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  4. MAC PRO w/2 3.2 GHz Quad-Cores or Mac Minis?

  • MAC PRO w/2 3.2 GHz Quad-Cores or Mac Minis?

    A
    A
    Hello everyone, I'm about to start buying some equipment for my studio. I just want to know what's a better option, a MAC PRO w/2 3.2 Quad-Cores or start a VSL farm using Mac Minis? I've read that the "Farm approach" is a good choice if you want to have all your samples loaded all the time in the background (which I think is a good if you are actively working on big projects that might require a lot of instruments w/many articulations loaded and playing at the same time right?), but since I just graduated, I will be working on smaller projects. As a matter of fact I'll only be using the VI Special Edition Full and Plus libraries + other stuff such as the Spectrasonics Instrumnets, etc. and probably Solo Strings, Orchestral Strings 1 and 2. I must say that I don't plan on loading a huge amount of articulations and instruments at the same time. And I'll be loading my instruments depending on the project. In this case which would be the wisest choice? Thanks
  • J
    J
    Mac Pro. Hands down. Even though we're still waiting for a 64-bit VE, you can launch multiple instances of the standalone and access loads of RAM that way. The performance will be more than ample, even for the largest templates. Plus, with Mac Pro you've got some room to grow.

    If you can afford it, go with the Mac Pro, for sure. But don't blow any money buying RAM from Apple - their prices are criminal.

    J.
  • D
    D
    Mac Pro for sure. If you want a farm you could have PC's with 8 gigs of ram each. Mac Mini's only load 1.5 or maybe a little more with 3 or 4 gigs ram now being able to be loaded. So don't get mini. Mac Pro would be vey good. I have two 8 gig PC's and next I will get Mac Pro
  • B
    B

    Definitely go with the Mac Pro! Also with the new VE 3 64-bit, and with motherboards supporting larger and larger amounts of RAM I think people are trying to move away from the farm (or at least downsize to fewer more powerful computers with lots of RAM on each).  If/when you decide to get more VSL stuff it will start to become important to spread out your libraries over several hard drives, but the Mac Pro has plenty of room for that.

    I second on the RAM from Apple, their prices ARE CRIMINAL!  Other options are:

    http://www.macsales.com/ 

    or

    http://www.crucial.com/ 

    Think about it this way.  I need a really fast car with lots of power.  Should I buy a Ferrari, or 10 Honda Civics?  :) 
  • A
    A
    Thank you guys for your replies and recommendations. It looks the winner is going to be the Mac Pro then. Thank you Brian for posting the links to the stores where I can get RAM sticks for a reasonable price. Best, -Alvaro
  • B
    B

    Hey Alvaro,

    One more thing I forgot to mention about the RAM.  When you buy your Mac and if you decide to get extra RAM from someone other than Apple (called third party RAM) I would HIGHLY RECOMMEND NOT trading in the RAM from Apple (as I think macsales.com offers some trade-in deals).  The main reason why is that if you should for some reason have some trouble with your machine and have to send it in to Apple, they have a way of blaming problems on third party RAM and making you pay for repairs even when the machine is still under warranty.  I would keep the original RAM in a safe place (or in the machine).  That way if you need to send in your machine, you are able to send it in with the exact specs you bought it at from Apple (i.e. take out the third party RAM and put in the original Apple RAM).

    Brian 
  • A
    A

     Will do. Thanks again for the advice Brian.