Optimizing the 2008 2.8 MacPro

[AndyDiamond]

I don't think you need to worry about upgrading your video card.
256MB RAM running two 24" monitors is fine for audio apps.
Ableton's GUI is not graphics heavy.
Unless you are playing intensive games or running a bunch of 30" screens you'd be better off putting cash into faster HDs and RAM.


I just got a 2008 2.8 and added an extra 12GB of RAM form OWC.
Everything else is stock.
Runs great.
My main audio app is ProTools 8.

I also run graphics stuff - CS3, Quark 8.
Even Freehand MX runs fine (lol) and I'm still using Final Cut 5 (it's PPC) on it and it runs just fine (I can't stretch to the Intel FCP upgrade yet).

The other thing that bottle necks my machine are the 6 external FW 800 drives I have attached (I do this as I need to move HDs between machines off site and one is an external back up drive).
The problem with external HDs is the spin down to sleep so they take a few seconds to spin up when accessed - annoying enough to counter the speed of the machine.
I may get some internal HDs to counter this.

 

[AndyDiamond]

I agree about a fresh install than migration, especially with audio stuff.

Takes a bit of time to reinstall sample libraries and reauthorizing plug-ins but it's worth it.

Besides you choose what you REALLY need to install instead of migrating a bunch of junk you don't use.

 

[ekwipt]

I reinstalled th operating system and got rid of everything i didn't need, garage band etc, i movie.

I normally zero out my drives as well i really don't know if it makes an difference though

 

[mingus51]

Well it's been a week and I'm loving my 2008

I have Ableton 8, Cubase 5, Omnisphere, Stylus RMX, and the NI Komplete 5 suite (along with a couple of freebie insert effects) loaded and configured.

It's nearly impossible to tax my machine now. I was coming from a PC and where my PC would stall, my MacPro handles 3x the work and still wants more.

I'm very happy I made the decision for the 2008 model. I say this because of my software mainly. Cubase (as of this post) isn't 64 bit nor can handle hyperthreading, so I agree with those who recommended more and faster cores vs. newer technology.

12 gigs seems like a great amount of RAM for what I'm doing, but will probably upgrade as I go.
1 Hard drive is just the OS
1 Hard drive is where Cubase records to
1 Hard drive is samples/rompler libraries
1 Hard drive is where my iTunes/iPhoto and other files are stored

Going to look into a solution now for backing all of these up somewhat religiously. In particular HD #1 and #2. I'm actually a fan of Time Macine but open to looking at other software solutions

I was just too excited, so against the recommendations of people on this thread I did NOT do a fresh install, nor did I zero out any of my other disks. I fully agree that this is a smart thing to do, but luckily I'm noticing no performance or stability drawbacks for not (whew...)

My soundcard (for now) is the MAudio Firewire 410. Working smoothly but I'm actually thinking this might be the weak link in the chain. When I purposely try to tax the Mac Pro, well before I see any CPU strain or memory strain I get latency distortion. I have resolved this with a nice balance between low latency and consistent performance. It's higher than I wanted but still lower than it was on my PC and I do very little live recording.

ReWire was the biggest joy for me. I couldn't even try on my PC and now I'm syncing Ableton to Cubase or Reason to Cubase and it's like a plug in...no lags, hiccups, or drop outs.

I've seen more postings about "The right Pro for audio production" or "2008 or 2009" discussions.

For what it's worth, in my focus group of 1, I think for music production the 2008 2.8 (or better) is a smart buy and while I'm reading Cubase and 2009 CPUs (Nehalem) don't play nice, Cubase and 2008 CPUs are happy together.

Thanks again everyone for your comments/suggestions.

I don't want to jinx it, but I could see myself using this tower for at least the next 4 years (with upgrades here and there)....or until my gearlust becomes unbearable....whichever comes first.

 

[justit]

....
The 2600 is a good card, a little long in the tooth if you are a game or benchmark freak. The 4870 or 4890 is an upgrade I will make, but later when prices have come down a little.....

The 2600's onboard 256MB is no longer valid for PS CS4 using open GL. It gives a warning if you open more than 7 files.