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A Mac Pro 6.1 as an interim solution?

I know what you mean. I'm in the same position, except I'm on a 2011 MacBook Pro.

I too am tempted by a Mac Pro, but I am going to wait to see if a Mac Mini appears in the next few weeks. I am put off slightly by the high price for 5 year old tech.

I'm also still considering a 5.1 Mac Pro. Nearly as powerful as the trash can, but much, much cheaper! Not an option for you of course if you need portability.

Wayne
 
I'm also still considering a 5.1 Mac Pro. Nearly as powerful as the trash can, but much, much cheaper! Not an option for you of course if you need portability.

A Pro Mac Mini would be great, but there's no guarantee that Apple will even bring those out from what I've been reading. One article I read also said it's possible Apple will remove them entirely from their line of products, although I think that would be a mistake.

I currently have the quad core server edition of the Mac Mini which has served me well and also have an 8 core Mac Pro 5,1 in my London studio. However, as the latter doesn't have thunderbolt 2 and I'm using SSD's in a Blackmagic multidock in both studios and an Apollo UAD Twin via Thunderbolt as my sound card, I now need to move across to the dark side and get Darth Vader's helmet (or another powerful portable rig).

To be honest, although it's powerful, the Mac 5,1 was a poor investment for me as I left it in London and ended up composing more on my MM in my Spanish studio because it is so easy to move around. That's why the 6,1 sounds like a great interim solution until the new ones come out, assuming the new ones will also be portable and cheap enough to buy without remortgaging my house... I could literally chuck the 6,1 in my laptop rucksack along with my SSD's and Apollo sound card and be set up in minutes in Spain if need be. That would be tough with an iMac even though it sounds like a good option too.
 
Quick question for those of you with 6,1 Mac Pro's already - I'm seeing a lot of 256gb HD MPro's on eBay (together with D300 video cards), I'm assuming I should steer clear of those as the extra space will be needed for apps and OS right? 512gb or 1tb minimum?
 
I would say it really depends. If your just making music your fine. Mine came 256 and I got by on it for years. I think I recently went to 4tb for ridiculous elbow space. But if your logic (sorry didn’t read thru whole thread) then your even in a better place as now you can move library stuff externally.
 
Sounds like it will be a good machine, but I need to to be portable enough to chuck in a bag and travel with unfortunately...

https://www.google.com/search?q=ima...i61j69i60l3.2376j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

I actually think an iMac is a great solution if you need to be portable. I sometimes assist on photo shoots where we use one as a capture computer and it's actually pretty easy to lug around in its travel case which also holds a keyboard and mouse. I was using a maxed out Mac Pro 5,1 before I switched to PC, the 8700k PC blows the 12-core Mac out of the water. I'd stay away from the cheese graters at this point. If they put an 8700k or better in an iMac it would be a great music computer. 7700k iMacs aren't bad either.
 
