The Song Fight Bulletin Board

So, my desktop Mac died. There is a slim chance I can replace the motherboard at great cost. In all likelihood though I will be looking for a new option.

What do you Mac users out there use for desktop Macs for your DAWs? I had a quad-core 2.6GHz Xeon Mac Pro. I don't want to downgrade to only a dual-core. Quad-core options in Apple's current lineup are very expensive though. I might look for a previous generation quad-core Mac mini but I'm not sure.

Old quad-core Mac mini (can't get one new)
Quad-core iMac/iMac retina (could be good)
Quad-core Mac Pro (super expensive but possibly a fun toy)

MacBook Pro (Retina, Mid 2012)
2.7 GHz Intel Core i7
16 GB 1600 MHz DDR3

I have a trashcan Pro (base config w/ 512GB storage) and love it, but reportedly the Retina iMac is a little bit faster, and the built-in monitor makes it a way better deal if you aren't attached to your current monitor.

I love my i7 quad core mac mini @2.3Ghz. It's still a nice fast box, lots of ports on the back, and thunderbolt. I've got a Promise thunderbolt chassis and a bunch of drives attached. You can pick up a similar mini on eBay for around 1k. Seems like a good price performance spot to me.

If you're feeling like an adventure you can build out a Hackintosh out of very compatible PC parts to get even a better price/performance deal, which I used to do, but what can I say, I love Apple hardware, and the mini is a nice machine IMHO.

Long time later end of the story, I wound up splurging and getting a new Mac Pro. It's complete overkill for my needs, frankly, but I'm glad for how little space it takes up compared to my old Mac Pro aluminum tower. It's a little annoying not to have an optical drive. Apple won't let you use their "disc sharing" feature to share audio CDs, so when I get an audio CD now I have to rip it on my laptop (which is old enough to still have an optical drive) and copy the mp3s over. #1wp

Yeah I've been rocking a Mac Pro since 20...14? I think? It's pretty great. Just the lowest-end CPU and it's more than enough for most audio projects even with craptons of softsynths and whatever. It's totally changed the way I work on music because now I use a lot more plugins and mixing busses and whatever.

If you still rip a lot of CDs it might be worth getting a cheap external USB drive. I think those run around $50-75 now. I actually don't have any computers with optical drives anymore so the rare times I need to get something off of a disc (like reinstalling Kontakt or whatever) I'm dusting that damn thing off. And there's still the rare album that doesn't come out in a downloadable format, what is up with that?!

I bought a new iMac last year and was surprised to find it didn't have a disk drive. I have no TV and use the iMac to watch stuff - Netflix, iTunes, ABCiView and streaming ABC News. Also sometimes watch DVDs - so I bought a cheap drive for $50. That works well.