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betamax

macrumors newbie
Original poster
May 1, 2011
4
0
So, I have been saving for a dual quad core MP since November. I had been foolishly squandering all of my free money on synthesizers, other instruments and scotch, when what i really needed was a new desktop for audio recording.

I am currently running a 2006 Macbook Pro (1st generation). Its on its last legs and I've needed a new computer for months, if not years.

I have been reading these forums trying to decide what to do when i finally had the money. everyone kept saying sandy bridge wouldnt be out until 2012 but here we are, less than 48 hours until the imac has it.

will the mac pro use the same architecture or will it require something different for an upgrade. if so, do you think the new MP will coincide with the lion release?

I desperately need a new computer but i dont want to squander it on a computer that will be out of date very soon. I have been at a recording standstill for months and its killing me
 

alust2013

macrumors 601
Feb 6, 2010
4,779
2
On the fence
No, the new MP will not likely be out until late this summer at the earliest. If you need a new computer, the current models are very powerful, and will be viable for many years, so it wouldn't be a terrible idea to buy now. As far as the being out of date bit, tech is out of date the second you open the box, that's just how it works.
 

nanofrog

macrumors G4
May 6, 2008
11,719
3
The simple answer is No, as already mentioned.

The reason for this, is that SB parts are split over 3 different sockets. The currently available parts, are LGA1155 parts, which is the consumer/mobile socket. The others, LGA1356 and LGA2011, are enterprise, and aren't due to ship until Q4 of this year (seems all have been shifted to Q4 from what I'm seeing). System vendors also need time to manufacture the systems once they get the chips (and hopefully do some final validation testing on the finished product) before they ship them out for sales.

So realistically, March 2012 is the earliest we could expect an SB based MP, and it may take longer than that (did with the Nehalem based MP's, as Apple was ~ one quarter behind Dell and HP).
 

saulinpa

macrumors 65816
Jun 15, 2008
1,255
712
So does that mean that the only option Apple has for a mac pro refresh is a speed bump?
 

nanofrog

macrumors G4
May 6, 2008
11,719
3
So does that mean that the only option Apple has for a mac pro refresh is a speed bump?
That's possible (i.e. offer newer CPU's), but it's more likely IMO that they'll wait for the SB based Xeons to release.
 

Garamond

macrumors regular
Oct 17, 2004
174
4
I have to say I'm a bit perplexed about how many threads there are about this exact question - and now I'm only talking about page 1.

How difficult is it to use the search function or just read through the thread titles? :confused:
 

betamax

macrumors newbie
Original poster
May 1, 2011
4
0
thanks guys. i kinda had a gut feeling that this was going to be the answer. i was just confused about the imac update
 

superpalmtree

macrumors regular
Mar 6, 2009
166
0
North Dakota
I have to say I'm a bit perplexed about how many threads there are about this exact question - and now I'm only talking about page 1.

How difficult is it to use the search function or just read through the thread titles? :confused:

I'm perplexed at why you took the time to respond to this. Very perplexed. :confused:
 

jetjaguar

macrumors 68040
Apr 6, 2009
3,553
2,319
somewhere
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_3_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8G4 Safari/6533.18.5)

ekwipt said:
No but the top end imac will out perform most macpros anyway

Which makes me sad
 

CrAkD

macrumors 68040
Feb 15, 2010
3,180
255
Boston, MA
just get an imac for audio recording thats what im doing. if the MBPs are any indication of how powerful sandybridge is its very possible the top of the line imac will blow the currrent entry level MP out of the water. if youve been using a laptop up until now it will still feel like night and day.
 

JeepGuy

macrumors 6502
Sep 24, 2008
332
110
Barrie
I have to say I'm a bit perplexed about how many threads there are about this exact question - and now I'm only talking about page 1.

How difficult is it to use the search function or just read through the thread titles? :confused:

There are a lot of newbies/switchers signing up, and they may not know all the ins and outs yet, the OP just signed up.
 

neilhu

macrumors newbie
May 2, 2011
8
0
The truth is, no one here knows anything - everything you read is based on personal opinion or supposition.
Will the Mac Pro see a refresh before Sandy Bridge?

Possibly - Thunderbolt, graphics card, Westmere processor refresh.
Would Apple has signed a 1 year exclusive with Intel for Thunderbolt (admittedly, they did help develop it), only not to use it on all their products?

Possibly not - any change/refresh demands 100's hours of qualification, supply change changes, etc. Would Apple do this for a product that sells smaller numbers (note: I didn't say lowest) than the rest of it's product?

