At long last The New Mac Pro "Available to purchase"
 

Rather than reboot the thread I started in June, I thought I would post a new one.
Understanding that for probably a majority of AGF users both the performance and price are higher than required to get the job done.

That said I thought some of info coming out now about actual hands on usage and bench testing is pretty interesting (verses speculation and rant about price comapred to PC )

Here is one bench test video





And this one comparing similar spec'ed PC workstation configurations and Price
That pretty much refutes the proto "Apple Rip Off" ranting

It's appears to be quite a machine with some potential bang-for-the-buck depending on your setup. I'd always been very happy with my Mac Pros and, while my current iMac is serving me well, I do miss the ability to easily configure and upgrade the computer to meet my current needs. With the iMac, you have to guess a bit at what you'll need years from now and accept that you'll likely be adding peripherals to meet future needs.

If I were buying one of the new Mac Pros, I'd likely spec it out this way:
3.2GHz 16‑core Intel Xeon W processor, Turbo Boost up to 4.4GHz
96GB (6x16GB) of DDR4 ECC memory
Radeon Pro 580X with 8GB of GDDR5 memory
1TB SSD storage

I can't imagine ever needing more than that for audio. For that configuration, I'd be looking at $9399 ...with the tax, about $10,200.
That's a butt-load of ducets. But for those ducets, I suspect I'd be pretty well set for at least a decade. I'd want some friend financing to do this. If they offered 48 months no interest, it would be around $213 a month. At 36 months, it would be about $283. At those numbers, it's doable and I'd be tempted. I can also shave the price a bit by buying the ram from a third party.

I think I'm at least 5 years away from even starting to think about this so my wallet can breathe easy for now.

Interesting,
If I had not recently upgraded my Mid 2010 Mac Pro 6 core with a 500 GB PCIe SSD boot drive and two double speed PCIe 16 lane 1 TB SSD storage drives and a new Radeon 580 Sapphire Pulse 8 GB . And like you I am hoping for possibly another 3-5 years

I would probably take a serious look at a similar spec'ed build but wait until the new Radeon Pro W5700X with 16GB of GDDR6 memory card is available. Price TBD but should be between the 580X and the Pro Vega II

I think I would opt for :
12 Core (which is also spec'ed at) 3.3Ghz and 4,4 turbo boost
48 GB RAM Because I am guessing that would be great for my use
1 TB SSD
Hopefully the savings over the 16 core and 96 GB ram would offset some or most the new Graphics card cost.

then I would be looking at probably 2 more 3 rd party 1 TB SSD drives
So I am guessing it would be $8k-9.5 k price range

Are you doing video work? I do none and have no intention of moving in that direction. I'm strictly audio and Photoshop but the latter I do on my PC (I built my new one with PS in mind). I'm about to upgrade my PC monitor to a BenQ SW271. That's the last piece I need to have a serious Photoshop workspace.

Yes I do some Music Video type stuff in Final Cut Pro X, and even with the new Radeon Card , render times while noticeably better than the old stock Apple card. Can still be fairly long (depending on the complexity ) Fortunately it is just personal use not commercial, so time is not a real big deal


This is my current configuration
System :
Avid HD Omni I/O Interface ...Mid 2010 Mac Pro/ processor- 3.33 6-core Intel Xeon "Westmere" w/ RAM Memory- 24 GB, Radeon Sapphire Pulse RX 580 8GB GDDR5 Dual HDMI Graphics Card..... OS- Mojave 10.14.6, and PTHDN 2019.6 on on primary boot drive (SSD PCIe 512 GB Samsung SM951) FCPX files storage on Samsung 970 EVO 1TB and PT sessions storage on 2nd Samsung 970 EVO 1 TB -- both in a dual drive Crest I/O PCIE controller adaptor card

A friend of mine has a similar setup to yours. I think you spec out better on your main computer but he's also running a couple of Mac Minis that are tied in somehow (I think they carry the load on vst instruments). He used to do all the music for John (I'm a charlatan pretending to talk to dead people) Edward's television shows but when it was cancelled a few years back, he decided he'd rather be doing more audio production. I'm guessing his work is still about 30% video though, and when he scores a full length movie, he does complain about the rendering time. I think there have been times when a successful render has taken him 10+ hours. Sometimes longer if the computer bugs on him and he has to start it over again.

He could really use the new Mac Pro but he's terrible with money. He is, however, good at bringing dead computers back to life. His current computer is my old 2008 cheesegrater. He had to replace a bunch of components to get it running, including the things that the ram sits in (not sure what those are called).

