New or Old Mac Pro specifically for Logic Pro

[Matt Dean]

Ok, I have read ALL the opinions on the new Mac Pros. I share some of the disappointment with the choices Apple made on the new line of Mac Pros.

I have been waiting ofr the new releases before I switched from my old Dual 2.5 G5 to an Octo Mac Pro. Now, money-wise, it seems like last year's 8 core 2.8 with 16 Gigs of RAM will be a wiser choice than the 8 core 2.66 new Mac Pro, but money isn't everything

I use Logic Pro. I have close to 20 different Virtual Instruments (VI's) and sample libraries and countless processing Plug Ins. Some of the VI's stream samples from harddisk, some stream samples from RAM.

The big question....with the new architecture, memory controller, bandwidth, etc in the new line, do you believe I will see a performance boost worthy of the $1500 to $2000 difference in price?

I will pay the money if, in the long run (meaning 4/5 years from now) the new machine will outshine the old one. I know it's a guessing game, but thought I would get some opinions.

Remember, I am only interested in the music apps for this computer. Don't care about the graphics, etc. Just wonder if the new RAM and bandwidth should make THAT much of a difference.

Cheers!

 

[rockinrocker]

I would just go for the '08 octo. Even that's total overkill for doing audio.
I run Cubase on mine, and have some crazy big projects, and it's pretty much impossible to stress the processors.

The hard drives are the closest thing to a hardware bottleneck....

 

[Matt Dean]

I just made that decision

Actually, I was told from my "guy". that the new ones will be headaches for music guys. He didn't get into exctly why, but just said get the old one and be happy.

So I did!

 

[rockinrocker]

Yeah, I'm sure it'll work great for yuh.

Just slap a second drive in for audio files and a 3rd for samples and you'll be ready to rock The Casbah.

 

[Ploki]

uhm..
2x2.8 is far from maxed here. its not even sweating. its barely awake.
and i massage logic ALL the time.

 

[Matt Dean]

Oh, I have 4 drives! lol! I've been doing this for a looong time

Yeah I realize the 8 core is a beast. I could have got a used 3.0 quad for less, but I'm thinking 5 years from now. Every updated plug in or virtual instrument seems to tax the CPU that much more, so I am looking for longevity.

 

[twkperf]

Actually, I was told from my "guy". that the new ones will be headaches for music guys.

Huh, why would that be? Doesn't make sense to me. I'm a music guy too and right now I'm leaning towards getting the new MP for my adventures in Logic.

 

[Matt Dean]

I know, honestly, he didn't say, so I can't say. He was in a hurry and I already decided to go with the 2.8 from last year.

I believe it's the third party compatibility and the lag in time for all the companies to catch up with the new Macs. For example, it took several months for the UAD-2 card to be stable on the old Mac Pros when they came out.

As I said, I use a TON of 3rd party software and know that last year's Mac Pro and Leopard are rock solid.

Besides, I saved $2000 CAD on what I just bought over the new ones. Just can't justify it.

 

[odinsride]

Huh, why would that be? Doesn't make sense to me. I'm a music guy too and right now I'm leaning towards getting the new MP for my adventures in Logic.

Maybe lack of FW400 on the new MP? Most audio equipment is FW400, but it seems that a lot of people aren't aware you can buy these things called adapters.

 

[nicolasmasset]

So can logic speak to 8 cores?
Also, what about ableton? Is that multithreaded too?

 

[fernmeister]

I have an early 08 octo running logic etc.

For audio, four things matter - processor, RAM, HD speed and expandability. The new processors won't help a lot for Audio, since current apps don't stress processors that much and the main problem is not all plugins address all cores. The RAM bottleneck won't be fully fixed till everything goes 64 bit, which is not for a while yet (interesting to see how the new version of Kontakt works out, since that is a big RAM problem for orchestral sessions right now). The early 08 can go large on RAM to take advantage of the next generation of programs.

HD speed is not specific to any one Mac and a three drive set up with fast 7200RPM drives is great for most audio and the early 08 can be adapted for 15k (once the price drops).

Expandability remains the same for plug cards and the like. The firewire changes are irrelevant because of adaptors (or better yet, a dedicated firewire card!)

The big difference between audio and other fields (like video) is that the output specs we need to work to are not moving fast. So it's not like we need the latest and greatest machine every 2-3 years to deliver our product. The only real problems major jumps in the software requirements (like some of the huge sample instruments like Omnisphere), but that is self-imposed pain. There's lots of people running pro sessions day and night on G5s, which is always worth remembering.

 

[Keniff]

I have an early 08 octo running logic etc.

For audio, four things matter - processor, RAM, HD speed and expandability. The new processors won't help a lot for Audio, since current apps don't stress processors that much and the main problem is not all plugins address all cores. The RAM bottleneck won't be fully fixed till everything goes 64 bit, which is not for a while yet (interesting to see how the new version of Kontakt works out, since that is a big RAM problem for orchestral sessions right now). The early 08 can go large on RAM to take advantage of the next generation of programs.

HD speed is not specific to any one Mac and a three drive set up with fast 7200RPM drives is great for most audio and the early 08 can be adapted for 15k (once the price drops).

Expandability remains the same for plug cards and the like. The firewire changes are irrelevant because of adaptors (or better yet, a dedicated firewire card!)

The big difference between audio and other fields (like video) is that the output specs we need to work to are not moving fast. So it's not like we need the latest and greatest machine every 2-3 years to deliver our product. The only real problems major jumps in the software requirements (like some of the huge sample instruments like Omnisphere), but that is self-imposed pain. There's lots of people running pro sessions day and night on G5s, which is always worth remembering.

Thanks for the breakdown "fernmeister" and thanks to "Matt Dean" for starting this thread.
This has really answered a lot of questions I've had, in regard to upgrading and using Logic Pro and running any 3rd party software.

I now know what machine I need/want to get

 

[myca]

I'm in a similar predicament, my Dual 2.0 PowerMac just doesn't cut it anymore with Logic, so I was gonna upgrade to the base macpro on this update, but the octo 2.8 does look more appealing for reasons argued on these forums, but I can not find them anywhere in the UK online.

So I've actually decided to build am EFIX hackintosh, it'll superseed the base mac pro for specs and cost half as much, and EFIX have some good reports on audio, plus someone has a MOTU firewire interface working fine, which bodes well for me.

With the cash I'll save I may just treat myself to a Powercore X8

 

[gzfelix]

I'm in a similar predicament, my Dual 2.0 PowerMac just doesn't cut it anymore with Logic, so I was gonna upgrade to the base macpro on this update, but the octo 2.8 does look more appealing for reasons argued on these forums, but I can not find them anywhere in the UK online.

So I've actually decided to build am EFIX hackintosh, it'll superseed the base mac pro for specs and cost half as much, and EFIX have some good reports on audio, plus someone has a MOTU firewire interface working fine, which bodes well for me.

With the cash I'll save I may just treat myself to a Powercore X8

For me I won't make a hackintosh to waste half of my work time to tweak it into a working state after a system upgrade.

 

[myca]

For me I won't make a hackintosh to waste half of my work time to tweak it into a working state after a system upgrade.

That's why I'm gonna use the EFIX which has a strict set of supported hardware, there's people on their forums running Logic with MOTU hardware perfectly, the previous audio clocking issues have been fixed.

Plus I only upgrade the OS when Digidesign tells me Pro Tools will work with a certain version of the OS, which is about a year after the update

P.S. there's also reports of people running Pro Tools HD systems without problems using EFIX, so they must be doing something right.