buyin a refurbished mac pro

S

Step Soprano

ILLIEN
ill o.g.
Been plannin on buyin a new computer now for a while... was gonna get a custom pc and just run pro tools, but lately i've started fuckin with logic and love that shit, so i decided i was gonna get an imac... but they keep suckin more money out of me(have a macbook, but i can't dedicate it to audio cuz i use it for school) so i'm gonna get a refurbished mac pro with two intel xeon "woodcrest" 2.66 ghz dual core processors(4 cores total) and 8 gigs of ram(comes with 2, im buyin 4 new 2 gig sticks online tho) with superdrive and 250 gig 7200 rpm hd(i have 2 externals tho, one is usb 2.0 for soundbanks, and works great(seagate) the other is firewire, but supports sata so ill use it that way in macpro... can't decide what soundcard to get tho... gonna be sellin my mbox 2 and mbox, and since i'm gettin the mac pro for 1700(with ram upgrade) i got 300 left plus whatever i get for the mbox 2 and mbox... after that i can probably get 200 more together before i get all this in mid march..., so 1700 for mac plus 7-900 for a new interface to run with logic(thinkin bout the duet, but i'd prefer pcie so ill probably go motu). If I can sell my ensoniq asr-x im gonna buy a focuswrite trakmaster pro mic channel for the preamp and outboard compressor and eq... particularly to run a good light limit on the input for vocals, real transparent but enough to avoid peaking too high, want the warmth from the pre...
 
Ominous

Ominous

OminousRed.com
ill o.g.
Battle Points: 21
I just started doing it.

I have 2 older ata drives connected by Firewire. I do have 2 usb 500 gig drives but I def know there will be lag with those drives so I use those for design projects.

But the lag i experience on the firewire drives is no different than the lag I get off the internal drive of my CPU. I have just been noticing some cpu glitches lately and that is supposed to be a sign of a possible drive failure so I went to working off of a external. What I also do is work a project at a time and I will copy that to the laptop and then work on it. Once i am done, I copy it back to the external.

My sound banks are stored on the external and the loading times are the same as when I load them from the local internal disk.
 
MagnaOpera

MagnaOpera

Comes Equipped...
ill o.g.
word up man, i was looking at building my own pc and I think it's become apparent that USB external drives ain't gonna cut it. gonna have to shell out for a firewire interface. thanks for the info!
 
S

Step Soprano

ILLIEN
ill o.g.
MagnaOpera said:
word up man, i was looking at building my own pc and I think it's become apparent that USB external drives ain't gonna cut it. gonna have to shell out for a firewire interface. thanks for the info!
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just to clarify... you know he's talking about a firewire hardrive as apposed to a firewire interface... (ie. a glyph to a duet). Usb is bad for everything that isn't a mouse or a keyboard. Your best bet is to run ATLEAST usb 2.0(sends data in bursts, tho, which can(in theory, i've never recorded to an external usb 2.0, just firewire) cause issues in writing data during recording. I have a firewire external to record to(7200 rpm, dont waste ur money on anything less than 7200 no matter what you are using the drive for, 5400's are for casual users and grandparents tryn to figure out email). Also don't fuck yourself by being cheap and buying a piece of shit hardrive that will die on you in a month, along with all of your sounds/projects. Best bet is to get a dedicated hardrive for sounds(i do, however, use usb 2.0 for my sample library external, and it works perfectly, with no issues of any sort), a dedicated(typically/preferably your internal) harddrive for booting and installing the program file, and a third dedicated(external) harddrive(again, your wasting your money if you don't buy 7200 rpm, and firewire is almost essential for optimal use) for recording audio to.

usb= cheap ass outdated bullshit, if your not atleast on usb 2.0(unless your talking a usb midi controller, as you won't have many issues there as that's pretty straight forward), your simply prolonging the inevitable, and absolutely neccesary upgrade to usb 2.0(3.0 comin very soon) or firewire(400, if not 800). I made the mistake in buying into the mbox hype and getitng it for the pro tools name. Learned the hardware/converters/core audio drivers are complete ass and waste of money, and am now selling my 1 and 2 for a motu pci... unless i decide to hold off and save long enough to cop a apogee pci set up
 
