want to add to my current mac setup. What should i get ?

[gdeusthewhizkid]

hey guys,

I would like to add on to my current setup or sell a piece of it. Right now im debating whether to add a ipad 1, new macbook pro or refurbished mac pro. I rip and download from itunes a ton of movies and tv shows. My macbook pro hard drive gets filled up pretty quickly. I have upgraded my hard drive from 160 gigs to 500 gigs that's at 50 gigs now. I also use my laptop to make beats on logic and maschine. That's intensive too. I ve noticed my laptop is slowing down now . It has 4 gigs of ram on it..

I m thinking maybe i should buy a ipad 1 32 gig used and download movies and tv shows to it directly sparing my laptop hard drive.. I also have a mac mini that i use to feed my apple tvs. The mac mini converts pretty slow so i usually rip overnight. and i also use the mini to mix tracks and record vocals. It handles it decently but not great.. The mac pro would be great because of it's speed and storage that's easy to upgrade. I see great deals on refurbished mac pros on the net.

Just not sure what i should do because my current setup is great but it could use a upgrade..

Suggestions ??

thx

 

[Hellhammer]

Sounds like you would have most use for Mac Pro as it would speed up ripping and encoding a lot. Another option would be iMac with an external DVD/BR drive (new iMacs are faster than base Mac Pro).

 

[blevins321]

Sounds like you would have most use for Mac Pro as it would speed up ripping and encoding a lot. Another option would be iMac with an external DVD/BR drive (new iMacs are faster than base Mac Pro).

+1 to this. External is key due to the speed limitations in the new iMacs' Superdrives. (Reduces noise but decreases read speed intentionally). It almost sounds like storage is the biggest factor. You might consider investing in a couple external hard drives or even a NAS.

 

[gdeusthewhizkid]

nas i am considering. I have too many externals connected to my mac mini.. I am liking the imac. Is it easy to change the hard drives in them. I heard there is a problem where the hard drives burn out because of the heat of the imac..

 

[Hellhammer]

nas i am considering. I have too many externals connected to my mac mini.. I am liking the imac. Is it easy to change the hard drives in them. I heard there is a problem where the hard drives burn out because of the heat of the imac..

Upgrading iMac's HD is not very easy. However, iMac has plenty of ports and up to 10Gb/s via Thunderbolt so external storage shouldn't be a big issue. You could consider a 4-bay enclosure and put your existing drives in it.

 

[NurkJon]

For storage I'm using a 10TB nas (actually 12TB but 2TB fall away due to Raid). I payed under 500USD (where about 300 were for the actual drives) for that setup and the server it self is quite powerful housing a Sandy Bridge CPU and 4GB of ram.

 

[dblessin]

macpro

Go with the Mac Pro. I did and haven't regretted it for one second. All of your issues can be solved with the one machine.

 

[toddybody]

I have to lobby for an iMac as well. The config options are wonderful, and you have the incredible 1440p display. As Hellhammer said, an external drive cage would be a great option...as theyre much more user friendly than the iMac's internal bay. IMHO, the current iMac leaves little reason for folks to purchase the Pro(with exception to some server oriented tasks and heavy workstation requirements).


You could also build a Hackintosh for much less than a Pro, and equip in with a 27" ACD. You can find great deals on 5870's...much less the 5770.

+

 

[djepsilon]

MacPro for speed, Drobo for storage.

I have both for my IMMENSE movie collection and it works like a charm. Drobo's (www.drobo.com) are nice because you can upgrade the storage as needed without any hassle. As far as the computer goes, you could probably get away with using an iMac as well, just depends on how fast you want your encodes to go really.

As for the iPad is concerned, you should get one of those too anyway so you can watch all your movies on the go!

 

[toddybody]

As for the iPad is concerned, you should get one of those too anyway so you can watch all your movies on the go!

Absolutely...

 

[toddybody]

MacPro for speed, Drobo for storage.

I have both for my IMMENSE movie collection and it works like a charm. Drobo's (www.drobo.com) are nice because you can upgrade the storage as needed without any hassle. As far as the computer goes, you could probably get away with using an iMac as well, just depends on how fast you want your encodes to go really.

As for the iPad is concerned, you should get one of those too anyway so you can watch all your movies on the go!

Just checked out Drobo's site...cool product, but nothing revolutionary and WAY OVERPRICED.

 

[blevins321]

Just checked out Drobo's site...cool product, but nothing revolutionary and WAY OVERPRICED.

Correct, and absurdly slow.

 

[gdeusthewhizkid]

yea i have read that drobo isn't that great a solution.. Is there a site where i can compare the ripping speeds between macs... I would like to see how much faster a mac pro is.. Im thinking used too ..

 

[macman312]

hey guys,

I would like to add on to my current setup or sell a piece of it. Right now im debating whether to add a ipad 1, new macbook pro or refurbished mac pro. I rip and download from itunes a ton of movies and tv shows. My macbook pro hard drive gets filled up pretty quickly. I have upgraded my hard drive from 160 gigs to 500 gigs that's at 50 gigs now. I also use my laptop to make beats on logic and maschine. That's intensive too. I ve noticed my laptop is slowing down now . It has 4 gigs of ram on it..

I m thinking maybe i should buy a ipad 1 32 gig used and download movies and tv shows to it directly sparing my laptop hard drive.. I also have a mac mini that i use to feed my apple tvs. The mac mini converts pretty slow so i usually rip overnight. and i also use the mini to mix tracks and record vocals. It handles it decently but not great.. The mac pro would be great because of it's speed and storage that's easy to upgrade. I see great deals on refurbished mac pros on the net.

Just not sure what i should do because my current setup is great but it could use a upgrade..

Suggestions ??

thx

Mac Pro- Pros: Big hDD, fast
cons: EXPENSIVE!!!!! new one with thunderbolt probably coming

Also you could get 2011 2.2Gh MBP i7 750GB hdd

 

[martinm0]

Anyone using an external blu-ray drive on any new 2011 mac (MBP or iMac) and getting full read speeds? I've got a Samsung SH-B123L BD drive in an external case connected via USB 2.0 and its only getting about 4MB/s read speeds when connected to either of my 2011 macs. Connected to my Hackintosh it gets 8-12MB/s, so something seems to be afoot with these 2011macs. I'm going to load windows on the iMac and test speeds there, but I also tried an older Liteon drive I have under the iMac in the same case and it was only running at about 2.1MB/s. What's even weirder is that these speeds hold true when copying files directly from the blu-ray disc through Finder from the drive.

Anyone else notice super slow reads with other externals? Anyone have one that's running full speed (and could you provide the brand and model)?