Will a Mac Pro 1,1 do fine?

[davenutz]

if you are running audio from your internal drive, buy an external drive.

A 1,1 mac pro will likely not support forthcoming OS updates for very long, and has fairly slow memory, as well as an outdated chipset design (pre-quickpath.) It also relies on expensive and (nowadays) RARE ECC FB-DIMM memory modules.

[jesper318]

Originally Posted by davenutz

if you are running audio from your internal drive, buy an external drive.

A 1,1 mac pro will likely not support forthcoming OS updates for very long, and has fairly slow memory, as well as an outdated chipset design (pre-quickpath.) It also relies on expensive and (nowadays) RARE ECC FB-DIMM memory modules.

Thanks for your answer. I'm running all audio off my second internal 7200rpm harddrive. PT with all plug ins are installed on the system SSD. I just wondered because some people still seem to manage to do to heavy mixing sessions with an old G5. I'm going to help a band with some vocal editing and tuning. My MacBook Pro can't even handle melodyne on a single track anymore. CPU is running on 196 %... It's very frustrating not having the cash to buy a more powerful mac or PC. I get access to their studio in L.A so I don't need to use my own stuff but it would speed up the process being able to work from home as well.

[davenutz]

If you really need to get a Mac Pro, a 4,1 model would be as old as I would go. Obviously this brings the cost up quite a bit.

[jamwerks]

Apparently you can install Mountain Lion on a 1.1, but there's some feature-setting (kernal, etc) that ML has, that 1.1 can't do.

[oldtimemusic]

My 2011 MBP is doing a lot better than yours. Drives should not be an issue for PT 10 if you set up ram caching properly. I am assuming you are have a clean system, hard drives are not overly full, etc.

You didn't say if you need portability. If that's not an issue, you may want to look into Vienna Ensemble Pro with a second computer to boost you Pro Tools CPU capacity without breaking the bank.

[kuasalogam]

It's bizzare. Your MBP's spec is higher than mine (MBP 2008, 2.4 GHz, 4 gigs of RAM, regular HDD) and I can do quite a heavy mixing on PT9 with it.
Heavy mix, like, 40 audio tracks with 1 plugin on every track. No VSTi, reverb or rewire though.

[Benmrx]

FWIW I have a 1,1 Macpro and although I would LOVE to upgrade, I can get 40-50 tracks, decent amount of plugins (VCC, VTM, Waves EQs, etc.) no problem. VI's are of course a totally different story!

Using PT9 btw

[tribedescribe]

I am not sure why your having so much trouble, it doesn't make sense? You did not mention weather you are adjusting your buffer to its maximum setting? if not you should max it out at 1028. Also be sure your plugs are compatible with your version of pro tools, check at avid.

I personally would never get a mac pro. They are such a rip off. You can build a hackintosh Pro for $750 that will eat that mac pro for breakfast. In fact my next build will be a i5 3.4 quad core running mountain lion. tonymacx86 has info on his site for this. You can put 32gb ram in that machine for next to nothing.