Mac Pro :: Best Hdd For Music Production (brands/size/partitioning)
Apr 5, 2009
Just bought myself a 2.8 mac pro with a stock WD Caviar SE 3200AAJS drive and would like some opinions about which hard drives to get and how to partition them.
From what I've read on digilloyds site, I've concluded that it would be best to get a rather large harddrive with a small partition as bootdrive. The reasoning behind this is that data on drives gets read faster when that data is on the outside of the drive. So an 80gb partition on a 640gb drive would be faster than an 80gb partition on a 120gb drive, because with option 1, the partition physically remains small in regards to the whole, and therefore physically remains on the outside of the drive where seek speed is fast.
So my questions are about the technical details really:
1) Is there a measured percentage as to where drives begin to lose their fast outer rim performance? If that's say 10%, then I could calculate: I need 80gb boot partition, so the drive must be 800gb. Also, to calculate how tiny my bootpartition should be, I need to know how many gigs "breathing space" the boot partition needs. Anyone?
2) What's your drives config and partitioning? I myself was thinking:
- boot drive (how big?)
- drive with 2 partitions, one 10gb scratch partition for the current project and one projects partition for things I'm not working on.
- drive for reading samples from for drums etc.
- drive for time machining the projects drive, the samples I can always reinstall from cd, so won't need space for that..
3) What brand should I get? I was thinking Western Digital caviar black for the first three drives, and a more energy efficient caviar blue/green as timemachine drive. Do I need server drives like the R3 for any of this?
4) Where can my stock 320 drive fit in? Is it good enough for one of these jobs or is it just too old? I'm willing to replace it but I don't want to be splitting hairs. The potential replacement DOES have to add something in real world feel.
I've been tracking this forum for about a year now reading some great discussion on 2008 MacPro and actually held off buying one b/c of the comments recommending waiting for the new 2009 MacPro. So I did, and now I've been reading a lot of less than excited posts about how this is a step backwards in the price vs speed camp. Rather than hijacking a thread that is really providing a lot of great discussion on benchmarks and other more general pros/cons of 2008 vs 2009 I wanted to get some advice on a very specific request. I produce music on a PC now which is way past it's prime. Originally I spec'd a 2008 model and was prepared to buy with my company discount when I was advised to wait until the new 2009 MP came out. Right now the cost is equal for a 2009 system (with my corp discount) and a used/refurb 2008 system so $$$ can't help me make a decision. The machine I'm spec'ing is
* Two 2.26GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon * 8GB (4x2GB) * 1TB 7200-rpm Serial ATA 3Gb/s * NVIDIA GeForce GT 120 512MB * One 18x SuperDrive * Apple Mini DisplayPort to VGA Adapter
My question is, is this the right move for my specific needs? I run Cubase, Ableton Live, and mainly Native Instrument plug ins (synths) In terms of hyperthreading and quad vs. octo cores: will I even be able to realize this potential given my software? Is there any value in trying to sink in the large amount to take me to 2.66 or 2.93 Octo 2009? As I understand it, music on a Mac relys more on Ram (number of effects and synths that can run without latency) vs. raw CPU speed. But I've even heard debate on that. If all things are equal I'd rather take advantage of my corporate discount as well as emerging technology.
I hope this conversation hasnt come up, cos I did do a search for it. I mainly use my MBP for music production, running Logic 9 with one or 2 other soft synths. I was going thinking about getting a new 13" MBP but upgrading to the C2D 2.66 and the HD to 500G. I was wondering whether the 15" i5/i7 would provide any real benefits to me for what I mainly use it for, i.e. recording/producing music. Almost all of the apple docs and threads relating to the new to new processors seem to concentrate on graphics, and visual stuff. 13" will be limiting my screen real estate...but ill be travelling extensively but when in the studio can always connect up to a monitor.
