upgrade to intel Mac

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supafuzz
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upgrade to intel Mac

Post by supafuzz » Mon Nov 02, 2015 6:28 am

Ok I'm still ok with my PPC running Pt8 Hd3 for now
But i do realize all stuff breaks down eventually
So I'm planning a contingency I do have a 2 x 2.8 quad core intel xeon at home but will this be powerful enough when I have to upgrade my PT system? It has 6GB ram and I know I can go up to 32 on this.
Or should I just get a better/newer more powerful mac?

The bitch is having to buy pro tools all over again including the cards...
thanks
Super 70 Studio.. Never tell a perfectionist that the mix is perfect!

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now in glorious HD3

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roscoenyc
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Post by roscoenyc » Mon Nov 02, 2015 6:39 am

We have a similar computer at CTS and it runs PT 10 perfectly with the HD2 card.
We recently upgraded the RAM. If you do upgrade your RAM it may be easier to replace all of it since you don't have very much in there. A lot of the new chips don't like to play with the old chips. You can go to Crucial and find out what you need.

Your cards will work in this rig right?

kslight
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Post by kslight » Mon Nov 02, 2015 6:43 am

You can upgrade certain older Mac Pros to be ldual hex core if you want...depends on what year and how much money you can throw at it....but that would be my suggestion to upgrade your Mac at home over buying a new one. With that said, I'm still on a single quad 2.8 w 16gb ram and it runs pretty decently. If I had more money I would upgrade it though as I do sometimes hit the limits. I'm not using HD though.

Your Intel is likely leaps and bounds faster than your PPC, but if you don't use the PPC for mixing, just with tracking HD3, you're probably fine. My business partner still uses an old G5 w HD3 and it still is flawless for tracking....it is pretty slow booting and loading sessions, and it is annoying it can't run newer software...but as a "tape machine" it's more than adequate. I prefer to mix on my Intel system though.
Vanilla pro tools is pretty good now though and a lot of HD features have been migrating over...you might not find it essential to run HD on a newer system depending on your requirements.


There's also someone that sells older motherboards that you could use to build yourself a new computer and still use your old HD cards, but you'd still be limited to what version of Pro Tools you can use and would of course be under Windows (or a "Hackintosh" setup).
Last edited by kslight on Mon Nov 02, 2015 6:49 am, edited 1 time in total.

kslight
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Post by kslight » Mon Nov 02, 2015 6:46 am

roscoenyc wrote:We have a similar computer at CTS and it runs PT 10 perfectly with the HD2 card.
We recently upgraded the RAM. If you do upgrade your RAM it may be easier to replace all of it since you don't have very much in there. A lot of the new chips don't like to play with the old chips. You can go to Crucial and find out what you need.

Your cards will work in this rig right?
I believe the OP has older style PCI or PCI X HD cards which will not fit in PCIe slots.

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Post by Injured Ear » Mon Nov 02, 2015 7:13 am

Crossposted from here:
http://messageboard.tapeop.com/viewtopi ... 633#702633
I'm running a custom built PC chassis with a Hackintosh kernel so I can still use my original PCI cards with PT 10. Works. The computer was really stable at OS 10.6.8 with PT 10.3.2. I can hook you up with the builder if you're interested.

I've since moved to OSX 10.8.5 and PT 10.3.8 to take advantage of AAX native plugins.
the system as a whole is less stable, but I'm still getting work done. Probably as stable as anybody going HDX and dealing with PT 11/12 issues.

I've also been considering putting Windows 7 on a drive and running Protools via Windows as it's apparently still working fine with Protools and old PCI slots.

It's a science project, but I also lack the funds to buy a new Mac and a new HDX rig.

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supafuzz
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Post by supafuzz » Mon Nov 02, 2015 8:16 am

roscoenyc wrote:We have a similar computer at CTS and it runs PT 10 perfectly with the HD2 card.


Your cards will work in this rig right?
no I'd have to get new Digi cards mine are all PCIx [the larger footprint]
That's not a big deal cost wise they seem to be going for a few hundred for the core card and about the same for a single accel
the big deal is having to purchase HD10 which is like $1200+
that's why I've been avoiding it.
Super 70 Studio.. Never tell a perfectionist that the mix is perfect!

http://www.super70studio.com
http://www.facebook.com/Super70Studio


now in glorious HD3

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supafuzz
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Post by supafuzz » Mon Nov 02, 2015 8:22 am

kslight wrote: Your Intel is likely leaps and bounds faster than your PPC, but if you don't use the PPC for mixing, just with tracking HD3, you're probably fine. My business partner still uses an old G5 w HD3 and it still is flawless for tracking....it is pretty slow booting and loading sessions, and it is annoying it can't run newer software...but as a "tape machine" it's more than adequate. I prefer to mix on my Intel system though.
Vanilla pro tools is pretty good now though and a lot of HD features have been migrating over...you might not find it essential to run HD on a newer system depending on your requirements..
I mix and track with my PPC and it's never been a problem
I'm just looking ahead to the day my PPC craps out. I want to have a Plan B in place and not have to scramble.
Super 70 Studio.. Never tell a perfectionist that the mix is perfect!

http://www.super70studio.com
http://www.facebook.com/Super70Studio


now in glorious HD3

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alexdingley
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Get a spare!

Post by alexdingley » Thu Dec 03, 2015 4:38 am

supafuzz wrote:I mix and track with my PPC and it's never been a problem
I'm just looking ahead to the day my PPC craps out. I want to have a Plan B in place and not have to scramble.
If you're looking to have a plan b with little-to-no down-time, why not just craigslist a couple of identical G5 towers as spares? It could be 200-300 per tower, these days.

You could grab a cheap machine, use Carbon-Copy-Cloner to duplicate your existing boot drive into the tower... then throw it in a closet until your current PPC dies. In the event of failure, just open up the machine (static-safe-vaccum out the dust), swap over the cards & any extra RAM / ... viola!

That seems like the best bet. I'm about to do the same with my Intel tower. I have a 2009 Mac Pro, and the prices are starting to drop on those... so, I'll be grabbing a duplicate tower in the next year+ to image & keep as a spare.

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