Neil Parfitt, who we have featured before here on Production Expert following his journey buying and testing an Apple 2019 Mac Pro 7,1 computer has now posted his Pro Audio And Music Buyer's Guide to buying a 2019 Mac Pro. Check out Neil’s story and video. Over to you Neil…

This Machine isn't for everyone and every application, but for those who need the extended Memory capacity, the mega PCIe expansion all packaged into a silent self-contained silver beast then watch and read on while I share some information using my usual mellow, on-the-fly approach...

Also - possibly my most insightful, non-complainy Mac video yet!

NOTE: The information in this video are my own personal opinions and viewpoints and should be treated as such. Do your own research from multiple sources before spending your money on a tool, and make sure it aligns with your software & hardware requirements & compatibility.

What Is Covered In Neil’s Video

• 00:00 Intro

• 00:45 Taking the Plunge

• 01:40 Form Factor Considerations

• 02:22 The Money

• 02:34 Audio Computers: The CPU Speed and Core Count Conundrum

• 03:52 Longevity

• 04:10 What makes 'a best value' Apple machine?

• 04:27 What's our baseline for performance comparisons?

• 05:22 CPU - Looking at some general CPU Benchmarks

• 06:21 The Juice

• 06:58 The Base Model

• 07:39 Keep in Mind we're only talking CPU

• 08:00 The Middle Model

• 08:35 The Penultimate Model

• 08:54 The Big Daddy Model

• 09:29 So which is the best value machine?

• 10:18 Memory

• 11:39 Memory - Upgrade Considerations

• 12:27 Graphics

• 13:14 Graphics - upgrade Considerations

• 13:52 Storage

• 14:52 Wheels

• 15:31 Pro Apps

• 15:48 Pro Display XDR

• 16:24 Applecare

• 17:00 Add Ons

• 17:34 Add Ons: Aux Power Kit

• 18:00 Sub Total

• 18:52 What else? - 3rd Party SSD's

• 20:24 What else? - 3rd Party M.2 Controllers

• 21:57 What else? - Using your legacy 2.5" SSDs

• 22:52 Should I Upgrade the CPU myself?

• 24:19 A big Gripe Eliminated

• 26:24 Almost The End

Pricing Options

• If you're a student or teacher - don't forget to take advantage of the Educational pricing. It's usually up to 10% off.

• If you're a corporation you may be eligible for business pricing, which is also less than the list price.

• Also, take a look at what Apple has listed on their refurbished store. Fully warrantied at a reduced cost and you can STILL add Applecare for a 3-year warranty. So it's essentially a new machine!!

Honourable Mentions From Neil Parfitt

• Check out the Caldigit TS-3 PLus if you need a Thunderbolt 3 Hub

• Check out the Blackmagic Multidock 10G if you want to keep your 2.5" SATA SSD's external but easily integrated

The Story So Far From Neil Parfitt

As we mentioned at the top of the article, we presented a case study from Neil Parfitt who is a composer, music editor, synth sound designer based in Toronto across 3 articles and 6 videos.

New Apple Mac Pro 7,1 - Real World Tests With Pro Tools - They May Surprise You

In the first part of the first video, he set up his new rack mount Mac Pro 7,1 computer to show some real-world tests both about the fan noise and how well it handles a very large Pro Tools project and turns up some surprises during his tests. This is a great real-world test to help answer how loud the fans are and this is all with the computer running a very large Pro Tools session pushing the CPU usage up to 80% so this is a proper test of what Mac Pro 7,1 would sound like handling a major Pro Tools project.

In the second part of the first video, Neil shows the session in action with the System Usage meter open on the mother of all Pro Tools Power Test sessions, with hundreds of audio tracks full of audio files all running continuously with EQ, dynamics and reverb plugins on every track. In our article, Pro Tools System Usage Meter - How Much Attention Should Be Paid To It? Michael Carnes pointed out that the Pro Tools System Usage meters don’t tell the whole story.

In the second video in the first article of the series, Neil describes this video as “a candid unscripted Apple Mac Pro Rack unboxing and personal opinions/observations quickly cobbled together from my phone!!“

Apple Mac Pro 7,1 Case Study - Now Integrated Into The Studio

In the second article, in this 3 part series, Neil has now installed his rackmount Apple Mac Pro 7,1 new-style cheese-grater into his studio.

In the first video, Neil gives a tour to show how he has set it up and what it has replaced. He takes us through the cards he has installed into his Mac Pro 7,1. He has one UAD Octo card, instead of the Apple I/O card, 3 HDX cards, 2 for 128 channels of I/O and a 3rd for extra voices. in addition Neil has an M2 SSD card with 4 SSDs for media and sample drives, all in the box. Finally, there are two RME MADI cards with expansion ports, which take up 2 slots each, although they only plugin into one slot each.

In the second video in this article, Neil responds to some of the comments he has received as a result of making these videos about his experiences buying and setting up his new Apple Mac Pro 7,1 rackmount computer.

Apple Mac Pro 7,1 Case Study - Testing Workflows With Logic Pro And Pro Tools

In the third and last article in the series, we featured two more videos from Neil Parfitt. In the first video in part 3, he tests his workflows with his new integrated Mac Pro 7,1 setup in which he uses both Logic Pro and Pro Tools.

Watch as he demonstrates his workflow with VEP Pro, Logic and Pro Tools all working together on one computer instead of multiple computers.

In the final video of the series, after putting this beast through its paces, Neil shares his thoughts as well as a quick demo of it doing all the things he needs. The video focusses on VEP and Logic - but Pro Tools is indeed running underneath it all.