New Mac Pro performance versus a Dual 1.8 ghz G5

I just wanted to give some feedback of my new Mac Pro experience and hopefully get some feedback about it.
I recently updated to from a 1.8 dual core G5 to a 3.0 dual quad core Intel machine. In "core" processing (burning from disk and encoding) is sustainably faster (from 30 mins to 10 mins when encoding). The biggest disappointment is just the day to day operation. It isn't faster. I wanted to see Photoshop, iTunes and other programs to just jump up when I launch them (they just take as long to load maybe a little faster) and other just basic mac processes to work really quickly but the speed of the interface is the same as it is on my powermac. It still is paging my hard drive and isn't loading all my data when I do searches (I probably need to leave it running over night to get the hard drive completely paged). I have had this weird fan issue that makes the fans ALOT louder than my powermac (have read many posts here about that issue). Also have been having weird midi issues where my fire wire speakers don't work when I put the computer to sleep and wake it and I have plug my headphones in multiple times before they will be recognized by the computer.
My intial feeling is that the operating system hasn't been fully built up around the mac pro as it is for the powermac. I feel that the powermac was more "integrated" with the Os.
I also have heard that the new version of the OS is supposed to make better use the core processers. Therefore making tasks like hard drive searches and program launching faster. My fear is that part of using the core processors is on software like Adobe to write code to use them.
I have been on the phone with Apple about the speaker issue. I think I'm just going to bring my speakers into a Apple Store and repeat my issue. I also want to see if my headphone port is messed up (because it takes the headphones but seems "loose").
Thanks for listening to my concerns.

Migration Assistant, we began to see a year ago, was causing most systems to run like molasses and sluggish. So that is #1. There is no way to really see the potential at all with 1GB of RAM and 2GB gets it at least off the starvation diet.
8GB (4 x 2? 8 x 1?) if you use large files (750MB and above) AND you then use the "enable VM Buffer plug-in" from Adobe.
If you were use to using a 750GB drive, that would also help explain why. if you hate launching... don't - just leave them up.... or boot off a RAID.
but be sure to set PS scratch to another drive than boot drive if possible.
When you stop seeing swap files and pageouts, then you know that you are a step further. Tiger or Leopard can still use available memory for cache or for virtual scratch space to some extent that also can improve performance... once running.
You'll want to reformat the 750GB drive to native GUID/GPL partition map from the PPC/APL it has.
I don't even keep /users on boot drive (its there, just in case a program thinks it needs to be there) but ~/ home is on 2nd drive or RAID, just to insure that the boot drive can do its thing and not get slowed down by also having to serve for other tasks and programs.
The new Seagate 7200.11 750/1000GB drive has better multi-user functionality, though the Hitachi seems to be faster overall, except... not all Hitachi models work well on Mac Pro (or didn't as I don't keep up). Which is why I have been using strictly WD Raptor and Caviar (RE/RE2 and SE16) for the last year, they seem to be okay (and some el cheapo MaxLine Pro based on price).
Today, 2 x 1GB costs a mere $139, while a year ago it would have set someone back $700-800.

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  • FCP Uncompressed Editing on a new Mac Pro

    Hello everybody,
    I too am about to empty my wallet into Apple's bank account.
    I am upgrading my editing capacity and have the following wish list in order to edit compressed and uncompressed 8 or 10 bit high definition video shot with HDV and DVCPro HD camcorders:
    Mac Pro - 2x 2.66GHz Dual Core Intel Xeon Processors
    2 GB RAM
    ATI Radeon X1900 XT graphics card
    1 x 250GB 7200-rpm Serial ATA (as boot drive)
    3 x 500GB 7200-rpm Serial ATA 3Gb/s (as striped footage drives)
    Apple Cinema Display (20" flat panel - as main FCP screen)
    Apple Cinema HD Display (23" flat panel - as HD monitor)
    I already own Final Cut Studio and run FCP 5.1.1
    My questions are:
    1. Is the above hard drive set up fast enough for 8 and/or 10 bit uncompressed HD/HDV editing?
    2. Will I need any extra hardware - besides the graphics card - in order to see every single pixel of 1920 x 1080 footage?
    I know others on the Apple Discussions forums have asked similar questions but I am still not certain which set up is best for me.
    Thanks in advance.
    P.S. Dear Mr Jobs. Thanks in advance for allowing PAL users of FCP to edit 720 footage from Panasonic's HVX-200 camcorder.
    Charlie
    G4 PowerBook, 1.67GHz Mac OS X (10.4.6) Long-time FCP user
    G4 PowerBook, 1.67GHz   Mac OS X (10.4.6)   Long-time FCP user

    I have just found out that my plans for a Mac Pro with 4 internal drives (one as boot drive, the other three striped as footage RAID) will NOT be fast enough to edit uncompressed HD material.
    I have just read this on the Black Magic Design website:
    Blackmagic Disk Speed Test reported about 170 MB/sec which was easily fast enough for HD uncompressed 10 bit. However this three-disk internal solution is more suited to people needing simple capture and playback of HD, such as designers and effects artists. They just want simple clip capture and playback and the built-in three-disk array is a great solution for them. There are also newer 750 GB disks, which are faster, and so performance could increase further.
    For editors who have hundreds of cuts and/or effects in their projects, we would strongly recommend an external disk array with multiple disks.
    http://www.blackmagic-design.com/support/detail.asp?techID=60#intel_tiger
    An external RAID system will have to be the way forward for me for now. Thanks to you all for trying to answer my questions.
    Charlie.

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