Page 4 of 4

Re: Apple Releases Mountain Lion

Posted: Sat Feb 18, 2012 5:38 pm
by MIDI Life Crisis
My thought exactly and that is exactly what I did. I'm on the cusp of the 64 bit line (probably the first 64 bit machine in the line for that matter) but I'm happy with it and got a bargain price for a pro studio. It even came with two extra hard drives, 2 optical writers (DVD) and a few extras. Rock solid!

Re: Apple Releases Mountain Lion

Posted: Sat Feb 18, 2012 6:06 pm
by Michael Canavan
Yeah I'm eyeballing the Mac Pro (Early 2009) Intel Xeon E5520 2.27 GHz (8 cores)
Model. It's essentially the exact same machine as the 2.93ghz model with a slower CPU, and people have very successfully replaced the 2.27 with the 2.93!
Geekbench puts that at five times more powerful than the current laptop I have.
http://www.primatelabs.ca/geekbench/mac-benchmarks/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

They're currently going on ebay for as low as $1700. I'm assuming another $500-700 would drop off that price if the market was flooded with used Mac Pros! My price range in Spring, Summer.

:headbang:

Re: Apple Releases Mountain Lion

Posted: Sat Feb 18, 2012 6:31 pm
by MIDI Life Crisis
Or the used prices could go up!

Apple Releases Mountain Lion

Posted: Sat Feb 18, 2012 6:41 pm
by kgdrum
Yeah, I love my 2008 Quad Mac Pro
But I have the same type of plan in mind.If the next generation MacPro's get released w/thunderbolt, I intend to grab either a 2009 or 2010 8 or 6 core. I also expect the prices to be reasonable in this scenario.
I think I will aim for a higher processor initially, I expect the market prices will be low enough. Rather than getting a used Mac and adding the upgraded processors, I will attempt to get one that I will not feel the need to upgrade this way.
I do think if Thunderbolt hits the MacPro line it will be great for us as I would expect the used non TB Macs to stay reasonably priced.

Re: Apple Releases Mountain Lion

Posted: Sat Feb 18, 2012 7:07 pm
by Frodo
HCMarkus wrote:...My suggestion is, do what I've been doing for years with my Quad G5: Dual boot partitions, so you can have that stalwart OS ready to rock, but you can also play with the latest OS when doing non-critical stuff, like email and web surfing or when an application you want to try requires it.
Sir Bravus: You and I talked about this a long time ago. I think we were buying our Raptors at the same time as if they were actually going extinct!!

I skipped the partition approach and just went with dedicated drives each for Tiger, Leopard and SL. I'm about to wipe my Leopard drive because I just don't use it at all. (It's cloned, fwiw.)

Indeed-- DP 5.13 and Tiger got a lot more mileage than I thought they would while I waited for things in SL to catch up. It was great to have that combo to fall back on reliably. Now that DP 7.24 and OSX 10.6.8 are getting along nicely with my humble hoard of cherished plugins and VIs, life is good.

I may be picking your brain about the 2012 MacPro as info surfaces (if it is to be a reality).

Re: Apple Releases Mountain Lion

Posted: Sat Feb 18, 2012 8:48 pm
by HCMarkus
Frodo wrote:I may be picking your brain about the 2012 MacPro as info surfaces (if it is to be a reality).
The point raised about the 2010 getting affordable when the new Mac Pros are released is a good one... it will be most interesting to compare bang for the buck when the 2012s finally arrive.

On the other hand, it has been six years since I owned state of the art. It would be fun to enjoy hanging out in that rarefied again (as short-lived as it inevitably will be), presuming the bank allows it...

And SSD's will be our Raptors.

Re: Apple Releases Mountain Lion

Posted: Tue Feb 21, 2012 3:16 am
by Frodo
If I'm to invest in a new system, I certainly want to take some of the new tech and connectivity into consideration-- ie: Thunderbolt. I'm sure that PCI-e will still be important for me, so that alone could keep me in refurb world for a while longer.

RAM speed is fairly important to me, and 1333 Mhz on the Westmere machines is where I'd like to start. I suspect that RAM speed will be a bit faster on the 2012s, if they appear. I mean, if I'm going to do this I may as well get into the future and grow into it rather than to back into it (again).

