[Macadvo]

Hi all,
Having finally got my new MP back from the police (long story, and yes I'm innocent lol) I've decided to treat it to either another 4 gigs of memory or some more HDD space.

I already have 5 gigs of memory and 2 x 500GB HDD in RAID + the original 250GB HDD so my question is which would you get?

If I had my way Id be buying both the 4gigs of memory and another 2 x 500GB HDD's but at the minute I can only afford one or the other

Persuade me

[angelmb]

wow… I would expect an user claiming his-her Mac had something like 1 GB RAM or 80 GB as HD space… I can't tell your Mac does lack either RAM or HD space… I would say get more RAM if you 'really' need it, but instead of 4 GB you could get 'only' 3 and then 1 GB for your iMac -the one @ your signature- which IMHO would welcome RAM more than the allmighty Mac Pro

[SierraDragon]

We don't know what you do with your MP or what RAID configuration (0, 1) is in use for what purpose, but clearly it cries out for a large hard drive for backup or perhaps Time Machine. However more info is needed.

-Allen Wicks

[mkerr64]

Originally Posted by Macadvo 

Hi all,
Having finally got my new MP back from the police (long story, and yes I'm innocent lol)

WOW

[Macadvo]

lol yeah I know it's already pretty well specced but I always like to have that bit more. My iMac actually has 2 GB ram already (thinking of swapping it for a Mac mini atm) so the money will be spent on the MP.

I use the MP mainly for my photography, Aperture with over 15,000 photos sure runs better on it than it did the iMac

The current HDD setup is as follows

250GB HDD as boot disk with Leopard and Vista installed
2 x 500GB HDD in RAID 0 as Data/Scratch disks
1 x Lacie 500GB FW800 exernal HDD solely for Aperture vault
1 x 750GB FW400 external HDD for Time Machine

Originally posted by mkerr64
WOW

Yeah it scared the crap out of me as well. Basically I sold a MBP on ebay and the guy who eventually won the auction wanted to pay by direct bank transfer, after giving him my account details he told me he'd gone into the branch and paid the cash. Unknown to me he'd actually advertised the MBP on another site posing as me and got the buyer to pay the cash into my bank account, and then he collected the MBP.

Luckily I hardly ever delete emails (I have nearly three thousand in my inbox) and could show the police the emails to/from him as well as give them a phone bill that showed the calls/texts to his numbers (which corroborated with telephone numbers given to them by the "buyer") so they believed me, but seized my MP for nearly a month "just in case"

Nothing so scary as hearing the words, "Do you have anyone to look after your son because we need to arrest you?" first thing on a morning though lol

[angelmb]

Originally Posted by Macadvo 

Nothing so scary as hearing the words, "Do you have anyone to look after your son because we need to arrest you?" first thing on a morning though lol

That's scary, glad to hear all is fine now

Since you are running Vista, I would say go for the RAM if you run both OSes at once (Vista under VMware or Parallels). If by other hand you use Boot Camp to run Vista you have plenty of RAM thought but hey, more RAM is always welcome.

You would want to check what Activity Monitor says about Page ins & Page outs, that's a good indicator about the need for RAM your system could eventually have.

[SierraDragon]

Your setup is pretty solid now. IMO you should wait and see what falls out of Mac Expo SF in two weeks before spending any money. E.g. as an Aperture user a hot new graphics card may become desirable. Lots may happen at Expo.

I strongly recommend Mac Expo SF to all. Hundreds of Mac vendors and the opportunity to individually talk to folks high up the food chain makes a couple of days there a good annual grounding for understanding the state of the Mac world.

Watching the very latest product demos by great presenters on optimized hardware can provide really good info as to the relative competence of different apps. One app may shine while a competitive app falters, allowing prescient insight into which app one should commit to. E.g. folks considering modernizing DSLR workflows should carefully watch the Aperture and Lightroom presentations.

-Allen Wicks

[Macadvo]

Allen,

Sound advice about waiting for the Expo in SF, a graphics upgrade would indeed go down well with Aperture, and also gaming in Windows

A bump to 2.0 for Aperture would also be fantastic but I don't see that coming at SF really.

Alistair

[SierraDragon]

Originally Posted by Macadvo 

A bump to 2.0 for Aperture would also be fantastic but I don't see that coming at SF really.

Bummer, I hope you are wrong. Aperture needs an upgrade...

-Allen Wicks

[Macadvo]

You're not wrong there. I have stuck with Aperture from day one even though IMO Lightroom outshines it in a number of areas in the hope and belief that Apple will get it right eventually and build on what is already a fantastic product.

It's a PITA that Aperture is SO good in some areas and LR in others, my ideal product would be the best of these two......Apple please buy Adobe and merge them would you?

[SierraDragon]

Originally Posted by Macadvo 

Apple please buy Adobe and merge them would you?

Please no. Both firms have tendencies toward being monopolist wannabees. The worst thing for users would be if those two firms, instead of competing, merged.

-Allen Wicks

[Macadvo]

Well ok, how about if Apple took what's good about LR (ie the editing) and integrated into Aperture. Oh another smart move would be if Apple provided us Aperture users with a team of people to help keyword our images when we first start using it. All the photos I've taken SINCE using Aperture are keyworded nicely but finding the time to keyword the 8,000 or so prior to Aperture is a nightmare lol.

Alistair

[SierraDragon]

Originally Posted by Macadvo 

Well ok, how about if Apple took what's good about LR (ie the editing) and integrated into Aperture.

Agreed. I expect Aperture to have more advanced editing real soon now...

Originally Posted by Macadvo 

Oh another smart move would be if Apple provided us Aperture users with a team of people to help keyword our images when we first start using it. All the photos I've taken SINCE using Aperture are keyworded nicely but finding the time to keyword the 8,000 or so prior to Aperture is a nightmare lol.

I agree. I just wish I had only 8000 pre-existing images to deal with...

-Allen Wicks

[Macadvo]

Well, I've only been into photography for the past two or three years hence "only" having 8000 or so pre-existing photos.

TBH Using this awesome Mac Pro with Aperture, although an absolute treat compared to my old Rev A iMac (which is now sitting here running server as an experiment) still suffers from some slowdowns. I honestly think these have to do with the fact that hard drives will never ever be fast enough to supply data to memory/cpu. If only there was an affordable 500GB SSD *sigh*

Apple has been remarkably quiet on the Aperture front as of late, nary a word has been said about possible updates and the 1.5.6 update was so long ago I'm beginning to think they've forgotten all about it.

Possible 2.0 specs? Any ideas?

[Cadaver]

Originally Posted by Macadvo 

TBH Using this awesome Mac Pro with Aperture, although an absolute treat compared to my old Rev A iMac (which is now sitting here running server as an experiment) still suffers from some slowdowns. I honestly think these have to do with the fact that hard drives will never ever be fast enough to supply data to memory/cpu. If only there was an affordable 500GB SSD *sigh*

What video card do you have in your machine. The Radeon X1900XT makes a huge difference in Aperture compared to the stock GeForce 7300.

[Macadvo]

I now, I'm using the X1900XT

The GeForce 7300 GT is sitting in the cupboard and is free to a good home if anyone in the UK wants it...