As noted at the top - this is my personal opinion and not rooted in fact.
 

betamax

macrumors newbie
Original poster
May 1, 2011
4
0
No but the top end imac will out perform most macpros anyway

HA! not for what i need it to do. I need a Separate boot drive, record drive, and sample drive. I dont feel like doing that externally either
 

derbothaus

macrumors 601
Jul 17, 2010
4,093
30
But the only thing that matters is GEEKBENCH! C'mon. I fully expect it to rub shoulders with the 3.33GHz hex. It will not beat a recent Dual socket Mac Pro at the Geekbench. It has already been seen with i7-2600 hackintoshes. That's the best chip you could hope for. And iMac will still suck at graphics. So I forget my point.
Audio will be great if you use an Mbox or similar trash and alternate your busses for sample libraries. But expandability is not there. Once you throw an interface on a USB or FW bus it's terminated unless you record with 256+ samples and 20ms delay's, then by all means put a HDD on the bus. With the pro you can of course separate and add busses via PCI. That's just me tho. It'll be fast but it wont be pro (no pun).
 
Last edited:

ekwipt

macrumors 65816
Jan 14, 2008
1,051
350
HA! not for what i need it to do. I need a Separate boot drive, record drive, and sample drive. I don't feel like doing that externally either

For sheer processing power the iMac Intel Core i7 2600 will beat most if not all the quads and get pretty close to the 6 core. Even the low end 12 Cores will have similar performance.

That's a lot of bang for buck, I'm guessing you use audio programs, so do I (AbletonLive, Logic Pro 9, Numerology, Maschine). I have a 2008 MacPro and love it, but the new iMacs are looking very promising.

Imagine this setup:

iMac with SSD
Firewire/USB soundcard
UAD Satellite
Thunderbolt Storage solution

There's no reason to have sample and recording drives separate on Thunderbolt (There's not much point anyway unless you're multi-tracking a massive band), audio doesn't take up that much bandwidth.

Logic, Cubase, ableton Live will eat this thing up, it will be beautiful.

If you need internal cards, you'll buy a MacPro in the future otherwise, the iMac is looking like a great option, especially for audio.
 

iamthedudeman

macrumors 65816
Jul 7, 2007
1,385
246
For sheer processing power the iMac Intel Core i7 2600 will beat most if not all the quads and get pretty close to the 6 core. Even the low end 12 Cores will have similar performance.

That's a lot of bang for buck, I'm guessing you use audio programs, so do I (AbletonLive, Logic Pro 9, Numerology, Maschine). I have a 2008 MacPro and love it, but the new iMacs are looking very promising.

Imagine this setup:

iMac with SSD
Firewire/USB soundcard
UAD Satellite
Thunderbolt Storage solution

There's no reason to have sample and recording drives separate on Thunderbolt (There's not much point anyway unless you're multi-tracking a massive band), audio doesn't take up that much bandwidth.

Logic, Cubase, ableton Live will eat this thing up, it will be beautiful.

If you need internal cards, you'll buy a MacPro in the future otherwise, the iMac is looking like a great option, especially for audio.


I own both. They are good and the new ones are(will)be great, but expandability alone is good enough reason to buy a Mac Pro over any imac even a sandybridge.

Here is a good indicaton of performance. The six cores still rule, 12 forget it.

http://www.cpubenchmark.net/high_end_cpus.html

SSD, Sata 3, SSD, better GPU and the list goes on. We shall see.
 

Inconsequential

macrumors 68000
Sep 12, 2007
1,978
1
I own both. They are good and the new ones are(will)be great, but expandability alone is good enough reason to buy a Mac Pro over any imac even a sandybridge.

Here is a good indicaton of performance. The six cores still rule, 12 forget it.

http://www.cpubenchmark.net/high_end_cpus.html

SSD, Sata 3, SSD, better GPU and the list goes on. We shall see.

That website is rubbish.

At no point what so ever is a W3520 13% slower than a Core i7 920. It's the same CPU bar ECC ffs.

Given that fact the rest of the data could be rubbish as well.

Take that site a pinch of salt, personally.


Tom's Hardware - Benchmark Video Editing: Adobe After Effects CS5

2600K beats all the quad core CPUs in the Intel lineup and gets very close to the 6-core, and in some cases, beating that as well thanks to clock for clock improvements.

Intel need to release the Sandy Bridge-E chips ASAP, as this is silly!

£250 chip beating £500+ chips is ridiculous, especially for a year!
 

sjordan

macrumors member
Apr 20, 2011
45
0
It says "Don't Buy - Updates soon". Then why all the speculation that it's still a whole year off?

Most people here are going by Intel's roadmap which puts the new Xeon's to Q4. With that thought people here are speculating that the Mac Pro will not be updated until q4 or q1 2012.

Unless Intel gives Apple a 2-3 months advantage of releasing the chips early to them I don't see the Mac Pro's getting updated before q4. Apple does have Thunderbolt way earlier then anyone else....heck I don't think you can get it for anything else....something to think about but very unlikely.
 
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