Need advice on a new mac pro.

Hi,
I need to purchase a mac pro for work in final cut & after effects primarily. Apparently there is some sort of money crisis going on so "money is not an issue" doesn´t hold for me right now. I intend on getting around 16GB (+2 GB with the machine) of ram from other sources and the same with hard drives, I´ve also heard that the current standard video card ATI HD 2600 is fine as I don´t intend on using the machine for anything other than work. My question is regarding processors. For FCS & after effects, what is the real world difference in performance I´m looking at between the standard 2.8 GHz, the 3.0 & the 3.2 GHz processors? The video footage i use primarily comes off an EX1. If its a must have to get the 3.2 then I can afford it but the price hike is quite steep and I can think of other things I could use the money for (1.400€ difference). Thanks

Hi Fran, first of all: The EX1 produces Prores-files, and editing hd video is heavy duty for any computer, considering long render times and compositing and layering. Then again, you do not need the fastest Mac pro out there to get your work done. The 2.8 with 8 GB of ram will suffice. Faster models only save you seconds in waiting for stuff to render. Start out with the standard ATi 2600. Make sure to get a couple of speedy 1TB WD Sata drives (WD10EADS), no need for expensive raids. That's a budget Mac pro that is as good as any.
After that you just WAIT because the real progress should be in software that's yet to come: Snow Leopard and the next FCS should speed up your work noticably, considering that the current FCS isn't too multiprocessor-savvy at all. Also, FCS isn't even fully cocoa, there's a lot of old code in there (i've been told). Lastly you can always invest in a better GPU, because that's where the extra performance is shifted to.
Message was edited by: Emile vande Griendt
Message was edited by: Emile vande Griendt

Similar Messages

Looking for advice on a new Mac Pro system mainly for Final Cut Studio 2

We are a small video production company that works mainly on broadcast and internet projects. We're looking to upgrade from an aging Avid system to a Mac Pro running Final Cut Studio 2. The primary thing we want from this system is to be able to work quickly in Final Cut while at the same time doing other operations, and we're willing to spend what it takes to make that happen. We've done a lot of research but still have some issues where we could use your expertise - it's a big investment and we want to nail it.
Here's the configuration we're considering:
Processor: Two 3.2GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon (8-core)
Memory: 16GB (4 x 4GB)
Hard Drives: 300GB 15,000-rpm SAS (for OS X, Final Cut, & other programs) plus 2 x 1TB 7200-rpm Serial ATA 3Gb/s (for video storage)
Graphics: NVIDIA Quadro FX 5600
We're thinking about spending the extra $1600 to get the best processor available, since we want this machine to be the hub of the business for about five years. Any thoughts on whether to save a bit and go with the 2.8GHz? We've also heard the bus speed presents a bottleneck so the Quad-Core processing power can't be fully utilized - should that have any bearing on our processor decision?
The memory choice seems right - we'll see how well that works and retain the option to double the RAM, particularly as prices fall and new applications or hardware upgrades become tenable. However, we're thinking of perhaps buying some or all of the memory third-party - any advice on whether this tends to be worthwhile, where to get it, and what to watch out for? It looks like there may some issues with getting proper heat-sinking.
We like the hard drive plan, though we've heard a 15,000-rpm drive may generate a lot of heat - any thoughts on this?
The graphics card is where we're most torn - specifically between the Quadro 5600, the GeForce 8800, or perhaps even getting the computer with the standard card (or no card) and getting a different third-party card. We do mostly DV now, but we foresee doing HD projects in the future. We often use a green-screen that's in our studio and also apply minimal 3D effects as well as 3D text. We're debating whether to get the Quadro 5600 right off the bat and hopefully have no issues with it, or whether to get the GeForce 8800 for now and if we have issues then consider upgrading to the Quadro 5600 or potentially something else that would best suit our needs at that time. Would love to receive any and all advice on this issue.
Also, it looks like we're gonna buy Final Cut Studio 2 and are considering also getting Final Cut Server. It seems the combination would allows us to use the Final Cut suite on other computers (both Mac and Wintel) that don't have their own version of Final Cut installed. Is that the correct interpretation? Any other advice on whether to get FC Server would be appreciated.
Thanks very much for reading - we look forward to getting any and all advice you may have.
Dave & Tom

