What to buy

[Nitro1]

So i am a Sound engineer and i am very interested in getting a good Pro tool's rig. Here are my idea's
I was thinking a iMac with the i7 core and all the rest standard and i will upgrade the Ram to 4-8GB.
OR
Should i get a Mac pro with a quad core and 4-8 GB of ram again.

My Issue's
Money is not a concern but space is
It will be much easier for me to get an iMac and just add an external NAS or setup for Raid to back up my Pro tools recordings.
But on the other end a Mac pro does open the upgradability of the hard drives.

Any idea's would be appreciated.

THanks

 

[Velin]

If audio and Pro Tools is your business, and money isn't a factor -- no question, get the Mac Pro.

The 4 internal Mac Pro drive bays alone are enough for you to get a Mac Pro. With four internal drives, your sessions will be much more responsive and disk writes are faster, period. This leaves your firewire port open for interfaces, etc., anything you need.

Do not discount the flexibility of drive bays. In 2 minutes you can swap in a fresh terabyte drive for a particular session. Large track counts + multiple internal drive bays + ability to rotate storage in just minutes = godly.

PCIe slots. I don't know your setup, but you may come to love them. You're really stuck with an iMac if you need to pop in a card.

Protools HD -- correct me if I'm wrong, but don't you need a PCIe slot for the card? Even if you're not running PTHD right now, it'd be really nice to have the option.

Multiple monitors/displays. Again, not sure about your setup or studio, but you can stick in multiple video cards into a Mac Pro, allowing you monitor flexibility so either your colleagues or the talent can monitor the video. (I find the lack of dual monitors a major iMac limitation for true pro applications.) I regularly have a projector attached to my Mac Pro so I can easily go over stuff with my colleagues.

Ports. Mac Pro has, what, four Firewire ports? And the ability to pop in a card for even more, or a DAW?

Speed. The new iMacs are fast, no question. But they still don't touch a decked out Mac Pro. Mac Pro is, quite simply, a monster when you bump up the RAM and the cores are churning. A specced-out Mac Pro is a true professional machine (with a professional price tag to boot, the RAM can get expensive, as can multiple video cards and external displays, cards, etc.).

No brainer I think. Mac Pro all the way. You will be happy with it.