# Seeking advice on what to buy for VEPro Slave machine



## Adam Lutley (Feb 4, 2019)

I'm wanting to get into composing and writing more.

I want to buy Vienna Ensemble Pro and run it on a slave computer.

My current 2 computers are:
1. Macbook Pro- Late 2011, 2.5ghz, i7, 8gb RAM (can upgrade to 16gb RAM) All SSD
2. Mac Mini- Late 2012, 2.6ghz, i7, 16gb RAM- All SSD

I will be running logic and pro tools. I am a pro tools user but recently bought Logic and really want to use that for composition.
I would like to have the capacity to create medium to large size templates running orchestral libraries on the slave with VEPro. 

Questions:

1. Are my current computers capable of doing this or not? If so, which would be best as slave? and which best for DAW? Why? 

2. If my current computers are not capable what do you recommend to buy?

I see alot of people are running PC slaves (cheaper for the performance). 
I have looked into Hackintosh.. just looks like a big pain. I want things to just work.
All of my software and sample libraries are for Mac as I haven't owned a PC for long time.

3. If I was to buy a PC slave I'm assuming I need to find the PC versions of all my mac software and install them on the new PC slave. Is that correct? A simple and obvious question I guess??

4. As I'm keen to run Logic as my main DAW, I must use a mac to host. Can either of my current two computers do this adequately? I'm assuming alot of the grunt needs to be on the slave side as thats where VEPro will reside?

Possible scenarios:

Use one of my current macs to run logic.
Purchase new mac mini 2018 and use this to host VEPro and all software and sample libraries. (thus, still keeping everything in mac land)

OR

Buy a PC Slave that can have tonnes of RAM and computing power (more the the mac mini).. I guess the downside being that I need to find the windows installers for all of my software and sample libraries.

What would a good option be? I'm concerned that even a new mac mini with max RAM (32gb I think) will not be able to adequately serve as a slave.

I can see my only other mac slave options are an Imac or mac pro (probably too much money). 
The imac will be limited in terms of RAM as the Mac mini is.

Any recommendations and advice is greatly apprectiated.
Adam.


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## Bender-offender (Feb 4, 2019)

If you’re just starting out, use what you currently have until it maxes out or breaks. There’s not much sense in dropping a load of money on a powerhouse of a computer (Mac or PC) if you’re unsure of what you need.

If you do decide to upgrade, you’ll get more bang for your buck by building a PC slave.

I have tried the hackintosh setup in the past and, personally, it wasn’t worth all the workarounds to keep it running, so as you said, it’s less headaches to just use a real Mac. 

Also, Logic is very efficient in terms of CPU, so (like I said above) try out what you have first and then go from there. 

If you do have any more questions, myself or others are happy to answer them.


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## Olfirf (Feb 4, 2019)

If your needs are mostly Kontakt and other samples, the PC option will definitively give you more bang for the buck!
Downsides of the mac mini:
- you pay more for it
- you pay more for Ram upgrades (64gb will cost you dearly, even if you upgrade yourself, as you need two 32gb modules, which are more expensive than 4 16gb modules)
- for SSD space for the samples you need to buy a thunderbolt enclosure (or more than one)
Using the mac mini as a slave is just waste of money for a single purpose machine like a slave. Doing so as a main machine, if someone wants to use Logic or maybe just prefers Mac OS one Windows could make sense, but for a slave it doesn't.


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## Mason (Feb 6, 2019)

I’d say that if you want to mix on the Macs they won’t have enough RAM to run a lot of effect plugins so you need to consider if you want to mix on the slave as well or on the master.


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