Hardware Question - MAC vs PC

[mjremi]

Hi everyone, I'm sorry if this is a simple question. But I'm the tech director of a church and we want to start using resolume. I have a decent budget for a computer and I've spec'd out two, but I can't figure out which would be best. We may be porting some output from pro presenter, would siphon allow us to make the pro presenter output inside mac be an input in resolume. I also want to use a single video input from our live switcher. Also we will be using a lot of midi, and we already have the midi network setup for mac.

First is a mac pro with 6 core xeon/32GB Ram/Dual 6GB Video/1 TB PCI-e

Second is a PC (I'm about to build) 6 core i7/16gb ram/12gb Titan XP Graphics/1 tb PCIe/512ssd

Which do you think would be the better solution for us? Or would they both be great and it just be a matter of choice? Please give me your opinions! Thank you very much!

[Oaktown]

Without a doubt, I would use the custom-built PC for performance and the ability to update the system as you go.

Edit: Make sure your PC can do Thunderbolt 3.

[mjremi]

Thank you for your reply Oaktown, but the reason i was told Mac may be the better solution, is because you can use syphon inside the computer to port the output from pro presenter over (internally) without using another computer. Is this correct, or is there another solution that would work good on a pc as well, or is a second computer the better option?

[Oaktown]

ProPresenter SDI/NDI module
+
NDI to SPOUT

[mjremi]

so would the mdi + spout option be 2 machines or 1?

[mjremi]

Also, we use the network based midi to transfer signal in our mac as well, is there a midi system thats reliable for pc that we can push between our ableton and resolume computers.

Sorry for so many questions, but we're trying to make the right decision long-term!

Thanks!
Matt

[lightbx]

Sorry for so many questions, but we're trying to make the right decision long-term!

Go with the custom-built PC, because you can always update components in time. The Titan X gives Resolume RIDICULOUS power. I benchmarked 16 layers on an 8K canvas over 4 outputs with one, and I've also run Comps with over 100 Columns on an 8K canvas without a single hiccup.

The Mac Pro "trash cans" are very long-in-the-tooth. In my experience, you can only use 2 or 3 Thunderbolt ports as video outputs, and when you are connecting/disconneting monitors the OS always goes through some mysterious fuckery with re-arranging them. The NVidia drivers for Windows give you much more control.

Also, if I were you, I would use the PCIe/M.2 SSD for the OS, so maybe invest in a larger SATA3 SSD for storage and smaller PCIe SSD for OS (could also be slightly more budget friendly).

No worries about all the questions, that's what the forum is here for!

[Warspite]

Vote for PC.

[Arvol]

1000% PC and NDI!

[soren]

PC for me