Quick question for those of you with 6,1 Mac Pro's already - I'm seeing a lot of 256gb HD MPro's on eBay (together with D300 video cards), I'm assuming I should steer clear of those as the extra space will be needed for apps and OS right? 512gb or 1tb minimum?
I will break down my thoughts on buying a Mac Pro for you: I estimate a used price, I would pay at most, based on the prices I saw on ebay in Europe (private sales). This is for a base model with 256gb SSD and up to 16 gb of ram. The 4-core usually always has the D300 - all other models should at least have the D500. If that graphic card works, you are lucky! But I told you, there are many people who had bad luck with it and are now stuck with a badly working Mac Pro with a lot of cost to replace the graphic card. So, you can either take that risk or stay out of it ... your choice. :)
4-core: 1400€
6-core: 1600€
8-core@ 3.0 GHz: 1800€
8-core@ 3.3 GHz: 1900€
10-core/12-core: 2000€
You might find more expensive offers and sometimes people paying more, but that is madness, as I have seen auctions selling for about that kind of money and those processors (6-core to 12-core) can be bought for 200-300€ and are not that hard to change.
From that, you might add up to 350€ for a bigger SSD and maybe 400€ for 64gb of ram. The 128Gb ram kit from OWC can be bought for under 1000€ from alternate. Since High Sierra you can buy Samsung Evo SSDs (up to 2Gb of internal memory, I believe). So, the included SSD should not matter that much, IMO.
If the machine still has a year or two of Apple care, that might be worth a bit more, as you have less risk.
Other thoughts:
Some used Mac pros are already user upgraded - which is more risk, I would say ... Most of the time, that is pretty obvious for Mac Pros with a D300 and more than 4 cores. You can be pretty sure, the CPU has been upgraded by the user or company. For all D500s and D700s there is an Apple exchange program, in case it has problems. As far as I know, it is still valid.
My best bet is the 8-core@ 3.3 GHz the next best thing would be the 10-core and the 8-core@ 3.0 GHz. Before I would consider a 12-core, I would buy a 6-core and maybe upgrade the processor later. Most important to me would be Ram, I would go for 128Gb. I never found a machine above 64 gigs online, so, I actually prefer less ram, as it will be useless to me anyway.
Most of the time, there are 4-cores and 6-cores offered on ebay, that is why it is your best chance to get one of those for the price I estimated. With the 4-cores, you always get a D300 (never saw a 4-core with D500). So, my suggestion is: look for a 6-core with D500. That is a pretty safe bet, can be bought for not to much money and is upgradable in every way: 1.600€ + 1000€ for 128Gb if ram (or about 400€ for 64gb) + 600€ for a 2Tb SSD (you need an adapter, but that can be both really cheap) + 300€ for a new CPU
IMO, this is not REALLY well invested money, as it is really old hardware, but that is just the it is with Apple. For a iMac pro with 128Gb and 2 Tb SSD you will pay almost 10.000€ (vs 4.000€ for this machine). The iMac pro will be a bit better, but also more then two times the price.
Then again ... if you would consider going Windows, for 4.000€ you would get a machine (without monitor) that would outperform the iMac pro. But that is due to the fact, that Windows 10 performs better for audio than Mac. I still like Mac OS, as I am used to it. But the more I think about it, the more I see that I will probably jump for Windows in the end. The chances that Apple will really have better offerings for pro users in the future seems slim to me. At least, I am already using Cubase, so, there is no fear of having to learn a new DAW! ;)
I hope my thoughts help!
 
Quick question for those of you with 6,1 Mac Pro's already - I'm seeing a lot of 256gb HD MPro's on eBay (together with D300 video cards), I'm assuming I should steer clear of those as the extra space will be needed for apps and OS right? 512gb or 1tb minimum?
you can change out the PCI-E SSD with a hex screw driver on the MP 6,1
 
I know what you mean. I'm in the same position, except I'm on a 2011 MacBook Pro.

I too am tempted by a Mac Pro, but I am going to wait to see if a Mac Mini appears in the next few weeks. I am put off slightly by the high price for 5 year old tech.

I'm also still considering a 5.1 Mac Pro. Nearly as powerful as the trash can, but much, much cheaper! Not an option for you of course if you need portability.

Wayne
I couldn't wait for another year as my 3,1 bit the dust. The 6,1 has been great so far. Quiet as all get out. I bought the base 6 core and upgraded the RAM to 64gb (128 means slower RAM). Quiet, powerful, works nicely with LPX and DP (Cubase is still funky...), and small footprint.
 
Thanks for taking the time to share your thoughts on this @Olfirf - sounds like the 6-core I linked to above could be a good option with some OWC RAM then! It has a 512gb SSD HD although the 32gb of RAM is only 1066 MHz so spending £350 or so on 64gb of RAM would make it a decent machine for my needs and total around £2400. I know it's more expensive than the base model you mentioned, but 6-core MPros don't seem to pop up much on eBay in the UK from what I can see and this one seems in good nick.

@dcoscina what kind of sessions do you run on your machine out of interest (track count, AU instruments / VEPro etc.)? I tend to do relatively 'mild' hybrid orchestral work (around 50-60 track counts together with synths) but I want to get into doing some bigger sessions with some bigger templates.
 
cato, are you planning on this being a several-year investment?

£2400 isn't bad - looking at that machine as pure value, rather than a good price relative to what those are going for.

However, if it's just a stopgap until new models come out, a 12-core 3.46GHz 5,1 Mac Pro with 64GB of RAM is going to be under $1500 (that's about £1950). I paid $1350 for mine a 1-3/4 years ago, and they haven't lost value.

It's debatable whether you'll notice a meaningful difference in horsepower between that upgraded 5,1 and the 6,1 configuration you're looking at.

I went through the same thing when I bought the 5,1. Right now Apple isn't really offering the ideal computers for our uses.
 
I went through the same thing when I bought the 5,1. Right now Apple isn't really offering the ideal computers for our uses.

