Recommended Mac for Motu setup on moderate budget

[alainmallet]

Hi friends. Las time I changed my setup I turned to this forum for advice and was well rewarded so here I come again.
I am currently using a 2008 Mac Pro tower which has served me really well, it's beefed up as much as possible with 22GB of memory, two SSD drives, and I'm running Yosemite.
I use an 828 MKll (firewire), and my setup revolves mostly around DP, Kontakt and my UAD octo card.
My professional priorities have changed as I mostly use my setup for demoing my own music, then transferring tracks recorded in Pro Tools back to DP, doing overdubs in post production, some virtual some audio, then mixing in DP. As a result of this method I often run 30+ audio tracks with plugins and some MIDI stuff as well as plugins and my 2008 Mac is sometimes struggling with this much stuff.
In my home studio I never record anything more than a stereo pair of mics at a time.
I will however have to purchase many things at once, new interface, a chassis for UAD cards, and one for external drives, hence my limited budget.
I'm probably looking at a UAD apollo as a main interface so I need a Mac that can handle the kind of session described above, but the iMac Pro is out of my budget, plus I like doing my own expansion which apparently the iMac pro does not allow, and a later generation Mac Pro (pre trash can) wouldn't support the thunderbolt standard. So I wonder if any of you have experience running this type of setup on an iMac, and if so, could you recommend a setup that would be a step up from my current one.
Thanks in advance.
Alain Mallet

[HCMarkus]

If you are truly on a budget, a 5,1 or 4,1 bumped to 5,1 Mac Pro would allow you to use your current interface and drives. Big speed increases moving from 3,1. You can build a hex Mac Pro with 32 gigs of RAM for less than $500 if you shop smart. I built a 5,1 12 core for just a few dollars more than that a few months ago.

[mikehalloran]

a chassis for UAD cards,

Which ones? It makes a big difference. Only the newer ones have firmware that supports a TB/PCI chassis. If yours are older, HCM’s suggestion of an updated 5.1 is the only one that works.

If compatible, then an iMac can be considered.

[alainmallet]

Yes they are the newer UAD2 cards indeed.

[alainmallet]

Thanks HCMarkus. Yes I thought about this first but there are several reasons why I'm considering other options. One is that although I like tweaking my Mac, I am not savvy enough to build one from scratch, so I'd have to start with a pre-configured machine and they still run upwards of $1,600 as far as I can tell. Now, that's still within my budget but should I really sink more money into a system that's already antiquated in certain ways, I'm not sure that's wise. The other point is that moving to a Thunderbolt interface would allow me to have an easy tracking setup that I could use with my laptop, and that's another plus, not essential, but attractive nonetheless.
I may end up with some version of your suggestion but am still curious to get feedback about the iMac options.
Cheers
Alain

[mikehalloran]

The 2011 iMac is the first with Thunderbolt. It’s easy to install your current SSDs into it. The heat sensor and toolkit runs under $50 while the bracket for one is $12 and you use tape to secure the other. It has an extra SATA bus so you can keep the SuperDrive.

The latest and greatest Macs right now are the current iMac and iMac Pro. They have Thunderbolt 3 making them compatible with eGPU. No sense in me rewriting this:

viewtopic.php?f=4&t=64844&hilit=iMac+pro

Because of the FPU, you want an i7 for DP. 32G RAM is recommended.

For what you are looking to do, any 2011 or later iMac 27” i7 will work. The iMac Pro is the only one you can’t crack yourself to replace SSDs and RAM.

[alainmallet]

Thank you Mike. That gives me a place to start.
Much obliged.
Alain

[bayswater]

Have a look here. http://osxdaily.com/2018/06/05/ios-12-s ... ices-list/
The 2011 iMac will not be compatible with Mojave. That may or may not matter depending on your plans. It probably won't matter for MOTU stuff, but will make a difference at least with Apple apps.

[mikehalloran]

Yep. Mid 2012 and later iMac. Almost as easy to update except that you have only one SATA bus instead of three. Instead of magnets & screws, the screen is held on with a $20 double-stick foam tape kit and you use guitar picks or a plastic pizza wheel to separate it. Yes, really.

Otherwise, it takes the same heat sensor and bracket.

[alainmallet]

Thank you all for your replies.
At this time, and given the budget, I have narrowed it down to A 2012 Mac pro 5.1 12 core with 64gb of memory. The new iMacs are just out of my league, and the interface I was looking at, the UAD Twin duo, only works with TB, Mac pro 6.1 are still way pricier. So I figured I'd keep my audio cards, get a speedier machine, transfer my SSDs over and milk this system for a few more years.
I'm currently running Yosemite but the seller can install any OS. Any recommendation as to the least buggy OS for this configuration? I looked through the forum but couldn't find such discussion if it exists already.
Also, since I'll keep my Motu firewire interface, I'll have a free PCIe slot. Would there be any benefit to putting the SSDs on a PCIe card considering my use which is on average 30 tracks of audio and a bunch of VIs
Running latest DP version, Kontakt 5.xx, all Spectrasonic stuff except keyscape, and UAD 2 Octo and duo cards
Thank you.

[mikehalloran]

When Apple settles on the mature version of an OS release, it’s the least buggy. Right now it’s High Sierra 10.13.5. That’s why you don’t see a lot of discussion on this. It will also be the focus of the latest security updates.

There are some users using some apps with some Macs where this may not be true (I’m locked into 10.13.3 until I buy something newer). Then there are those who will swear that 10.6, 10.8 or 10.11 is the best for whatever reason ... fine, keep it off the internet for tightest security and don’t expect to run the latest apps. FWIW, DP from 9.13 is optimized to run on El Cap or later and runs best on the current OS.

There is no way to add Thunderbolt to a 5.1 Mac Pro. Ok, do you really need it? It doesn’t appear so. If the interface you want to use is TB only, then an upgraded 5.1 won’t work. There it is.

There are ways to increase the SATA bus speed to 6G using PCIe cards. Even faster is an integrated PCIe SSD blade. I’ve not heard that the speed increase justifies the money spent with audio apps. AV? Oh yes but, if you are doing serious AV work, you’re looking an an iMac Pro or waiting for the next Mac Pro.

Future OS upgrades, beginning with OS 10.14 Mojave, require a Metal compatible GPU. Others know more about these than I do. I expect that, in the coming months, someone will put out a comprehensive list. Apple announced this just a few days ago.
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/8257830

[alainmallet]

Once again Mike, thanks for the most helpful reply.
I don't anticipate moving to Mojave any time soon so no problem there.
I think my mind's made up.
Much obliged.
Alain

[alainmallet]

Actually, one last question pertaining to all that if I may.
My new computer has a APPLE ATI 5770 1GB VIDEO CARD
My current 3.1 has a ATI RADEON HD 4870 512 MB
Will one perform better than the other? I've compared the specs only to realize that they meant nothing to me
Should I swap the 5770 for the 4870 or should I leave things alone.
Cheers
Alain

[HCMarkus]

https://www.anandtech.com/bench/product/513?vs=538

The two GPUs are very close. The 5770 will run quieter and cooler, which might be the most important thing if your Mac Pro is in your studio itself.

I'm running Sierra, with good results. Was previously running Mountain Lion and happy there, until I got a 4k monitor and new GPu (AMD RX460 - Gigabyte 4 GB version) which required Sierra.

Your new machine will run High Sierra as well, as will mine, but I haven't felt the need to move as of yet.