interdiscipline wrote:
Here's the configuration we're considering:
Processor: Two 3.2GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon (8-core)
*Don't do it!* Stick with the dual-2.8GHz config. A jump from that to the dual-3.2GHz gains you only an approximate 9% increase in power at a 52% increase in cost! Not worth it all. That money is much wiser spent on RAM, RAID array, or a broadcast monitor.
Memory: 16GB (4 x 4GB)
Hard Drives: 300GB 15,000-rpm SAS (for OS X, Final Cut, & other programs) plus 2 x 1TB 7200-rpm Serial ATA 3Gb/s (for video storage)
Graphics: NVIDIA Quadro FX 5600
We're thinking about spending the extra $1600 to get the best processor available, since we want this machine to be the hub of the business for about five years.
The processor is only one part of the whole, and as I just mentioned, the power:cost benefits are not good.
The graphics card is where we're most torn - specifically between the Quadro 5600, the GeForce 8800, or perhaps even getting the computer with the standard card (or no card) and getting a different third-party card. We do mostly DV now, but we foresee doing HD projects in the future.
Quadro 5600 is pricey, but I'm not sure about its benefits for people in our field. Even if I had the money for it, I would be hard pressed to consider it considering, again, money is liekly wiser spent elsewhere.
Also, it looks like we're gonna buy Final Cut Studio 2 and are considering also getting Final Cut Server. It seems the combination would allows us to use the Final Cut suite on other computers (both Mac and Wintel) that don't have their own version of Final Cut installed. Is that the correct interpretation?
I don't know much about FCServer, but my impression is that it is -- simply speaking -- Final Cut version of Avid Unity. In other words, I am pretty certain that your understanding on that is false. I may be wrong.

Need advice on on a Mac Pro 1,1 Media Center

I currently have a 2009 Mac Mini running as my home media center, but I recently came by a FREE Mac Pro 1,1 and have decided to repurpose it as my media center so I can migrate my Mac Mini to my bedroom TV where it will live an easy life doing nothing but run Plex Home Theater, Netflix, and EyeTV. This machine falling into my lap was also quite timely because my 4-bay Drobo is running low on available expansion and another Drobo isn't in the budget at the moment.
This vintage mac pro is running Lion 10.7.5, has 1 old and crusty 500GB hardrive, dual x5160 processors, 4GB RAM (one stick i'm pretty sure is toast judging by the red light and the kernel panics), and the standard NVIDIA GeForce 7300 GT 256MB graphics card. It will be used primarily for the following: network storage for iphoto and itunes libraries, streaming video, Plex Media Server & Plex Home Theater, and Handbrake encoding. I also have a goal of safety of data for my movies, photos and music as this machine will supplement my current Drobo storage.
My plans are for a 128GB SSD boot drive installed in one of the PCIe slots and then to load up all 4 of the 3.5" drive bays with WD Green hard drives. I have also ordered 4GB of replacement RAM, so upon removal of the faulty unit I will have 7GB.
Here is where I need advice because I am not very familiar with RAID and the differences between hardware or software raid. Am I better off getting four drives of the same size and setting them up as RAID 5 (I think) using Apple's RAID utility or should I throw in three 1TB drives and then install a fourth 3TB or 4TB drive as a Time Machine backup for the other three?
Should I upgrade the OSX to the technically unsupported latest version? Or is it not worth the trouble for this application?
Also, is there any benefit to upgrading the graphics card to the ATI Radeon 5770? Would this yield an improved image quality? I am outputting to a Denon AV Reciever and subsequently to a 100" projection screen, if that makes a difference. I also noticed the 5770 has an HDMI port, wich would be nice, but not necessary since I can use a DVI converter and woud still need to use the optical audio out anyway.
Much obliged for any input

My plans are for a 128GB SSD boot drive installed in one of the PCIe slots and then to load up all 4 of the 3.5" drive bays with WD Green hard drives. I have also ordered 4GB of replacement RAM, so upon removal of the faulty unit I will have 7GB.
PCIe cards that use or support SSD are not bootable until you get to 2008 (and that is limited too).
Green are not suited for any form of array unless say NAS and WD RED. Better option would be 3 x 2TB WD Blacks in a mirror, and too many people only use two drives, well 3 is much easier safer and works better. Might want to invest in www.SoftRAID.com product even.
Best price and quality, got my 1,1 with 8 x 2GB (ideal is 4 or 8 DIMMs)
2x2GB FBDIMM DDR2 667MHz @ $25
http://www.amazon.com/BUFFERED-PC2-5300-FB-DIMM-APPLE-Memory/dp/B002ORUUAC/
With price of 250GB SSD $155 I'd go with that or stick with $89 for 128GB .