I am looking to upgrade to a new mac and have been set on getting the new 8 Core tower. A few people have told me I would be better off getting the new imac i7 instead. I am only going to be running logic 9, ableton 8, and protools le 8.. My sound card is a digi002 rack. I will only be using this machine for these purposes and no other. Would it be better to just go ahead and get an 8 core tower or would the imac i7 be just as good if not better? And, would the imac i7 be as durable with a full time work load?
what new imac to get. I really need to upgrade my macbook because I do a lot of music production and I need more cpu power. Currently I have a C2D 2.0 ghz T7200 and 2gb of RAM. What I need to run: Around 40-45 tracks (24 bit 44100Hz) in Ableton/Logic with around 4 devices (EQ, reverb etc) on each track. As one can imagine my macbook doesn't cope with this. Audio starts lagging and I need to freeze tracks which dramatically decreases my working efficiency. So I decided to get a new imac, I don't need more power than what the above requires. Other apps I will run is the CS4 suite but that doesn't require as much power as my music production. So mainly for music I was thinking a 3.06 ghz would do the trick. From benchmarks I see it's about twice as powerful as my current CPU. Would it be enough? By the way, I know about the coming update, but that can only be better than the 3.06 C2D so that's not the issue here.
I'm eyeing the mini right now because os x >>> windows for music (inherent midi drivers instead of 3rd party, stability, etc etc).amittedly I currently run a hackintosh on a previously windows pc. It is stable with the exception of gfx crashes every few hours and its inability to use the gfx card to its full extent. This gets to me though and is kind of a bitch. So I'm thinking about getting a mini when I have the money for one. I would get the standard with the 4gb ram option. How well does it deal with heat under stress? and is the HDD 7200 rpm for the non server edition?(edit: roarrrr just read that its 5400, so lame)
I am going to buy my very first mac and I've decided it's going to be an imac. I'm completely new to mac and don't know which one of the two 21.5 inches (i3 3.06 or i3 3.2) to buy. Like the title says the main usage is going to be for music production and Logic or logic express is going to be used with lots of midi plug-ins. I'm also going to work with some photo and video (nothing serious yet), some web browsing and mailing (the regular things to do on a pc). And maybe some WoW. No heavy gaming on the mac, I have a nice windows pc for that I have a discount when buying that makes it harder to choose:
21,5" 3,06GHz - 1079$ 21,5" 3,2GHz - 1349$
Which imac is for me and which one is most future proof?
I currently have a 6 years old Dell XPS PC and want a mac. I've used imacs a lot during college years and now want one for myself, no more PC for me. Now, the question is: what do I need? I would use this mac for pretty much anything, but mostly mostly mostly for music production. I will use it to record songs, I have decided I probably do not need to wait for the refresh, as all I would need is to be able to run plugins and multiple tracks at the same time.. I'm pretty much sold on the imac 27 quad core with 8gb ram right now, but would I be able to make a wiser choice?
I do not own any Mac at home, but looking into one for college. I have read up on all the pros/ cons of the MBA (non-removable battery and RAM, lack of ports and optical drive, etc). I am not a computer gamer, so I stick to the consoles. I was wondering if a MBA is ideal for any kind of music production. Can it handle heavy music editing with GB or Logic Pro? Is it ideal with the somewhat "lack" of external ports? share your opinions and/ or experiences with music production for fun or work on a MBA. (By the way, I am asking this to decide whether I should be looking into a MBA or MBP for college September of 2009, so I have LOTS of time to wait for newer models).
I'm using iTunes 9.2.1 and it states that my music library is 159.99gb with 25,994 songs, however the folder containing music files is 171.26gb with 30,309 files. This is a difference of 11.27gb and 4315 files. The folder only contains mp3 or m4a files with their respective album and band folders; no images, text files or anything else. The iTunes folder is located elsewhere. I added the folder to iTunes again to see if there were 11gb of songs I'd forgotten to add and there was no difference. I even deleted all iTunes settings and the current library and added the folder again and it is still missing 11.27gb.
