MBP 16' replacing an 08 Mac Pro Tower for music production. Q about HDD Rack and Viability.

[Brendonx]

Hi All.
I've been using a Mac Pro tower since 2008 for my music production needs. It's been amazing and I've never had an issue outside of some RAM dying.
Software and hardware is getting to a point however that I need to update my system. The new Mac Pro starts at $10,000 in Australia, which is outside my price range. I was thinking about the MacBook Pro 16 inch as I've read great reviews of the product. I'd get a dock and use it like a desktop and then take it with me when I need it on the go.

My question: How viable is this? I've got 4 HDDs docked in my Mac Pro at the moment so I'd need a decent USB3.1 hub to really be able to operate the machine on a similar level. Is there a Laptop base anyone could recommend that has a Hard drive dock in it also? That'd make Using it portable mode a decent amount more convenient I imagine!
Thanks for taking the time!

 

[cmaier]

Hi All.
I've been using a Mac Pro tower since 2008 for my music production needs. It's been amazing and I've never had an issue outside of some RAM dying.
Software and hardware is getting to a point however that I need to update my system. The new Mac Pro starts at $10,000 in Australia, which is outside my price range. I was thinking about the MacBook Pro 16 inch as I've read great reviews of the product. I'd get a dock and use it like a desktop and then take it with me when I need it on the go.

My question: How viable is this? I've got 4 HDDs docked in my Mac Pro at the moment so I'd need a decent USB3.1 hub to really be able to operate the machine on a similar level. Is there a Laptop base anyone could recommend that has a Hard drive dock in it also? That'd make Using it portable mode a decent amount more convenient I imagine!
Thanks for taking the time!

wouldnt a thunderbolt raid enclosure make more sense than A usb hub?

 

[Brendonx]

wouldnt a thunderbolt raid enclosure make more sense than A usb hub?

Possibly. I actually though usb3.1 had the thunderbolt architecture in it already so I might have to do some googling to understand it better. If you’ve got any advise on the topic though I’d love to hear it?

 

[cmaier]

Possibly. I actually though usb3.1 had the thunderbolt architecture in it already so I might have to do some googling to understand it better. If you’ve got any advise on the topic though I’d love to hear it?

Do you need the external disks for active work, or are they mostly long-term storage? If the latter, you may even be able to get away with a NAS, like Synology or QNAP. As long as you aren’t trying to edit movies stored on them, the Ethernet speeds might be good enough for you.

Otherwise, companies like OWC and Promise make good boxes that plug into your USB port (and use thunderbolt 4 with those ports), and they should have very fast read/write speeds.

 

[Brendonx]

Do you need the external disks for active work, or are they mostly long-term storage? If the latter, you may even be able to get away with a NAS, like Synology or QNAP. As long as you aren’t trying to edit movies stored on them, the Ethernet speeds might be good enough for you.

Otherwise, companies like OWC and Promise make good boxes that plug into your USB port (and use thunderbolt 4 with those ports), and they should have very fast read/write speeds.

That’s a good point. I need About 4tb of storage but I was gonna opt for the 2tb internal and I have a 2tb ssd already. So really the rest of the storage could just be in a nas. If that’s the way I go I’d love a base that I could sit the laptop on that has a built in hard drive enclosure. Not sure if there are any of those out there though.

 

[cmaier]

That’s a good point. I need About 4tb of storage but I was gonna opt for the 2tb internal and I have a 2tb ssd already. So really the rest of the storage could just be in a nas. If that’s the way I go I’d love a base that I could sit the laptop on that has a built in hard drive enclosure. Not sure if there are any of those out there though.

I haven’t seen anything like that - probably wouldn’t be a great thermal solution.