Re: Apple Releases Mountain Lion

Posted: Tue Feb 21, 2012 3:46 am
by zed
Frodo wrote:I mean, if I'm going to do this I may as well get into the future and grow into it rather than to back into it (again).
I agree that that is probably your best strategy. You are being forced into making a change, so try to make a change that will serve you the longest. Though you run the risk, of course, of being in the same position again in a few years, where the model you purchased in a new generation of Macs did not have full capabilities and cannot work properly with newer technologies in 2-3 years from now. I guess that is true of anyone buying a new Mac, but you got particularly screwed in buying into an Intel before they had made them 64-bit bootable.

I guess we just have to wait to find out how the new Macs are looking in terms of features and technology.

I don't think I am gonna buy a second-hand Mac again, if I can avoid it. This current one has given me a bundle of trouble, and I just don't know if the previous user is responsible or not. But I hope I can put off the decision to buy a new one for at least another 2 years.
HCMarkus wrote:...presuming the bank allows it...
Presuming that indeed. :shock: :-)

Re: Apple Releases Mountain Lion

Posted: Sat Mar 10, 2012 12:16 am
by Timeline
What is the consensus over 64 bit with everyone? Is this doable now on say the later intels or are we waiting for more OS changes? I have not been following it. WhenI boot 64 my UAD1 does not come up? Machine 2.93 8 core 2009 Thanks.

Apple Releases Mountain Lion

Posted: Sat Mar 10, 2012 5:22 am
by kgdrum
Timeline wrote:What is the consensus over 64 bit with everyone? Is this doable now on say the later intels or are we waiting for more OS changes? I have not been following it. WhenI boot 64 my UAD1 does not come up? Machine 2.93 8 core 2009 Thanks.

UAD is working on moving to 64 bit,exactly when who knows but I was told late Spring or early Summer from someone I have talked to many times there. From my understanding the 64bit transition will not include UAD1 as its hasn't been a current product for some time, I expect you'd need to move to a UAD2 product once they make the move towards 64bit.

Re: Apple Releases Mountain Lion

Posted: Sat Mar 10, 2012 5:46 am
by Timeline
Well Kg.. I downloaded the newest UAD 1 driver last night late and it worked. Strangely at first, some of the master fader plugs didn't but I re-inserted them and all was well. Wonder if your wrong about UAD1? also.... Here is a link I found on Apple Insider about the Mac Pros from late last year. It is a bit concerning and possibly a topic for another thread but I don't post threads anymore.

http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/11 ... c_pro.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;


VEry curios if since then they have continued the line. Anyone try to buy a 12 core lately?

Apple Releases Mountain Lion

Posted: Sat Mar 10, 2012 6:16 am
by kgdrum
The card being recognized in a 64bit kernel is not the same as the card being rewritten to operate at 64bit in a 64bit DAW,I presume you tried in DP7,if so this is still a 32bit DAW and yes it works in a Mac running OSX in a 64bit kernel.

This is from UA in their forum:

Found this in the Apollo Audio Interface Basics & FAQ:

What about 64-bit support?

Apollo ships with 64-bit drivers, so it works great as an interface in 64-bit DAW applications. UAD Powered Plug-Ins are still 32-bit at this time, but we are currently working on updating all UAD-2 plug-ins to 64-bit. This project will be completed in 2012, and will be a free update for our customers.

http://www.studionu.com/uadforums/viewt ... =1&t=15655" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Re: Apple Releases Mountain Lion

Posted: Sat Mar 10, 2012 6:56 am
by Timeline
Oh,ok KG. Thanks for that clarification. Guess I'll have to try and upgrade eventually.
As long as it works this well I think I'll wait though.

Apple Releases Mountain Lion

Posted: Sat Mar 10, 2012 7:22 am
by kgdrum
Last summer UA had a great deal on the Quad that I took advantage of.
I hope they have a similar promotion this Summer so I can get another one.
They usually have a sale late July or August into September.
Many of the newer(amazing as well) plugs are not available for the UAD1 cards, I sold 3 I had in December.I was glad there's still a market for them.Both my cards and my old Magma PCI chassis sold to PT TDM users.