I'm updating my PC...

[Phil O'Keefe]

Truth!

[Phil O'Keefe]

The problem is that even though you can put sample libraries and such on other drives...

 

I have one HDD that's dedicated to nothing but sample libraries and virtual instrument stuff, plus the MSATA SSD C:\ drive and two dedicated audio drives - one SSD, one HDD. I also have a CD/DVD burner... I used to have two of them, but I use them so rarely anymore I'm wondering how much longer I'll need to keep even one of them in my DAW PC.

 

A while back I pulled the SuperDrive (CD/DVD burner) out of my MacBook Pro and put in a SSD, moved the HDD over to where the optical drive used to be, and installed the optical drive into an external USB case. Not having it in the machine hasn't been an issue - in fact, I haven't missed it at all. I've only used it once or twice since I pulled it out.

 

 

[Phil O'Keefe]

Just as an aside' date=' the My Documents folders for users can be on other drives than C: and the system will point to that location. It's easy to find the instructions online; just a few mouse clicks. A lot of people treat that folder like the family garage anyway, full of old bicycles and the 200 lb. table saw you never use.[/quote']

 

Yeah, I've got that folder on a different drive than my C:\ drive too.

 

I didn't realize SSD drive costs have nose dived so much until I searched that 1TB you mentioned Phil. Wow. Good times.

 

Yeah, they've really dropped in price quite a bit. I ordered a Dogfish 500GB MSATA tonight - it was all of $84... with the external case and tax, everything came to just under a hundred bucks. It should be here sometime Sunday. Amazon Prime rocks.

[Zooey]

I'll glom on. I resurrected a 9 year old "cheese grater" Mac Pro that I purchased new in 2009. A ton has been written about these machines in 2018. Mine was the bottom of the line single processor, so I removed the heat sink, cleaned up the thermal paste, and dropped in a faster Xeon processor with more cores. I also installed more RAM and updated the firmware (the firmware update is actually the first thing you have to do). I can now run PTHD 2018 on High Sierra and the native apps that I want to run including some VI's that I couldn't get a single instance of before the upgrade. Apparently I can update to Mojave if I want to, but I'll need to buy a different GPU. It's not a priority for me right now.

 

[Phil O'Keefe]

I'll glom on. I resurrected a 9 year old "cheese grater" Mac Pro that I purchased new in 2009. A ton has been written about these machines in 2018. Mine was the bottom of the line single processor, so I removed the heat sink, cleaned up the thermal paste, and dropped in a faster Xeon processor with more cores. I also installed more RAM and updated the firmware (the firmware update is actually the first thing you have to do). I can now run PTHD 2018 on High Sierra and the native apps that I want to run including some VI's that I couldn't get a single instance of before the upgrade. Apparently I can update to Mojave if I want to, but I'll need to buy a different GPU. It's not a priority for me right now.

 

Sounds nice. I wish Apple would make a new Mac Pro computer with the expandability that the old "cheese graters" had.

 

Did you update the graphics card too?

 

 

[Zooey]

 

Sounds nice. I wish Apple would make a new Mac Pro computer with the expandability that the old "cheese graters" had.

 

Did you update the graphics card too?

 

 

I didn't update it. Some people do and there are tons of guides on what works. I don't have intensive graphics needs and I have no desire to install Mojave, so it's optional for my purposes.

 

You can fit something like 6 hard drives in cheesegrater mac, which is pretty cool. There are thumbscrews that attach the drive to a sled, and it pops right in without using any tools. There are tons of sellers on eBay who upgrade the CPU and sell the complete processor tray for those who don't want to do it themselves. You can install that in a Mac Pro in about 30 seconds.

 

At that point in Apple's history, they wanted their professional products to be user repairable and expandable with ease. It's a complete 360 from their current design philosophy.

 

 

[Phil O'Keefe]

 

I didn't update it. Some people do and there are tons of guides on what works. I don't have intensive graphics needs and I have no desire to install Mojave, so it's optional for my purposes.

 

You can fit something like 6 hard drives in cheesegrater mac, which is pretty cool.

 

I've always liked that about my current PC case - it has gobs of room for drives - even more so now that I'm starting to switch over to SSDs instead. You can easily fit two of those into the space of a 3.5" drive bay.

 

There are thumbscrews that attach the drive to a sled, and it pops right in without using any tools.

 

A couple of the bay caddies in my case are tool-less too. It sure makes things easier!

 

There are tons of sellers on eBay who upgrade the CPU and sell the complete processor tray for those who don't want to do it themselves. You can install that in a Mac Pro in about 30 seconds.

 

At that point in Apple's history, they wanted their professional products to be user repairable and expandable with ease. It's a complete 360 from their current design philosophy.

 

 

Yeah, I agree - a lot of people are kind of wondering if there will ever be another "Pro" Mac that is suitable for guys like us...