do i get a mac pro or build a custom machine for my home office/studio
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  1. #1
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    Default do i get a mac pro or build a custom machine for my home office/studio

    I am using the machine for ableton live, programming and pen testing. I will be running virtual machines, mainly fedora, ubuntu, backtrack and xp. With the mac pro il have to limit myself to two screens. with the pc I can have 3 separate displays plus a tv display and a duplicate running aswell.

    I will also have to upgrade the memory in the mac pro so will be about 2200 heres the link to it

    http://store.apple.com/uk/configure/...uct=MC560B%2FA

    or do i build this

    Fractal Design Define XL Black
    MSI X79A-GD65 (8D) Socket 2011 Motherboard
    Intel Core I7-3930K 3.20GHz Socket 2011 12MB Cache Retail Boxed Processor
    Corsair Vengeance 16GB (8x4GB) DDR3 1600 Non-ECC Unbuffered
    Powercool 1050W PSU 80+ Quad 12V V2.3 High Efficiency
    Asus GTX 560 Ti Battlefield 3 Edition 1GB GDDR5 Dual DVI HDMI PCI-E
    OCZ 120GB Agility 3 SSD - SATA-III - Read 525MB/s Write 500MB/s 85,000
    WD 2TB 3.5" SATA-III 6GB/s Caviar Green Hard Drive - 64MB Cache
    Microsoft Windows 7 Professional

    that comes in at 1700. So £500 quid cheaper

  2. #2
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    Since apparently you want to tinker...build the PC.
    Denon X1600, NI X1 Mk1 & Mk2, MF Twister
    Kontrol S2, Maschine Mk1, APC 40
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  3. #3
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    its not that In want to tinker its just I feel I get better value for money from the PC. I use a macbook pros as my daily laptops now. one for music stuff and the other for work and study. I really don't know way to do

  4. #4
    Tech Guru Nicky H's Avatar
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    I have a macbook pro but it only gets used for Traktor - I have never opened Safari or anything on it.

    I also have a pc I built - similar specs to the one you listed - I do all my work on that - I'm a web developer so I run Adobe stuff mainly.

    Also have Ableton and a few music apps on it - if you have the space you get much better value for money imo.
    SC | MC

  5. #5
    RGAS Guru Xonetacular's Avatar
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    PCs are definitely a better value and you get more hardware for your money, on the other hand mac pros are really nice and for production I would rather have a mac with slightly lower specs on paper since it seems like you get much more performance.

    I have a macbook pro for DJing and an older PC core 2 duo desktop for production. I couldn't justify the cost of upgrading to a mac pro but I definitely wish I just had a mac and kept it consistent. It would make things a lot simpler and the mac is just more robust (seems some VSTs an audio stuff crash the PC occasionally and Maschine sometimes glitches out and drains all cpu at once and cripples the system).

    Personally I would get the mac it's not worth the hassle of switching between the two and there are definitely things I miss from OSX on my desktop for production- actually quite a few things. It just seems like a lot of crap on the PC for audio is kind of ghetto workarounds- example having to use MIDI yoke for a lot of controller stuff (which is an ancient legacy PC app from like windows 98 era). I still haven't gotten Lemur to work right with my PC and it is fine on the mac. Drivers and hardware support for audio stuff seem better on the mac too and there are some mac only apps I miss on the PC for audio.

  6. #6
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    well mb support 128 gig of ram, and I can't see processors getting any better in reality until they launch the carbon chips, but they will suck every last drop of blood out of silicon before they do that, I think I'm gina go pc, and I can't see myself switching to login any time soon

  7. #7
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    I'm just loading windows 8 into a virtual machine to see what I think. that might help me make my decision

  8. #8
    Tech Guru mostapha's Avatar
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    Decide which machine for pen testing based on what you want to use as your VM host. PCs run ESX(i) really well…as in, Win Vista performed (subjectively) better under ESXi than running native…I don't know if that's still the case with 7 or 8.

    So, do that…then use your MBP for production. How many screens do you really need? 'cuz the MBP gives you at least 2, and there are ways to get more.

    There is no reason to use a Mac Pro for production unless you're buying Avid HD cards, which Ableton and Maschine can't use. An iMac is awesome, and if they don't have overheating issues, Mac Minis are pretty awesome. But a Mac Pro just isn't necessary unless you're actually going to be plugging stuff into the motherboard.

  9. #9
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    Mac pro!!!!!
    2011 Mac Book Pro 1TB internal HD..8gig of RAM 2.7 GHZ dual core I-7..Traktor Pro 2 ..Kontrol X-1.... Audio 6 Sound card W/ Monster DJ RCA'S ... ... 2 Rokit 8 self powered Speakers ... Sennheiser HD 25 HeadPhones .... (coming soon) Xone 42

  10. #10
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    well the way I want my studio id like 3 next to each other, then another on the other side of the room next to another screen duplicating my middle screen from the other side. so a fair few i like a visual environment

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