New Mac Options

[James Steele]

But I still have the problem of … having to get a second (Thunderbolt?) monitor

No Mac has ever needed a Thunderbolt monitor.

Shows you how much I’ve kept up on this stuff. The more I read, the more likely it seems I’ll be sticking with my MacPro 5,1 12 core.

[HCMarkus]

If the 5,1 has enough oomph to fulfill one's DP needs, no reason to switch.

[greg328]

My thoughts exactly. If I can get Thunderbolt3 to work reliably using the Mac-flashed Titan-Ridge card, my 5.1 will be good to go for a long time. My only further wish is for the ability to run OS 11 Big Sur on my machine— call me a dreamer-
Greg


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[HCMarkus]

My thoughts exactly. If I can get Thunderbolt3 to work reliably using the Mac-flashed Titan-Ridge card, my 5.1 will be good to go for a long time. My only further wish is for the ability to run OS 11 Big Sur on my machine— call me a dreamer-
Greg


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Two Words for you: Open Core. Google it, or look here: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/op ... o.2207814/

[mikehalloran]

But I still have the problem of … having to get a second (Thunderbolt?) monitor

No Mac has ever needed a Thunderbolt monitor.

Shows you how much I’ve kept up on this stuff. The more I read, the more likely it seems I’ll be sticking with my MacPro 5,1 12 core.

If it works, it works, right?

If all I did was DP and wasn't handicapped, I'd be thinking along the same lines. The Apple Universe as it is with the ability of my devices to communicate the way they do really does improve my quality of life. I don't need so-called 'bleeding edge' 'state of the art', 'cutting edge' or any of that nonsense but I do need to keep current or not far behind—for me, that means Catalina on a really fast iMP. Big Sur needs a few more plugins to catch up.

[greg328]

Mike—curious- what major 3rd party plugs are not yet Big Sur-ready?


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[dix]

Mike—curious- what major 3rd party plugs are not yet Big Sur-ready?

Curious why updating to Big Sur is important to you, Greg.

Re why a new Mac? The inevitability of being shut out of M1-and-later apps and plugins is one reason. ...although the longer one waits the cheaper, the better the hardware options'll be.

[greg328]

Fair question, and one for which I don’t have a super substantive answer. All I can say is, I like the look of Big Sur on my MacBook Pro, and I don’t like the idea of being locked into an older, aging OS. It’s double-edged sword , our old processors in our old Mac pros at some point will not be able to run newer software, both programs and operating systems (that’s happening now).

So that’s why I want to eventually migrate into a newer machine.


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[mikehalloran]

Mike—curious- what major 3rd party plugs are not yet Big Sur-ready?

The number of my plugs and VIs not yet ready is growing fewer but I do not have a compelling reason to go with Big Sur. I probably will soon since iZotope, IK, Eventide and NI are ready. I can still boot from my Mojave drive if needed.

Very little of what I use is M1 ready except over Rosetta 2 but that's a bridge to cross when it's time for me to update to Apple Silicon. Not in a hurry.

[greg328]

Good answer, thank you Mike.


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[VitcoMusic]

So for me, the plan is to wait until there is a NEW Mac Pro with the NEW M1 chips, plenty of RAM and Pro slots and connections.

Who agrees? Who disagrees?

Agree 100%. It's what I'm waiting for as well. But if it's not significantly more affordable than the 7,1, I'll have to go for a Mini or a MacBook Pro with a bunch of external devices.

I think many of us are in that boat. Once the M1 Mini is available with at least 32g RAM, I'll likely pull the trigger. The CPU performance alone speaks for itself. Rosetta 2 seams to be working well for most 3rd party plugins. Just a matter of time before they are native ready.

[HCMarkus]

Yeah, a "Mini Pro" sounds like it might be a real winner for audio. It will be an adjustment, having to break away from the plethora of internal storage options we have enjoyed in our Mac Pros, not to mention PCIe slots, but I wouldn't be surprised if the Mac Pro 8,1 does not provide the best value for audio folk. For me, other than using external drives, the biggest question is what to do about Universal Audio. I mean, I like the plugins I have, but I'm not so invested that dropping a minimum of $800 for a Thunderbolt expander is a no-brainer. So many plugins. So little time.

[mothra]

Yeah, a "Mini Pro" sounds like it might be a real winner for audio. It will be an adjustment, having to break away from the plethora of internal storage options we have enjoyed in our Mac Pros, not to mention PCIe slots, but I wouldn't be surprised if the Mac Pro 8,1 does not provide the best value for audio folk. For me, other than using external drives, the biggest question is what to do about Universal Audio. I mean, I like the plugins I have, but I'm not so invested that dropping a minimum of $800 for a Thunderbolt expander is a no-brainer. So many plugins. So little time.

It wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be for me, but the only PCIe cards in my 5,1 were the Radeon RX570 and a USB 3.2(whatever they call it now) card I put in that didn't work so great to begin with. The drives turned out to be easy though. I was already minus one internal drive thanks to the SSD in the Mini, and my Time Machine and Storage are both external already. My audio and sample hard drives both went into a single enclosure and between that and the Mini there is waaaaaaaaaay less space taken up, and you don't hear anything anymore. Never noticed how much ambient noise my Mac Pro made until the day the Mini came home and I turned it off heh. I lost my Bootcamp drive, but thats still in the Pro if I really need it, along with the Mojave hard drive drive, and I only used Windows to play games anyways.

[HCMarkus]

My Mac Pro is in a machine closet Mothra, so the noise it makes is inconsequential to me. That said, being able to use my 828ES via Thunderbolt likely means the new computer, whenever that happens, will probably have to be situated the control room with me, so quiet is definitely good!

Wondering if the forthcoming (one can hope) "Mini Pro" will be fanless or fanned. Either way, it will certainly be far quieter than ye olde 5,1.

In the meantime, the 12 core shepherds my projects along with nary a complaint but for the fact it tends to bog down as projects swell.

[dix]

If the 5,1 has enough oomph to fulfill one's DP needs, no reason to switch.

Agreed, but the reasons to think about a new Mac are piling up…

I’m wondering if other 5,1 cMP users are experiencing the slowdowns in DP that I am when working to picture. I’m waiting to hear from MOTU support, but I’m beginning to suspect that video in DP11 has been optimized for either a newer Mac, or a newer OS than mine, or both.

I go into detail on my issue here. I’d love to hear from other old 5,1 cMPers on this. viewtopic.php?f=1&t=69234&p=586117#p586117