Hi Nick,

I actually have a 5,1 Mac Pro 8-core (I left it in London as have been mainly working in Spain on the MM), but because I now run my samples off SSD’s on a Thunderbolt 2 Blackmagic Multidock and have a Thunderbolt soundcard, I’m a bit stuck with that machine as it doesn’t support Thunderbolt...

I suppose I could try USB3 enclosures for the SSD’s (I heard that’s a viable way to use them even for streaming, right?) but I’d still need to get a new sound card. Plus Firewire isn’t supported in High Sierra I’m told meaning my options are reduced considerably and I’m keen to keep my rig portable.

You’re right when you say Apple isn’t offering the ideal computers for us at this point!
 
Thanks for taking the time to share your thoughts on this @Olfirf - sounds like the 6-core I linked to above could be a good option with some OWC RAM then! It has a 512gb SSD HD although the 32gb of RAM is only 1066 MHz so spending £350 or so on 64gb of RAM would make it a decent machine for my needs and total around £2400. I know it's more expensive than the base model you mentioned, but 6-core MPros don't seem to pop up much on eBay in the UK from what I can see and this one seems in good nick.

@dcoscina what kind of sessions do you run on your machine out of interest (track count, AU instruments / VEPro etc.)? I tend to do relatively 'mild' hybrid orchestral work (around 50-60 track counts together with synths) but I want to get into doing some bigger sessions with some bigger templates.
I haven’t pushed it yet but I was getting 50 tracks on my MacBook Air i7 2.2ghz with only 8gb of Ram so I’m assuming my 6,1
With 64gb of ram will decimate that no problem.
 
Another wrinkle in the mac space-time continuum. If Macs go to AMD chips in 2020—a rumor that seems to be gaining more traction—does it make sense to wait for that? And if needing something sooner, go with a used 6.1 or maybe the souped up Mac Mini if it's powerful enough when announced in 10 days?
 
I just bought a Mac Pro late 2013 off ebay for what seemed like a pretty good deal.
6 core 3.5 ghz
32 gb RAM
512gb PCIe SSD
D500
6GB GDDR5

Got it for $1,838 US. I'm currently on a 2015 Macbook Pro with 8gb ram guys, this should be big upgrade for me :) I should be able to upgrade to 64ram if need be.
 
Ok, so an update: I too just got a Mac Pro late 2013 from eBay - has exactly the same specs as you @Hunter123 ! It was time and I managed to get it for £1550 + insured postage which cost me £115, so all in all, £1665 which I'm ok with. Fingers crossed it doesn't bum out on me! Hunter, if you're going for a RAM upgrade, I've been told OWC are decent and have good deals (that's where I'll be going anyway).

While I was waiting for the chance to get the MP late 2013, I bought a Sabrent USB 3 SSD dock here to use with my old Mac Pro 5,1 so I'm leaving a mini review for @christianb who was talking about it in another thread with me. Here's the unit:

Amazon product ASIN B0711L68MS
I have had mixed experiences so far. Initially, the drives dismounted when the machine went to sleep, but I knew about that behaviour and apparently the 'disk not ejected properly' errors can be safely ignored. In terms of mounting, there's been no problem so far and the speeds seem quick. I've been able to run projects and stream a bunch of Kontakt instruments off my Samsung EVO SSD's without issue...

...however, just tonight when saving a session in Logic Pro X, I've had a few crashes which I think is due to trying to push all that read/write stuff through my Mac Pro 5,1's Inateck USB3 PCIE card. I read that unless you have individual buses for each USB3 port, then everything gets routed through the same bus and it causes problems.

I'm also using an Apogee Ensemble via Firewire on the Mac Pro 5,1 so it could well be that causing the issues as it's not supported on High Sierra (my OS) and I've had the sound cut out a few times on me.

On to the "new" Mac Pro I got off eBay and time to sell the old gear I think!

Thanks again for all the pointers here, just waiting for an insanely powerful Mac Mini (or Mac Pro!) to come out next week to pop this happiness bubble I'm in.
 
Ok, so an update: I too just got a Mac Pro late 2013 from eBay - has exactly the same specs as you @Hunter123 ! It was time and I managed to get it for £1550 + insured postage which cost me £115, so all in all, £1665 which I'm ok with. Fingers crossed it doesn't bum out on me! Hunter, if you're going for a RAM upgrade, I've been told OWC are decent and have good deals (that's where I'll be going anyway).

