Mac Pro 8-core too slow for Multiclip editing

I have a Mac Pro 8core (pre-Nehalem), with 4 gb of memory. I'm doing some multiclip editing,and even with RT set to the lowest preview quality, my system stills blocks from time to time. I don't want to invest in a RAID-system, because I don't do multiclip editing that often. Is there an other - not expensive - way to speed up my Mac? Would adding memory - say to 6 gb - help?
I also have the impression that since I upgraded to Leopard Snow, the computer is much less stable. FCP shut down twice unexpectedly yesterday.

You don't say what format of HD you're editing but the fluidity of playing multiclip sequences is really dependent on the system's ability to provide all the streams of video in a timely manner. This means hard drive throughput is essential. A good quality sata drive in a MacPro can read somewhere around 115 MB/sec when empty. It will spool material less effectively as it fills.
Very good quality esata RAID systems can provide 5x that - which is why people utilize them. (fwiw-I've run 16 streams of 720p24 DVCProHD off of a Caldigit HDOne in a multiclip sequence without a hiccup. )
What can you do if you don't want to pay the price for the right gear for the job?
1. populate all your internal bays with fast hard drives
2. empty the drives
3. spread your captured files across all three (non system drives)
This will distribute the load as much as possible without going to a RAID setup.
Once you have all the drives empty, you could try setting up a RAID 0 set using Disk Utility and see if that works for you. One caveat - if you decide to go the internal software RAID 0 route, recognize there is no failsafe should you encounter a serious system crash. Everything on all drives that are part of the RAID set can be compromised.
Good luck,
x

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Why my Mac Pro 2009 became too slow after updated Yosemite?

Why my Mac Pro 2009 became too slow after updated Yosemite?

When the slowness is especially bad, note the exact time: hour, minute, second.
These instructions must be carried out as an administrator. If you have only one user account, you are the administrator.
Launch the Console application in any of the following ways:
☞ Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.)
☞ In the Finder, select Go ▹ Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.
☞ Open LaunchPad and start typing the name.
The title of the Console window should be All Messages. If it isn't, select
          SYSTEM LOG QUERIES ▹ All Messages
from the log list on the left. If you don't see that list, select
          View ▹ Show Log List
from the menu bar at the top of the screen.
Each message in the log begins with the date and time when it was entered. Scroll back to the time you noted above.
Select the messages entered from then until the end of the episode, or until they start to repeat, whichever comes first.
Copy the messages to the Clipboard by pressing the key combination command-C. Paste into a reply to this message by pressing command-V.
The log contains a vast amount of information, almost all of it useless for solving any particular problem. When posting a log extract, be selective. A few dozen lines are almost always more than enough.
Please don't indiscriminately dump thousands of lines from the log into this discussion.
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What kind of mac pro specs should I have for video editing?

I am running the media department for Skagit Valley College and am in charge of editing for our online content. I am currently using an imac with FCP6 but am spending way too much time rendering. I am wondering about what kind of specs I should consider for building a mac pro to cut down on some of that time as well as setting up an audio recording studio. Microphones, cables, software, and hardware specs are all issues that puzzle me at the moment as far as what is going to be the best fit for my productions...
please help
-anthony

Virtually any Mac Pro 6-core or up will work well, but obviously the more cores the better. Save the budget by adding your own RAM (I like 2GB per core) and hard drives (3TB Hitachi 7200 RPM drives are a good value) from reputable vendors. Avoid "green" drives that use lower spindle speed to save energy.
Get the fastest available video board (currently the 5870) and consider consider dial third party displays (I'm using a pair of 27" Samsungs, half the price of a single Apple 27) and look into a Matrox MXO2 mini to handle your grading monitor.
Get a copy of Final Cut Studio (2009) ASAP while it's still available and talk to your Apple rep about additional licenses if needed. If you know FCP6 and like it, you need to "bunker" the app and ignore FCP X until it fleshes out.
If you need more help, let me know... I've been on FCP since version 3 and I'm a native Washingtonian. Just don't call me Homie!
Good luck!

Mac Pro - quad core or hexacore for LR?

