At long last The New Mac Pro "Available to purchase" - Page 2

Doug Young · #16 01-04-2020, 05:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jim1960

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

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

keith.rogers · #17 01-04-2020, 07:50 PM

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...

jim1960 · #18 01-04-2020, 08:47 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by keith.rogers

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.

jim1960 · #19 01-05-2020, 04:19 PM

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

KevWind · #20 01-06-2020, 08:28 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Doug Young

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

Please keep us posted on the situation.

Doug Young · #21 01-06-2020, 06:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by KevWind

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).

Frostie · #22 01-06-2020, 07:56 PM

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)

KevWind · #23 01-07-2020, 08:03 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Doug Young

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).

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 ?

Doug Young · #24 01-07-2020, 12:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by KevWind

H
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

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.

jim1960 · #25 01-07-2020, 02:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Doug Young

...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.

KevWind · #26 01-07-2020, 04:21 PM

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 ?

jim1960 · #27 01-07-2020, 04:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by KevWind

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.

Doug Young · #28 01-08-2020, 11:37 PM

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!

KevWind · #29 01-09-2020, 08:04 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Doug Young

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 ?

Doug Young · #30 01-09-2020, 01:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by KevWind

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 :-)