Having had to deal with a pretty un-stable PT system for some years I have finally got to a place where I cant deal with having to spend most of my time trying to solve issues opposed to working, it is costing me time, money, projects and most of all my love of what I do. So it's time to bite the bullet, pull some money from my new car fund and purchase a workable computer, however I am in a big dilemma regarding what I should do.
Possible solutions:
Buy a custom PC, using components recommended on this forum in an attempt to build a stable windows based PT machine. One thing that puts me off this idea is stability, I don't want to go and fork out £1.5k for a windows machine that could keep me in the same position I am in now for the sake of saving cash.
I have thought about making a Hackintosh, but with limited technical knowledge and being as sick as I am of an unstable system, I want a bit more of a plug and play option.
Move over to an apple based system:
An imac would be a good option but I do not want a built in screen, the size and placement would ruin the stereo field in my studio and I currently run a 2 screen setup which is perfect for my workflow.
Mac Mini, a tempting solution but the current hardware is no better than what I am running now and if I'm going to upgrade I may as well upgrade rather than crossgrade. I find the expansion a bit too limiting, I would be stuck with this machine with little room for it to allow expansion in the future.
Used 5.1 Mac Pro: Getting a good machine will cost me around £1.5k plus a few hundred for the hard drives I would need to buy and install. These are good workhorses that would serve me very well and allow for the growth of my studio into the future. However, one thing that bothers me is with the new Mac Pro's seemingly taking a new direction in connectivity and the new architecture I don't want to buy a tower Mac Pro and have it obsolete in a year or 2.
New Mac Pro: I am in an advantageous situation when it comes to these things as this would be my first Mac and a computer that I am considering more for the purpose of growing into over the next 5+ years. My current studio setup is pretty simple and well thought out for my needs which means, unlike many, I don't have to worry about losing money or having to lay out a lot of money to transfer my system to the new "everything external" approach. If this is the way technology is going it could be a big money saver over the years. However, the cost is massive, not un-affordable but more than enough to make me think really hard about making this jump. The graphics cards are just overkill, but given the technology to be able to off load processing onto the cards, this could be advantageous looking into the long term but useless now. I don't particularly like not having in tower expansion, spending that much on a PC and being un able to throw hard drives into it, pci cards etc. just sends shivers down my spine. I don't particularly like apple as a company, spending that much on a pc and them not even being willing to throwing a keyboard and mouse is just a bit cheap IMO, I just don't agree with their business ethics.
These are my options, I have done a good deal of research but I can't reach a conclusion. I'm looking for a good quad core, at least 16GB RAM (preferably expandable) the ability to run 2 monitors, have a 4 hard drive setup (OS, Recording/playback, Sample libraries for VI's and USB Back up drive) Be future proof for at least the next 5 years and have enough power for me to grow into without me wasting money on having an overkill system. I enjoy and participate in almost every angle in the industry, from being an artist, composer using pretty heavy VI's (EastWest, BFD3 etc), doing recording/mixing work for people, I need a machine that can handle it all. I don't mind going Apple OS or staying with windows 7, I just want a very stable, capable system out of the box that I can grow into and guarantee will be supported and cater to my needs for at least a 5 year period, if not 7-10 years.
Thank you very much for any light you can provide to my personally very difficult situation.
Possible solutions:
Buy a custom PC, using components recommended on this forum in an attempt to build a stable windows based PT machine. One thing that puts me off this idea is stability, I don't want to go and fork out £1.5k for a windows machine that could keep me in the same position I am in now for the sake of saving cash.
I have thought about making a Hackintosh, but with limited technical knowledge and being as sick as I am of an unstable system, I want a bit more of a plug and play option.
Move over to an apple based system:
An imac would be a good option but I do not want a built in screen, the size and placement would ruin the stereo field in my studio and I currently run a 2 screen setup which is perfect for my workflow.
Mac Mini, a tempting solution but the current hardware is no better than what I am running now and if I'm going to upgrade I may as well upgrade rather than crossgrade. I find the expansion a bit too limiting, I would be stuck with this machine with little room for it to allow expansion in the future.
Used 5.1 Mac Pro: Getting a good machine will cost me around £1.5k plus a few hundred for the hard drives I would need to buy and install. These are good workhorses that would serve me very well and allow for the growth of my studio into the future. However, one thing that bothers me is with the new Mac Pro's seemingly taking a new direction in connectivity and the new architecture I don't want to buy a tower Mac Pro and have it obsolete in a year or 2.
New Mac Pro: I am in an advantageous situation when it comes to these things as this would be my first Mac and a computer that I am considering more for the purpose of growing into over the next 5+ years. My current studio setup is pretty simple and well thought out for my needs which means, unlike many, I don't have to worry about losing money or having to lay out a lot of money to transfer my system to the new "everything external" approach. If this is the way technology is going it could be a big money saver over the years. However, the cost is massive, not un-affordable but more than enough to make me think really hard about making this jump. The graphics cards are just overkill, but given the technology to be able to off load processing onto the cards, this could be advantageous looking into the long term but useless now. I don't particularly like not having in tower expansion, spending that much on a PC and being un able to throw hard drives into it, pci cards etc. just sends shivers down my spine. I don't particularly like apple as a company, spending that much on a pc and them not even being willing to throwing a keyboard and mouse is just a bit cheap IMO, I just don't agree with their business ethics.
These are my options, I have done a good deal of research but I can't reach a conclusion. I'm looking for a good quad core, at least 16GB RAM (preferably expandable) the ability to run 2 monitors, have a 4 hard drive setup (OS, Recording/playback, Sample libraries for VI's and USB Back up drive) Be future proof for at least the next 5 years and have enough power for me to grow into without me wasting money on having an overkill system. I enjoy and participate in almost every angle in the industry, from being an artist, composer using pretty heavy VI's (EastWest, BFD3 etc), doing recording/mixing work for people, I need a machine that can handle it all. I don't mind going Apple OS or staying with windows 7, I just want a very stable, capable system out of the box that I can grow into and guarantee will be supported and cater to my needs for at least a 5 year period, if not 7-10 years.
Thank you very much for any light you can provide to my personally very difficult situation.
Aucun commentaire:
Enregistrer un commentaire