I'm getting ready to get a new - or maybe just old - Mac Pro.
My choices are the 2.66 Quad core (early 2009) that should be dropping in price very soon
or
3.33 hexacore (2010).
I'd be putting in 24-32 GB of Ram in whichever machine I get, plus a SSD for scratch and running a nicely arranged set of drives and 5 bay external drive to keep everything running smoothly.
I would prefer the 2.66 quad core (2009 model) due to price and with even PS CS5, Quad core is fine (I'd love to get a faster processor, but they are very rare right now).
I'm a pro shooter - ad/editorial/corporate - shooting only Raw, 500 - 1,000+ files per shoot, 21MP camera's.
I'm still on LR 2.? (most updated version of 2). I'm quite happy with 2. I'll jump to 3 with the new machine (running Snow Leopard of course), if I don't loose speed of ingestion and preview building (1:1).
What is the real story on the number of cores that LR can use - or use with any appreciable efficiency?
Would I notice a significant speed difference between the Quad and the Hexacore?
Assuming Lightroom 3 for above.
Thanks!

Basically batch processes seem to always use the cores, but other situations also do. Here are three examples plus the "resting state" for comparison:
Resting:
Program start-up with 2nd monitor grid:
Loading image in Dev module:
Single 1200x1200 JPEG export process:
Notice the export uses not only multi-core but also both hyperthreads per core.

Whenever I turn off my Mac Pro, everything becomes really slow for hours. Help!

Whenever I turn off my Macbook Pro (mid 2012), everything becomes really slow, and it takes minutes to open a file. This happened a week ago when it told me to install osX again. But at that time, I repaired my mac, and it got to normal in a day, but this time its not. Help?

Launch the Console application in any of the following ways:
☞ Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.)
☞ In the Finder, select Go ▹ Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.
☞ Open LaunchPad. Click Utilities, then Console in the icon grid.
The title of the Console window should be All Messages. If it isn't, select
SYSTEM LOG QUERIES ▹ All Messages
from the log list on the left. If you don't see that list, select
View ▹ Show Log List
from the menu bar at the top of the screen. Click the Clear Display icon in the toolbar. Then take one of the actions that you're having trouble with. Select any messages that appear in the Console window. Copy them to the Clipboard by pressing the key combination command-C. Paste into a reply to this message by pressing command-V.
The log contains a vast amount of information, almost all of which is irrelevant to solving any particular problem. When posting a log extract, be selective. A few dozen lines are almost always more than enough.
Please don't indiscriminately dump thousands of lines from the log into this discussion.
Please don't post screenshots of log messages—post the text.
Some private information, such as your name, may appear in the log. Anonymize before posting.

Slow Performance On Mac Pro 12-Core

Hello Everyone,
I just recently purchased a 2012 Mac pro 12-Core and i have been getting unbelievabley slow performance with it. I am using Premiere Pro CS6 and it seems that the footage can sometimes get a bit laggy at times and not play back smoothly, sometimes rendering can take a bit of time as well. However here are the specs of my system:
Mac Pro 12-Core 2.4GHz (2.67GHz Turbo Boost)
40GB of Ram
ATI 5770 Graphics Card
1TB scratch disk (with a user on the drive that i can boot into)
OCZ 120GB Vertex 3 SSD OS/APPS drive
First question i would like to get answered once and for all.. Did i make a bad decision by purchasing a computer with such a slow clock speed (2.4GHz)?? I figured since The new editing software is switching to 64bit it shouldn't depend on clock speed anymore? (i just want to be sure that i purchased a more than capable machine) However i will be buying a Samsung 840 Pro Series 256GB SSD Drive for Scratch within the month. (I dont have the budget to buy a Raid controller yet to utilize 6GB/s transfer speeds, so 1 Fast SSD drive will have to do for now)
I should mention the current SSD drive im on right now only has 13GB remaining, would that affect performance? Also, my 1Tb media drive is filled up with CRAP from my previous computer (Migration transferred EVERYTHING to that drive, only 120GB remains) would that drive with the media im working with affect performance too? Also just as a test, i took some footage from my GoPro Hero 3 camera and put it on my SSD to see if that would eliminate the lag, but still lag was present in Premiere.. (the footage was in a crappy .M4P format, so that may have affected it, but I dont know)
Any suggestions are greatly appreciated!
-Thanks in Advance!

