MacPro 1,1 vs 2.93GHz Quad-Core Intel Core i7 vs New MacPro

Greetings all,
I have a friend who has a MacPro 1,1 with 4 Gigs of RAM. He has 4 500 gig drives which I have striped and mirrored the drives giving him 1 TB of space. He is an avid photographer and having recently retired he is using up his available space at a rapid rate. He also complains about about speed. He is now running CS5 and Aperture 3. We have been talking about possible solutions. (I have not included the cost of a new backup drive for his off site backup.)
Option 1 - Upgrade the MacPro with 4 2TB drives and 16 gigs ram - $2,000
Option 2 - Buy a 27" iMac with i7 core, 2TB drive, 256 Gig SSD and 16 Gigs of ram - $3,699.00
Option 3 - Buy a 27" iMac with i7 core, 2TB drive, 256 Gig SSD and 16 Gigs of ram - $2,949.00
Option 4 - Buy a new MacPro, Two 2.4GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon, 16 gig ram, 4 - 2TB drives striped and mirrored. - $5,299.00
In reality money is not an option but I question putting 5K into a new MacPro. I have been out of the support business for a while now and would greatly appreciate any guidance you guys could provide.
Thanks, Sam

Forget that "0+1" setup. Yes, some people used it, not a good idea, not really supported.
4 x 1GB was minimum.
Apple Store Specials has 2010 4-core 2.8GHz for $2049.
Please dont' consider 2.4GHz 8-core. Poor move.
Apple's SSDs are slow and well, terrible performance.
Your $2000 doesn't add up:
4 x 2TB = $750
4 x 4GB = $650
Leaves you with $240 for a nice 120GB SSD
The hard drives are something that would be needed, and the RAM, no matter what you do.
Also, throw in ATI 5770 upgrade for 1,1, or the 5870 if buying new. So $200.
So yes, even new you would end up spending a bit on RAM and drives, and throw in the cost of upgrading software.
You might want to play with adding 3-5 x 1TB drives and one SSD along with 16GB RAM (depends on work flow) and ATI 5770 for about $1400.
Some have upgraded their processor to 5355s for an 8-core @ 2.66 (and slightly more efficient processor over the ones originally included).
And do replace and break up that frankenstein RAID.

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