New baby coming need Camcorder (buying Mac Pro) suggestions

I need to know what works with the "Big" Mac
I have access to FCP (dont know if its HD)
I want to buy a hard drive based camcorder (sony, jvc) and need to know if any of these are compatible?
can anyone help me?

You could get a spiffy little HDV camera to go with that expensive mac and FCP 5.1. Since i imagine you wont be doin much more than making dvds HDV would look great and be perfect for you.
This is a good DV cam - http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?O=1881&A=details&Q=&sku=462222&i s=REG&addedTroughType=categoryNavigation
This is a descent HDV cam - http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?O=1881&A=details&Q=&sku=384527&i s=REG&addedTroughType=categoryNavigation

Similar Messages

Is it good time to buy Mac Pro with display?

Hi There,
I am thinking to buy Mac Pro with display and I wonder if it’s good time to do that. Displays still waiting for update. We have been waiting for Mac Pro update long and as far as I see the update wasn’t what people generally expected.
And disappointing thing about Blue-ray drive as well. I think it was good time to put one in by Apple.
So do you think its good time to buy all that stuff or wait longer and perhaps better Mac Pro with new display will come out soon?
Regards

Rufus wrote:
Um no.. It's more than an "extravagant speed bump," the new Mac Pro is using the new 45nm chip architecture. In addition, the significantly larger cache and faster 800mhz RAM make for drastic performance increase.<</div>
Um...yes..
and with this new faster processor, I'm to do what with???...open an Excel spreadsheet a nanosecond faster, get a few more fps on Doom3? Woop-tee-do! I now have 8 cores but most software uses 1 of them while the other 7 purr in idle.
BluRay/HD video is here... or should I say HAS BEEN here for over a year now.... how am I going to use this new super-dooper processor with editing, creating, and authoring HD video and discs?
A faster processor at this point is meaningless without the tools to use it with.
All they did with the new MacPro is give you a computer that is worth the fixed $2800 price tag.
Reminds me of the tire commercial on tv where they describe this car with exotic and powerful 12 cylinder engine, and plush leather seats, and race proven suspension...... but with no tires.
It all looks great on a spec sheet, but you can't use it to do any real work.
I can film HD video all day long, but I can't use a Mac to put it on disc...... (but I can use a Dell!!)
There is no way anyone can explain this other than political.... I would bet that this has something to do with Steve's affiliation with Disney and other studios in regards to his doomed movie rental snafu. Apple has always been the ground breaker in bringing such technology to the market first (a mouse, a cd drive, multiple displays, a superdrive, etc.), and usually before the consumer even understands they need it. To be this far behind with BluRay, he's got to be holding back for a reason ... and I would love to hear it.
I've been a Mac user for 22 yrs and have only been embarrised to be so twice... once when the fruit flavored iMacs were introduced (eventually proved to be the best selling computer model of all times), and now with the absence of BluRay. I've been hoping Steve will prove me wrong again, but I've been hoping for year now... and am still waiting.
Um... No, the Mac Pros power isn't gonna do much for an excel spreadsheet.. However, I bought mine to use with Logic Studio which does take advantage of all eight-cores and the faster front side bus and RAM, and the performance is remarkable..
Just for kicks I timed how long it took to rip "Finding Nemo" with my old G4 dual 1.25 ghz using Handbrake's Apple TV preset... The G4 took 7 hours and 54 minutes.. My new Mac Pro did the same job in 24 minutes..
If you really want a Blu-Ray drive in your Mac Pro, then just buy one and stick it in the empty optical slot, but be prepared for the price tag... http://www.mcetech.com/blu-ray/
And if you use one of the Pro apps that takes advantage of multiple cores, the new Mac pro is a dream.. If you don't use one of those apps, you probably don't need a Mac Pro. At any rate, you're whole spiel about the Mac pro's power being trivial or useless is nonsense..

Do I need a specific Mac Pro video card or will any do?

Hi, I had a quick question. I'm looking at purchasing a 2010 8-core Mac Pro and was wondering about the video card. Is there a specific video card needed for the Mac Pro or can I purchase just a typical ATI 5870 from ebay and install that? Is there really a difference between a PC graphic cards and a Mac graphics card?

