VO-BB - 20 YEARS OLD!

JohnV · Posted: Wed Sep 30, 2020 11:57 am Post subject: Moving Up...

I am about to upgrade most of the computers here, it's way past time.
I need to have a main machine, a compatible, capable ipad, and likely upgrade the basic software (mainly LOGIC)
Everything's been running OS10.6.8

The workhorse has been a 2005 iMac with 2nd screen and a pair of 2004 macbooks with 2nd screen. the macbooks go out as location recording rigs. (we won't talk about the G5's and the died-in-3-years superduper macbook pro...)

I will be getting a cheap refurb for the iMac in order to maintian the ability to run legacy stuff.
As to the more-capable versions of machines to aquire, it seems SOURCE CONNECT is backwards compatible to 10.4... so how far forward I need to come on a bang-for-buck, and what this system will look like... configuration of booth screens for software as well as copy-reading etc is the design question of the moment.

If this has been dealt with on another thread, point me... if this is fair to discuss here, I'm open to booth ergonomic redesign (booth currently is non-symmetrical or parallel 6x8 with a ledge) and success/mistake stories would be welcome.

thank ye even in advance...
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Bish · Posted: Wed Sep 30, 2020 4:47 pm Post subject:

There aren't many posts that can start... "Man, I really miss 10.6.8!" - but it's true... Snow Leopard was stable and solid. For the PC users amongst us, it the Mac equivalent of XP.

Anyway... I have a MacPro cheese grater (2006, 1.1 - the first Intel model). I've only recently pensioned it off... mainly because it was starting to sound like a 747 with its six fans all clamouring to be heard. It had stopped being my production machine a few years ago when I bought a 27" 5K iMac... so had been relegated to media server duties... I replaced it with a 2012 Mac Mini... the last model with slot-mounted memory (not soldered). I added a second SSD (and upgraded it to 16GB RAM) and it just keeps chugging along. It's running Mojave, but I'll probably update with Catalina (it seemed to go OK with the iMac).

So... if I was after a good bang-for-the-buck workhorse, I'd look for another Mac Mini of the same vintage. The little buggers hold their price because of their upgradability... OWC (MacSales) will do one with a 500GB SSD and 16GB RAM for $609

Sod the new models... I don't like stuff soldered onto the mother board Smile

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JohnV · Posted: Wed Sep 30, 2020 5:38 pm Post subject:

damn... Bish that's a whole different direction I needed to hear, thanks.

a long talk today about machines was going in the direction of a refurb replacement iMac (for the one now with terminal illegible screen-stripe-leprosy) for legacy 10.6.8 stuff
and then talking new MacbookPro
and a 2010 refurb MBpro for location and backup machine
which was $$ and $$
What I'm doing is a rehash of the ergonomic layout and what i actually NEED.
Most all here is audio and that hardly stresses the machines.
MacMini I had let slip off my attention.
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SoundscenesDC, main talent and production offices just 385k km up the gravity well in LuNoHoCo Center, old satellite studios still bookable at the future site of Johnson City!

Bish · Posted: Wed Sep 30, 2020 6:11 pm Post subject:

The iMacs are wonderful things... but I still had to really push myself into getting one because if the screen goes, it may not be worth salvaging (my big fear). The one I bought has SSD and I don't run it hard, so the fan never comes on during recording sessions so it's OK in the studio environment. The Mac Mini, on the other hand, being the media server, gets to crunch and convert video files... it can generate some fan noise when it's sweating it's little heart out... hence it lives "next door" out of the recording environment. I have the obligatory "hole-in-the-wall" and the screen is in the studio (mouse and keyboard are Bluetooth, so no problem with a wall). Needing an external screen made the Mac Mini a no-brainer for me. For my very occasional "on-the-road" needs, I have an old black Mac Book from about 2006 which quite happily runs Twisted Wave on Snow Leopard... although, the last few times I've gone mobile, the iPad has done the job perfectly.

Why is it so easy to spend someone else's money Smile

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Bish a.k.a. Bish
Smoke me a kipper... I'll be back for breakfast.
I will not feed the trolls... I will not feed the trolls... I will not feed the trolls... I will not feed the trolls.

georgethetech · Posted: Thu Oct 08, 2020 6:44 pm Post subject:

My Mac Mini 2018 has upgradable RAM, FYI, it's just not as easy to get to as it was in 2012. You have to partially disassemble the machine using ifixit guides.
32GB RAM works rather nicely. It's also so quiet most of the time I forget it's on, a big time thermal design upgrade from prior models.
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