The new editing software is switching to 64bit it shouldn't depend on clock speed anymore?
Wrong, clock speed is everything.
I should mention the current SSD drive im on right now only has 13GB remaining, would that affect performance?
No, not really.
Also, my 1Tb media drive is filled up with CRAP from my previous computer (Migration transferred EVERYTHING to that drive, only 120GB remains) would that drive with the media im working with affect performance too?
When fill rates go up, performance goes down. With almost 90% fill rate, the disk performs only at around 50% of a new disk.
Two disks is absolute bare minimum, and your cores will constantly be waiting for the disks to read or write data, sitting idle most of the time.
Also just as a test, i took some footage from my GoPro Hero 3 camera and put it on my SSD to see if that would eliminate the lag, but still lag was present in Premiere..
GoPro material requires a very fast computer, which yours is not with the low clock speed, outdated E5620 CPU's, only two disks, and a non-CUDA capable video card.
Take a look at the PPBM5 Benchmark and look at the system at rank # 854, which is a MacPro, very similar to your system, dual E5620, AMD video card, less memory but uses three disks.
So, your system would be around the same rank as the one above, among the slowest 25% of all systems and something like 10 - 15 times slower than a fast system. You tax your system to the extreme with the GoPro Hero3 material, and the consequence is the slow performance you see.
Sorry, not much you can do, other than get a new system. If you sell it now, it may get you a price, good enough to get a much faster Windows system and maybe even keep the change. Simply said, you bought a MacPro for € 3.5 K, sell it for € 3 K, buy a PC for € 2.5 K that is around 5-6 times faster and your loss is recovered.
However i will be buying a Samsung 840 Pro Series 256GB SSD Drive for Scratch within the month
What a pity the MacPro does not have SATA 6G ports, only SATA 3G, because then that SSD will run at almost half speed.

Mac Pro 8-core slow compression on MPEGs

My Mac Pro 8-core with 9GB of RAM is very slow compared to my G5 Dual 2.7GHz with 2.5GB on doing MPEGs... the problem only exist with MPEGs in Compressor 3 or 3.0.1. All other formats the Mac Pro gives the G5 a thrashing. I've read in here that many people have it the other way around.. that MPEGs are supposedly more multiprocessor capable.
Both with using virtual clusters (4 instances) and no virtual clusters I'm getting around 52 minutes on a DVCPRO HD 720/24p clip which is exactly 6 minutes in length. The G5 dual 2.7GHz with 2.5GB of RAM did this job in 21 minutes and 33 seconds.
On the Mac Pro I've erased my system and reinstall with just FCS2 on the system... still the same speeds. I've taken out the 2x4GB sticks.. still the same speeds. I've moved the 6 minute clip onto different volumes still the same problem. I've tried other DVCPRO HD clips.. still the same.
The problem only happens with the DVD 90-150 presets regardless of quality. Does not occur with the HD DVD presets or H.264.
Mac Pro configuration:
Mac Pro 3GHz 8 core
9GB of RAM (2x512mb, 2x4GB)
ATI Radeon X1900 XT with dual 30 inch ACDs
3TB of internal Hard Drive storage... one unraided 750GB for system files.. 3 RAID 0 for Scratch.
AJA KONA LHe capture card
Runiing Final Cut Studio 2 with compressor 3.0.1
G5 configuration:
Power Mac G5 Dual 2.7GHz
2.5GB of RAM (2x256MB, 4x512MB)
NVIDIA GeForce 6800 Ultra DDL with 23" ACD
250GB + 160GB internal Hard Drives.
Running final Cut Studio 2 with Compressor 3.0.1
Any help would be appreciated... I've tried everything in my technical powers to solve this one.

Made a new DVD: MPEG-2 custom setting with an average bit rate of 7.7Mbps... still slow... about 50 minutes to complete the 6 minute DVCPRO HD 720/24p clip. The compressor daemons are averaging around 60MB of Real Memory and 450MB of virtual memory. I really think this lack of memory usage is causing the problem. This only happens on the DVD 90-150 MPEG-2 presets. Any other format is grabbing at least 200MB per daemon... including HD DVD MPEG-2 and DVD MPEG-1. I will continue to test different settings and pray for a change.
Getting all compressord (Not Responding) for each 4 instances in the virtual cluster when I run the DVD 90-150 MPEG-2 presets. The batch monitor is still reporting progress. Real memory usage fluctuating in the 60's per daemon and around 450MB's for Virtual Memory. Compressor daemons not responding is a problem solely on the DVD 90-150 MPEG-2 presets.
No major difference in speed between CBR or VBR custom presets... memory usage still in the 60's per compressor daemon.
With Job Segmenting turned off & One Pass CBR... 20 minutes to job completion. The memory usage is around 65MB of Real Memory and 450MB of Virtual Memory. CPU activity on the one active compressor daemon is averaging around 460%.
One thing I am learning is that processor activity as reported by Activity Monitor is not a reflection of speed.
Message was edited by: Trancepriest
Message was edited by: Trancepriest

