New Macpro for recording studio

[studiobill]

I have a professional recording studio but am still using an old G5 running system 10.39! The thing is I am lucky enough to be busy and this system runs 8 hours or more a day 4 to 6 days a week and literally crashes maybe twice a year. But it is obviously time to upgrade. I need to buy a new computer before the end of the year. I have settled on the 8 core macpro. I typically run 24 to 50 24 bit audio tracks with various plug in's but rarely any VI's. My main recording software is MOTU digital performer. My main concern is what (and where) to get for internal hard drives. I have been looking at the OWC site and there are many options. I think I would like to get 2T 7200 rpm drives. Looking for opinions.

Thanks
Bill

 

[kultschar]

Check out the forum gearslutz, there is a Logic Studio 8 / 9 benchmark test that you can download that people have been using to reveal how many tracks their Macs can handle. The downloadable test is a Logic project with a few hundred Logic tracks preloaded with one of the superduper resource heavy logic plugins. All the tracks are muted and you slowly unmute each track until you get an overload!!

Tons of results uploaded for every iMac, Mac Pro etc The new iMacs get up to 60 - 70 tracks and outperform a lot of the Mac Pros. I personally get up to 50 tracks with my Mac Pro 2.8 8 Core (2008) however only have 2GB RAM!!!!!

As for hard drives I have the silent 5400RPM Samsung 2TBs and do not notice any sluggishness, I even stream HD video wirelessly from them to my TV without any hiccups. I would recommend a SSD for your bootdrive and pluggins

 

[PurrBall]

Any 3.5" SATA hard drive should work in the Mac Pro. Take a look at Newegg.com.