MP All Models Buy cheap 7,1 or Studio

[hornedrum]

Hi folks,

I've spotted a cheap 7,1: 12 core with 192gb ram, 4tb, Sonnet Fusion Flex J3i for £1.3k.
Am I mad to think about buying this for an audio rig running Pro Tools?

I was holding off for the M3 Max Studio (hopefully June), with 64gb ram and 2tb new for around £2.8k with educational discount.

Pros and cons please? I am guessing Apple might only support Intel for 2/3 years at most?

Cheers.

 

[Regulus67]

Hi folks,

I've spotted a cheap 7,1: 12 core with 192gb ram, 4tb, Sonnet Fusion Flex J3i for £1.3k.
Am I mad to think about buying this for an audio rig running Pro Tools?

I was holding off for the M3 Max Studio (hopefully June), with 64gb ram and 2tb new for around £2.8k with educational discount.

Pros and cons please? I am guessing Apple might only support Intel for 2/3 years at most?

Cheers.

I do not make music. But there is one guy, who is well known for his channel. He will at least give you some answers, I'm sure

https://www.youtube.com/@NeilParfittMusic/videos

 

[hornedrum]

I do not make music. But there is one guy, who is well known for his channel. He will at least give you some answers, I'm sure

https://www.youtube.com/@NeilParfittMusic/videos

Crazy, I was just rewatching all his videos right now, thanks though.
Think I might take this 7,1 and see how it goes. I can always resell it easily enough.
I can drop my DT130 with 2TB Sabrent drive right in there and hopefully not skip a beat.
I am hoping/presuming the upgrade from the 6 core 3.33Ghz 5,1 will be substantial!

 

[Regulus67]

I am hoping/presuming the upgrade from the 6 core 3.33Ghz 5,1 will be substantial!

I still have an 8-core Mac Pro 3.1, but I stopped using it when I got my 7.1 🥰
It is not an issue to me that Apple will stop supporting the Intel macs.
And I assume it won't be an issue for you either. As you still use the 5.1.
It will be a substantial upgrade. And like you mentioned. It is easy to add or upgrade parts.
I will purchase a RME card in the next few months, as I miss the optical audio ports.

I also found this article, but you have probably seen that too 🙂

review for audio pros on the Mac Pro 2019.

 

[MarkC426]

Hi folks,

I've spotted a cheap 7,1: 12 core with 192gb ram, 4tb, Sonnet Fusion Flex J3i for £1.3k.
Am I mad to think about buying this for an audio rig running Pro Tools?

I was holding off for the M3 Max Studio (hopefully June), with 64gb ram and 2tb new for around £2.8k with educational discount.

Pros and cons please? I am guessing Apple might only support Intel for 2/3 years at most?

Cheers.

That sounds FAR TOO cheap...🧐
I would check it is fully functional / legit.

Most 7.1's of a similar spec I have seen on ebay are £3k+

 

[avro707]

Hi folks,

I've spotted a cheap 7,1: 12 core with 192gb ram, 4tb, Sonnet Fusion Flex J3i for £1.3k.
Am I mad to think about buying this for an audio rig running Pro Tools?

I was holding off for the M3 Max Studio (hopefully June), with 64gb ram and 2tb new for around £2.8k with educational discount.

Pros and cons please? I am guessing Apple might only support Intel for 2/3 years at most?

Cheers.

The 7,1 seems suspiciously cheap. Are you sure it’s genuine and not a scam sale?

 

[Regulus67]

I would think hornedrum is experienced enough to make his own judgment if it is a legit offer.
And I have seen a lot of Mac Pro 7.1 up for sale on ebay, the last two weeks.
Is there enough potential buyers out there, interested in these machines?
edit: This mac was built to serve people like him. We should not forget that.

Even here on this forum. The general consensus seems to be that they are already completely outdated, and Intel macs are no longer worth a consideration.
After all, if a user does not need more than 8 or 16 GB of RAM, why bother with a mac that supports up to 1.5 TB? And to top it off, no longer get driver support for newer graphic cards.

Youtube videos where people on the street are offered a choice between a gold coin, or a chocolate bar. They all choose the chocolate, because nobody knows what a gold coin is.
And I suspect the Mac Pro 7.1 fall under that category in many cases - unknown product

edit: I have not voted. Because I am not in a position to decide what is better, if price is left out of consideration

 

[halledise]

Apple Silicon trumps Intel Xeon - every time.
i also concur - it does seem a very cheap price for the specs …

 

[Yebubbleman]

Hi folks,

I've spotted a cheap 7,1: 12 core with 192gb ram, 4tb, Sonnet Fusion Flex J3i for £1.3k.
Am I mad to think about buying this for an audio rig running Pro Tools?