Mac Pro 8-Core - Slow, spinning ball, more...

I have a new Mac Pro 8-Core. Equipped with 2x500GB drives, 4GB RAM, X1990 Video Card, Airport/Bluetooth, etc...
I use many apps, CS3, mail, safari, FTP, Coda, and more, all day, everyday. The problem I am having is about performance. I replaced a dual core G5 with 8GB RAM with this one, and my G5 hardly ever gave me the spinning 'wait-for-it' ball, yet this one seems plaqued with it. Simply put, this machine is wicked slow, clumsy, and not at all what I expected. I have done the usual fix-its, including reinstalling the OS and even wiping the drive completely and installing the OS. Is it me, or is it this 8-Core?
I'd like to know if any other owners of the 8-Core have similar issues, or issues at all.
Thank you in advance for any responses to this post. Before taking this up with AppleCare I'd like to have some others experiences so I don't look like a fool when I do call.
Mac Pro 8-Core - MBP 17" Mac OS X (10.4.9)

Thank you, some very helpful hints as to what might be causing this. Here are some responses you might be interested in. Letters respond to each of your suggestions.
A. - Probably. I'm watching RAM prices every day. I just don't have $400 to spend on RAM with the iPhone coming next month.
B. - I never use this, so that can't be the problem.
C. - Will look into this some more....Thanks, never heard this before now.
D. - Agreed. I wish there were an easy way to list everything running in Rosetta.
E. - The issues do remain when NOT running any CS3 apps, as for dedicated scratch drive, I've been thinking about this. But even more, I've been hearing a LOT about those fast 75GB 10k SATA drives (forget the name though)... seems a lot of people are using these as their boot drive. Any thoughts?
F. - See above
G. - Will do, thanks!
H. - Done that... no issues found, so far.
I. - Not sure how to access this... however, here are some numbers from Activity Monitor. Do these make sense to you?
VM SIZE: 13.47GB (this seems to grow as more apps are opened)
Page In/Outs: 54378/0
Of course, right this second I'm only typing in Safari, everything else is idle.
What concerns me, and I don't know if it should, is the size of the VM. Thinking years back I thought that if you had enough RAM you wouldn't use any Virtual Memory. Is this still the case? Would more RAM decrease the VM size in a new Mac?
Also, I have 2 1TB OWC FW800 hard drives hooked up to my Mac. These are 2 disks each, 500GB each drive, set up in RAID 1. Each drive (WD) has 16MB of cache, so accessing these drives "should" be fast. However, any time, and I mean any time, I try to access one of these drives my computer takes at least 10 full seconds to display the contents of the drives, I get the spinning ball and I cannot do anything else while the computer tries to list the contents and open the drive. Is this to be expected?
Thanks for the help, I truly appreciate it.

Opinions, Mac pro 12 core or 6 core for video editing?

Hello everyone,
I know that this a most likely a rhetorical question but i currently have a mac pro 12 core 2.4ghz 12 gigs of ram (plan on upgrading to 32 gigs) and a 6 core 3.33ghz 12 gigs of ram. I do a lot of video editing (starting to use Final cut pro X) and i do a lot of visual effects work in Adobe after effects and 3D animaton work in cinema 4d. I am only keeping one of the computers.. what are your guys thoughts? Should i keep the 12 core even tough it has a lower clock speed, or should i keep the 6 core since it has a higher clock speed? I dont mean to ask such a dumb question but i want to hear what your guys thoughts are.
Thanks in advance!

