Looking for some opinions on a major upgrade.

[AEL89]

Hey dudes,

I haven't been posting at all recently but now I really need some opinions!

I'm looking to improve my home setup. I have a budget of around £5500

I was initially considering a 12-core Mac Pro, but I've recently been looking at iMacs and I'm now thinking that might be a better option because of thunderbolt (and they're 3 grand cheaper...) Would a quad 3.4gHz i7 with 16GB RAM, a 500GB SSD and a 2TB ATA drive be sufficient and fairly futureproof? I'll be running Pro Tools 10 by the way. Mac only. No PC vs. Mac discussions please

I'm also looking to improve my interface. I'm using a 003 and my Audient ASP008 for conversion currently. Its been rock solid for 2 years. The new Universal Audio interface is top of my list with a few others. I mix ITB from home but I need reasonable I/O for when I purchase more gear. I always track at studios so I don't need more then 16 I/O though. Apogee have a new thunderbolt interface which would open the possibility of an AD-16X and DA-16X system. If lynx release a thunderbolt card then an Aurora system would be awesome too - those things smoke 192s! I need amazing conversion, great stability and super low latency. I'm guessing thunderbolt is the way to go.

Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated! My main concern is my computer. My 003 has been so stable for me so I'm willing to wait on the interface. I'm guessing there will be a load more thunderbolt interfaces coming out soon anyway. Any word on more stuff from NAMM?

Cheers!

Alex

 

[crillemannen]

I just recently bought a 6core intel and i woulnd't recommend anyone buying less then 6cores. Even now i can get CPU overload in the end of a mix session. My PC costed about 1800$.

If i where to buy a new interface i would go for the SSL alphalink, 24 i/o for 2500$, nothing can beat that. And from what i've read it should be up there with Lynx etc quality wise.

 

[jipchen]

Huh, though choice. Personally I'd wait a little longer because if the Mac Pro gets continued (and I think it will) the new one will be most likely out in the first quarter this year. Then you'll most probably have thunderbolt, new mainboards, faster RAM, harddisks and more powerful CPUs than the iMacs. If you had to choose between the current Mac Pros and the iMac I think the iMac is actually a better idea looking at the price/performance ratio. The big iMacs easily outperform my 2010 Mac Pro for example.. the only real gain of the Pro would be more harddisk slots, better cooling, the option to use better cd/dvd drives easily and PCI-E. But with Thunderbolt and current USB / FW interfaces I don't think that's a really important criterion.

This is just imho of course, but I think you should wait for 2 or three months and see if the new Mac Pro's are coming and at what price.

 

[AEL89]

I just recently bought a 6core intel and i woulnd't recommend anyone buying less then 6cores. Even now i can get CPU overload in the end of a mix session. My PC costed about 1800$.

If i where to buy a new interface i would go for the SSL alphalink, 24 i/o for 2500$, nothing can beat that. And from what i've read it should be up there with Lynx etc quality wise.

Where did you read about the alphalink? Will the latency be as low as on the new thunderbolt stuff? I've read the SSL stuff is ok - I can't help but think the Lynx or Apogee would be superior though? How much RAM is in your machine?

Huh, though choice. Personally I'd wait a little longer because if the Mac Pro gets continued (and I think it will) the new one will be most likely out in the first quarter this year. Then you'll most probably have thunderbolt, new mainboards, faster RAM, harddisks and more powerful CPUs than the iMacs. If you had to choose between the current Mac Pros and the iMac I think the iMac is actually a better idea looking at the price/performance ratio. The big iMacs easily outperform my 2010 Mac Pro for example.. the only real gain of the Pro would be more harddisk slots, better cooling, the option to use better cd/dvd drives easily and PCI-E. But with Thunderbolt and current USB / FW interfaces I don't think that's a really important criterion.

This is just imho of course, but I think you should wait for 2 or three months and see if the new Mac Pro's are coming and at what price.

It's such a tough decision man - I've already been waiting and putting off this upgrade for 3 months. I'm kind of at the point where I really need to upgrade.

 

[Astrikos]

I wouldn't hurry for the apollo because nobody knows how the drivers will perform.I have a 002 rack and my next interface will be RME.

 

[greyskull]

Where did you read about the alphalink? Will the latency be as low as on the new thunderbolt stuff? I've read the SSL stuff is ok - I can't help but think the Lynx or Apogee would be superior though? How much RAM is in your machine?



It's such a tough decision man - I've already been waiting and putting off this upgrade for 3 months. I'm kind of at the point where I really need to upgrade.

The Alpha link sounds GREAT Alex. Much more natural and less hyped than Apogee stuff....

I still reckon you should get a Mac Pro.

Whilst the laptops/iMac's may have more horsepower on tap; They're no where near as stable IME

 

[decoy205]

 

[AEL89]

What do you want?

