WTB iMac or MacBook for home set up

moz91

Looking for a Mac to run logic, amplitude, GarageBand etc.
It'll be in my teaching studio, occasionally used for proper recording but more often than not just a couple of guitars going through an interface, and the occasion recording of backing tracks etc
Would have thought 16gb, nothing too old. iMac or MacBook; not fussed.
What's out there?
Thanks!

Skodadad

I'm selling my mac pro 3.1 8 core for £400?

moz91

I'll pass on that, thanks though

sweepy

Just as an aside, that 3.1 Mac Pro would do all you require and give you budget for a decent interface, screen and extra hard drives, I wouldn't discount that option, especially as you are looking at £1.7k for a new 16gb MacBook . I actually have both setups and they work equally well .

moz91

Tempting, suppose I want something that's a bit more "future proof" if you know what I mean - it'll be used for a bit of work stuff too and I don't want to have to change any time soon if I can help it! Aren't the 3.1's from around 08-09?

Skodadad

8 cores and a possible 64gb ram is pretty future proof, it also has an upgraded genuine apple 4870 graphics card and 6gbs sata card 20' Monitor, full size apple aluminium keyboard, Apple mouse, airport and Bluetooth upgrade added running El capitan but understand the age can be off putting.

moz91

Now you put it like that haha! Let me do my research...
What's currently in it then? Processor, memory, storage

Skodadad

It's 2 x 2.8 ghz quad core cpus, 8gb ram, 1 x 500gb HD 1 x640gb HD 2 bays free and of course the sata card support for an pair of ssd drives which will sit in the 5.25" Bay with a molex to sata connection.

sweepy

And it can run USB 3 with a pci card

Skodadad

I nearly bought a USB 3 card but realised I have nothing fast enough to need it. What's your commission rate @sweepy in all seriousness it's a fast machine and run logic flawlessly but my upcoming wedding means a few sacrifices. I don't want to hard sell you though so it's sensible if you research your needs first.

sweepy

I use both and tbh, there is a lot of life left in the older Mac Pro machines, mine has performed faultlessly for the 3 years I've had it, the MacBook Pro is nice to have, especially hooked up to a 4K tv, but in real world cases , either machine will do the job . There are many fans of the Mac mini here too, again a very capable machine indeed

Skodadad

I looked at imacs but power to price put me off. Also not being able to add cards or upgrade graphics etc was annoying. I had a c2d years ago and the screen went yellow which was also a pain. The Mac mini is a cool little beast though.

moz91

I'm slowly being convinced haha, it makes sense!
I'm thinking realistically to run logic and a shit load of plugins and have it last me for a long time I'm looking at 16gb ram, quad core processor up or above 2.5ghz and ideally at least a portion of SSD storage... I'd sooner go ott for a good spec that'll last me a while!

Mac Pro or Mac mini does make sense... Whilst I'm pretty tech savvy I'm a bit of a newb to Mac specs - used logic for years but on work PCs, never had to spec one up... Any advice appreciated!

sweepy

My Mac Pro is a dual quad core 2.8mhz, 20gb of Ram 256gb SSD and 3x1tb Sata hard drives, seriously it doesn't break a sweat running Logic X and a fair number of plugins including Amplitube 4, Kontakt and a host of libraries . I'd recommend one in a heartbeat for solid and reliable performance, the 3.1 and upwards run El Capitan and Logic X, the 4.1 uses different RAM and has a few tweaks, the 5.1 iirc allows 6 core processors, I haven't looked into the differences that greatly as I didn't need to,, I'd just look at prices, go for anything 3.1 and upwards and check out what audio interface you want to use.

Danny1969

I'm still on a 2006 Mac Pro, at the studio we regularly get up to 80 tracks of audio, god knows how many plugs and VSI's triggered via midi. Ours has got 6Gb of ram, sessions tend to be recorded to internal SATA or firewire drives but I've had sessions with 40 tracks on external USB. 

Spec wise don't compare Mac to PC, I wouldn't get a similar spec PC to do the same

moz91

Nah I'm doing my best not to compare to PC spec! I'm fine with all things windows, built and spec'd enough of those haha. I have considered doing it all windows but I just much prefer logic to Cubase and the plugins are so much better! Windows would definitely be a sacrifice...

Has anyone used/built a hackintosh? that's also an option I've thought about!

Definitely going to look in to pro's and mini's tomorrow...

moz91

So i've done my homework and i'm starting to think a late 2012 mac mini might be my best bet here! Get one of the higher spec i7 ones, then I can upgrade anything else myself; memory and harddrive are easily accessible