Apple Not Making A Studio Computer For You? Consider A Powerful Windows Computer For Under £3,000 Instead
Production Expert team member Dan Cooper is a long time Pro Tools Mac user, this is changing fast. He is already moving from Pro Tools to Studio One. Unable to find an Apple Mac to meet his future needs he ordered a new Windows machine to replace his Mac Pro 5.1. In this article Dan shares the back story which led to his decision to switch from his 17 year Apple Mac journey to Windows. We also share the specifications of the Windows computer Dan chose for under £3,000
Farewell Pro Tools HDX
My studio workflow has migrated from being Pro Tools exclusive to Studio One over the last few months. Many features in Studio One such as ARA, the arranger track and excellent plug-in manager have all proved their worth to me, but this transition has its fair share of niggles.
I’m migrating from a Pro Tools HDX system that works flawlessly in Pro Tools, the same can’t be said in Studio One. My single HDX card has two Avid HD I/O connected which my collection of outboard gear and preamps plumbed into Pro Tools makes it very easy for me to access all of my rack gear using HDX, which provides rock-solid near-zero latency. While a single Avid HD I/O connected to an HDX is compatible in Studio One, two proves to be too many.
Multiple Avid I/Os can only be properly set up in hardware preferences in Pro Tools hardware. Sadly, there are no such settings in Studio One that can get these two Avid HD units to play nicely together. The time then has come for me to retire my HDX rig in favour of an audio interface that can work in both Studio One and Pro Tools while being simple to use and a central nervous system for all my rack gear.
After a lot of research I’ve decided on Presonus’ Quantum 4848 Thunderbolt 3 interface.
A single Quantum 4848 in Studio One can provide everything two Avid HD I/Os can in Pro Tools. The Quantum 4848 offers plenty of ins and outs, the only snag is my Mac Pro 5.1 which doesn’t support Thunderbolt 3.
Turns out that not only my HDX system will be replaced, my Mac Pro 5.1 also needs retiring. Which in fairness is no bad thing. I have considered new computer options since 2017, which we talked about in great detail in our article Replacing A Mac Pro 5.1 'Cheese-grater' For Pro Tools Production - What Are The Options?
The Switch From Mac To Windows
When we published this article no-one, apart from Apple, knew what the future held for the forthcoming Mac Pro. Mac Pro users worldwide patiently waited for news from Apple, but I felt I was in no position to just sit around, wait and do nothing. At the time I felt my current machine was on borrowed time. I was keen to replace my ageing Mac Pro with whatever new Mac Pro replacement was on the horizon but nobody knew when that would be or how much it would cost.
I settled on an option I dubbed “lifeboating” which meant I could keep on working with a Mac Pro 5.1 while I waited for Apple to air their news on the next-gen Mac Pro. I bought a refurbished machine from a reputable company which included a 12-month warranty. This option provided me with a safety net, time and headspace to consider my future studio computer. For £1,000 I got a more powerful machine that was tested and guaranteed to serve me for the next 12 months. I published an article on this topic which you can read below.
Within my lifeboat period news of the Mac Pro 7.1 finally broke which meant I could properly consider all my options and come to an informed decision on my next modern studio computer. Being an owner of three Mac Pro 5.1, I did consider the new 7.1, but it was extremely difficult to look past the main headline being the price of entry which is simply too expensive for me. Especially considering the base configuration isn’t what I consider to be great value for money.
As a comparison, these machines used to cost in the region of £3,000 when purchased new from Apple. The latest Mac Pro offering starts at nearly double that, way outside of what my business interests consider to be a wise asset investment.
I faced the reality that after owning three previous generations over a 13 year period that, moving forward, I will no longer be a Mac Pro owner. It’s an end of an era but the start of a new exciting Windows journey.
When I considered my new studio computer options I decided to stick to my guns and continue my budgeting trend of around £3,000, as I did when I purchased my previous Mac Pros.
But what did I buy and how does my new Windows machine compare in price and specification to the Mac Pro 7.1?
Specifications Of My New Windows Studio Computer
Case: Fractal Define XL R2 Quiet Tower Case
Processor (CPU): Intel® CoreTM i9 14 Core Processor i9-10940X (3.3GHz) 19.25MB Cache
Motherboard: ASUS® WS X299 PRO: ATX, USB 3.1, SATA 6 GB/s
Memory (RAM): 128 GB Corsair Vengeance DDR4 3000MHz (8 x 16GB)
Graphics: 4GB NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 - HDMI
Storage Drives: 2TB Samsung 860 QVO 2.5" SSD & 1TB Samsung 970 EVO PLUS M.2, PCIe for Windows OS
Ports: ASUS ThunderboltEX 3 PCI-E Card
Total cost included VAT came to £2,800. That’s a lot of grunt for that price but how does this Windows spec compare to an Apple Mac Pro 7.1. The configuration page on Apple’s website doesn’t included components that match like-for-like. For instance, you can’t spec a Mac Pro with 128 GB of RAM.
Seeing that this maybe the last time I ever need to look at Apple’s Mac Pro configurator page I decided to find out roughly how much a similarly specified Mac Pro 7.1 would had cost me if I chose to go that route. For this I chose to configure a machine that, on paper, could be considered slightly less powerful than my Windows computer:
Mac Pro 7.1 Spec (Not The Base Model)
Processor (CPU): 3.3 12-core Intel Xeon W processor
Memory (RAM): 96GB RAM 6x16 DDR4 ECC memory
Graphics: Radion Pro 580X with 8GB GDDR5 memory
Storage Drives: 1TB SSD Storage
Ports: Two Thunderbolt 3 ports
Comparing the configurations between my Windows machine and this Mac Pro 7.1 are interesting but we can’t compare them like-for-like for many reasons such as Xeon processors in the Mac Pro 7.1 are considered to be superior over i9 processors, even if we compare the Mac Pro with only 12 cores. There are also differences in graphics card performance
This general comparison gives me a sense of value for money on my Windows purchase as if I bought this Mac Pro 7.1 today in the spec listed above I would be spending £7,659. Outrageous!
What Next?
My Windows computer is currently being built and should be with me in the next 2 to 3 weeks. We plan to share many more user experience articles talking about switching Mac Pro 5.1 studio computer workflows to Windows based machines as we believe there are lots of you in The Production Expert Community who are in a similar position, weighing up your options in regards to switching systems
We’d would love to know your thoughts and experiences. Have you switched from Mac to Windows recently in your studio?