I was holding off for the M3 Max Studio (hopefully June), with 64gb ram and 2tb new for around £2.8k with educational discount.

Pros and cons please? I am guessing Apple might only support Intel for 2/3 years at most?

Cheers.

I voted for the Mac Studio, unless you want the 7,1 for the purpose of collecting. Unless you specifically need an Intel Mac or need something that is inherent to an Intel Mac and will never be the same on Apple Silicon Macs (e.g. Boot Camp, x86 virtualization, anything requiring Radeon GPUs, etc.), it's always going to be a smarter buy to get an Apple Silicon Mac.

I'd add to your list of options the Apple Certified Refurbished M1 Max and M2 Max versions of the Mac Studio. Those will still be good values even when the inevitable M3 Max and M3 Ultra versions release.

 

[ZombiePhysicist]

The M3 should soundly beat the 7,1 on most things. The 7,1 is getting old. And intel support is starting to lag. They are not fixing bugs on intel that much.

The price for your 7,1 is so laughably cheap you should get it regardless of a choice between the machines. That seems like a scam or family price there.

 

[mattspace]

Crazy, I was just rewatching all his videos right now, thanks though.
Think I might take this 7,1 and see how it goes. I can always resell it easily enough.
I can drop my DT130 with 2TB Sabrent drive right in there and hopefully not skip a beat.
I am hoping/presuming the upgrade from the 6 core 3.33Ghz 5,1 will be substantial!

The 7,1 is a peripheral-connecting monster - that's its party trick. If you want to drive a dozen displays, and load ginormous data sets into memory, to have huge amounts of fast storage, no Studio (or AS Mac Pro) will do all those things.

That's the reason to get one.

 

[haralds]

I have an M1 Ultra Studio and an older decked out CMPro 5,1. The latter works ok with Logic Pro, but Intel chips suck power big time.
The Studio lithely runs circles around the older gear and sips power. Most plug-ins are universal by now.
If I'd have to chose I would get the Studio. It's a better long term investment.

 

[hornedrum]

The 7,1 seems suspiciously cheap. Are you sure it’s genuine and not a scam sale?

Thanks everyone. I am asking all the right questions regarding the 7,1 and it's gone a little quiet.
It was cash pickup on collection, serial number shared, original box, Applecare still running, too good to be true perhaps.
I guess fate will take it's course, I would only buy a 7,1 if it was seriously cheap, to mitigate all the pitfalls of Intel support.

I'll hook my M1 MBP up to the studio and see how protools is performing on Sonoma to get a feel for how the Mac Studio M3 might perform.
(I think the 7,1 reminded me how much I have loved this 5,1 But really the M3 Studio is the pragmatic choice)

Great advice though, I appreciate it all, thanks!

 

[MarkC426]

Applecare still running, too good to be true perhaps.

This was going to be my next question (sarcastically....😂)
This is definitely dodgy.

Not sure of exact price, but a 12c with 192gb ram must have been around £7-8k.

Where actually is this listed....?

 

[hornedrum]

Facebook marketplace.
Definitely dodgy, as soon as I asked to see it working I got ghosted.

 

[Harry Haller]

Thanks everyone. I am asking all the right questions regarding the 7,1 and it's gone a little quiet.
It was cash pickup on collection, serial number shared, original box, Applecare still running, too good to be true perhaps.
I guess fate will take it's course, I would only buy a 7,1 if it was seriously cheap, to mitigate all the pitfalls of Intel support.

I'll hook my M1 MBP up to the studio and see how protools is performing on Sonoma to get a feel for how the Mac Studio M3 might perform.
(I think the 7,1 reminded me how much I have loved this 5,1 But really the M3 Studio is the pragmatic choice)

Great advice though, I appreciate it all, thanks!

Regarding Sonoma and Pro Tools…

https://avidtech.my.salesforce-sites.com/pkb/articles/compatibility/Pro-Tools-support-with-macOS-14-x-Sonoma-Known-Issues

 

[basslik]

Hi folks,

I've spotted a cheap 7,1: 12 core with 192gb ram, 4tb, Sonnet Fusion Flex J3i for £1.3k.
Am I mad to think about buying this for an audio rig running Pro Tools?

I was holding off for the M3 Max Studio (hopefully June), with 64gb ram and 2tb new for around £2.8k with educational discount.