Stick to the Apple cards. There is an important difference, and that is non-Apple cards do not work until the startup sequence is completed unless you use them on VGA. That means you cannot use any normal startup keyboard shortcuts unless the card is in VGA mode. This is because non-Apple cards do not have the Apple bootable ROM.
Apple sells the 5870 directly on their website. And, there's nothing wrong with the 5770 card that comes with the Mac Pro. Be sure you really need the performance of the 5870 before spending the extra money for it.

Bought student plan but its still staying i need to buy premiere pro?????

I just bought the student plan 20 minutes ago but its still staying I need to buy premiere pro???

Does your Cloud subscription properly show on your account page?
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Some general information for a Cloud subscription
Cloud programs do not use serial numbers... you log in to your paid Cloud account to download & install & activate... you MAY need to log out of the Cloud and restart your computer and log back in to the Cloud for things to work
Log out of your Cloud account... Restart your computer... Log in to your paid Cloud account
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New baby (hopefully this weekend or next week) coming need camcorder ideas

Alright,
First baby one the way and its the reason im switching from Windoze to Apple. I want something to do family video and photos easily. Mac Pro is what im going to get.
What i want to know is what camcorder is supported or are all of them (looking for Hard drive models, JVC and SONY) just plug and play?
Anyone have some suggestions/opinions and or some experience with the Hard drive models and using them with the Mac?
Regards,
Kvl

Hey there. congrats on the new little one on the way!
I just went through the dilemma of which video cam to buy and was very much wanting to buy a hard drive model. After researching all the ins and outs of it ( http://www.camcorderinfo.com/ and their forums) I found that the mpeg 2 that is used is not straight compatible to the mac (as has been mentioned several times here in this thread) but I thought that I could work around that anyway.
But then to make matters worse, the hard drive recorders in the highest quality setting compresses the video so badly that it isn't even near to the worst quality of the mini dv cameras. It compresses the video to 8Mbps (best quality) compared to mini dv at 25Mbps. That alone kept me from continuing to pursue the HDD models. I want my precious memories to be good quality to start with. I ended up with a Mini DV an buy my tapes in bulk from B&H photo at a good price.
Hope this sheds some light. If you are still interested in pursuing the HDD to Mac option here is a good link to check out:
http://www.camcorderinfo.com/bbs/showthread.php?t=119778
and read the reviews on this site. Very informative.
Pax

Need some spec help looking on buying mac pro

Hello
I have been looking at getting a Mac for quite some time now I have used Windows all my life and I'm tired of it. I happen to have my birthday coming up and I have all this holiday money set aside for a mac pro. Here is my problem I only have around $800 so I cant really get an Intel Mac but I'm easily in the range for the Power Mac. I'm mostly going to play World of Warcraft and do iLife, iWork, and use Adobe CS3 when I get the cash. I'm a little scared though to buy a Power Mac because everything is going to Intel should I be worried. Also should I look for something else instead or just keep waiting for more money I have a 27' TV that supports HDMI and VGA and I would like to have a Mac I can upgrade because I'm going to College here in two years.
Thanks for all your help in advance

I would suggest to you to get a macmini.
its in your budget, and can run all the apps you mentioned.
In two years, you'll still be able to get something for it if you decide to upgrade to a macpro.
what kind of powermac were you looking at?

What is needed in a Mac Pro to start developing APPs?

I am looking for information on what Mac Pro (processor speed, memory, and storage capacity) is needed to start developing APPs. In addition, I would like my Mac Pro be viable for the next three years as I learn how to use the system to build APPs and learn basic applications to build APPs as I anticipating changes in the iOS system and programs like Mountain Lion that could use more memory and storage capacity. I am beginning this journey and like to know what system would best fit my needs as Apple continues to progress in their technologies. What should I get in a Mac Pro with 8GB or 16GB, i5 or i7 processor, 256GB or 512GB storage, and 13 in. 2.8GHz or 15 in. 2.5 GHz?
Thank You

You could buy a new MacBook Air every two years and still come out ahead of what a base Mac Pro costs.
A Mac Pro is not going to go out of style in 4 years.
laptops or their parts are not upgradeable and do tend to fail a bit more. And some of those systems limit you to 16GB RAM but they do have (slower) M.2 SSDs (400 or 700MB/sec vs 1200-1400MB/sec) SSD blades.
If you want to run lots of code and VMs then maybe by accident you are in the right place
MacBook Pro

Can the newer logic boards still read the mac pro 1.1 2.66ghz duo core proc

i just bought a G5 and i am looking to upgrade it. I just bought the 2.66 ghz processors, and I am looking to buy a new logic board and was wondering if i bought a 2009 logic board would it still be compatible with the 2006 processors?

