MAC PRO WITH THUNDERBOLT BUILD for professional recording studio

[cuerdasoxidas]

Hi guys!

I have a professional recording studio. I have been running a mac pro custom built for the last 5 and a half years.
I couldn't be happier with it but with time, sessions in the studio require more plugins and more processing, specially running pro tools native.
I was thinking in upgrading to a motherboard with Thunderbolt , upgrade RAM memory, etc... Do you reckon I could still use my other components?
I've been considering spending £3000 in a mac pro cause I use the studio as a business and " you never know " but my hackintosh never had a problem apart from the crashes on pro tools lately due to processing. What do you think?

This is what I've got now. Bear in mind I bought it in June 2011 !!! still an amazing machine .

Item: Intel Core i7 2600k 3.4GHz Socket 1155 8MB Cache Retail Boxed Processor

Qty: 1Cost: 198.26



Item: Gigabyte GA-Z68X-UD5-B3 Socket 1155 onboard 7.1 Channel Audio ATX Motherboard

Qty: 1Cost: 190.67



Item: CM Storm Scout Case - 120mm and 2x 140mm Fans Included

Qty: 1Cost: 53.07



Item: Corsair 16GB (4x4GB) DDR3 1600MHz Vengeance Blue Memory Kit CL9 (9-9-9-24) 1.5V

Qty: 1Cost: 78.92



Item: Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro rev 2 Socket 775, 1156, 1155, 1366, AM2, AM3 Heatpipe CPU Cooler

Qty: 1Cost: 12.57



Item: HDMI Cable 1.4 Black 2 Metre

Qty: 1Cost: 4.99



Item: Be Quiet Straight Power E8 680W Modular PSU - 7x SATA 4x PCI-E

Qty: 1Cost: 70.82



Item: Philips E-line 234EL2SB Full HD WLED LCD 23" HDMI Monitor with Speakers

Qty: 1Cost: 139.70



Item: HIS HD 5770 IceQ 5 Turbo Edition 1GB GDDR5 Dual DVI HDMI DisplayPort PCI-E Graphics Card

Qty: 1Cost: 83.32



Item: LiteOn iHAS124-19 24x DVD±RW DL & RAM SATA Optical Drive - OEM Black with Nero Essentials

Qty: 1Cost: 11.65



Item: WD 1TB 3.5" SATA-III 6Gb/s Caviar Blue Hard Drive - 7200RPM 32MB Cache

Qty: 1Cost: 39.89



Item: Hitachi 2TB 3.5" Deskstar Coolspin SATA-III 6GB/s Hard Drive - 5900rpm 32MB Cache - HDS5C3020ALA632

Qty: 1Cost: 45.83



Item: Xenta White Chiclet Style Keyboard - USB UK Layout

Qty: 1Cost: 3.78

 

[trs96]

I would go with the Gigabyte Designare motherboard, a 32 GB DDR4 ram kit and an I7-6700K. For quiet performance go with a Noctua heatsink and fan combo. Noctua case fans are also helpful. You can overclock the 6700K to a moderate degree with an air cooler which will give you even better performance. You could keep your 5770 Graphics card if it is still working well enough or upgrade to a GTX 950 if you want better than HD530 graphics, multi monitors etc. The fans on the 950 do not kick in until the GPU reaches a specific temperature so that would also help reduce noise levels.

Note: you will need to run at least El Capitan or macOS Sierra on a system as shown above. it can't run Mavericks or Yosemite
if those are a requirement for your audio software.

 

[zipb]

I have a silent Z170x build that I use as a pro DAW. I still use fw interfaces but tests with Thunderbolt and a Lynx Aurora TB etc. were fine.
A Hack will always be less convenient than a proper Mac. The 27-inch quad core i7 iMacs are reasonable bang for the buck because of the included hi quality screen.

 

[cuerdasoxidas]

Thanks guys really appreciate the comments. I thought about a powerful iMac, mounted in an arm ( looks very cool) but I always has been a desktop guy I'll need a few thunderbolt though.

How painful was the installation and thunderbolt recognition by the custom mac?
Cheers!

 

[zipb]

Thanks guys really appreciate the comments. I thought about a powerful iMac, mounted in an arm ( looks very cool) but I always has been a desktop guy I'll need a few thunderbolt though.

How painful was the installation and thunderbolt recognition by the custom mac?
Cheers!

It was a hassle, even for someone who has Hack experience. But I was on the bleeding edge when I built my Z170x, it's more or less mainstream with lots of guides and tips now.

The thing is, in Win & MacOS it's hard to tell what's happening exactly on the TB bus. Stuff only shows up properly when it shows up properly, if it doesn't you're completely in the dark. Having to juggle drivers and firmware in Win didn't help either.
Plus, when I first tried to connect my FW interface via TB, it would throw errors. I then left it for a while(used my totally reliable FW card for a couple of weeks) , and suddenly it worked.