After Effects: http://www.barefeats.com/aecs6.html
If you rely on cpu alone, it may look like it is working, or lagging, or wating, but with the combined power of GPGPU can make all the difference.
Communicating over Quick-Path is okay but Intel knows that they need to up the GT and L3 cache to improve it more. ie, there are times when two 6-core Mac Pros are faster than one 12-core, given the same GHz.
the real reason people bought dual with lower clock was hoping it would do more work, but when you have 3.33GHz a lot of work that cann't be dispatched and is not multi-thread or multicore all benefit.
W3680s are relatively cheap @ $600, you will not find X5600 sets unless you can make your system pay for whatever you throw at it and do so in a year to write it off and pay for doing more projects and more income.
This guy goes kind of crazy with custom setup 12-core 3.33s, 960GB SSD PCIe and 96GB RAM.
More RAM helps some areas but not rendering. So find the bottlenecks or throw everything at the problem and hope.
$1660 a piece X5680 - $1470 on Amazon
http://ark.intel.com/products/47916/Intel-Xeon-Processor-X5680-(12M-Cache-3_33-G Hz-6_40-GTs-Intel-QPI)
http://www.amazon.com/Intel-X5680-Processor-Socket-LGA1366/dp/B003ELYSJQ/
Only if you shop ebay for used parts, and by then whatever Intel and Apple agree on next go round new is a better system solution most of the time than to throw $3000 into an older system. $3k would be another 6-core 3.33 if that helps.

Fully Buffered RAM for Mac Pro 8 Core or will non buffered do?

Hi guys,
There are a large number of questions about RAM for the macs on the forum but I can't seem to find the answer to mine any where. Do you think you could help?
Does the new Mac Pro 8 Core require it's DDR3 1066MHz ECC 240 pin DIMM to be Fully buffered or can I use something like this:
http://www.oyyy.co.uk/product.php/79985/kingston-4gb-ddr3-1066mhz-ecc-240pin-dim m-memory-module-with-thermal-sensor?CAWELAID=298234485
since this is considerable cheaper to build up a mac to 32GB than other kits on offer. Also note that none of the kits offered by OWC and other manufacturers mention that they are Fully buffered for the money. Not even the mac store mentions it. Which only adds to my confusion?!
Many thanks in advance for the help
J

Unbuffered.
When in doubt I always look up Crucial memory configuration.
Part #: CT938460 • DDR3 PC3-8500 • CL=7
• Unbuffered • ECC • DDR3-1066 • 1.5V • 256Meg x 72 •
http://www.crucial.com/store/mpartspecs.aspx?mtbpoid=CC3E3949A5CA7304
And because no one but Apple has 4GB DIMMs, I wouldn't buy with someone else, but it might, but that begs why Micron isn't offering any.

HT3964 Mac pro 8 core early 2008 problem is you have to unplug it for 2-3hrs when you finish work so it will turn on effortlessly again

Mac pro 8 core early 2008 problem is you have to unplug it for 2-3hrs when you finish work so it will turn on effortlessly again. ANY SUGGESTIONS?
Thanks,
Lou

Overheating? Install a temperature monitor like iStat Pro, iStat Menus, Temperature Monitor, Hardware Monitor, etc. and see if you are overheating.
When was the last time you blew out the dust from inside your machine?
I don't understant the "unplug" statement. Do yo mean just turn off?

What Model Is The DVD For Mac Pro 12 Core 2012?

Like the exact original model for Mac Pro 12 Core 2012. Cause I wanna buy the DVD Drive and don't know the model of it.

You can get a third-party (LG) optical drive here:
http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/superdrive/Apple_Mac_Pro

Wich mac is better for running Motion ? iMac 27" retina or Mac Pro 8 core ?

wich mac is better for running Motion ? iMac 27" retina or Mac Pro 8 core ?