I'm about 95% sure that none of my music collection is missing from iTunes so my first thought was that iTunes is just reading the file sizes and count inaccurately and it really is 171.26gb, but I'm not sure.
Can anyone think of a solution without going though my entire collection and comparing it to iTunes to see if anything is missing?
I've always had a MBP, so my extensive music and photos collection can't live on the laptop. I've always kept them on 2 externals and suffered some slow downs due to the setup. I just ordered a 27" iMac i5. I'd like to keep my 130GB collection now on my iMac. I use a buncha photoshop/ Lightroom. Was curious if I was to partition say 150GB for pics and 100GB for music if that would help out the computer at all? I really have no idea, just seems like the imac wouldn't have to sift through anything to find my pics when I go working on them.
I wonder what the ideal artwork is for your music?Because on the pictures below you can see that there is still som white on the upper and bottom place of the artwork and it is a 600 x 600 artwork.. And I Have an iPhone 4S so the artwork needs to be high resolution?
Right, so I got 4Gb of Crucial ram right now - MBP 5,1 It supports 6Gb, and I need it. So I want to pick up a single 4Gb stick. However, a Crucial 4Gb stick is like $113 while a G-skill variant is only $63.
I'm interested in getting a Mac Pro for my recording studio. I'm trying to find out what types/brands of soundcards are supported. I currently use M-Audio, but looking on their site I see that they don't have any drivers that go above 10.5.8. It appears that I may need a new sound card if I get a Mac Pro. I need to know what my choices are BEFORE I do anything more. I currently use Logic Pro on my old G4 with Tiger & that's just not cutting it. However, I have a great soundcard so it still works OK for now.
I would like to get a USB wireless N dongle for my old PC, easy enough to do I was going to go with a Linksys WUSB600N but then realized I might as well get something that is Mac compatible so I can sometimes use it on my old PowerBook. After doing some research I found out that newer TrendNet dongles and some D-Link dongles are Mac compatible. I don't know about TrendNet because they always seemed a little cheap, I've used D-Link routers before and they're ok but the dongles compatibility with Macs seems to depend on the hardware revision. Are there any other brands who make Mac compatible wireless N USB dongles?
I'm must be hitting some strange key combination / trackpad gesture (I just got a macbook pro) and my font size in safari keeps randomly increasing. This happens on the desktop with the icons as well.
If you purchase the CS3 Prod Premium can you purchase another license at a cheaper price so that you can install it on another machine? and is there ANY place that sells the darn thing cheaper than the $1700 bones you have to pay for it? And how 'bout us folks who have Final Cut Studio 2 and just need Photoshop and After Effects? If you buy these two separately, it's MORE expensive than buying the Creative Suite Prod Premium so you buy the Production Premium box and you get all that other stuff you may not use.
What's the best way to uninstall this Snow Leopard beast? I've backup files in Time Machine but I'm not sure of what system folders and/or files should be restored.
I purchased a 21 inch iMac computer approximately 3 years ago. The computer ceased working a few months ago and I have since been informed that Apple have recognised this model as faulty. inform me of my options given this is a reasonably new computer with minimal usage. Someone I know had the same issue and Apple replaced thier iMac even though it was out of Warranty due to faulty parts, thus why this model was ceased production.
[URL:..] As our current MacBook Pros are assembled & manufactured by Foxconn, Apple is shifting to have Quanta Computer in 2010 to assemble and manufacture the next Macbook Pros. Somehow, Foxconn has a hit or miss on quality control, especially the issues we encounter like warped lids, dust under the glass, dead pixels, bad ram, black screen of death, video artifacts, etc. Does this CHANGE of manufacturers mean better quality control?
why the iphoto library file size in the finder appears to be a certain size, while iphoto itself reports a very different size. Is there any way to recover any disk space or reconcile the numbers here? Please see the attachments below, it may make a bit more sense that way. I would like to recover the disk space and if it really is a 16gb difference somewhere.
