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  • advice on new MIR Pro slave

    I'm about to build a new PC slave exclusively for MIR Pro as a slave to my Mac Digital Performer DAW. I'm just a little bit confused about the best way to go these days and am leaning towards using SSDs, which I've never used before. Here's what I'm thinking on the basic specs now:

    2 Xeon 5630s (2.53gHz)

    12GB RAM

    2 240GB SSDs, which would handle most of my VSL samples, plus one HDD for overflow and backups.

    This brings up one of my questions - with SSDs, do we still follow the same rules about separate drives? Could Windows, MIR Pro, and some samples all be on the same SSD?

    I'm also wondering about CPU speed. My current choice is of course largely based on budget, but if I use mid to large setups (my currently open project has about 12GB of samples in RAM, using power pan on every channel and 4 VSL convolution reverbs, and I envision switching to everything using MIR Pro), will I regret not spending the extra $400 or so on the next step up to Xeon 5640s, or even further to 12 cores? If anyone at VSL or anybody with more experience has any doubts about what I have above, I'd love to hear it! Thanks!


  • Disclaimer: I have no experience with xeons, as they are beyond my budget.

    Having said that, let me ask a question: If you bought that xeon, how much headroom will it give you for your current projects?  If the answer is not that much, then that could soon prove problematic.  Especially if you move to MIR Pro, it would certainly be possible that over time, your project size could continue to get larger, and your processing needs increase.

    In terms of total cost, when you figure in the cost of your sample libraries, MIR Pro, other needed software, etc., etc., etc., the $400 seems like it could be a rather small sum.

    With the new VSL system, being able to adjust buffer sizes if one uses SSD's, the 12 gigs of ram might prove to be enough.  Under the old methods, you would need 24 gigs minimum (I am on MIR SE, and even on MIR SE, 12 gigs proved to be problematic).


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    @noldar12 said:

    Having said that, let me ask a question: If you bought that xeon, how much headroom will it give you for your current projects?

    Being that I haven't had a Xeon before either and don't have a way to test it, I have no idea. 😊


  • Dear Didger,

    When it comes to CPU power: more is more. I do not know about your arranging or mixing style. How many plugins and so on. How much percent is left on your CPU meter when you have a finished arrangement. If you have enough headroom now you should be fine with your new setup.

    12GB RAM is minimum and what i can see you have a lot of our products. When it comes to MIR PRO you should not forget that you need as well RAM for the Rooms. So if i were you i would go for 24 GB RAM.

    I would also not install the sample content to the system drive.

    Hth

    Bernd