S

Step Soprano

ILLIEN
ill o.g.
MagnaOpera said:
word up man, i was looking at building my own pc and I think it's become apparent that USB external drives ain't gonna cut it. gonna have to shell out for a firewire interface. thanks for the info!
Click to expand...

also... if your building your own pc, the logical choice would be to put all of your hardrives INSIDE your pc. Why use externals if you are building a pc, leaving you the opportunity to configure the system how you want. It would be stupid to use externals when you are perfectly capable of running(the far superior, again assuming your using 7200+ rpm) internal sata drives... plus there cheaper! Do your research before you buy a pc you know nothing about... your asking to get robbed.

edit: don't mean any of that in a condescending manner... and externals are nice to have if u run a laptop as well as your desktop workstation. That being said, the most versatile way to handle the need for portability with harddrives is to buy internals and a case that is easy/quick to remove/insert hardrives, so that you can benefit from the higher speeds when on your desktop, while maintaining the ability to put that same drive in a case(with firewire) and plugging it into your laptop. Best of both worlds. And when i talk bout buying something you know nothing about... I mean make sure you know about each component going into your computer, as your pc only as strong as the worst component. Do indepth research if your building a custom pc, you'll regret it(financially and functionally) if you don't. I'm no expert, but i'm sure there are some knowledgeable people on here when it comes to building pc's. I prefer Mac myself, optimized out of the box.
 
Ominous

Ominous

OminousRed.com
ill o.g.
Battle Points: 21
::: cosign :::

Step is right. I didn't get detailed enough. I hear USB 2.0 is faster than Firewire 400 but that hasn't been my experience. And my external hard drives are internal drives in external cases so I can use them inside a Desktop housing if I wanted to. 7200 RPM. If I had a 10,000 RPM, I'd probably experience very little lag time.

So firewire 800 connections with a 10,000 RPM hard drive is probably the best setup, but I went the cheap route. And I always double up on hard drives because it sucks when your drive fails and you lose everything. I had that happen once... and I will never let that happen again.
 
Sanova

Sanova

Guess Who's Back
ill o.g.
Battle Points: 9
I thought USB 2.0 was standard now...?? But anyway Firewire and USB 2.0 are about neck and neck. Statistically. I actually posted up a thread on this about 2 years ago with a graph. But I've ran VST's and Recorded into a USB 2.0 ext. HD, and a Firewire ext. HD, never had any problems or lag whatsoever. This was with 512MB ram too. back in the day.
 
MagnaOpera

MagnaOpera

Comes Equipped...
ill o.g.
I'm pretty sure that transferring specifically audio and video through USB leads to loss of quality... from what I've heard firewire is the most reliable for maintaining the integrity of a/v files...


and yes I know the difference between firewire externals and firewire "cards" (interfaces). However most PCs don't come with a firewire interface built in, hence I need to shell out for an interface to connect my firewire externals to my pc. ;)

@step; I know that internals are better than externals but in the case of a power surge or whatever goin on with the main box I want to at least be able to have a copy of all my work that ISN'T connected to my computer/anywhere near the computer in case the shit hits the fan and the computer explodes or something. Furthermore I am constrained by having a very small budget to build what needs to be a relatively powerful computer.. Quadcore processer, 2gb ram and a nice mobo will probably eat up most of my budget. Plus I'm going for a form-factor box to put it in (perhaps one of those cube-pcs). Perhaps micro-atx. but yeah. your input is appreciated.
 
T

The Arkitekt

Guest
MagnaOpera said:
Plus I'm going for a form-factor box to put it in (perhaps one of those cube-pcs). Perhaps micro-atx. but yeah. your input is appreciated.
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a 2u or 3u would be nice, then you could put your pc in with other rack equip and its pretty compact too. Plus a rack mount comp looks cool as shit. I plan on getting a rack case if I go windows for my next computer
 
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