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  3. NEW MAC TIME! IMac Pro?

  • NEW MAC TIME! IMac Pro?

    R
    R

    Hi all,

    My mac book pro only has 8gb ram - and I've bought dimension strings, so time for an upgrade to get it all running.

    My 1st instinct was the new Imac pro - but it's $7k for the base model (Australian $). I could do it if its good value - but I suspect other cheaper options will work fine fo my requirements.

    So thoughts out there.... can I do just as well with $3k? Mac Pro? Imac? A more pumped up laptop?

    (and FYI: I already have a good 4k monitor and an external SSD drive, running Sibelius and VSL. I mostly write string quartets and chamber orchestra, but be nice to be future proofed for something larger. Current machine is an early 2013 MBP with 8gb ram and 256gb ssd. Ram is hard wired to main board so no simple upgrade is possible).

    Cheerrs,

    Barton.
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    Any opinions on iMac pro out there?
  • stephen limbaughS
    stephen limbaughS

    My view is that the cost is prohibitive.  

    If you want to run Dimension Strings, which can be pretty heavy on the polyphony and RAM, I'd suggest keeping the mac and building a slave Windows PC.

    If you've got the cash though and can do the 18-core 128Gb RAM iMac Pro, and use Logic as your DAW, that's ideal in my view.

    For the pieces (3 feature films and a piano concerto) I'm working on in the next few months, I'm gonna be using Dimension Strings in MIR Pro Synchron Stage plus the Synchron Strings... and so I'm not freezing tracks I gotta have the power.

    I dislike Windows PCs, but there really isn't a cheaper alternative.

    There's also the rumored modular Mac coming at some point which will probably be some crazy 32-core processor 500Gb RAM insanity... probably will be available in 2019. (j/king... but it'll be up there!)
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    @stephen limbaugh said:

    ....There's also the rumored modular Mac coming at some point which will probably be some crazy 32-core processor 500Gb RAM insanity... probably will be available in 2019. (j/king... but it'll be up there!)

    .... which raises an interesting question. If we had access to such a machine, would we still need a slave? I just don't like too many little boxes.

    I would prefer the new Mac Pro, but if it doesn't come out by mid 2018 , I'm looking at one of the iMac Pros.  My Mac Mini is struggling with the 16GB RAM it has.
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    I'm well overdue a new computer, my current mac pro is from 2008, so it can't even install synchron, it's too old for the installer to run (although I'll be sticking with DS/MIR anyway). Not to mention that it overloads left right and centre, and crashes regularly and I lose my progress on projects, lol. I would have bought an iMac Pro had the ram been accessible for user upgrade. I have no idea how they oversaw such a basic requirement for a supposedly 'pro' machine. With the factory installed ram at 80% mark up, I'll be saying no-thanks (would have gone for 128 gig which is around 3 grand here in Australia IIRC. The only thing stopping me from jumping to PC land is the work that would be involved moving my projects into another DAW, as I'm tied to logic at this point. I hate apple more every year haha. Worst thing they ever did for pros was invent the iphone. Also unfortunate timing for the imac pro with spectre/meltdown just happening.
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    @stephen limbaugh said:

    ....There's also the rumored modular Mac coming at some point which will probably be some crazy 32-core processor 500Gb RAM insanity... probably will be available in 2019. (j/king... but it'll be up there!)

    .... which raises an interesting question. If we had access to such a machine, would we still need a slave? I just don't like too many little boxes.

    I would prefer the new Mac Pro, but if it doesn't come out by mid 2018 , I'm looking at one of the iMac Pros.  My Mac Mini is struggling with the 16GB RAM it has.

    *bump*