[Mac User #001]

Alright, I was always a Windows user until a bit ago. A friend of mine let me borrow his iBook G4 with the following stats:

1.33 GHz Processor
512MB RAM
ATI Radeon Mobility 9550
50GB HD

I know its not much of a computer, but it made me fall in love with Mac's. I'm going to be replacing my Dell PC soon, because I bought it a while back, and well, its old. Money is not an issue, I have enough of that, and I'm willing to spend it all. But I was wondering if a fully loaded Mac Pro is sensible. I've also been wondering about getting a VoodooPC running Windows; I've always wanted one of those. First I need to decide between the two, but it will most likely be a Mac Pro. Only there are a few flaws in its design, I think.

When is 16GB of RAM necessary?

How could I possibly fill 4 750GB HD's?

Also, why two 30" displays?

I don't see the need for such overkill on a machine, but if anyone could explain it to me, that'd be great. If I don't need all of this, then even if I have the money, I'm not going to get it. There are better things I could do with the money.

Thanks much!

[Big Mac]

You really don't "need" it even though you may want it. In any event, updates should be coming to the Mac Pro line fairly soon so it makes sense to wait for the refresh.

[mac128k-1984]

Originally Posted by Mac User #001 

When is 16GB of RAM necessary?

How could I possibly fill 4 750GB HD's?

Also, why two 30" displays?

I don't see the need for such overkill on a machine, but if anyone could explain it to me, that'd be great. If I don't need all of this, then even if I have the money, I'm not going to get it. There are better things I could do with the money.

Thanks much!

Well what are you planning on using the Macpro for?
Most people seem pretty happy with 4gig of ram and various sized hard drive(s) that are under 750gb.

I use my MP for photography, along with Aperture and Photoshop so I'm not consuming a huge amount of space but someone doing video could easily fill up 4 750gbs of storage.

If your looking to play games or surf the net the Macpro is overkill, and an iMac may fit those needs better - well at least more economically.

[Mac User #001]

Originally Posted by Big Mac 

You really don't "need" it even though you may want it. In any event, updates should be coming to the Mac Pro line fairly soon so it makes sense to wait for the refresh.

Oh, thanks! I would've bought it by tomorrow depending on the responses. Yikes.

[Mac User #001]

Originally Posted by mac128k-1984 

Well what are you planning on using the Macpro for?
Most people seem pretty happy with 4gig of ram and various sized hard drive(s) that are under 750gb.

I use my MP for photography, along with Aperture and Photoshop so I'm not consuming a huge amount of space but someone doing video could easily fill up 4 750gbs of storage.

If your looking to play games or surf the net the Macpro is overkill, and an iMac may fit those needs better - well at least more economically.

Well I do a fair amount of photo and video editing, but I'll mostly be using it for gaming and music.

I also want a 30" screen, and those don't come on iMac's, do they?
Plus, I don't like the whole everything behind the screen deal. I don't know. I like towers.

Either way, Big Mac said they'd be refitting the Mac Pro's soon, so I'll wait till then!

[Mac User #001]

Originally Posted by Big Mac 

You really don't "need" it even though you may want it. In any event, updates should be coming to the Mac Pro line fairly soon so it makes sense to wait for the refresh.

Ah, do you happen to know when they'll be doing those updates?

Thanks!

[shabbasuraj]

Originally Posted by Mac User #001 

Ah, do you happen to know when they'll be doing those updates?

Thanks!

A few Tuesday's from now.

[Leonard]

Originally Posted by Mac User #001 

Ah, do you happen to know when they'll be doing those updates?

Thanks!

No exact date. Some speculate April at an Apple event at NAB... April 15th I believe.

[Mac User #001]

Alright, thanks everyone for the great help! I can't believe how soon it is! That's good though, because my Dell PC is getting over the hill.

I think what I'll end up doing is getting only 8GB of RAM, keep all 4 750GB HD's, because I know I'll be using either BootCamp or Parallels, and I'll probably get 2 30" screens, just because it would be awesome. Of course, that all depends on how the new Mac Pro's are reconfigured, where I might be right back here asking Q's!

Later all.

[mac128k-1984]

Originally Posted by Leonard 

No exact date. Some speculate April at an Apple event at NAB... April 15th I believe.

Some also Speculate June, and August. There's really no way to pin it down, but if nothing comes out by April 15'th then I'd jump on it.

[idyll]

i have a feeling it won't be until june or so.. the power mac/mac pros have nearly always been updated in the summer.. for the past three years at least.

[brokenjago]

Alright, thanks everyone for the great help! I can't believe how soon it is! That's good though, because my Dell PC is getting over the hill.

I think what I'll end up doing is getting only 8GB of RAM, keep all 4 750GB HD's, because I know I'll be using either BootCamp or Parallels, and I'll probably get 2 30" screens, just because it would be awesome. Of course, that all depends on how the new Mac Pro's are reconfigured, where I might be right back here asking Q's!

Later all.

I'd buy those 750GB drives from Newegg, for $220 less per drive than Apple, personally.

I would also stay away from buying RAM from Apple, especially in that amount. You can save about $1500 by going with Max Upgrades. Yes, One Thousand Five Hundred Dollars.