Need advice on buying older mac pro

Hello fellow mac pro experts.
I am in the market for a used mac pro, and would like to know which one you would recommend and with how much RAM for the following main tasks:
1) The usual email / internet stuff
2) DVD rendering
3) Logic Pro
4) Will have to be able to run Windows 7 Ultimate using bootcamp.
I will use two 30" monitors, from HP model LP3065 (2560 resolution)
I would rather use Snow Leopard (10.6.8) if possible. I don't like Lion or Mountain Lion.
So, what is the configuration you would recommend, considering most small tasks (email, internet, office, etc) use just 1 core most of the times?
Thanks in advance!!

Mac Pro
Date introduced
Original Mac OS X included
(see Tips 1 and 3)
Later Mac OS X included
(see Tip 1)
Mac OS X Build(s)
(see Tip 2)
Mac Pro (Mid 2012)
Jun 2012
10.7.3
10.8
11D2001, 12A269
Mac Pro (Mid 2010)
Aug 2010
10.6.4
10.7, 10.7.2, 10.7.3
10F2521, 10F2554, 11A511a, 11C74, 11D2001
Mac Pro with Mac OS X Server (Mid 2010)
Aug 2010
10.6.4
10.7, 10.7.2, 10.7.3 (Server)
10F2522, 11A511a, 11C74, 11D2001 (Server)
Mac Pro (Early 2009)
Mar 2009
10.5.6
10.6
9G3553, 10A432
Mac Pro (Early 2008)
Jan 2008
10.5.1
10.5.2, 10.5.4
9B2117, 9C2031, 9E25
Mac Pro
Aug 2006
10.4.7
10.4.8, 10.4.9, 10.4.10, 10.5
8K1079, 8N1430, 8N1250, 8K1124, 8P4037, 8R3032, 8R3041, 9A581, 9A3129
It appears the 2012 is over-specified here. Since it is essentially unchanged from the 2010 model, Users (who wanted to bad enough) have downgraded to 10.6.8 and (once running) have no issues.
N.B.> Installation is COMPLEX and may require another Mac.

Need to buy a new mac pro

I read some reviews and tests on web, but didnt get a conclusion... What config is better to buy:
1. Mac Pro 2008 3,1 8 core 3.0mhz 8gb RAM 500gb HD nivida geforce 8800gt - U$1.000
2. Mac Pro 2010 4 cores 2.8mhz 3gb RAM 1tb HD Ati radeon HD 5770 - U$1800

On CPU testing, the numbers are only about 18 percent different:
Primate Labs has posted Geekbench results for all the Mac Pro models since 2006. Here are some of the numbers in 64-bit mode:
2.0 GHz 4-core 2006, 4506
2.66 GHz 4-core 2006, 5933
2.8 GHz 4-core 2008, 6543
3.0 GHz 4-core 2006, 6661
2.66 GHz 4-core 2009, 9225
2.8 GHz 4-core 2010, 9659
2.93 GHz 4-core 2009, 10119
2.8 GHz 8-core 2008, 10715
3.2 GHz 4-core 2010, 10834
3.0 GHz 8-core 2007, 11014
3.0 GHz 8-core 2008, 11376
3.2 GHz 8-core 2008, 12054
2.26 GHz 8-core 2009, 13400
2.4 GHz 8-core 2010, 14174
3.33 GHz 6-core 2010, 15574
2.66 GHz 8-core 2009, 16066
2.93 GHz 8-core 2009, 17608
2.66 GHz 12-core 2010, 22418
2.93 GHz 12-core 2010, 24219
3.06 GHz 12-core 2010, 25375
--from http://lowendmac.com/deals/best-mac-pro-prices.html

Advice on buying new Mac Pro

How big of a difference is there between the 8-core 2.8 and the 3.0. Is it really worth the extra buck. Also, does anyone see any sign of blueray players coming standard in the mac pro? I know that cheap sony laptops are comming standard with BD players.