Unlike PCs (that stayed with one Hardware manufacturer year after year, and therefore did not change much of anything for decades) Mac hardware has been allowed to evolve over time. Macs have gone through several different processors from different manufacturers over the years.
It is a tribute to the superior engineering of the Mac Operating System that Apple has been able to extend and migrate Mac OS to accommodate wildly different hardware. Enormous incompatibilities tend not to appear all-at-once.
But change must eventually come. If you fancy running Mac OS X 10.6, it runs only on Intel Processors. The G5 is the last of the Motorola/IBM PowerPC processor series. The first was released about 1994 (PowerPC 601 in the 6100 series) and the last G5 was discontinued about 2006. There are a great number of people still running G4 and G5 Macs, generally using Mac OS X 10.4 and 10.5. There are still a number of fairly vibrant forums on this Hardware and Software.
But if you want to end up with a working Mac Pro, you need to start with a Mac Pro chassis, not a G5 chassis. As Kappy points out the Processors, drives, peripheral interfaces, chassis cut-outs, Power Supply and most importantly Airflow/Cooling (with processor-controlled fans) are completely different, and there is no sensible way to adapt a G5 chassis to intel processors.
Starting with a Mac Pro chassis, the upgrades will only be difficult instead of impossible.

New imac 21.5 or 2008 Mac Pro?

Hey folks,
I am trying to decide between purchasing a new imac, either 21.5 or 27 with maxed out processer and 2 TB hd. I'll upgrade the ram to 16gb or 32gb once I recieve it or a used Mac Pro from a local seller that has the below specs. Any thoughts or advice?
This is a gently used, mechanically sound and tech tested Apple Mac Pro. I am only selling due to our business upgrading, otherwise I love this machine, and would not be selling it. It comes fully loaded (both hardware and software), and is ready for the most robust tasks.
Included with the Mac Pro is 2 brand-new sealed 20.5" Lenovo LCD monitors, Apple Magic Mouse and Apple Wireless Keyboard. Currently, the Mac Pro is setup for dual monitors on the 512mb NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT video card.
The memory on the Mac Pro has been upgraded to 16GB and an Apple OEM 256 GB Toshiba Solid State Drive (SSD) has been added to increase boot up speeds to mere seconds. The SSD can be configured to run either OS X Lion or Snow Leopard and will also house all of the applications. The combination of 16GB RAM and the applications residing on the SSD enables this machine to perform at amazing speeds. It can seamlessly render video and run other ram intensive applications with ease, making this a perfect addition to anyone's video editing studio.
In addition to the 256 SSD, the Mac Pro has a total of 4 TB of storage space with two separate 2 TB hard drives for storing massive amounts of data. (2 open bays if you wish to add more storage).
LOADED SOFTWARE:
MS Office 2011 (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Communicator
Adobe CS5 Mastersuite (Photoshop, Encore, Flash, Dreamweaver, Illustrator, FireWorks, Catalyst, Contribute, After Effects, Bridge, and much more!)
Final Cut Pro 7
iLife 2011
Aperture 3
Adobe Acrobat X (PDF Editor)
All applications have been freshly reinstalled with their appropriate activation keys. The machine comes ready to go with no administrative password for either operating system (Lion or Snow Leopard).
Thanks for looking and if you have any questions feel free to ask! This Mac Pro comes with a 30 day warranty against DOA. Buy with confidence.
If you like the machine, I have a little room to work on the price if you do not want the SSD. Otherwise price is FIRM. This machine is a powerhouse!

This looks like it has everything you need, but beware, the seller installed a lot of software onto this Mac.
He makes no mention of including the software discs. So, if something bad really happens with this Mac, at some future time, if you did not backup the Mac and software, you will lose all this software as you'll have no way of reinstalling it.
He is basically selling this Mac with a value added of having all this high end software installed.
Most end user agreements do not allow this so he is, basically, giving you pirated software.
It's a great gesture, but if you do not take extra precaution to back up all your data and software to either disc or another external drive/s, you run the risk of losing all of this software forever.
If you buy this, plan on buying one or two external drives to use a backup drive for everything on the Mac's internal drive/s.

