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So, what Mac are you going to get next? (Poll)

What Mac will you be buying next?


  • Total voters
    144
  • Poll closed .
And that particular build config even has TB3! I think you could build it with a bit less video card then she reccomended there and save some money too, we don't need that much video card for music production.

Still I will continue with my 5,1 for a couple more years, but it will be interesting to watch things develop in the next couple years and with setups like that its certainly going to be something to consider going with a hackintosh if Apple doesn't pull their head out and give us a better prosumer option.
 
Go for it, it’s easier than it seems. It’s also much more rewarding to build your rig yourself, you’ll end up a savvy IT genius before you know it ;)
 
Whats the difference between the Thunderbolt Busses on the iMac & iMac Pro?

iMac: 1 Bus for 2 TB3
iMac Pro: 2 Busses for 4 TB3

I want to use 1x external display (2560x1440p) and 2x SSDs. Is that possible?
 
Depends on what you are doing with your SSDs. They don’t have to be Thunderbolt unless you are running a big bay. I’ve had good success with running SSDs through USB3. My late 2015 iMac is currently running 2 external monitors, one of which runs out of a Thunderbolt 2 dock that also provides me with 4 additional powered USB3 ports. I have 5 SSDs connected via USB3 and my audio interface is also currently USB3. I’d prefer to do the interface with Thunderbolt but I haven’t figured out how to run two external monitors without each of them having them in separate Thunderbolt ports (one connected through the Thunderbolt dock).

The current iMacs have TB3 but that should help. In any case the iMac and iMac Pro should both work in terms of your peripherals. For the iMac you might need to get a TB3 dock or a TB3 SSD bay.
 
Depends on what you are doing with your SSDs. They don’t have to be Thunderbolt unless you are running a big bay. I’ve had good success with running SSDs through USB3. My late 2015 iMac is currently running 2 external monitors, one of which runs out of a Thunderbolt 2 dock that also provides me with 4 additional powered USB3 ports. I have 5 SSDs connected via USB3 and my audio interface is also currently USB3. I’d prefer to do the interface with Thunderbolt but I haven’t figured out how to run two external monitors without each of them having them in separate Thunderbolt ports (one connected through the Thunderbolt dock).

The current iMacs have TB3 but that should help. In any case the iMac and iMac Pro should both work in terms of your peripherals. For the iMac you might need to get a TB3 dock or a TB3 SSD bay.

Hey there,

thanks for your answer, you relieved me. The OWC docking station looks perfect to me.

Could you please make a picture of your setup? I would appreciate it very much. Thanks
 
And that particular build config even has TB3! I think you could build it with a bit less video card then she reccomended there and save some money too, we don't need that much video card for music production.

Still I will continue with my 5,1 for a couple more years, but it will be interesting to watch things develop in the next couple years and with setups like that its certainly going to be something to consider going with a hackintosh if Apple doesn't pull their head out and give us a better prosumer option.
Totally agree with the prosumer option, big hole there. My Hack I just built has a Sapphire 11265-05-20G Radeon Pulse RX 580 8GB and has great performance for $200. Love, love, love the Apple ecosystem so much I bought a new iPhone and iPad and being a Windows guy most of my life. Integrating everything is beyond easy and I did IT for 15 years with all Windows comps...
 
Haven't read all the posts here, but there is a poll item missing.

Staying on current Mac.

Fair question if you have staying on PC, is it not?

I will never go back to PC (OK, never is a long time, but I have no intentions of ever dealing with Windows again), but I'm not upgrading anytime soon, so I have no item on the ballot.
 
Totally agree with the prosumer option, big hole there. My Hack I just built has a Sapphire 11265-05-20G Radeon Pulse RX 580 8GB and has great performance for $200. Love, love, love the Apple ecosystem so much I bought a new iPhone and iPad and being a Windows guy most of my life. Integrating everything is beyond easy and I did IT for 15 years with all Windows comps...

Yea I have that card in my 5,1 and its great. So I think you could take $500 off Teresa's parts cost estimate by using less video card such as the RX580, then the GPU she recommended which was nearly $900. Or use that $500 towards 128gb mem instead of 64..still..its a killer machine for under $3000. If my 5,1 wasn't working so well, which it still definitely is, I'd already be ordering the parts to build one myself. Another nice thing about using a hackintosh is that I could make it dual bootable and run windows/Cubase on it at any point in time I felt like, though it would be a pain to admin two OS's. And based on Apple's behavior its quite likely this hardware will remain useful and resell-able further into the future than anything coming from Apple, especially in that price range.
 
The word on the street is that the 2012 MacPro will not be able to run OSX Catalina. That is not ten years.

Mojave will be supported at least other two years on the MacPro 2012. Your Mac Pro 2012 (or my Mac Pro 2009) will not stop working or stop being useful because it doesn't run Catalina.
Well, not immediately, at least :->,it will when the applications we use will not run anymore on it, and this will need a bit more time.
 
I just ordered an i9 iMac from Apple, 64G of ram from owc, and a Thunder quad mini.
I decided to get a thunderbolt dock as well since I'm using my Metric Halo Lio 8 with an ethernet connection and to future proof for some other possible devices I'm thinking about.
I was just about to order a CalDigit TS3 Plus on Amazon when I found out that Apple has it for $60 US less (I also get an AES discount which knocked off an additional $25 bucks).
So, if you're in the market for one, skip Amazon (even if you have Prime, you can get free shipping if you don't mind waiting an extra couple of days).

Also ordered a Crucial MX500 drive to replace the last spinning drive in my system. It was just $240 bucks for 2T (Amazon). It might not be the last word in speed but it's only going to be storing my Home folder stuff and like I said, it's replacing a HDD.
 
I am surprised at how many voted for the new mac pro, which is super expensive and absolutely unnecessary for music. The new iMac is so good and quite fairly priced.
 
Maybe a noob question but is there a reason why almost nobody considers a used vader helmet? You can get a pretty decent machine for 2500.- bucks. It’s what I would consider in the moment if my 5.1 macpro wouldn’t do it anymore.
The Hackintosh from Teres looks interesting too.
 
I’d prefer to do the interface with Thunderbolt but I haven’t figured out how to run two external monitors without each of them having them in separate Thunderbolt ports (one connected through the Thunderbolt dock).
Devices like the ThunderQuad have 2 TB ports for daisy-chaining. I'm not sure if that supports graphics, but even if it doesn't, it's possible that some device might...oh, and I switched from a dual monitor setup to a single 43" monitor and it's been the best thing.
 
Devices like the ThunderQuad have 2 TB ports for daisy-chaining. I'm not sure if that supports graphics, but even if it doesn't, it's possible that some device might...oh, and I switched from a dual monitor setup to a single 43" monitor and it's been the best thing.
If I had a 43" monitor, I know I would just make the main editing window on the DAW bigger and I'd still end up with at least one additional monitor for plug-ins! Also the iMac is what it is—a very nice 27" 5K retina display, but I'm locked into it for obvious reasons.

Each TB device on the chain can only support one monitor, so you apparently need a device (such as a dock) for each monitor if you have more than one on the chain. My conundrum has been how to get two monitors, a dock, and a TB2 audio interface all on two TB2 ports. The solution seems to be another dock, but I don't want to go that way because the dock I have gets extremely hot and I don't have room for a second that is sufficiently separated from the first to allow the heat to dissipate.
 
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