You can see the differences here...
http://www.barefeats.com/harper.html
No word on the BlueRay yet. I have seen and read about people using them on MacPros though.
Here is one http://silverado.cc/shop/product.php?productid=1037&cat=1&page=1
Here is another one http://www.mcetech.com/blu-ray/

What external harddrives do I need for use with new mac pro?

I just bought a mac pro late 2013 however I got the one with only 256 gigs of storage. I do a lot of video editing and was wondering if my firewire 800 owc hardrives work just as fast or should I upgrade to thunderbolt and usb 3.0 drives? My work flow is usually storing my footage on one drive and my project files on another drive. Would it really make that big of a difference to upgrade? It seems to me that when working in premiere..the actual mac pro is what really matters.

Would thunderbolt drives really make that big of a difference in terms of editing speed?
The model I use to think about this is bottleneck analysis. (A chain is as strong as its weakest link.)
ThunderBolt is really FAST. It is so much faster than the rotating drives that ...
...it does not get in the way at all (But it cannot speed anything up!)
Rotating drives can produce a single burst of data off the platters at about 125 MBytes/sec. FireWire800 is about that speed, so it will not provide much of a bottleneck. Gigabit Ethernet is a little slower, but in that neighborhood.
ThunderBolt-1 has enough bandwidth to support an eight drive enclosure with all drives working simultaneously. But it does not speed anything up.
If you transition to the fastest SSD drives in enclosures, all those numbers change. There, fastest transfer times are near 800 MBytes/sec, and Firewire800 and USB-3 get in your way.

Linking SCSI baed flat-bed scanner to new Mac Pro with PCI-Express

I need information on how to link my current scanner (Microtek Scanmaker 4) with a recently ordered Mac Pro. It is a SCSI based peripheral, and the only (last) of my currently owned peripherals that I'll need after getting my new Mac Pro. I've been searching the internet for a modestly priced interface board that would serve me.
I've invested several hundred dollars in the hardware and SilverFast software, and would prefer to use the old scanner rather than move to a newer USB or Firewire based scanner.
I'd appreciate any leads. Does Apple have advice? So far I've not found any discussions that face the issue, but perhaps I've missed a dark corner of the support search domains.
Thanks in advance, Carl
Mac Pro, G4 desktop, Ti-Powerbook Mac OS X (10.4.7)
Mac Pro Mac OS X (10.4.7)
Mac OS X (10.4.7)

Thanks Michael:
My dilemma is that a high end scanner for photographic images (up to 3900 lpi) and firewire/USB 2.0 compatible costs about $600. The card you suggest was priced at about $400.
If push comes to shove I guess I'll opt for a new scanner, and face the problem of firewire/USB obselence when it comes.
A local resource suggested that the only reason we even worry about the availability of SCSI devices is that they are needed to interface with multi-thousand dollar scientific instruments.
I was hoping to find a more modestly priced card, and thank you for the lead. It's a start!
Carl
Mac Pro Mac OS X (10.4.7)
Mac Pro Mac OS X (10.4.7)

New mac pro upgrade advice needed or keep the old clunker

I have a 2008 mac pro with only 8gb ram
I am use the computer for FCP and Logic as well
as photo editing. It is not my livelihood I am just a serious hobbiest.
My option is to go with a new Mac Pro probably 8 core with 1 TB
I would have to get an enclosure for my 4 thunderbolt internal drives.
I also have 2 firewire 800 2T external drives.
My monitor is a 30 inch cinema display
so an 8 core with 64gb plus 4k monitor and upped graphics card is $11,600 add my buisness discount i am probably
looking at around $11,000
My other option is to keep the clunker add a 1TB SSD PCIe card form owc and add 8gb ram this will
cost me $1,400. I am really only throwing away the $200 for increasing the ram as
the PCIe ssd drive can be salveged and used in the new mac pro if I bought an pcie/ thunderbolt enclosure.
Tha advantage of going this route is I could use the clunker for another year allowing time
for the kinks in the new mac pro to be ironed out as well as the advantage of faster chips in next years model.
The other issue I have is a use a Universal Audio PCI card with 4 sharc processors to run specific plugins that need that
card in logic. That card will no be compatible with the new Mac pro and the replacement cards are over $1000 that are compatibe
Just looking for some advice do you think the SSD PCI card and ram will keep me happy with the performance to hold off upgrading for
a year or shoul I just put the clumker out of its misery?