Need help with Mac Pro purchasing decision

I've read preliminary reviews on the new Mac Pro, and I'm ready to upgrade my current Mac Pro (which is Dual 2.4 Ghz Quad-core with 32 GB RAM). But I'm going through some major turmoil in the decision. My current Mac Pro, aged as it may be, has been good to me, and when it needed upgrading, it was so easy to do. I installed an additional two internal hard disks, giving the Mac Pro 3 TBs of internal storage. RAM upgrade was a breeze, and when the graphics card went out, I was able to buy and install a replacement without a hiccup.
I love the low profile of the new Mac Pro, albeit I'll still be putting it on the floor - I don't like having my desktop computer in my desk work area. And it looks like upgrading the RAM in the new Mac Pro is pretty simple (although horribly expensive). I would require a CD/DVD drive, so that becomes a piece of "stuff" I have to clutter my work are with. However, most importantly, the internal storage issue, FOR ME, is huge. Without the ability to add internal drives, getting the 1TB flash storage is a must, but sooooooo expensive. AND.. I still need additional storage (more than half of my current 3 TBs is in use).
Moreover, the whole lack of upgradability has me concerned that the new Mac Pro may disappear like the G4 Cube. I haven't seen any rave reviews of the new Mac Pro overall.
But I need to upgrade.
I have configured a new Mac Pro on the Apple Store about 100 times now, but never making the purchase for all of the above reasons, as well as the $5K price tag that it keeps ending up at. I even started looking at refurbished Mac Pros (newer than mine, but the same old huge silver case). The advantage is that it's upgradeable, and I won't end up with an optical drive or external hard drives cluttering my desk space.
The truth is, every time I go to buy, either a new Mac Pro, or a refurbished one, I hit a wall. I'm walking the fence, wondering if I should walk it until a newer Mac Pro shows up with more expandability options (although it seems unlikely since Apple's direction seems to be form over function).
The new Mac Pro has been out for awhile, so I am looking for feedback from people who are kind of in my shoes, but already bit the bullet. I don't want to encourage replies of regret, but I also would prefer the truth over grandiose reviews simply to justify making the leap (and dropping some huge bills). It happens... "I just spent 5 grande, I better **** well love it, and I'll make sure everyone else thinks I do!" ;-)
Please share your experiences. How have you gotten around the lack of upgradeability on the internal storage? I have had bad experiences with external drives in the past. Firewire drives were fast and furious, but the were not as reliable as internal drives. USB drives lag, and that dreaded spin up time every time the Mac OS does something that wakes up all the drives, even if the external drives weren't actually being accessed (never had that problem with Firewire drives, maybe because they were always spun up?).
Anyway, I don't want my buyer's pain to turn into buyer's remorse, so I appreciate all the wisdom any of you would be willing to share.
Thanks,
Bill

I'll offer my comments although there are others much better qualified to answer than I am.
First, the reason I bought the machine that I got was that I found an "open box" deal at a local retailer and got a substantial discount from the normal list price. Otherwise, I might not have gone to the nMP quite as quickly as I did. Regarding ram and the ssd drive, both of these can be upgraded at some later date if I find that is needed. The ram I will probably bump asap, filling the one empty slot with likely an 8gb OWC module.
To run your VGA monitors, you will need 2 passive mini-display port to VGA adapters. You can buy these pretty much anywhere, the Apple ones are superb quality at a price but other options are out there. These will plug into 2 of the Thunderbolt ports on the nMP.
Regarding cpu's and gpu's it gets a bit confusing. Basically right now it depends on the software that you are going to run. It is not likely coincidence that FCPX 10.1 came out basically at the same time as the nMP, as it really highlights full use of the multicore cpu's plus the dual fast gpu's. FCPX really screams on the nMP.
Right now, it seems more video software is making optimum use of both the multicore cpu's and dual gpu's in the nMP. Other software, most notably photo software that should also benefit, is lagging behind. For instance (going only from memory) Adobe software is not very good at using multi-core cpu's nor does it use multiple gpu's either. You can find comparisons of running Photoshop filters on a 3.7ghz 4-core vs the (slower clock speed) 6 or 8 cores and the 4-core comes out close or even faster in some tests because Photoshop uses only a single core, which on the 4-core machine is faster.
However, this is a pretty specific instance and generally buying the fastest cpu and gpu that you can afford is a good plan. Especially so for the gpu's as right now, the video may end up being the only component that does not end up with some sort of upgrade option in the foreseeable future.
If I was going to order a system under the circumstances you have stated, the 6-core with the D500 gpu's sure looks like the sweet spot in the lineup, and probably money well spent. After I would probably upgrade the ssd next, since in order to upgrade it later you have to remove a perfectly good ssd since there is only one slot. Personally I am ok with the 256gb as my boot and system drive, since with Thunderbolt you have basically PCIe access to an external box that can have either Sata or PCIe expansion for whatever storage you can afford.
As I said earlier, right now I am going cheap and using Apples Thunderbolt to firewire cable, which is allowing me to run my existing Lacie firewire drives in a daisy chain just as I did on the old MP.
Upgrading the ram at purchase or later is your choice, there are certainly less expensive options but with only 4 slots you have to weigh the cost of discarding or trading in the original Apple ram when you decide to swap it out for bigger modules. Plus not all ram can be mixed and matched, you may have to remove all the existing ram in order to add just a single high capacity (16gb or larger) module.
Again, hope I have helped more than adding to your confusion.

