I've decided to move to a Windows Machine

[MIDI Life Crisis]

No, I know what flashing is. I'm just pulling ya legs.

[sampolfonz]

No. It takes 8GB sticks. I have 24 gigs (3x8) in mine. 4x8 = 32.

It is very easy do the CPU upgrade, and pretty hard ot screw it up, but I understand your concerns. Good luck, whatever you choose to do!

Mr H. Marcus:

Here is why I question your telling me I can put 8 gig memory sticks in my machine and take it up to 32. (from the Mac Specs page for my machine)

Mac Pro (Early 2009) - Technical Specifications
Processing

8-core: Two 2.26GHz, 2.66GHz, or 2.93GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon 5500 series processors
Quad-core: One 2.66GHz, 2.93GHz, or 3.33GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon 3500 series processor
Next-generation Intel microarchitecture
8MB of fully shared L3 cache per processor
Integrated memory controller
Turbo Boost dynamic performance (up to 3.33GHz on 8-core 2.93GHz system, up to 3.6GHz on quad-core 3.33GHz system)
Hyper-Threading technology for up to 16 virtual cores
128-bit SSE4 SIMD engine
64-bit data paths and registers
Optimized for energy efficiency

Memory

1066MHz DDR3 ECC SDRAM
8-core: Eight memory slots (four per processor) supporting up to 32GB of main memory using 1GB, 2GB, or 4GB DIMMs
Quad-core: Four memory slots supporting up to 16GB of main memory using 1GB, 2GB, or 4GB DIMMs


This makes me wonder if your machine is different than mine. I called APPLE this morning and asked about my machine, which is a 2.66 Quad Core. They told me it would only take 4 GB Dims, max, 4 slots, 16 gig ram.

Now, you have been telling me to upgrade my processor and put the 8 gig sticks in. What am I missing here? Apple says 16 gig max and you say 32.
Maybe my machine cannot be upgraded processor same way as yours as it might be a different machine.

What say you?

S

[studio_651]

sometimes there's a difference between the amount of RAM apple guarantees will work and what will actually work. the specs on the apple site originally said that my 2010 3.33 ghz hexacore mac pro could only support 16 gb of ram, but i've been running 32 gb successfully for almost two years with zero problems. OWC tends to be a good source for the real world RAM limitations on specific macs. you might want to check their tech pages, or maybe email or live chat with their technical support team and see what they've found to be the max on yours (they've always been very helpful to me).

[kgdrum]

sometimes there's a difference between the amount of RAM apple guarantees will work and what will actually work. the specs on the apple site originally said that my 2010 3.33 ghz hexacore mac pro could only support 16 gb of ram, but i've been running 32 gb successfully for almost two years with zero problems. OWC tends to be a good source for the real world RAM limitations on specific macs. you might want to check their tech pages, or maybe email or live chat with their technical support team and see what they've found to be the max on yours (they've always been very helpful to me).

+1 agreed!
OWC
Has the best real world Mac related tech support I've ever encountered,they know what they're talking about and are totally honest.
I've never felt they had a hidden sales agenda behind their recommendations.

[studio_651]

i wanted to follow up with the results of farming out my orchestral template to my new PC (via VE Pro 5 over my gigabit LAN) instead of running it on the same computer as DP.

before:
2010 6-core 3.33 ghz mac pro with 32 gb ram running os 10.6.8, DP 7.24, and VE Pro 5. boot drive: 2 TB western digital caviar black w/ 64 mb cache. sample drives: 3 OWC 6G mercury pro extreme SSDs connected at SATA 6G speeds through an OWC mercury rack pro enclosure and a newertech 6g maxpowerraid pcie card (they connect to eachother via mini-SAS cable). my audio interface is an RME fireface 800 with the newest drivers. i hosted all of my virtual instruments outside of DP in one instance of VE Pro 5. that VE Pro instance contained 14 kontakts (most of them had 16 instruments, but the 5 LASS instances contained more than that via ARC 2.0 and its ability to keyswitch instruments loaded into banks B, C, and D). even with all of this firepower, i was still maxing out my CPU on busy orchestral cues no matter how i had things configured (at a cost of "i've lost track it's been so expensive" = probably around $7500 for the processor upgrade, the memory upgrade price at the time, the ssds, the 6g external drive enclosure setup, etc.).