I'm not sure if you've returned the monitor but I had the same problem with my new Mac Pro.
Basically the Dell monitor doesn't identify itself properly via Mini Display Port/Thunderbolt and newer Macs think it's a TV so the wrong kind of signal is sent to the monitor.
It's easily fixed - don't be put off by the instructions below, I've just done it and it takes less than a minute.
Here's what you do:
Download the Ruby script (click 'patch-edid.rb' in yellow):
http://embdev.net/topic/284710#3027030
Move the downloaded 'patch-edid.rb' file to your desktop
Open the Terminal app from: /Applications/Utilities/Terminal
In Terminal, type the following and hitting enter (or copy and paste it into Terminal and hit enter):
ruby ~/Desktop/patch-edid.rb
Go to your desktop
Check that a new folder was created - something like: "DisplayVendorID-10ac"
Open the Display Overrides folder at:
/Macintosh HD/System/Library/Displays/Overrides/
Copy the new folder into the /Overrides directory
Authenticate with your user password (if asked)
Restart your mac
For the first few seconds after restart it might look like nothing has changed but by the time you see the login screen (or your Desktop) everything will look as it should.
That's it - you won't have to do this again unless you erase and reinstall your mac.
Hope that helps someone.
Cheers
Ben

Windows – but Which? (What to install on Mac Pro Quad Core?)

First, apologies in advance if this seems like repetition of a recent topic, but I read through the recent "Vista vs XP" thread and it didn't quite answer my questions.
Basically, I'm planning on buying a Mac Pro "Quad Core" 2.8 and installing Boot Camp and a Windows OS startup. This puts me into the notoriously tricky area of picking the right version of Windows for my needs, something I haven't really had to deal with in regards to OS X.
Basically, I'm not looking for something with too many bells and whistles or to much bloatware built into the OS. Also, I'll probably be using some older software/shareware, so backwards compatibility is an issue. On the other hand, I'd like something that works with the Quad Core architecture at its greatest efficiency.
This means I'm wondering about a couple of features that I may or may not need, and it would be of great help if you folks could point me in the right direction regarding these:
x64 – Since the Xeon processors in the Mac Pro are 64-bit processors, am I better off with "x64"-compatible versions of Windows (either Windows Vista or x64 versions of XP)? Will this cause problems starting up older programs that may not have been written for x64?
*Dual Processor Support* – the Quad Core, of course, is a dual processor – will I get better performance from a version of Windows that list "Dual Processor Support" among its features (basically, the "pro", "business", or "ultimate" versions of XP and Vista)?
If I need those features, I'm probably looking at getting either the x64 version of Windows XP Pro or the Business or Ultimate versions of Vista. However, I'm leaning against Vista based on backwards-compatibility and bloatware issues. That leaves XP Pro x64, but I might go for a more basic version of XP if I find out the x64 or DPS features aren't actually something I need. (The other "extras" in XP Pro don't sound like anything I need.)
Also, I'm likely to install Parallel Desktop at some point and don't want a version of Windows that would have compatibility problems there, either.
Anyway, any answers you folks can provide for me in this regard would be very helpful.
Thanks in advance,
Peter

Truth is, I am disappointed in VMware Fusions slow walk toward full support for 64-bit and SP1 but 2.0 beta is getting there. Never used Parallels but best to check their own support forums. They also updated the 1.x version recently.
http://communities.vmware.com/community/beta/fusion
http://forums.parallels.com/
You don't need anything first, except I would start with a new hard drive for Vista, don't even do anything with it and pull OS X drive, boot Vista DVD and go from there, just as you would normally. Much easier. After it is installed is when you need Apple BootCamp from your Leopard OEM DVD, install, and then Apple Software Update will take care of 2.1. And install your graphic drivers yourself.
The problem(s) come with trying to use BootCamp Assist and setting up partitioning, and it only makes it harder - not easier - on Mac Pro (you aren't and don't want to use your OS X boot drive).
Windows on Mac forum @ MacRumors
http://forums.macrumors.com/forumdisplay.php?f=86
And their Mac Pro area http://forums.macrumors.com which has a lot of Vista talk from Mac Pro owners.
The only real issues are which graphics card to get today or in next weeks, what drives you are going with and other upgrades like memory (8 x 1GB is actually a good base ideal figure so all DIMM slots are taken up).
Barefeats has a number of benchmark articles:
Radeon 3870: http://www.hardmac.com/news/2008-06-16/#8451
Vista graphics: http://www.barefeats.com/harper11.html
Memory: http://www.barefeats.com/harper12.html
Drives: http://www.barefeats.com/harper9.html
WD 300GB Raptor: http://www.barefeats.com/hard103.html
- this is the drive to die for, but not natively supported
I buy most of the upgrades I need over the last ten years from OWC http://www.MacSales.com that specializes in Mac.
http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/memory/Mac-Pro-Memory
http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Western%20Digital/WD6400AAKS/
- until the WD "Black" series (I guess Blackbird name or SR71 are already taken) along with 3rd generation of their RE series drives. WD has been popular, reliable, with Mac Pro for last two years. Can't say the same of every vendor. Samsung F1 is also a real winner.
If you buy only one book to understand and get the most out of OS X: "Mac OS X: The Missing Manual" (Pogue has a Missing Manual Series on most everything, and this is the most popular recommended for Mac OS).
http://books.slashdot.org/books/08/02/27/1551206.shtml
I needed 3-4 for Vista before I found "Administrator's Pocket Consultant" and O'Reilly's "Vista Annoyances" are both excellent along with MS Press's "Inside Out."