How Much RAM Do I Need in a Mac Pro to edit together hour-long videos for our church?

We need a new computer to edit video together for our services at church. We broadcast these videos each week, so we use our editing computer quite a bit. We also produce shorter videos for use online and in our services. Looking at moving to a Mac, and I'm not quite sure how much RAM we should purchase in a Mac Pro to avoid long rendering times. Obviously, we need to keep costs as low as possible, but we want something that will work, and last for a while. Thanks!

The fastest 6-core is the "sweet spot" in the lineup. near twice the compute power of the entry model at only 1.5 times the cost.
6GB is fine for "regular" stuff you do on a Mac. Video editing without pain often requires more ... up to as much as 24GB if you can afford it. Apple's prices for this are quite high (like a convenience store). Many folks buy aftermarket RAM from Mac-centric vendors who can tell Users what modules will work in their Mac -- "guaranteed or your money back".
You can run as few as a single RAM module in 2009 and later Macs. So when adding, choose the densest modules you think you might EVER need, to avoid throwing away less-dense modules later.
You also will need at least one drive (preferably two) in addition to the Boot drive. Paging and program access to the boot drive wrecks drive access for User data.
You also need a Backup Drive. Big (but can be really slow).

I just installed a new Samsung 840 to my 2010 mac pro as a second hard drive. It is not showing up in my startup drive in system preferences

I have a 2010 Mac Pro with a 1TB HHD. I just installed and formatted a Samsung 840 Pro SSD. I want to install a clean copy of Mavericks to the SSD and have the computer boot up to it. How do I install Mavericks to the SSD? Also, the Samsung SSD does not show up as an option in Start up in system preferences. Please help!

What OS do you want to install? If you bought your MP early enough, it may have shipped with actual install discs, and you could use those. If it shipped with Lion or newer, you will have to follow one of the procedures mentioned by Niel.
You can get Mavericks from the App Store. Before you run the installer, copy (copy, not move) the whole "Install Mavericks" download to a backup location so that you can install it again if necessary. The installer in the Applications Folder will be deleted after installation is complete, so a copy is needed.

Where to Buy Mac Pro?

Hello Folks,
Any recommendations on the best place to buy a new Mac Pro, the Apple Store, online, LA Computers, MacConnection, Amazon and would you recommend the purhcase of Apple Care?
Many thanks for your help.
Jim

would you also recommend that I buy the least amount of ram from Apple and then buy from Crucial or the like?
If you intend to immediately buy 3rd party RAM then yes. Apart from the convenience of buying it preinstalled there isn't any really compelling reason to buy it from Apple. There was a time that 3rd party RAM was either not available nor cheaper than RAM from Apple so many of us bought Apple but that has long past (Ned having been one of the s*ckers that had to pay through the nose for his).
In addition have you also heard that there have been some problem issues with boot camp 1.3 and running XP?
I have although I couldn't give any specifics. Mostly it's regarding Parallels users having a dummy spit at it not working right. You might want to look in the Boot Camp for better details on this. The MacFixIt web site…
http://www.macfixit.com/
… is really helpful too. I've personally not got around to installing version 1.3.