I wonder if SSL will release a thunderbolt card for the alphalink any time soon? 24 I/O for that money is really great - especially if it stands up to apogee.

Has there been any indication as to when there may or may not be an announcement about new Mac Pros? Or its potential successor?

I really don't think an old Mac Pro is a good idea at the moment because of the lack of thunderbolt. So annoying - I really want to get something sorted within the next few weeks. I'd be insanely gutted if I bought a new iMac only to hear an announcement on new Mac Pros a few months later...

 

[decoy205]

What do you want?

I was just indicating that I am interested in the opinions and information in this thread and I will be reading.

I'm not ready to upgrade as of yet but a lot of this is great info and It's helpful to me as well.

Good luck with your search.

 

[greyskull]

Alex, thunderbolt is essentially pciiE though; sit on it, and see what happens with mac pros

 

[Jarkko Mattheiszen]

It's a tough time to make such upgrades. If you can, wait a bit until there's more Thunderbolt stuff and experiences on the market just to make sure you won't end up with a system that turns out to be a pain in the ass in the future. Also, the iMacs are bound to be updated in a couple of months!

 

[crillemannen]

Where did you read about the alphalink? Will the latency be as low as on the new thunderbolt stuff? I've read the SSL stuff is ok - I can't help but think the Lynx or Apogee would be superior though? How much RAM is in your machine?

I think the Alpha goes down to 32samples of latency. And it should be up there with Lynx and Apogee quality wise.

I got 16gigs of ram.

 

[AEL89]

I was just indicating that I am interested in the opinions and information in this thread and I will be reading.

I'm not ready to upgrade as of yet but a lot of this is great info and It's helpful to me as well.

Good luck with your search.

Ah sorry... Couldn't tell if trolling at first.

Yeh it's definitely a difficult time to upgrade... I wish I'd done it 6 months ago to be honest. I'm going to call apple and see if there's a lease plan I can get. If I could get an iMac for 6 months then move to a new Mac Pro - that would be ideal.

If a new Mac Pro came out I'd for a 12-core with 12gb RAM minimum, an SSD for the operating system, then a super fast drive for audio, a drive for samples and a storage drive. I'll cry for the first week at the thought of how much money I'd have spent but it will be future-proof for at least 5 years I'd guess.

 

[greyskull]

That sounds nice! I think scrumpy macs do leasing...

Have a word with TB!
He leases his machine.

 

[AEL89]

I think the Alpha goes down to 32samples of latency. And it should be up there with Lynx and Apogee quality wise.

I got 16gigs of ram.

If that's the case then my main options are those 3 at the moment. I'll sit it out and wait with the interface. If the Universal Audio box turns out to be really stable and has amazing AD/DA then I'll definitely consider it too. UAD plugins would be great too. I enjoy mixing ITB and I track with a lot of hardware anyway.

Slight off topic: Have you upgraded to PT10 yet? Surely with that much RAM and PT10's disk caching you could load most of a session into the RAM? I've not read up too much on that so I could be talking complete shit.

 

[jipchen]

Disk caching is PT10 HD only, not available for the native version.

 

[Mikaël-ange]

I'm surprised nobody bring this to the table but if you want stay with PT, have top notch converter and mix mostly ITB (no need for dsp, massive I/O, overdub during mixing stage...), why don't consider HD native with a new avid converter?
Look like the perfect rig according to your need no?

 

[AEL89]

I'm surprised nobody bring this to the table but if you want stay with PT, have top notch converter and mix mostly ITB (no need for dsp, massive I/O, overdub during mixing stage...), why don't consider HD native with a new avid converter?
Look like the perfect rig according to your need no?

Yeh that had been an option too, but I'd kind of forgotten about that. For where I am - the whole market seems to be in a transition... HD native had gone to the back of my mind to be honest. An HD Native Card + HD I/O would be a hefty investment, especially on top of a Mac Pro. That would almost certainly be the most stable option though. More pros and cons to weigh up!

I'm going to do a load of research starting tomorrow and post my thoughts back here.

Thanks for all the opinions!

 

[gabriel g.]

an imac and a metric halo lio interface will bring you an amazing setup!

 

[AEL89]

bumping this since I now have a new computer (iMac) and now I need a new interface.

Any rumours on Thunderbolt stuff? I haven't seen any movement with the UA Apollo and likewise with Apogee and their Symphony.

Has anyone seen this new Sonnet PCIe to Thunderbolt thing?

http://www.sonnettech.com/product/echoexpresschassis.html

Opens the possibility of getting a Lynx Aurora or SSL Alphalink. Thing is - I only need 8 I/O. I only record vocals/bass at home. Maybe even a Prism Orpheus?