Reply 80 of 119, by Sigtryggr
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GodsPetMonkey wrote on 2023-12-05, 13:53:Similarly, I recommend workstation hardware because it is designed for stability. You are building a (audio) workstation, so workstation hardware is just a natural fit. Within reason of course, don't overspend!
There's a LOT of information to absorb in this thread - especially for an old geezer who's been in Mac world for a couple of decades - but your recommendation to ...just stick with Ivy Bridge and earlier.... leads me to believe that the workstation hardware you're referring to is the X58 or X79 main boards that have been previously discussed in this thread. If you don't mind, would you please recommend a specific mobo or two that you like for the project(s) being discussed herein?
For SATA3, I guess the question is, do you need it? Yes, it offers double the throughput of SATA2 (theoretically... your most likely going to be limited by something else, though with the right drive still in excess of SATA2). But a good SSD on SATA2 is still snappy and fast compared to a spinning disk - the access time of an SSD is what makes it feel so fast compared to mechanical hard drives. Throughput is only going to matter a lot if you are doing big sequential transfers.
I'm not exactly sure what your use of the word sequential means, but the context of big transfers really gets to the heart of the matter for me. Even for a "modern" computer, some of the file transfers involved in our upcoming project(s) are huge - and in Win XP (or Win 7) terms - they are gigantic. For example, I recently used our MBP 15 to back up an MC album in which a single track was 741MB in size. To put things into further perspective, the MC mix of the entire album was just under 2.5GB in size.
In case it's not clear, my main concern from the beginning has been the size of the file transfers. This is why I've put an emphasis on employing SSD(s) and hoping to get as much "transfer power" as possible. So not only am I hoping for SATA III SSDs, but I'm also hoping to get as much from the USB ports as possible. The MBP 15 that I'm typing on right now is a Core i7-4980HQ Mactop with 16GB of 1600Mhz DDR3L RAM - and a couple of USB 3.0 ports installed. I've used it many times to transfer these MC albums around, so it's essentially my reference point when I consider the legacy machine we're discussing. In fact, one could say that I've been using a Mac "legacy machine" for years, so seeing recommendations for CPUs from the same generation, for example, have been pretty encouraging.
Needless to say, if my concerns are unfounded, please fell free to educate me.