Some people like to be ahead of the technology curve and want the latest and greatest product as soon as it hits the streets, it’s understandable. Those same people are often left scratching their heads when they see many pro studios using Apple Macs that are over a decade old, wondering how they manage.
In this excellent video from Luke Miani he explains why old Macs last forever... and how to make them last even longer. In the video he explains how in the last ten years both the hardware and software, and ironically the upgradability of older Macs versus newer Macs makes them fantastic value for money.
Luke also takes a Mac Pro 5,1 and does what he describes as The Ultimate Cheap and Easy Mac Pro Build for 2020 in the video below.
Get More From Your Old Mac
If you want to know how to get more from your older Apple Mac then we have plenty of articles to help you.
In our article Apple Announce New Operating System At WWDC 2018 Called Mojave Apple announced that Mojave would be supported on Macs introduced in mid-2012 or later, plus 2010 and 2012 Mac Pro models as long as they had a recommended Metal-capable graphics cards. This triggered questions from a number of you like Karl Mainzer who asked: “Can you recommend a decent Metal compatible graphics card?” Once I started to research this it became clear it would be better to answer this with a dedicated article.
With all the discussion about new Mac Pro coming, how good the Mac Mini 2018 is as a Pro Tools computer reminded me that a while back I had bought replacement processors for my Mac Pro 5,1 cheese-grater , which I had never got around to fitting. This article will show how to change the processor chips in a Mac Pro 5,1 (Mid 2010) cheese-grater and will show the difference this has made to my Pro Tools computer.
Recently, I have been suffering some screen re-draw issues on my Mid 2010 Mac Pro which had an ATI Radeon HD5770 1024MB graphics card in it. So I had a chat with Rich at Create Pro to see if upgrading my graphics card might help and he recommended an AMD R9 280X 3GB card.
In part 2, I am going to share how I installed my Angelbird SSD wrk for Mac Pro drive into my Mid 2010 Mac Pro and how I followed the advice from Rich at Create Pro to create a clean install and appropriate backups.
In this video James is back with Rich from UK Mac upgrade company Create Pro. Just how far can you upgrade a 2009 / 2010 Mac Pro (Cheese Grater)? This time Rich shows the upgrade process from a single processor to a dual processor. In this case giving 12 cores at 3.46GHz. Rich and James then push the Pro Tools computer to its limit running the PTE Mac Power Test Session. They also install a USB3 card to give the old Mac Pro so new life when it comes to connectivity. Just how many tracks of Boom can you run at 64 samples with 12 cores? The numbers will amaze you and the performance will make you think twice before forking out for a new machine. Watch and find out.
In this video James shows you just how far he can now push his Pro Tools computer a Mac Pro 2010 that was upgraded to 2015 (6.1) specification by Richard at Create Pro. Using Russ' Mac Power Test session James finds out how many times he can run Boom and how many tracks of audio he can run along side VIs to create a vast session. Will 128 tracks of audio be to much. Will 90 Boom drum machines be an 808 to far. Watch to find out.
In the first video James meets Richard Rogers from Create Pro and discussed upgrading James’ old ‘cheese grater’ 5,1 Mac Pro to new ‘Trash can’ 6,1 specification.
As part of me getting ready for Pro Tools 11, I needed to go up from Lion - 10.7.5 to Mountain Lion 10.8.3, as Pro Tools 11 isn’t officially supported on Lion, and so I have finally decided to go for a SSD drive for my boot drive for my 2010 Mac Pro.
Why you can trust us…
The Production Expert team are first and foremost professionals working daily in music and post-production. Our content is informed by a team who are practitioners, meaning our tutorials are devised to help those working in real-world scenarios.
Product evaluation also benefits from this experience ensuring that when products are tested, they meet the needs of those working in studios every day. As a partner, you can be assured that our team understand your audience well.