Pros and cons please? I am guessing Apple might only support Intel for 2/3 years at most?

Cheers.

Man why waste all that money. Decked out 5,1 is still making hit albums. Fast enough on my 5,1

Can buy all day long for $200

Lance is still making great mixes.

But yes, maybe we are good for another couple of years.

I'm running OCLP / Monterey with PT 2024.3, runs great. But I do have to force quit.

 

[mattspace]

Man why waste all that money. Decked out 5,1 is still making hit albums. Fast enough on my 5,1

Can buy all day long for $200

Lance is still making great mixes.

But yes, maybe we are good for another couple of years.

I'm running OCLP / Monterey with PT 2024.3, runs great. But I do have to force quit.

IF you're doing audio, and noise is a factor, the 7,1 is dead quiet, my dual processor cMP had pretty significant idle fan noise. Even the 2012 i7 Mini I have next to my 7,1 is louder at idle than the 7,1 at idle.

 

[basslik]

IF you're doing audio, and noise is a factor, the 7,1 is dead quiet, my dual processor cMP had pretty significant idle fan noise. Even the 2012 i7 Mini I have next to my 7,1 is louder at idle than the 7,1 at idle.

Never had any noise leaking into my Shure KSM32 condenser mics, which are only 12ft away from my Mac 5,1.

 

[mattspace]

Never had any noise leaking into my Shure KSM32 condenser mics, which are only 12ft away from my Mac 5,1.

Good to know, but the difference in noise between 5,1 and 7,1 is night & day - so if quiet is a consideration, that's a difference.

 

[basslik]

I've had four Mac pro's 4,1>5,1. I seriously could never hear the fan at all unless on boot up when it ramped up now and then for a few seconds,after that I seriously thought the fan failed(LOL)

Also with m,y upgrade to the RX580 it's so quite and most of the time the fan is not even running. I inquired about that issue many moons ago and was told here that the fan will only kick on if needed.

This particular client I literally recorded him live with the CAD E100 super sensitive FET mic on voclas, and his guitar direct. He was mic'ed 4ft. away from the Mac Pro. I could actually hear the fan through my headphones when tracking, that's how sensitive the CAD is, but in the open real world my ears could not hear the fan with the headphones off.

Cameron never mentioned any noise either.

 

[H2SO4]

Apple Silicon trumps Intel Xeon - every time.
i also concur - it does seem a very cheap price for the specs …

That is patently not true.

 

[H2SO4]

I voted for the Mac Studio, unless you want the 7,1 for the purpose of collecting. Unless you specifically need an Intel Mac or need something that is inherent to an Intel Mac and will never be the same on Apple Silicon Macs (e.g. Boot Camp, x86 virtualization, anything requiring Radeon GPUs, etc.), it's always going to be a smarter buy to get an Apple Silicon Mac.

I'd add to your list of options the Apple Certified Refurbished M1 Max and M2 Max versions of the Mac Studio. Those will still be good values even when the inevitable M3 Max and M3 Ultra versions release.

This here.........

 

[MarkC426]

I've had four Mac pro's 4,1>5,1. I seriously could never hear the fan at all unless on boot up when it ramped up now and then for a few seconds,after that I seriously thought the fan failed(LOL)

Also with m,y upgrade to the RX580 it's so quite and most of the time the fan is not even running. I inquired about that issue many moons ago and was told here that the fan will only kick on if needed.

This particular client I literally recorded him live with the CAD E100 super sensitive FET mic on voclas, and his guitar direct. He was mic'ed 4ft. away from the Mac Pro. I could actually hear the fan through my headphones when tracking, that's how sensitive the CAD is, but in the open real world my ears could not hear the fan with the headphones off.

Cameron never mentioned any noise either.

When I got my Mac Studio last year....I actually realised how much 'noise' my cMP makes when idle.
Before the Studio I didn't know any different, but as the Studio is literally 'silent' 100% of the time (boot up/processing etc). It actually took me a while to get used to the quiet....

 

[basslik]

When I got my Mac Studio last year....I actually realised how much 'noise' my cMP makes when idle.
Before the Studio I didn't know any different, but as the Studio is literally 'silent' 100% of the time (boot up/processing etc). It actually took me a while to get used to the quiet....

Definitely the Mac Studio is my goal. But for 13 years my 5,1 has been rolling out the tracks and what ain't broke and rock solid, I'll chug along for awhile longer.

CORRECTION. The mic I used on this live demo was the SMB7, which takes a lot of gain to juice that mic and still no audible noise while tracking while the Mac running.