RAM.....as much as you can afford....you can NEVER have too much RAM in a DAW....

Once you get into the dual/quad/octo cores, speed doesn't matter that much....My new dual Xeon is 2.4gHz....plenty fast enough.....

The only other things left to consider are your storage subsystems....SATA and SCSI are the only way to go IMHO when it comes to this.....RAID is nice, fast, and redundant......but if you don't split your subsystems, at least configure your system for faster throughput.....again, the faster the better....I got 15k rpm scsi discs and sata discs for that....all my "storage" is on an IDE channel.....

awesome, and thank you.... like I said I'm kind of clueless about this stuff...

Care on expanding on that last point about storage subsystems at all.... it's a little over my head (so maybe not actually "expanding" but dumbing down  :-P)

[Marmar]

dig....

it's all about BUSSES.....just like in recording man.....you get too much going on in a bus and it sounds like ass...so you split some channels to another bus for finer control.....

So with your storage...if you have it split across different busses, you'll get better throuput than if it was all on one bus.....your CPU's can multitask, so let them read a book, watch TV, and listen to the radio all at the same time.....MUCH more information can flow

[Marmar]

Oh...and to add....from the sounds of it, the quad core will be plenty fine....just get more RAM for it.....

Unless you are planning on running like 128 tracks or something.....then get the octo....and MOAR RAM

Remember...the rule of thumb with DAW's: MOAR RAM PLEEZE!