While I was waiting for the chance to get the MP late 2013, I bought a Sabrent USB 3 SSD dock here to use with my old Mac Pro 5,1 so I'm leaving a mini review for @christianb who was talking about it in another thread with me. Here's the unit:

Amazon product ASIN B0711L68MS
I have had mixed experiences so far. Initially, the drives dismounted when the machine went to sleep, but I knew about that behaviour and apparently the 'disk not ejected properly' errors can be safely ignored. In terms of mounting, there's been no problem so far and the speeds seem quick. I've been able to run projects and stream a bunch of Kontakt instruments off my Samsung EVO SSD's without issue...

...however, just tonight when saving a session in Logic Pro X, I've had a few crashes which I think is due to trying to push all that read/write stuff through my Mac Pro 5,1's Inateck USB3 PCIE card. I read that unless you have individual buses for each USB3 port, then everything gets routed through the same bus and it causes problems.

I'm also using an Apogee Ensemble via Firewire on the Mac Pro 5,1 so it could well be that causing the issues as it's not supported on High Sierra (my OS) and I've had the sound cut out a few times on me.

On to the "new" Mac Pro I got off eBay and time to sell the old gear I think!

Thanks again for all the pointers here, just waiting for an insanely powerful Mac Mini (or Mac Pro!) to come out next week to pop this happiness bubble I'm in.
Hi Cato, are you planning to copy your old hard drive to the new mac pro? I'm going to do this to avoid re-installing things but I've never done it before. I was wondering if anyone knows if Migration Assistant does the same thing as something like Carbon Copy Cloner?
 
Hi Cato, are you planning to copy your old hard drive to the new mac pro? I'm going to do this to avoid re-installing things but I've never done it before. I was wondering if anyone knows if Migration Assistant does the same thing as something like Carbon Copy Cloner?

To be honest, I want to install everything from scratch as my experience is that lots of things start to (inadvertently) clutter up a system over time, but it has crossed my mind as it's a pain to reinstall everything. I usually use a bit of software called Super Duper that is similar to Carbon Copy Cloner, but it creates a bootable drive and, I think, is good for cloning only essential stuff:

https://www.shirt-pocket.com/SuperDuper/SuperDuperDescription.html

I use it for my back ups, although I'm old fashioned in that way as I do all this stuff manually and I'm sure there's a better way to automatically back things up (like Time Machine)!

Let me know what you decide in the end, I'm about to embark on setting up my Mac Pro late 2013 as well soon so will post the approach I end up on once I'm finished.
 
Hi Cato and Hunter123. A few months have passed and I was wondering how the Mac Pro 6.1 is holding up? I am looking to get a refurbished trashcan (6core/d500 card/256 int memory) Very similar to what you went for. How do you find it? Does it handle large templates?
 
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Hi Arwyn
Hi Cato and Hunter123. A few months have passed and I was wondering how the Mac Pro 6.1 is holding up? I am looking to get a refurbished trashcan (6core/d500 card/256 int memory) Very similar to what you went for. How do you find it? Does it handle large templates?

Hi Arwyn,

It's holding up well actually. So far, I haven't pushed it as far as I normally do, but it's not shown any signs of struggle with quite a few instances of kontakt, omnisphere, UVI, Engine (Best Service) and Play. However, what would you consider a large template? I'd be happy to do a little test if you let me know how many tracks / instances you would consider taxing on a machine like this.

So far, it's been lightning quick to load up, render tracks and do pretty much everything else, especially in comparison to my previous quad core MMini server (and also compared to the old cheesegrater Mac). Sorry if that's not very specific or helpful, but let me know the answer to the above and I'll do my best to answer!

Thanks,

Cato
 
Hi Cato.

Thanks for the reply. I normally run a large template for orchestral mock ups.My Template runs up to around 700 tracks, but the majority of that is streamed in from a PC slave running VEPRO
I do have a number of instruments in the main DAW running kontakt/omnisphere etc and disabled tracks that I use as and when I need them. I obviously don't use everything at once but like to have it all up and running for convenience. The reason for upgrading is that I have recently bought an Apollox 8 so of course I need thunderbolt. At the moment I use a MacPro 5.1 with 2 3.33 6-core processors and 64gig of ram. It's great but I needed to upgrade the interface and the capability of doing live stuff.Plus been wanting to use UAD plug ins for a long time.
My gut feeling is that the 6 core trashcan would work fine as I would also run VEPRO on the cheesegrater. It's just the 256 flash memory that concerns me a bit.It has 32gigs of ram.
Thanks again for your time. I get really twitchy when choosing hardware as I am not that much of a tech guy.
All the best
Arwyn
 
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