My Trusty Old Mac Pro

[b0b]

A few years back, I picked up one of those big Mac Pro towers on EBay for $500. A good deal at the time, as it has 64 GB RAM and a 1 TB hard disk. I use it mostly for music mastering in my garage studio (a true "man cave"). This bad boy is super snappy and has never been connected to the internet. It's running an old version of OS X, I forget which one.

Anyway, lately when I turn it on it complains that the clock needs to be set. Sort of a nuisance. So I figure I'll replace the battery and all will be good. I bought a battery on the internet and installed it. Turned the computer back on. It sounds like it's booting but no video. I open the panel and there's a red light blinking on one of the memory cards. I put the old battery back in. Still no joy.

I'm not a hardware guy, so I make appointment at the Apple store in Santa Rosa (30 miles away). The lady there tries to scan the serial number and that doesn't work, so she has to type it in manually. Turns out the machine was built in 2006! She says "we don't service anything more than 8 years old." WTF?

She gives me the number of a Mac certified repair shop in town, and I haul the thing over there. It's a little one-man store, run by a very nice young man. He says he has to go pick up his kid at school, gives me a receipt for the machine and a promise to do his best.

So I'm sweating it out for the next 24 hours. I'm in the middle of an album project, and without the Mac I can't make CDs of last night's session for my bandmates. Finally this afternoon he calls. Says he reseated the video and memory cards and all is well. Except for the clock - he doesn't stock that battery. He charges me his 1-hour minimum. I'll pick up the computer next time I'm in Santa Rosa.

I do my home office computing on an iMac that I bought last year. It has all the latest software and OS. It's always updating itself from the internet. And it is very slow. The 2006 Mac Pro in the garage responds faster than any computer I've ever owned. In my opinion, our computers are getting slower with each generation. Their makers are bogging them down with all sorts of bloated software that most people don't want or need.

As someone who once wrote color graphic design software in 64k of RAM, I find the current crop of software offensive. The specs of today's hardware are incredible, but the real world response is not much better than it was 30 years ago. Makes me want to puke.
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[Jim Pollard]

One word, you already know the word. Linux. Ardour, LMMS, RoseGarden, Hydrogen, My point is, tons of useful stuff, even distro's aimed specifically at art production like Ubuntu Studio. Find yourself a cheapo PC that someone will be glad you're taking off their hands and give it a run!

[John McClung]

Bob, this is the year I have to replace the 2011 MacBook Pro laptop that serves as my desktop with a 24-inch NEC monitor connected. It can't use MacOS newer than its High Sierra, lacks Thunderbolt 2 or 3, no USB-C (3). Does have lots of ports and a built-in optical drive which I still rely on for ripping CDs to iTunes.

Anyhoo, eyeing a 2018 Mac Mini as an affordable, temporary upgrade, it has all the modern ports I want, but not the best CPU, and sucky graphics card, so not up to video editing chores from what I've read.

A better choice may be the iMac Pro with its Xeon CPU, apparently it doesn't break a sweat handling video editing, even 4K, which I hope to jump into doing this year.

My true hope is that Apple will come out with a robust but less expensive version of the new Mac Pro, with no display and great user-expandable options. I'm not a fan of all-in-ones, especially with glossy screens like the iMac Pro. So that Mac Mini may be my bridge computer, better than what I have, but making do until I see what else Apple comes up with for budget power users like you and me!

[b0b]

I used Mac Mini's for many years. I even ran the forum on one for a while. The last release was a disappointment according to the online groups, so I "settled" for an iMac. Seemed like a good idea, but it is really slow when running web browsers and iTunes.

I use Linux web servers, but I've never felt comfortable with them as desktop machines. An exception is the Chromebook I use when I travel, which masks the Linux underneath with Google's user interface. I'm pretty sure my Comcast cable box is Linux, too.

[gary pierce]

My iMAC, 4G ram, 250G hard drive is a 2009, and still going good, but can tell its getting slower at browsing sites.
I wonder how long they last before I need to look for another one.

[John McClung]

The best way to speed up a Mac is, if it's feasible and can be done on your model, upgrade to an SSD internal hard drive. I did that to my 2011 MBP years ago, and it's the most amazing speed upgrade you can hope for. More RAM is the next best upgrade. But ditch those magnetic hard drives, SSDs are ever cheaper.

Sadly, Apple has built most recent model Macs and laptops not to be user friendly so you can swap out your internal drives and RAM. Bob, that's where your old cheese grater Mac Pro shines.

[Dale Rottacker]

After my 2011 iMac froze up In October of 2018, I bought a 5K iMac...
It only had 8 GB of Ram, but was easily upgradable my ME, but a LOT less than what Apple wanted for the same upgrade.
So for about 300 bucks I bought 4x16 GB of Ram chips for a total of 64 GB of Ram.

I even bought a RAID system for WAY too much, which I still haven’t set up.

I have an additional 24 or 27” Monitor, and may be about the best 200 bucks I spent.
I’m notorious for having WAY TOO MANY windows open on the Internet, but it’s this 2nd Monitor where I keep them.
On the iMac Monitor I run my DAW, (PreSonus Studio One Professional) or FCPX to edit my “Fancy” Video’s.

The best move I’ve done on this computer that I hadn’t really incorperated into any of my other computers, was to keep EVERYTHING,
in External Hard Drives... ALL Video/Movies I’ve made, and ALL Audio files created in my DAW.
So now after almost a year and a half, my 3TB Internal Hard Drive STILL has 2.93TB’s available.

It is RARE, that this computer even breaks a sweat, even when put under a heavy load. If that happens, it’s usually because I haven’t shut
the thing off in several weeks, and have 40-50 Internet Tabs open at the same time.

I’m really pleased with computer, even though its more money than I really wanted to spend, but am fairly sure I won’t be able to fill it up for a very long time.

Hope I didn’t just Jinx myself

[Adam Tracksler]

We run our design studio on Mac Pros and Macbook Pros.

I'm running a 2010 Mac Pro that is really stable (otherthan only being able to run High Sierra, since I need NVIDIA CUDA Cards for 3D Rendering).

A quad core i7 Mac Mini sounds like it might fit the bill. (I think it was the 2014 model)

[Jim Fogle]

I think the worlds of Apple and PC are closer than many will admit.

There is a lot to be said for Apple's control over both hardware and operating system. From a user's standpoint, that degree of integration should minimize hassle when adding external hardware.

On the bad side, Apple's hardware pricing is artificially inflated and there is no competitive push to update hardware. Hardware design makes it difficult to upgrade or repair.

Apple's early concentration on the education and content creation markets versus Intel and Windows focus on business created a deep division over how the two approach computer audio. When specifically comparing how the two groups approach computer audio, Apple still seems to have an edge over Windows.

Back in the days when Apple use to let independent vendors sell their computers I almost bought an Apple IIGS. I still think it is one of the best computers ever built.

[Ken Morgan]

My 2012 Mini seems to be choking and sputtering quite a bit, so now all I use it for is running ProTools or whatever...never had an issue with them, save for the excruciating slow boot times.

Everything else, from internet to bookkeeping to some pretty heavy spreadsheets to you-name-it gets done on an iPad...Apple refurbished machines are basically new.