radman wrote:
Just looking for some advice do you think the SSD PCI card and ram will keep me happy with the performance to hold off upgrading for
a year or shoul I just put the clumker out of its misery?
On this page Apple compares the 2012 Mac Pro (12-core) to a 2013 Mac Pro (12-core). The new Mac Pro performs about 3x faster at rendering. You didn't say how many cores your Mac Pro has but you could expect about a 4-5x faster performance increase.
I would have some questions for you:
How much time do you spend waiting on your current Mac Pro?
How much money are you willing to spend for a 4-5x increase?
I have a 2010 Mac Pro with a 960 GB OWC Mercury Accelsior E2 PCIe SSD, program launches and computer restarts are much faster. Compressing video takes the same amount of time as it did when I booted from a hard drive. I can't read or type email any faster, iTunes plays music just as fast as it always has with a hard drive.
I would use Activity Monitor to monitor your computer's memory use while you work with FCP and Logic to see if you are maxing out your memory then adding more may be the way to go.
I use my Mac Pro for recording over-the-air TV and compressing that video into an Apple TV usable format. I've found that having a dedicated drive for capture works well. Also, when I compress the video my capture drive becomes a dedicated source drive for Compressor and I write the output file to a separate dedicated drive. This ensures I maximize data flow and keep all my cores nearly fully utilized. I tend to do the processor intensive tasks (compressing video which can take hours) at the end of the day when I know I won't be using the computer (or only doing light work on it such as email or web surfing).

About to purchase new Mac Pro - Need Advice

I am about to purchase a new mac pro and have some questions
I am planning to use final cut pro as well as Edius on Boot Camp.
I intend to edit footage in HDV from a sony Z1 and also from the new sony - pmw -ex3 which i will be planning to edit in HD and 24p.
1) the default config for the mac pro is dual 2.8.ghz processors, what advantage gain will i get i upgrade to 3.0 or 3.2, is the extra power worth the money? will this give me more real-time editing
How many layers of HD 1920 x 1080 from the sony pmw-ex3, will i be able to edit in FCP 6.0 without any problems? would you advise more ram
2) i prefer to work from RAID 5 drives and keep system drive separate, this is how i have worked on in PC/Windows environment. Can anyone confirm if i can have one JBOD drive for the system and 3 drives configured as a RAID 5 drive?
Will i be able to use a boot to run windows and also be able to use the RAID 5 drive on windows side?
3) Is anyone using the 3ware RAID 5 side car? what is experienece is this compatible on the windows partition from boot camp
4) How will i be able to preview HD footage?
5) Do i need to invest in a better Graphics
Thanks in advance

Hi,
Here are a few answers.
1. The Mac Pro 2.8 GHz model performs so well that it is difficult to justify paying 28% more for 7% of additional processor power in the case of the Mac Pro 3.0 GHz or 56% more for 14% additional processor power with the Mac Pro 3.2 GHz model. You might see a small 5-10% increase in performance when compressing video with the 3.2GHz model but it certainly would not be worth paying 50% more to me. In addition, Amazon has the 2.8 on sale for $2599 after an easy rebate:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B000VR4F2Q/arizomacinusergr
That is a $200 savings off the retail price.
2. If you want to use boot camp I would NOT recommend the Apple RAID card. Boot camp does not work with this card which leaves you wondering why you bought the card and how to get around this HUGE limitation. Instead, I would recommend the Areca ARC-1221x, HighPoint RR 3522 or the ARC-1680x if you want a SAS card. All of these cards have new firmware available that provide awesome performance and boot capability with the Mac Pro 2008. I would also get a SeriTek/2eEN4 4-bay and 1TB Samsung HDs. This gives a solid, quiet 4-bay enclosure that can support RAID 5 with any of the cards and you can add a second enclosure later if you want to use all eight external ports with RAID 6 (for added redundancy and increased volume size). This leaves the internal bays available for Boot Camp, Mac OS X, backups or mirrors and provides RAID 5/6 capability that can be configured to perform almost twice as fast as the Apple RAID card and provide double the redundancy with RAID 6. Links with more information are found here:
http://firmtek.stores.yahoo.net/sata2een4.html
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822152102
http://www.amug.org/amug-web/html/amug/reviews/articles/highpoint/3522/
http://www.amug.org/amug-web/html/amug/reviews/articles/areca/1221x/
http://www.amug.org/amug-web/html/amug/reviews/articles/areca/1680x/
3. The 3Ware RAID 5 card is not a top pick in the Macintosh market. The options outlined above will provide much better performance and RAID 6 capabilities.
4. You can view the the HD footage on the monitor.
5. You may want a better graphics card but I would try the stock card first. I was surprised how well the ATI radeon HD 2600 XT card performs with Apple applications.
Have fun!