What Mac Pro specs should I consider for photography?

After years of putting up with various pc configurations, I've decided to take the plunge and go over to a Mac Pro system.
I have up to £4000 to invest on a system to use primarily for my work as a photographer. But which areas should I concentrate on when configuring my set-up? Given that Photoshop seems happy to suck up as much memory and processing power as one can throw at it, a sizeable amount of RAM and a decent speed of processor appears obvious. But how much RAM and what size processor, bearing in mind that my image file sizes are usually around the 300Mb mark and often go as high as 700Mb when containing unflattened layers? These file sizes have rendered my supposed powerful Dell to performing at a snails pace. Also, what else should I consider in my configuration?
My image library is stored on a separate drive, so I could probably live with a reduced hard drive capacity if necessary.
Incidentally, I am far from being a computer boffin, so I'd appreciate advice which isn't overly technical.
Thanks in advance.
Message was edited by: halfwit iPod user

I'm in the UK and I use my Mac Pro for Video and Photography and I've had a few Mac Pro's getting to my ideal solution. If you are only using it for Photography I think you would be fine with 8Gb of RAM but if you fill out all 8 slots with 2Gb modules from Crucial it's not too bad to go to 16Gb. My advice would be to run the Mac Pro on a large Western Digital Caviar Black (their quickest) such as the 2Tb model. Then, I'd invest in a Tempo SATA card so you can purchase either a Drobo or a Hive for your Vault for Aperture so you have total peace of mind with your data. Display wise, just buy an Apple 30" Cinema before they replace it with a glossy version. They are absolutely superb for Video and Photography but beware, if they go wrong and they are in the bin, so buy AppleCare immediately. I've listed my setup below with where to buy and costs in UK pounds. Good luck and enjoy.
Mac Pro 8-core with the 8Gb upgrade from Apple as that will give you 4x2Gb allowing you to not have to bin the 6x1Gb's you would get as standard. Then also add the ATI Radeon HD 4870. Should come to £2798.00 inc. VAT.
Western Digital 2Tb Caviar Black (eBuyer, http://www.ebuyer.com/product/173388) for £173.86
Sonnet Tempo SATA E4P Serial ATA Host Adaper (Cancom, http://www.cancomuk.com/Brand/Sonnet/Product/59673?_Sonnet-Tempo-SATA-E4P-Serial-ATA-Host-Adapter-for-PCI-Express-(TSATAII-E4P)-TSATAII-E4P&ref=5681a404afd60a8d) for £232.00
Apple Aperture 3 (Jigsaw, http://www.jigsaw24.com/product-details/mb957za/apple-aperture-3-web-updatable-t o-3.0.3) for £119.00
Hive 4Tb Raid (Give's 2.8Tb of SAFE storage) (Cancom, http://www.cancomuk.com/Brand/Hive/Product/66109?_Hive-4TB-RAID-(4x1TB-drives)-5002) for £716.00
Apple 30" Cinema Display (Jigsaw, http://www.jigsaw24.com/product-details/m9179ba/apple-30-cinema-display) for £1115.08
All the prices are inclusive of the dreaded VAT so if you are VAT registered you can save. I would say that with Aperture 3 you need full Photoshop less than ever, I'd consider Elements to start with to save some cash. You could also look at a Drobo instead of the Hive but we bought both in our office and the Drobo is painfully slow in comparison to the Hive and the Hive uses a dedicated Hardware RAID where the Drobos use a software version and I've heard some horror stories from Drobo owners.

Mac Pro 8-core too slow for Multiclip editing

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