I figure I only have one more serious Mac purchase left. I'm 59 now and I expect my current computer will take me into my mid-60s. If at that point I invest in a Mac Pro, I expect it would take me well into my 70s and maybe even 80. Not sure I'd be needing another after that.

My trash can Mac Pro has been dying slowly for about a year with an ailment no one seems to be able to quite diagnose, so I've been waiting for this. Definitely pricey, but so was the trash can. The new Mac seems like it will last for a long time, being easy to upgrade almost every part, hopefully making it a better investment. I'm sitting here waiting for the UPS truck as we speak. My config is:

3.2GHz 16‑core Intel Xeon W processor, Turbo Boost up to 4.4GHz
96GB (4x8GB) of DDR4 ECC memory (I got 32 from apple, ordered 64 more much cheaper from Amazon)
Radeon Pro Vega II with 32GB of HBM2 memory
1TB SSD storage
8TB Promise Pegasus SATA drive - has support for another drive, I may add an SSD later.

We'll see if the graphics card is enough for me - I suspect it will all be much better than what I'm currently working with, and can always upgrade later if needed.

Most of my current data is on external thunderbolt drives, so the migration should be fairly easy. I'll stick with my current LG ultra-wide display. There's been some ambiguity about compatibility of various software I use with Catalina - UAD, iZotope, etc, but reports seem to indicate that everything is ok at this point.

I was going to wait a bit longer for the dust to settle, but noticed that Apple was offering 6% cashback on Apple purchases with their card thru the end of the year (?) and that's a decent rebate on a purchase like this, so I went ahead and ordered last week.

I wish I could lie and say I'm not even a little jealous.
Very much looking forward to hearing your thoughts on the machine once you're up and running.

Quite the machine I am thinking that Pro Vega II 32 will be outstanding based on some of the reviews , especially compared to your old trashcan
And as you say you can upgrade and even throw in another Pro Vega II 32

Here is a video from the same group about editing in FCPX the only disappointing result was as the reviewer noted a problem with FCP exporting a specific Codec, but indicated it was a problem with FCP

He is running the Afterburner card also but as I understand it that only kicks in on Pro Rez Raw 4k and 8K footage and towards the end he takes out the After Burner card and runs the Pro Rez 4 with no issues but exports slower.

You'd think the guy would at least share a few pictures of his new beast.

The beast is being camera-shy... It was to be delivered Thursday, but the day came and went, and UPS changed the status at midnight to Friday early afternoon. Friday, the truck pulled up, and then drove away without bringing anything in. At midnight, they changed the status to Monday delivery. I called today, and they say it's at the local facility, and will be delivered Monday. I told them I had no reason to believe them at this point, so they offered to let me come pick it up (Monday).

I actually had this happen once before with a delivery, and when I got there to pick it up, they said "oops, we loaded it on the truck and it's already out for delivery". Anyway, at this point, the 2 day air delivery is running 6 days, and I'm not really sure where it is, and not entirely sure they know. Not impressed with UPS at the moment :-)

That is frustrating. The only bright spot is according the unboxing reviews, the thing is packaged extremely well ( where ever it is :rolleyes:)

We have had a few similar issues with UPS also. In fact because UPS will not spring for 4 wheel drive delivery vehicles ( In the Rocky mountains for cryin' out loud) , In the winter time , because we live on top of a ridge , we have to get delivery to a physical roadside box at the highway (which I just made a new one out of const. leftovers) placed out at the end of our driveway about 3/4 mi. from the house. Which will hold that Apple box very nicely ( I better run down and look just in case :eek:)

Sorry Jim I know these are not the photos you were hoping for ......
https://i.imgur.com/KhQBn1e.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/MVTfAdb.jpg

According to the tracking, the box weighs 83 lbs! My theory is the driver stopped, looked at the box, and went uh, no, I'm not lugging that thing to the front porch... and skipped over me.

That looks like a real PITA. Being that rural would not be a good fit for this boy from Brooklyn.

Sorry about the delay, Doug. I hope you get a more energetic delivery person on Monday.

Well there are compromises and benefits to any location. (notice no lock)
And Nobody can hear me if I crank my 50 watt Supro up (when my wife is gone :D)

That'll be me, assuming it' s actually there to be picked up! I'll be taking my RockNRoller cart :-)

Hope it gets there Ok. Has to be a little nerve-wracking waiting for something like that.

I'm envious - just scraping the bottom of the refurb barrel looking at Minis, or maybe an iMac (for at least some real graphics capability). It's going to depend on the tax situation, which I have not been able to even guess about because of so many changes in the past year. Sigh...

I hear that. Last year I had to write a check for the first time in my life where before I was getting refunds in the $5k-$9k range every year. That was a kick in the teeth.