Sond problems on new Mac Pros (2010)??? Buying new tower advice.

Hi all!!!
Has any one here have sound problems with the new Mac Pros (2010)??? I hear they
still have sound "pops" or something like that as with the 2009 MP. I'm looking
to buy a new MP since my G5 tower just died today (RIP) so need a new tower but need
to know if this sound issue is still there. BTW any advice on what I should buy for my next tower
would be welcomed too!!! I have a 2.5mhz LC G5 and I basically work with Photoshop, iMovie, Final
cut Express and almost every thing else and games too. I herd that the single 6 core (3.33mhz) is
a wise choice compared to a 12 core. Can I still use my 10.5 OSX (PPC) on the new Tower and then
update it to 10.6? Will be getting 12gigs of ram from OWC, NOT paying $1000+ to get 12 gigs from
Apple. Can I still use my 1.5GB/s(speed) hard drives? I know that the Mac Pros uses the 3Gb/s HD if
so I could fill the Mac Pro with my 2 G5's HD.
Thanks for any advice!!!!
Serge
Message was edited by: Serge Lebel

Hey there!!
Why would Apple continue offering that vid card in the store as an option and still talk about
it in the Mac section of it's web site???? Are you sure it's not the PC version of the 5870? I didn't
read any info on the net about it (AppleInsider, MacRumours etc...) I've just made a search on Yahoo
and Google and it says that it affects the 5770 too and what I could read it's PC related here's the
clip:
"+*AMD has confirmed that a previously reported issue of grey lines or screens with certain Radeon HD 5000 GPUs affects both the 5700 and 5800 series.*+
+Earlier this week, it emerged that many 5000 series users were experiencing problems with crashing and grey or colored lines appearing on his or her display. The grey screens and hangups were occurring while users were gaming, watching movies or in some cases, when the computer was just sitting idle.+
+When users contacted customer service they were told the issue was caused by a *Windows 7 update*. ATI recommended a clean install of the graphics card driver as a possible fix, stating this had solved some users problems. The ATI Catalyst 10.1 release notes (published Wednesday) note the problem as a known issue; however, *it's described as a problem affecting users of all versions of Windows and not just Windows 7.*+
+Today Dave Erskine, an AMD spokesperson, informed us that, "only a small number of ATI Radeon HD 5800 series and ATI Radeon HD 5700 series cards are exhibiting the behavior," and that the team is closing in on a fix for the apparently software related issue.+
+"The team is testing a driver hotfix and initial tests indicate that it resolves the issue," Mr Erskine said. "We need to test it further but we expect to make the hotfix available shortly."+
So I don't think its Mac related. Thanks for the info but still getting that Vid card anyway.
Thanks

In need of a new Mac Pro, which one?

In the market for a new Mac Pro, mainly for CS5 apps, an ocassional Final Cut project and some Modo rendering (simple work). My Mac is an early 2008 2.8 GHz 8 core with 10 gigs of RAM, rock solid performance and trouble free and I'm looking to buy a new one within the next week. The 4 core 2.8 appeals to me for the lower price, but inclined for the 8 core, is the $1,000 difference between 4 and 8 core woth it? The 4 core has a faster processor, so I would assume that the difference in speed is basically a non-issue for the work I do, am I right? On the other hand, I rather get the 4 core with at least 12 gigs of ram, since most apps don't take advantage of 8 cores.
Need opinions and suggestions and if someone has a link for performance comparisons test between the two, would be appreciated, can't find any.