after:
last month i built a PC to use as an auxiliary machine (i.e. "slave" - i wish there was a better term we could use for that). it has a 6-core (12 threads) i7 3930k processor running at its stock speed of 3.2 ghz so far (most people say that 4.5 ghz is extremely easy to achieve, but i wanted to test it without overclocking it yet). i loaded it up with 64 gb of ram, 3 samsung ssds, a 1 TB caviar black boot drive, asus sabertooth x79 mobo, and a corsair h100 cooler. i've copied my kontakt libraries over to it, installed komplete 8, ve pro 5, and updated everything including the windows os and drivers (by the way, windows 7 is very easy to work with - and this is coming from a guy who hasn't touched a pc since 1999). i ported my VE Pro template over to the PC by saving my multis over. the cost of the entire machine, including windows 7 oem software and norton internet security 2012, was approx. $2500 (and that was using zero existing hardware, other than an older drive that i use for backups).

before:
a recent heavily orchestrated cue kept maxing out my mac pro's cpu even after hours of experimenting with buffer rates (256, 512, 1024), sampling rates (44.1, 48), DP work priority, VE Pro thread count, VE Pro buffer settings (0 through 4), kontakt multiprocessing on/off, kontakt # of cores, etc. i still had about 8 gb of ram free and no page outs or swaps showed up in activity monitor. DP was not redlining, but VE Pro's cpu use would spike to 100% at the climax of the song and i'd have instruments drop out and get pops & clicks.

after:
i ran the same cue tonight but with my template loaded into my auxiliary PC instead. with my audio interface set at a 256 buffer, and my VE Pro buffer set at 1, i got zero audio artifacts, and my VE Pro cpu barely tickled 42% at the climax of the song. that's with the same number of ssds, the same connection speed (6g), and the same number of processor cores (actually, the PC's processor is running 133 mhz slower). the memory is also running at 1333 on both machines so that's a constant as well.

part of these results are coming from just dividing the load between 2 computers (asking much less from the mac pro's processor), but i was very surprised by how much more powerful/efficient the PC was in handling my template. this thing is a beast!

the only way to really test the two machines against each other is to load the DP session on the PC and load the template on the mac (the reverse of what i tested tonight), and to also test how the PC does hosting both DP and my VE Pro template at the same time without any help from other computers. i can't do that until the pc version of DP 8 is released (just ordered my upgrade today). i'll let you all know what i find at that point.

in summary, here's what i've found over the last couple of months:
* you can build a KILLER 6-core pc for $2500 that trounces a maxed-out 6-core mac pro that costs $7500.
* building a PC is not that hard, but requires a decent amount of research in order to find the right components for your goals, to find the best prices (i made a spreadsheet to compare the prices of all of my components at newegg, tigerdirect, amazon, and microcenter), to make sure that they'll all play nicely together, and to make sure you put it together correctly.
* windows 7 is not that hard to install, update, partition & format, set up a backup schedule, install drivers, and keep safe from viruses and malware.
* make sure to enable "jumbo packets" on your gigabit network when using VE Pro to connect your main and auxiliary computers.
* it feels good to be ready for whatever direction apple decides to take as far as its pro market (mac pros or other solutions for video, audio, and graphics professionals). i know now that if i really needed to, i could go all PC (but i wouldn't like it!).
* i still prefer the mac os, shortcuts, keyboard, etc. and will hopefully be able to keep it as my main computer forever.
* sharemouse software is awesome for sharing a keyboard and mouse between multiple macs & pcs without using a kvr switch. http://www.share-mouse.com/

that's all i can think of for now, but i just wanted to let you guys know that i've been to PC land, and it wasn't nearly as scary as i thought it would be. in fact, it's safe, very powerful, more upgradeable, and extremely cost-efficient!

matt

[sampolfonz]

Matt,

This is encouraging. My setup is not nearly as complex as yours and my requirements will not be, I'm sure.

However, this is the kind of information I need as I have ordered my copy of Digital Performer 8, but the sales person said the Windows version will not be included, but will be shipped at a later date. Bummer....

Anyway, I will be interested in moving my entire recording system over to this new pc we are building, which is pricing out at about the same you said. I would be interested in seeing your spreadsheet on your parts. From what I remember, we had both arrived at the same MB, processor and other components.

I will be watching closely...

Thanks.

S

[studio_651]

here's my spreadsheet (i'm such a nerd). i got a little lazy toward the end as far as filling out every little cell. i did compare them all, but i just started just filling in the best price once i found it.

here's a link to a bigger copy so you can read it better:
http://www.mattmortonmusic.com/images/0 ... 00x596.jpg