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Still mulling over Mac Pro vs. Mac Mini. I bid on a 6 core 2012 yesterday with good specs and was 'sniped' in the last second. Mac Mini is smaller and quieter and powerful for the size. The downside is that I would need a new audio interface and/or external Thunderbolt dock (both around the same price). That puts the total price up to over £2K. I could get a 6 core for half that, and a 12 core for around £1600.

Decisions...

Wayne
 
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Still mulling over Mac Pro vs. Mac Mini. I bid on a 6 core 2012 yesterday with good specs and was 'sniped' in the last second. Mac Mini is smaller and quieter and powerful for the size. The downside is that I would need a new audio interface and/or external Thunderbolt dock (both around the same price). That puts the total price up to over £2K. I could get a 6 core for half that, and a 12 core for around £1600.

Decisions...

Wayne
Search locally, most people find the best prices off eBay. Maybe try to find companies/publishing agencies upgrading, that's how I found one of my Mac Pros on the cheap.
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Wonder why this place is selling them fitted then? They claim to work but I don't know what testing they have done.

Good question, but will not be the first time that a professional seller sold something that just don't work with a Mac Pro.
 
Wonder why this place is selling them fitted then? They claim to work but I don't know what testing they have done.

The SATA RAID issue from Mojave has already crept into High Sierra updates. The driver/eGPU restrictions for RX560 will also creep into PCIe GPUs. Save yourself a headache (and more expense later) and just pickup a recommended RX580 instead.
 
The SATA RAID issue from Mojave has already crept into High Sierra updates. The driver/eGPU restrictions for RX560 will also creep into PCIe GPUs. Save yourself a headache (and more expense later) and just pickup a recommended RX580 instead.
I have a felling that the shared code base will bring the eGPU restrictions to PCIe GPUs too.

It's the Apple way, Mac Pro RX 580 support came directly from eGPUs and if you use the same model as Apple used into eGPU kits you get a better working frame buffer. I'll be zero surprised when PCIe RX 560 models start to have the same limitations as eGPU ones.
 
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Unless there is a single 8-pin Vega GPU in the works, the RX580 would likely be the last GPU the majority of MacPro5,1 users will ever purchase for internal use. Now that the Sapphire Pulse RX 580 8GB is back in stock direct from many retailers as new with warranty, there is very little reason to look elsewhere. At $210, it's also near the cheapest ever direct sale price.

...or stick with High Sierra.
 
I'll be interested to know how you get on with the RX560. The refurbished ones I have been looking at come with 2GB RX560s. I'd be connecting over display port to a Dell Ultrawide.

Have had the RX 560 (MSI, 4GB) installed all morning. So far I am much, MUCH happier with this card over the Sapphire RX 580. The MSI fan is inaudible over the cMP case fans, even under moderate load. By comparison, the 580 used twice as much power when idle and produced lots of extra noise from it's twin cooling fans turning off and on every 15 minutes.

For a quiet or audio-critical work environment, the MSI 560 is the card to get, for sure! It is listed as officially supported for Mojave and Final Cut Pro X, so I have no worries about future support at this time.

Best of luck in your decision!
 
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Okay, currently looking at 2 2009 5.1 options:

- 6 core 3.46ghz
- 2 x 6 core 3.06ghz

Price difference between the two is about £300. Given the overall age of these machines I don’t want to spend too much.

I favour the 12 core, but I’m slightly concerned that I’ll struggle with the slower single core speed?

Any thought?

Thanks again,
Wayne
 
Okay, currently looking at 2 2009 5.1 options:

- 6 core 3.46ghz
- 2 x 6 core 3.06ghz

Price difference between the two is about £300. Given the overall age of these machines I don’t want to spend too much.

I favour the 12 core, but I’m slightly concerned that I’ll struggle with the slower single core speed?

Any thought?

Thanks again,
Wayne
Depends on your apps. If you need more cores than core speed, go for dual CPU. If later on the road you need a little more single core speed, X5690 are around US$ 170~180 for the pair.

You will spend more than £300 buying a dual CPU tray later.
 
I favour the 12 core, but I’m slightly concerned that I’ll struggle with the slower single core speed?

As per tsialex, check your use case. Not a lot of apps really take advantage of 12 cores. I believe DAWs typically favor a higher speed vs more cores. I'd check in with the Logic forums to see what folks are saying. (I'm on Cubase. I have yet to hit the ceiling with an audio project on my 3.33 hex).
 
Decision made, but I ended up going for a refurbished 2018 Mac Mini, 6 core i5. Thanks for all the help and advice. I think this is going to give me a better balance between single and multi core performance.

Wayne
 
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