new Mac Pro and Logic

I m considering one, still not sure what computer to get, gonna wait till the Apple Event, see if theres a nice new MacMini or iMac.

The only things I have read about those who have bought the Mac Pro are problems with Catalina! supposed to be vey quiet though.

Here's one test:

the price for a basic 8 core is so incredibly high - I'm insecure right now

Unless you're going to earn significant amounts of money with it from day one, this machine is not for you. Check out the current Mac mini or the iMac.

the price for a basic 8 core is so incredibly high - I'm insecure right now

Unless you're going to earn significant amounts of money with it from day one, this machine is not for you. Check out the current Mac mini or the iMac.

I will second this. I mean, sure, if you got $$$$$ that you want to spend feel free, but the new latest iMac is a powerful machine and my Mac Mini is a FANTASTIC Logic tool. Heck, buy 2 and set one up with Vienna Ensemble Pro and you'll have more CPU than you know what to do with. And I say this as someone who holds on to machines for a LONG time and pushes them pretty hard.

my Mac Mini is a FANTASTIC Logic tool....

Can you elaborate a little on your Mac mini - I am doing research and seems a lot of people want to steer me away from it... My current machine can't handle 10.5...

thanks!

djl

current 2011 iMac 64 GB

Logic 10.4.8

88 key controller

I am doing research and seems a lot of people want to steer me away from it

What bad things are they saying about the current Mac Mini?

There are a lot of threads on this topic already and you can read all sorts of information if you search...

I personally would not buy the new MP at all unless I were a pretty high end studio with a lot of cash to burn or or had some extreme important need to get a "new" computer.

The cheese grater and Trashcan are still my preferred option at this time...there are many on the used and refurbished markets. I would still recommend that over a mini or iMac, but opinions differ, it depends a lot on specifically how you will be using it. if you are already invested in a lot of Thunderbolt gear or want to get a bunch of thunderbolt gear, then the i9 iMac is what I would recommend at this time, but its not exactly cheap either.

It kind of breaks down like this for current options, all with pros and cons. (in a few days we may find out about some new mac models by the way)..

1. Get the new MP: It will run everything you want to run with decent single core performance and out of this world multi-core performance. Includes PCI slots, internal drive bays in tower design, use whatever monitor you want, etc. CON: You'll probably have to take out a loan.
    
    
   
2. Current Mini: Cost effective. Decent single core performance, ok multi-core performance. use whatever monitor you want, with built in video. There is enough power for most people. Not overly expensive. CONS: No tower. No PCI. No internal drive bays. Heat can be an issue with the fans cranking on, if it sits on your desktop, then expect some noise. Drives have to be attached in external boxes, etc.
    
    
   
3. i9 iMac: Not cheap, but you don't need a loan. Best single core performance you can get, decent multi-core performance. CONS: No tower, no internal drive bays, no PCI slots. Heat can cause fan noise issues, the video monitor is what it is built into the computer
    
    
   
4. Cheesegrater: Very cost effective, mediocre single core performance, decent multi-core performance. Tower design including PCI slots, etc. Use whatever monitor you want, whatever PCI audio you want, etc. CONS: No AVX support, officially deprecated by Apple at Catalina.
    
    
   
5. Trashcan: Fairly cost effective, quiet box design, unlike mini and iMac, performance slightly better then Cheesegrater (I'm not sure if it supports AVX?), includes Thunderbolt which the cheesegrater does not. CONS: Does not have tower design with PCI slots or internal drive bays, a little more expensive then cheesegrater and likely to be deprecated pretty soon by Apple also.

For me personally, the performance issue can depend.. Here are some charts I did a while back, based on publicly available geekbench scores for single-core and multi-core performance:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1nP3OV0THq0wg12JrZTpRWMBSz-Ys6Qu8tPXOGz-noz4/edit#gid=0

So what to make of all that? It just depends what kind of devices and monitors you have already or want to get and use, how much single core performance do you need to make sure to have, etc.. The cheesegrater and trashcan really do quite well compared to modern macs in terms of multi-core performance, not as much with single core on some of them, especially the i9 iMac will slay the single core performance. The new MP will obviously slay everything, for a price. But the question is, do you NEED to slay everything? My cheesegrater is still humming along getting it all done, mixing projects and doing what I need, I see no reason whatsoever to change from it. You can pick up a refurbished one for under $2K all loaded up with RAM, etc. But.. in a few years, you'll need a new one, I plan to get 3 more years out of this one. If you don't like that idea, then see the pros and cons of the new ones above. There will be tradeoffs, unless you have enough money to buy a brand new MP, then the main and only trade off is that its just very expensive.

A lot of people are using the mini and saying they are happy with it. I would not be happy with it. For me I'd rather have a cheesgrater because of the tower mainly. But my single core performance cannot match the single core performance of the mini or iMac...but do I care? Not really, its good enough actually. the only downside I have at the moment is no AVX support so I can't run Modo Drums or MassiveX, the only two things I know of that are requiring AVX. Aside from that, its working perfectly and I expect it to keep working perfectly for a few more years...and then we'll see what the Apple options are, I just do absolutely not like the Mini or iMac form factors, and I am pretty invested in PCI solutions, so for me, its either Cheesegrater for new overpriced MP, which I simply cannot justify the price at this time.

The cheese grater and Trashcan are still my preferred option at this time.

My wife has a Trashcan Mac and had SERIOUS problems with it. The RAM stopped being recognized and it turned out that the RAM slots were faulty. The further problem is that the RAM slots are part of the main motherboard, so the whole board had to be replaced at a very high cost. I would avoid this machine...