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Old 05-29-2017, 06:10 AM   #1
trevlyns
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Default Help a computer illiterate here please....

So, sucked into all the hype in my early days of recording, my current PC spec is i5 3.0 Ghz and 16 Gig RAM

Just checked my busiest project - 20 tracks VST's everywhere - and it has these readings on the performance meter...


Now, wanting to dip into Mac, I just bought a Mac Mini for £70 with this spec - Core 2 Duo 2.0GHZ 2GB RAM

Am I likely to suffer any performance issues?

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Old 05-29-2017, 06:20 AM   #2
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great price but WAY under spec compared to your PC. My Mac Mini is an older 2011 sever with a quad i7 and 8gb and even that cant keep up with my faster 17 quad 16gb windows machine.

I run Logic pro 9 on the mac as it wont run on a PC.
Tried reaper on the mac and it just didnt come close performance wise to my PC.
Come to think of it, I suspect my 15 laptop with 8gb is at least as fast if not faster running reaper.
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Old 05-29-2017, 06:30 AM   #3
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Forget the Reaper internal figures for a moment, they do not tell you about the nasty peaks that require more beefy CPU and generous buffer settings.

General recommendations for those will gutless old hardware:

Do you have any known CPU hungry VSTs?
That's all you need to ask yourself really. If the software house recommends a more powerful CPU to run their VSTs. Consider how a lot of instances will soon gobble up your CPU.
If your CPU is not up to the job make concessions regarding the number of voices in polyphony and sound quality settings within the VSTs.
Also limit the projects to 44.1khz.
Run the most hungry soft synths (if you have any of the usual suspects) in mono or duo mode rather than poly modes. Consider a mix of weedy older soft synths or freeware and 16bit sample instruments instead of more CPU hungry soft synths.
Also you may have to consider freezing tracks. Oh, and don't be too ambitious with latency settings.

In general though remember less is more - because you won't really have a choice!

Last edited by Softsynth; 05-29-2017 at 06:39 AM. Reason: Today's landfill hardware was yesterday's impossible dream hardware
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Old 05-29-2017, 10:25 AM   #4
serr
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Quote:
Originally Posted by trevlyns View Post
So, sucked into all the hype in my early days of recording, my current PC spec is i5 3.0 Ghz and 16 Gig RAM

Just checked my busiest project - 20 tracks VST's everywhere - and it has these readings on the performance meter...


Now, wanting to dip into Mac, I just bought a Mac Mini for £70 with this spec - Core 2 Duo 2.0GHZ 2GB RAM

Am I likely to suffer any performance issues?

I bow to your mastery
For small projects like that it seems reasonable to sell the system you weren't really ever using to recover those resources. The lower spec Mac will still be plenty powerful for small projects like that and then some and you will likely still feel like you made an upgrade moving to OSX vs. Windows. Seems reasonable.

Put a SSD in the machine to really use its potential. (That goes for any system.) If you already had a SSD for your system drive, keep it and move it to your new (older) machine. Macs generally hold their value well (your score here aside) so you can always sell and trade up later on if you start getting into larger projects.
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Old 05-29-2017, 12:12 PM   #5
trevlyns
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Great advice - thanks everyone!

I should get the machine this week and yes Serr, I do have an SSD in the PC so I'll get my comp guy to do a swap.
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Old 05-29-2017, 12:22 PM   #6
Nizhny Tagil
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The processor should be enough, and if you must put it under stress for low latency recording you can still adopt the usual tricks to save power like bypassing plug-ins you don't need while recording and freezing tracks.
When mixing you won't need a small buffer size so the cpu will hold up.

You may run out of RAM, though, if you're thinking about transferring your current projects to the Mac Mini. In that session you are already using 2GB of RAM. I'm guessing your current OS and Reaper are 64-bit; with only 2GB of RAM you'll be forced to use 32-bit software, which should use less RAM than its 64-bit counterpart, but still I'd keep an eye on it. You won't be able to use large and heavy sample libraries.

If you're looking to upgrade that Mac Mini, I think an SSD and a second drive (even external) only for audio projects are the best options.
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Old 05-29-2017, 12:28 PM   #7
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Remember that if you come across issues like Safari freezing up your entire system that it's not because you bought an ancient computer - it's just OSX. If I was you I'd sell that Mac Mini to somebody for a small profit and go Hackintosh on your current system.
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Old 06-01-2017, 09:48 AM   #8
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Keep in mind that the figures you're looking at are ONLY considering what reaper is using. There are hundreds of background processes on Windows AND MacOS that will be using your computers resources while Reaper is running.

The performance difference from an i5 to a core2duo is going to be pretty apparent, but only having 2 gigs of ram is going to be a nightmare. I mean, you don't seem to be using heavy resources currently, so you might get away with it. Just don't open chrome while you're trying to record LOL!
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