MEMORY UPGRADE
And while I thought it would be nice if memory prices were lower for the early-2008 Mac Pro here in the isolation studio, the prices actually are a higher than the prices for considerably faster and newer flavors of Mac memory, but there is a relatively new player in the Mac memory arena, and since Amazon.com sells this company's memory modules for the Mac, I ordered a matched pair of Mushkin 4GB memory modules, which arrived earlier this week, and they are working nicely at present, which at approximately $200 (US) for the pair of 4GB modules maps to 32GB costing approximately $800 (US), which is nearly twice the cost of 32GB of Mac memory for newer Mac Pro models, but this is the way it works, so I have to deal with it . . .
The new memory modules were not recognized the first time I booted the Mac Pro, but I anticipated this, hence left the side cover off, and after powering down the Mac Pro, I unplugged the top memory module board; reseated the new memory modules; plugged the top memory board back in place but a bit more firmly; and then powered-up the Mac Pro, at which time the new memory modules were recognized and verified, which was excellent . . .
[NOTE: In the mid-1970s when there were problems with UNIVAC 1100 Series mainframe hardware boards, the technicians would pull the boards and clean the lands with pencil erasers, which is a useful thing to know, since it probably works today on the lands of PCI boards and memory modules, strange as it might be . . . ]
For the folks who only have used Apple computers, it is useful to understand that at the dawn of the early-21st century from a hardware perspective Apple computers basically are Windows machines, and the general rule in the Windows universe is that if any type of hardware works for a week with no problems, then it is quite likely to work for years with no problems, but if a problem occurs, then you just bang on the computer case a few times and perhaps toggle the ON/OFF button rapidly, and everything usually starts working, but if this strategy does not work, then you disassemble the machine and put it back together again, at least for a desktop or server model in a typical metal case similar to a Mac Pro metal case, which is an abstruse way of explaining the fact that memory is memory, and it either works or does not work, which is where the company from which you purchase memory becomes very important, because when memory does not work, which you will know within a week, then you need to be able to return it and get it replaced, which among other things is the reason that I was comfortable ordering the memory modules from Amazon.com, even though I usually get memory and hard drives from Other World Computing, except that now I check prices, because the cost of stuff is very important here in the sound isolation studio . . .
And while 8GB of memory is more than sufficient when everything is 32-bits, the rules are different when everything is 64-bits, where having more memory is good, since at least in theory it actually can be used . . .
SOLID-STATE DRIVE (SSD) and PCI EXPRESS SSD
In the Mac universe, everything except the Mac Pro is an "all-in-one" machine, which makes it difficult at best to have a bit of FUN the way folks in the Windows universe have been doing for decades with desktop machines, but if you have a Mac Pro, then another useful upgrade involves solid-state devices (SSD), where there are SSD units that are replacements for internal hard drives, but even more intriguing there is a new SSD unit that is a PCI Express device, which is intriguing, because the PCI Express bus is faster than the internal hard drive bus . . .
Mercury Acelsior™ PCI Express SSD (Other World Computing)
And there are similar PCI Express SSD boards in the Windows universe, but whether they will work on a Mac Pro is another matter, and in this instance I have a high comfort level with Other World Computing, hence defer to the folks who have Windows machines regarding recommendations and advice in this respect for enhancing Windows machines . . .
Yet another consideration in the Mac universe is that at some point the cost of upgrading memory and so forth is greater than the cost of a new Mac Pro, hence the current strategy here in the sound isolation studio is to "hold that thought" for a while, since the only upgrade I have done cost $200 (US) . . .
In other words, having a plan for the future makes excellent sense, and this includes doing a cost analysis of the various options, where by studying the various measurements made by Activity Monitor, I know that the 8-cores of the two Intel Xeon processors run at approximately 15 to 20 percent utilization when I am doing 32-bit digital music production, which indicates that the Mac Pro here in the sound isolation studio can do more work, and since Apple has announced that it plans to do an upgrade on the Mac Pro next year, it probably makes sense to wait until there is a new Mac Pro, at which point the strategy is to get the previous model at Amazon.com sometime in the two weeks before the new Mac Pro models become available, because Amazon.com discounts the soon-to-be "old" models at least for a few hours, and I like discounts . . .
GRAPHICS CARD (a.k.a, "VIDEO CARD")
While the graphics card is not something that might appear to be an intuitive upgrade option, in some instances it makes a significant difference in perceived system throughput, which occurs when everything else is sufficiently fast but the graphics card is slow, in which case what happens is that the computer appears to be slow, but instead of being slow due to internal hard drive speeds, insufficient memory, and so forth, the bottleneck is the graphics card, and in the Mac universe, again this is an upgrade option that is easiest on a Mac Pro, where for reference the only easy upgrade for the "all-in-one" Macs is the memory upgrade, and I am not certain that there are any easy internal upgrades for a Mac mini . . .
Upgrading the graphics card can be helpful when the focus is digital music production, but it is definitely helpful when the focus includes digital video production . . .
THOUGHTS
While the upgrade cost for NOTION 4 for those folks who currently have NOTION 3 is not very much, I think it makes sense to consider what happens when everything is 64-bits, which for some products is not going to happen for a while, since some products only are available in 32-bit versions at present . . .
This becomes all the more important when you are doing the full range of digital music production, which I define as follows:
(1) NOTION (Notion Music)
(2) Digital Audio Workstation (DAW) Application
(3) Virtual Instruments
(4) Virtual Effects Plug-ins
(5) Reason (Propellerhead Software)
(6) ReWire (Propellerhead Software)
(7) External Digital Audio Interface
(8) MIDI
(9) Real Instruments
(10) Real Vocals
(11) Mastering Application
When all the software and sampled sound libraries are 64-bit and you are doing some of the various activities simultaneously, then hardware becomes very important, hence deserves diligent attention with respect (a) to gathering information and (b) to devising a sensible plan for upgrading, if upgrading is required, where in this context "upgrading" certainly can include getting a new computer, which depending on the cost of upgrading components on an existing computer might be more practical from the perspective of the long run . . .
Yet another thing to consider is the cost of upgrading all the other software and sample sound libraries, if they currently work only in the 32-bit universe . . .
And in this respect yet another possibility is that you might need to get a new computer so that for all practical purposes you can "freeze" everything on your current computer and repurpose it specifically as a dedicated 32-bit digital music production system, since by this time you should have everything working optimally on your current machine in the 32-bit universe within the constraints of the various software and hardware, which for all practical purposes makes it your current production system . . .
On the Mac Pro here in the sound isolation studio, the solution is very simple, since I can "freeze" everything by getting a new internal hard drive and cloning it with SuperDuper! (Shirt Pocket) without actually needing to do anything to the other hardware, but this is not so easy to do with an "all-in-one" computer, although it can be done with an external hard drive, provided you can boot from the external hard drive, which for reference is easy to do on the Mac if the external hard drive is bootable, which is the case for LaCie external FireWire hard drives and might be the case for their USB external drives, but I have not checked on this recently, hence have no clue other than I know it works when the external hard drive has a FireWire interface and specifically is bootable for the Mac, and this also is possible on the Mac with the new Thunderbolt external SSD drives, if the Mac has a Thunderbolt port . . .
Lots of FUN!