I ordered the BenQ SW271 monitor yesterday. Want to place bets on what arrives first... Doug's OMG Mac Pro or my new monitor?

Please keep us posted on the situation.

Well, I got it. UPS was "interesting". At first they couldn't find it. Then they discovered it was sitting outside on the sidewalk. Box is a bit scuffed up, but looked fine overall. I asked if they had any idea why it wasn't delivered on time, and the UPS person said well, it's pretty big box, and we have a lot to deliver right now, so the driver may not have wanted to take it. Maybe drivers get a per-package bonus or something, and this would displace a bunch of packages? I hope Apple knows that when they pay for 2nd day air, the driver can just decide not to deliver it.

After getting it into the car and then out and into the house, I do have more sympathy, tho. BIG, and heavy - not a one-person job. The packaging is pretty amazing, clearly as much engineering went into the box as into the computer. When I grow up I want to be a packaging designer for Apple. :-)

I'm in the middle of mixing a CD project, so I'm not quite ready to jump into switching over, so I haven't even unwrapped the actual computer, tho I got it out of the magic packaging. Looks similar in size to my old cheese grater, tho heavier, and with much nicer handles and feet (which is all I can see right now).

I bet it’s safe to say that all your AGF “fans” are eagerly awaiting the following from your new rig:
1. Pics
2. Output
(Not necessarily in that order)

Hey great that you now have it. I am guessing the 83 lbs was the issue, I could be mistaken but I thought 70 was the limit UPS usually wants to deal with, but maybe that has changed?


Now If I remember correctly You use Logic as your DAW , and do you use Final Cut Pro X for video ?
And seems you also use some kind of UAD hardware Yes ? is that a PCIe type card you must switch over ? There have been some discussions on the DUC about the new 7.1
Anyway looking forward to your chance to hook it up and initial thoughts ?

I had a UAD PCI card back in the pre-trashcan days (as well as the RME PCI AES A/D card), but had to go external with the trashcan. So I have a thunderbolt Apollo for UAD, and also use a thunderbolt Apogee Ensemble. So right now, I don't have any use for all those expansion slots (other than internal drives). it's kind of interesting that Apple basically forced people away from PCI for years now, so there aren't that many cards to choose from that I'm aware of. I'm guessing all those slots will be enticing to some companies, and we'll see some interesting add-ons at some point.

That they did. I had three UAD cards in my old Mac Pro. When I moved to the iMac, I would up selling them off and buying an Apollo octo satellite.

I am not familiar with UAD so with no PCIe card, do the Apollo units have their own onboard DSP processing, or do they run the software natively on the computer ?

Nothing in the Apollo line runs native. You can get DSP processing power from the interfaces or from the satellites. I have an X8p interface which comes with six dsp chips and an eight-chip octo satellite, so fourteen chips in all and that is plenty for me.

Edit: I should add that only the DSP in the interfaces can be used to power unison plugins in the UAD Console app. I have four excellent 2-channel mic pres so the unison stuff holds no appeal for me, but that limitation does exist. One can still use the unison plugins in their daw. I'm not sure how much of a difference there is when using the plugin in the console app vs your DAW. I've never experimented to compare.

Slowly getting the new mac set up. I ran a few benchmarks, and in general, it seems the new machine is 4-6X faster on almost everything compared to my trashcan. That'll be nice if it translates into actual performance I can see/feel, especially for video editing!

Oh, by the way, I was moving the empty box around today - this is the Apple box inside the actual shipping box. It was surprisingly heavy, so I weighed it. This is just the cardboard box with some spacers/padding and so on: 23lbs!

Couple quick questions what are you using for display and are you hearing any fan noise during tests ?

No fan noise so far. I started out with the trashcan Mac right in my studio, as it seemed dead quiet, but when it gets hot (which it does do), the fan gets loud enough to be an issue. So far, I hear no noise at all out of the new Mac. Given the amount of metal in this thing, and apparently an effort at passive cooling, along with SSDs, I may be able to leave it in the studio instead of banishing to the other room where the trashcan lives.

Monitors are a bit of an issue right now - I wouldn't think they would impact performance tests, tho. My widescreen LG supports thunderbolt 2 and HDMI, the new Mac supports thunderbolt 3 and HDMI. But I can't get the HDMI to work. I've had issues with HDMI devices not working with this monitor before - kind of a non-standard resolution, which may be the problem. So right now, I have the new Mac attached to an ancient 1K Samsung, HDMI to DVI. I have a thunderbolt 3 to 2 adaptor coming today, hoping that lets me use the bigger display. A new screen may yet be on the horizon, tho the Mac display is over my tolerance level for excessive and unnecessary cost :-)