Not everyone, but more than a few, swear by SSD making their Mac run smooth and faster all around.
You are rather low on RAM for any real strong CS5 use.
Your Mac can boot into 64-bit kernel, too. Read up on that on MPG and along with 24GB pays 15% dividends.
And you can take advantage of 5870 or 5770 as well as Quadro 4000 ($789 PNY Quadro for Mac on Amazon, versus $1195 on Apple Store). 5770 + 4000 is $1050 investment.
You 'should' be using say 3 x 2-3TB enterprise version drives. And 120-240GB SSD $600.
Intel 3.2GHz Harpertown (Penryn) 5400s are probably not cost effective and seems the highest MHz you can go.
I go with coffee can, create an account to go towards the next system. Put X-amount aside each month and only buy on cash or your business pays for itself in six months.
The real hard part comes when a new model comes out, knowing the first 3 months are often rough and best to hold off, wait, read the reviews and reports. And know that buying that while today you could 'down grade' to Snow Leopard, the next time you can't and it takes time to optimize all the drivers and software that a workstation is more likely to need.
If you have $3.5K burning a hole, then the ref'd 2.8 and optimize "the heck" out of it, with W3680 and everything else, and then sell yours later too for $1500 probably.
http://store.apple.com/us/product/FC560LL/A
Your 8-core 2,8 is not yet ready to retire!

HT4413 To transfer everything from my Mac mini to a new Mac Pro do I need two displays? Once I have confirmed my mini is open while pressing T can I then disconnect my Cinema Display from the mini and connect it to the Pro to continue the transfer?

Can I set up my Mac mini to transfer its contents to a new Mac Pro and then disconnect my Cinema Display and use it connected to the Pro to complete the transfer? Do I actually need two displays to manage the transfer?

It helps have 2 monitors, so that you can monitor data XFER, just my experience. If nothing else it allows you keep am eye on what is going on.

I urgently need to know how I can connect 8 thunderbolt display, I was thinking with the new mac pro will come out, but I wonder if it is possible to connect an iMac to 4GB of graphics card, but suffers from the imac. thanks

I urgently need to know how I can connect 8 thunderbolt display, I was thinking with the new mac pro will come out, but I wonder if it is possible to connect an iMac to 4GB of graphics card, but suffers from the imac. thanks

I tightened all HD screws and it didn't help. With the machine running and side of the case off, I physically stopped both the video card fan and the front case fan with my finger for a couple seconds and the noise continued. I also took all hard drives out one by one and rebooted each time. Again, the noise continued until I took out the Mac HD in Bay 1, rebooted, and I had a very quiet, silent machine. The issue is the hard drive in bay 1 that shipped with the computer, it's without a doubt causing the hum/woosh sound. I still need to know if I can safely swap the Mac HD from bay 1 to bay 4 without any issues to the operating system. I would like to try that to see if it dampens the noise but I also want to make sure this swap won't screw up my machine at all.

Got a new Mac Pro 2008 - need to install an Airport card

Hello all,
To ensure quickest delivery I opted for the standard config new Mac Pro 8 core (early 2008). I did the same with my G5 4 years ago an installed an Airport Extreme card (with some difficulty !). Apparently the card in my G5 is not compatible with the Mac Pro. I cannot find any official reference to installing an Airport Extreme card in a Mac Pro…just a couple of 'hacks'. Apparently Apple doesn't want users to do this anymore.
Q1/ What card do I need ?
Q2/ I see 3 antenna connections labelled 1, 2 and 3 on the cables. One is for Bluetooth apparently…but which one ?
Would very much appreciate any help.
thanks in advance
PA

kura,
I ordered my Mac Pro with standard conf for the same reasons you did. I also discovered, as you did, that the newest Mac Pro required a different airport card and that installing the card doesn't appear to be user-friendly. I since found the following web site which presented installation procedure:
http://meanderingpassage.com/2007/07/18/how-to-installing-an-airport-extreme-car d-in-an-intel-mac-pro/
I also was able to order the correct card (part number MB363Z/A) through a local Mac reseller although I see that it is available from other sources including Amazon (will ship from J&R).
I ordered the card yesterday but the dealer said that it was in stock and would take a few days to arrive so I have yet to actually install it.
Having installed airport cards on a number of other Macs I've owned, it is baffling that Apple would make this so darned difficult and awkward. In retrospect I should have ordered it as a build and had Apple install it but it is what it is.
Hope this helps -

Need advice on a new mac pro.

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