Need advice about Mac Pro and Windows networking

I currently have 2 machines at work: One HP Windows PC (high configuration) and a PowerMac G5 2GHz dual. I'm basically close to purchasing a new Mac Pro to replace both machines but need some advice. I do the majority of design work on the Mac. However I need the Windows PC to also do some design work but mainly use it to connect into the windows network at work. Basically I need to be able to access the network drives (which are set up with Novell Netware, with IPX turned off), Novell GroupWise email system and connect to the internet through the LAN. Can I do this with a Mac Pro, with either Bootcamp or Parallels? Is there any sacrifice in terms of performance in using Bootcamp or Parallels? The end result I want is similar to what I am doing at the moment - at the moment I use a PC to network and the Mac to design, side by side with each other. What I want is to do this from one machine, not two. (I also need the PC side of things as I need to use some software that isn't available on the Mac, eg. bespoke databases that run on PC). Is it easy to network under Bootcamp/Parallels? What pitfalls are there that I need to be aware of?

When your running Windows via bootcamp, you are essentially Running windows on a PC architecture. You will have all the same capabilities that you have now.
When you use Parallels to run Windows, you are running Windows as a virtual machine running within the confines of the Mac OS. The advantage is that you can run multiple OS's at the same time, and easily share files and data between them. The disadvantage is that the OS running within Parallels has a slightly performance hit, meaning you are not running as fast as the bootcamp version, but the performance hit is very slight. The only place that Parallels is lacking at the moment is in support of 3D or accelerated graphics. That is Parallels currently cannot make use of a graphics card 3D capabilities or advance GPU options. Parallels has stated their intent is to provide better graphic card support in the near future.
With all this in mind, I don;t see any reason why you cannot use Parallels for your Windows networking needs, and the Mac for your design needs, all at the same time. You will need of course to ensure you have enough RAM to support both OS's if you intend to run them at the same time.
Tom N.

Is it possible to put the new nVidia GTX 480 in the Mac Pro

I'm planning on creating the ultimate gaming machine, but also want the best operating system. So I have decided that my next computer will be the Mac Pro and will have the new nVidia GTX 480 (if it works). The Windows partition would be used for heavy gaming with DX 11 and PhysX technology. While on the OSX partition I could use the greatest operating system, to do general things like Movie Making, Picture Editing, Web Surfing, Emailing etc.
So all in all, is it possible to install a GTX 480 on OSX? I know it'll work with the windows partition, but not sure about OSX. I'm also unsure about the hardware side of things, but that's why I'm asking!
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks again,
Mike

If you don't need dual processor, PC with 980X Gulftown makes sense.
Forget over clocking a Mac, but if you need dual processor, the Mac Pro makes sense but expect to pay. Otherwise, take a look at
EVGA Classified SR-2 (Super Record 2) 270-WS-W555-A1
http://www.evga.com/products/prodlist.asp?switch=5
Apple has not had good Nvidia drivers. And right now there are two 6-pin, and you need 6 + 8 and stick with Windows 7 and ability to do SLI. I laugh when people talk about "windoz" (rude) being somehow less or 'inferior' having seen the best - and worst - of both (never got caught up in 95/98/NT/XP so spoiled by only knowing Vista/7). I still think 10.6 hasn't quite caught up to 7 in areas that really matter, like threading, multicore, efficient use of memory.
Forget using more than one, Apple likes graphic cards that are low power, low end, and only supporting one high end card.
The GTX 480 @ $499, and if Apple offered it, it would be $549 or more (Apple 'tax' for smaller market and having to do their own drivers). And it would be much later before optimized drivers (maybe next year this time at best).
While you can go water and add custom fans and cooling, the Mac is much more of a "closed" box in many ways beyond RAM and hard drives and +very limited+ selection of graphics.
That really is my honest assessment.
The place where Mac Pro is easier, you can install 32-64GB RAM without trouble and not have to worry about compatibility or PSU issues. I'm always surprised by all the memory testing and supported and problems PC owners go through (I don't think Cruical Ballistix gets enough credit).
DX11 will still take time. Adobe showed how GPGPU/CUDA could benefit, but Apple and Adobe apps have always tended to favor ATI which is just beginning to get into OpenCL technology ... and the 5000 series may find Nvidia Fermi, while it took longer, runs hot and power requirement, could be better poised down the road too.
A single socket Mac Pro 3.3GHz or even stock (same as 920) will do the job you want.
Apple Mac Pro Specials (refurb dept)
http://store.apple.com/us/browse/home/specialdeals/mac/mac_pro
Are a good selection and place to shop. My the time Gulftown + GTX480 and all the rest is out and ready could be more than a few months.

New baby coming need Camcorder (buying Mac Pro) suggestions

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