Advice on New Macs

[HCMarkus]

I have done the 8 core upgrade. And it did increase my CPU and all in all, went well. But I have having various strange issues with the latest DP 9.51 etc, and waves. And I cannot help but wonder if having upgraded my machine is somehow connected to issues I am having.

I sincerely doubt any issues you are experiencing are due to the upgrade itself, assuming it was properly done. My opinion is based on the fact that you are one among many hundreds, likely many thousands, running similarly modified Mac Pros without issue. There are many other potential failure points... most in software, but also extending to RAM, motherboard, GPU, power supply and more.

Xeon X5680 and 90 CPUs are pin-compatible with the quad CPUs they replaced in your machine. And, once the 4,1 Mac Pro is running 5,1 firmware, it is for all intents and purpose a 5,1. The only difference between the hex CPUs that shipped in dual 5,1s and the X5680 or 90 is clock speed and power consumption, and the fact the Mac Pro heatsinks easily handle the additional thermal load renders power consumption a non-issue.

Computers are not voodoo; they only seem like it sometimes. With DP9.5, MOTU implemented a lot of under-the-hood changes to the pitch engine. The bugs will be squashed, and it won't be in hardware.

[dreamuse]

Thanks to all who replied to my question about upgrading this early 2009 prehistoric beast. As I've got it tricked out with 2 TB of SSD's and don't believe I need the latest I/O options, it'd indeed be great to keep it working for another year (or 2) before we see the modular Mac Pro's.

One more question, if I may: As prices for used Xeons are continuing to fall (at least from the start of this thread), or can this machine use a 5690?

Thanks so much again.

Len

[dreamuse]

I have done the 8 core upgrade. And it did increase my CPU and all in all, went well. But I have having various strange issues with the latest DP 9.51 etc, and waves. And I cannot help but wonder if having upgraded my machine is somehow connected to issues I am having such as relative pitch mode re draw not working right, and waves automation having problems. Are these and other issues due to a 12 core cpu in a machine meant to be 8 core? Do my issues have nothing to do with the upgrade? I don’t know. But it does make me wonder. I do feel if I got some sort of brand new mac, and started from scratch, I’d likely see various issues resolve themselves. This is all highly technical stuff of course. So to know the answers requires technical research beyond my capability. Just sharing my experiences for what they are worth. Some 9.5 users swear their machines are running very well. Others are having problems. I think 9.51 pretty much sucks and has become sluggish on my machine. Is it the machine? Is it Sierra? Who the heck knows.

I've had these same issues on my non-upgraded machine, so not to worry that you did any damage.

[HCMarkus]

...can this machine use a X5690?

Thanks so much again.

Len

Yes! Two of 'em. It's the fastest CPU that will work, and many are running X5690s in modified 4,1s.

I have two single-CPU 4,1s flashed to 5,1s. One runs A W3680 and one a W3690. The X56xx series (which also work in single CPU Mac Pros) are required for dual-CPU Mac Pros as they provide the required interconnectivity.

My guess is the 5690s are the parts that binned better than the 5680s but are otherwise identical to the 5680s. If I recall correctly, both are 130 Watt parts.

[dreamuse]

That's great to hear, and thanks!

[jb]

I'm also in that crowd running pre-ashtray Mac Pros (4,1 here)and looking
at ways to get more performance (besides multiple ssd's for streaming sound libs which I have) until the next wave of mac pros comes out,
we're told sometimes in 2018 but it could very well be 2019...

In the meanwhile I'm looking at recent quad core iMacs (2015-16-17)
and see them outperform the 2013 mac pros on benchmark tests for a variety
of tasks.

so I was thinking of moving to a refurbished/used fairly recent quad core iMac and keeping my old mac pro to use with VE Pro over ethernet, basically as a sound module with all it's streaming internal drives, anybody else thought of going that route?

PS. the iMac pros are also coming out this month and are supposed to be beasts but entry level is almost 5k, and RAM prices are rising also..

[HCMarkus]

I'm also in that crowd running pre-ashtray Mac Pros (4,1 here)and looking
at ways to get more performance (besides multiple ssd's for streaming sound libs which I have) until the next wave of mac pros comes out,
we're told sometimes in 2018 but it could very well be 2019...

At the risk of sounding like a broken record, have you considered turning your 4,1 2.66 eight core into a 5,1 3.33 twelve core? Double your CPU HP for $150 if you de-lid the PCUs yourself. Add $100 or so to have someone de-lid for you.

[mikehalloran]

My issue with the current iMacs is the lack of internal storage- unless you go with a hybrid drive—a kluge that doesn’t work with the current OS—Apple should have abandoned it by now.

My 2010 has a 2T internal SSD — I could upgrade to 12T if I had the need (4T on the foot drive) and wanted to spend the $$$$ (also true of a 2011). A 2009 can handle up to 8T. After 2011, the max is only 5T—still a lot. So why won’t Apple offer more than 1T of SSD on an iMac (or current Mac Pro)?
https://eshop.macsales.com/item/OWC/SSDA13MP2.0K/

Yes, I know that you can add storage through Thunderbolt but more and more apps function best when everything is on the boot drive.

Hopefully

[jb]

I'm also in that crowd running pre-ashtray Mac Pros (4,1 here)and looking
at ways to get more performance (besides multiple ssd's for streaming sound libs which I have) until the next wave of mac pros comes out,
we're told sometimes in 2018 but it could very well be 2019...

At the risk of sounding like a broken record, have you considered turning your 4,1 2.66 eight core into a 5,1 3.33 twelve core? Double your CPU HP for $150 if you de-lid the PCUs yourself. Add $100 or so to have someone de-lid for you.

Broken record is fine, I'm a vinyl fan ...

Yes I had heard about this 5,1 upgrade and seeing more info about it last night form all the posts here made me start reading about it, it sounds like a super fair bang for the buck, especially now that you can get it done and avoid downtime when going under the hood and risk something going wrong,
Thanks you for posting + the additional info.

[jb]

My issue with the current iMacs is the lack of internal storage- unless you go with a hybrid drive—a kluge that doesn’t work with the current OS—Apple should have abandoned it by now.

My 2010 has a 2T internal SSD — I could upgrade to 12T if I had the need (4T on the foot drive) and wanted to spend the $$$$ (also true of a 2011). A 2009 can handle up to 8T. After 2011, the max is only 5T—still a lot. So why won’t Apple offer more than 1T of SSD on an iMac (or current Mac Pro)?
https://eshop.macsales.com/item/OWC/SSDA13MP2.0K/

Yes, I know that you can add storage through Thunderbolt but more and more apps function best when everything is on the boot drive.

Hopefully

Yes I hear you, I was thinking of doing just that, running ssd's trough thunderbolt, the transfer rates are much faster than anything I have on my 4,1 and it's internal drives (both HHD and SSD, various PCIE accelerator etc...).

I'm actually streaming 2 ssd's with an Akitio Thdbolt enclosure with my 2012 macBook Pro and I'm pretty amazed than I can open huge orchestral sessions at home and it performs pretty close to my studio set up on the 4,1...
A friend of mine in LA is actually doing the master/slave thing with a recent MB Pro plus his 5,1 and a PC as slaves trough VE Pro and is very happy with the results for his massive film scoring cues..
That's why I'm exploring that route as well but with an iMac as the master.

But as of now my first step could very well be to first bump my 4,1 to 5,1 and take it from there, see how the iMac pros are performing and if we get more info on the next batch of MAcPros, that could be sufficient until then.

Thanks for the posts.