What do I REALLY need in a mac stationary, to be safe??

Ok, So I bought this new pc computer, cause my old one wasn’t really strong enough to run cubase and all my plugins…
The new one, worked fine for a while, but now my friend tells me I have a hardware conflict…

So I’m selling the damn thing, and I’m going for a mac pro…

But here’s the thing…
I have a poop load of plugins, and I wanna be sure I don’t end up in trouble after a while…

What do I really need in my mac to be safe…?
I wanna work fast, and I wanna load up my plugins, without having to boot all the time and so forth…

  • Cubase 6
  • Superior Drummer w/ two packs
  • Garritans Personal Orchestra
  • 5 synth plugins… FM7 and so forth

This list is pretty “small” but all the plugins broke down my PC computer with 3GB strong ddr, and a 2.8gHz

I want to order a mac pro, but I’m not sure what to order… Help :S

Better off with PC due to multi-core scaling issues with Mac.

Pretty minimum spec machine, especially considering what you run.

Go for an I7 with as much RAM as it will take. Bet it costs less than a lesser Mac.

Oh, and what’s the hardware conflict?

Hey man…

Thanks for helping me out.

Well… It was a self-builder, so I got in a box.
Don’t remember all of it, but I do remember that the chipset was pissed off at my sound card, and the driver for the processor as well…
I changed motherboard twice already.

Thing is, I have apple discs, apple laptops, and apple phones due to earlier work… and after a while I found them quite easy to work with, so I figured I’d get one for my home studio as well.

I run Cubase, and multiple storage from f.ex. Adobe…
When it all starts to boil, my system deal with a lot of backgrounds.
I just… I’ve never used macs for such heavy programs before, and my only concern is to end up with a computer that can’t handle everything. halts, freeze, and lags is a b***h while working on in live action software.

Like I said, Mac has multi-core scaling issues. Look up DAW benchmarks to compare what works best. Plenty here running I7 systems with no issues. 64-bit OS will allow more RAM to run the sample-based plugs.

bah… So I need to buy an even greater PC computer then?
Aiii… At least I’m going to look for the right components this time…

Would think they’d fix the issues with apple mac pretty fast tho…

If you take the money you were going to spend on a Mac and then see what you get from a DAW builder for the same money, you should find that not only would you have no stability problems on either machine, but that the PC would perform far better than the Mac, and be a higher specification. At the moment with Cubendo the only reason for getting a Mac is because you prefer working in OSX (nothing wrong with that). When it comes to performance, PC wins hands down.

Regarding the “issues” on Mac. The only people who can fix them are the Apple programmers. In order to fix them it would have to mean that firstly that they are deemed important, and secondly that spending the development time would result in many more sales. The professional music market is tiny, so what we want is of no interest to Apple, so they have no incentive to improve things specifically for us.

BTW your friend who told you that you had a hardware conflict; were they a Mac user, by any chance? :wink:

DG

No… He’s actually a cisco administrator. He use laptops as far as I know… windows that is…

Yeah, for some reason the motherboard I have doesen’t work that well with my Focusrite soundcard…
And believe me, we have chacked anything from drivers on both devices, to logical settings.
Some components just doesen’t seem to like eachother :slight_smile:

Before you buy a new computer, have you thought of just getting a better quality soundcard?

DG

eeeeh…

I have this one:


http://www.focusrite.com/products/audio_interfaces/saffire_pro_40/


I “think” that’s a good enough soundhandler… :stuck_out_tongue:

For $600 it better work perfectly :slight_smile:

Soundcards are only as good as their drivers, and as you’ve already found out, they’re not always as good as they should be. I would still recommend trying another soundcard before you make the decision to ditch your PC.

DG

That soundcard is probably fine, it’s the firewire chipset on your motherboard that I suspect. I suggest looking for a Texas Instruments PCI expansion firewire card. that’s a LOT cheaper than a new audio interface or computer :wink:

Firewire audio interfaces are very picky when the chipset is concerned, usually TI are the recommended brand for this business.

He’s got a single core processor and ddr RAM trying to run the plugs listed above. Soundcard ain’t gonna cut it. :wink:

Ah, I didn’t see any actual specs for the PC in question.

DG

Hi again folks…

Ya, I’m going for a mac for several reasons, but the brakedown of computer after computer sure has a good point…
I have macbooks, and I’ve worked with the OSX for a while…
But home in my studio, windows was always the thing.

Nowadays, the Macs inhale more and more of the marked, and the difference while thinking price, available software and so forth, shortens rapidly… So why not…

It’d be a plus if you own a mac and run cubase on it… I’m looking for inside info that is.

Mac pro was *** expensive :S But I am looking at the iMac…