Pro Tools - Single or Multi-thread?

[RiffOfTheWeek]

Hi folks.

Like many of you, I'm debating whether to get the 8-core 2.26 or the Quad 2.66 or 2.93 (the 8-core 2.66 and 2.93 are out of the question).

I mainly use my computer for music via Pro Tools so I'm wondering if anyone can shed some light as to which one of the current models will suit best and why?

I know the Quads only go to 8gb of ram (thx for the rear-ending Apple) and that the 2.26 isn't as fast as last gen 2.8, but may be a better in the long run with SL and 32 gb of ram.

Again, any advice is appreciated.

Thx.

Dave
youtube.com/riffoftheweek

 

[raydsr]

I'm giving this a bump in hopes to see you get an answer. I'm considering the same purchase and I'm also wondering about the Pro Tools process.

I know the Pro Tools 8 is not 64 bit ready and aren't the new Mac Pro's 64 bit?

 

[byrgenar]

hi

This was (kinda) in a thread earlier. I'm guessing it's PTLE not HD? If so, digi is going to be the bottle neck, not the mac.
As always, if you can stand it, wait a couple of months for the dust to settle and find out what other peoples experience has been.
Barring that, other factors other than PTLE should influence your decision. Resale value, upgrade path and other uses.
You can be reasonably sure that a for 95% of all PTLE sessions, you are not going to have a problem with a 2.66 Quad and 4GB of ram for the next couple of years AT LEAST (and if Digi gets with it and implement Instrument Track Freezing, a lot longer than that). @ the mo I'm mixing a short with 42 tracks about 30 Plugs (including some NR, processor hungry) and Total system load is about 16% average. This is on a Quad 2.8 with 2GB of ram.

Hope this helps

Regards

 

[audioglenn]

Same question for me

I have the same questions. I'm on the market for a new MacPro, too. My Dual 1.8 G5 can hardly run 4 instantiations of software instruments! (I'm running ProTools LE 8 on Leopard.)

For what I would pay for an 8-core 2.93 GHz MP, I'd probably just upgrade to Pro Tools HD. The current Digidesign offer is sporting an upgrade price of about $5k for Digi 002 to Pro Tools HD1 with a free 96io. That would be quite a big move for me and something I'd like to do anyway sometime in the future.

For now, I'm hoping we see an upgrade to the Mac Pro early 2010. Maybe then, we can get 8-core 2.93 GHz Nehalem Mac Pros for a lot less than $5800!