As for the 30" Displays, you can go with ones from dell for a savings of at least $550 on each display, if not more with discount codes etc.

That's a total of $3260 in approximate savings.

If you do take my advice, you can always pass on the savings to me! I do accept Paypal and most major credit cards.

[Leonard]

Originally Posted by idyll 

i have a feeling it won't be until june or so.. the power mac/mac pros have nearly always been updated in the summer.. for the past three years at least.

That started with the G5's and it only happened for the first two generations of G5, it didn't happen for 3 years.

PowerMac G4 (FW800) January 2003
PowerMac G5 June 2003
PowerMac G5 June 2004
PowerMac G5 April 2005
PowerMac G5 October 2005
Mac Pro August 2006

That shows two years where it was June and can be verified at apple-history.com and only one year where updates were a year apart.

[imitchellg5]

What the junk would you use 16 Gb of RAM for? That's absolutely ridiculous unless you plan on exporting HD movies and editing them for the next 20 years. The HD's you could theoretically fill if you edit high def video. Go for one 30". Two can be an annoyance if you don't need them.

[chris v]

I'll second brokenjago. Buy the highest-end machine CPU-wise, but get it with the stock amt. of RAM & 1 hard drive. These are things you can easily add later for less that Apple would charge. And for the display, Dells are about 50% of what Apple charges. I've got a Dell 20" widescreen LCD and I love it.

[mac128k-1984]

Definitely, go with the minimum that apple provides and pick up some less espensive (but faster) drives elsewhere and the ram. You need to be careful on the MacPro ram because of the heat spreaders, get the wrong kind and you'll cook your ram.

[Frugle]

why are you buying an apple anyways? I don't know of any apple users who play games...

I also agree with doing the upgrades yourself..

as a video-editor, I have over 6TB of space.... you would be surprised how quickly that fills up.. especially with high def stuff.

[VanillaEps]

16GB of RAM? Don't MBP have a limit at 3GB?

[Mac Write]

Yes MBPs (MacBookPros) and iMacs have a 3GB limit while MP (Mac Pros) have a limit of 16GB of RAM.

Kingston has there high quality RAM (I have used Kingston Value RAM up to now) is $250CDN 1GB (2x512) and $400CDN (2x1GB). Now that's a good deal, and is specifically for the Mac Pro. Basically the Mac Pros use Server RAM hence the hefty requirements (fully buffered I think that's it).

[mickeymac]

Like one poster mentioned, check out the Dell 30". It's specs are superior to the Apple 30" for less money. Personally, I prefer the design of the Apple 30" which is why I bought it over the Dell.

If you're not already using a 30", I'd suggest going with one at first. It really is A LOT of real estate, and you'll find yourself building new neck muscles moving your head around to take in all of the display's size. If you find that you need two, by all means, go for it, but give one a try first.

I think your decision to go with 8GB instead of 16GB is wise based on your intended use. The OS really comes alive at 4GB, but beyond that, the performance increase from additional memory diminishes without its requirement for specific needs such as video editing, scientific apps, etc. Parallels should task nicely with other apps with your intended 8GB setup.

Sounds like a fun build, enjoy!

[Mac User #001]

To all of you who have said I should get RAM, HD's, and screens from somewhere else, its a good idea, but I'm not going to take it up. Sorry. First of all, saving a bit of money isn't much of a priority. I like the way Apple's 30" screens look, and I don't want to mess around with installing things myself. My brother, who is probably much better than I am at it, never had much luck. He always had problems with computers he made.

Thanks though, really.

[Mac User #001]

Originally Posted by Frugle 

why are you buying an apple anyways? I don't know of any apple users who play games...

I also agree with doing the upgrades yourself..

as a video-editor, I have over 6TB of space.... you would be surprised how quickly that fills up.. especially with high def stuff.

Umm. I'm buying an Apple because I love them. And what are you talking about? There's got to be Apple gamers. I know there is:

Halo: Combat Evolved
C&C Generals and Zero Hour
Call of Duty
Battlefield 1942
Star Wars: Galactic Battlegrounds
Star Wars: Empire at War
Homeworld 2
Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy
Lego Star Wars
All the Mysts (Except Myst 2 I think, Riven)
Redline
Starcraft
Battlefront
And trust me, I could go on.
Besides, Parallels? BootCamp?
I'll be fine, don't worry.

[Mac User #001]

Originally Posted by mickeymac 

Like one poster mentioned, check out the Dell 30". It's specs are superior to the Apple 30" for less money. Personally, I prefer the design of the Apple 30" which is why I bought it over the Dell.

If you're not already using a 30", I'd suggest going with one at first. It really is A LOT of real estate, and you'll find yourself building new neck muscles moving your head around to take in all of the display's size. If you find that you need two, by all means, go for it, but give one a try first.

I think your decision to go with 8GB instead of 16GB is wise based on your intended use. The OS really comes alive at 4GB, but beyond that, the performance increase from additional memory diminishes without its requirement for specific needs such as video editing, scientific apps, etc. Parallels should task nicely with other apps with your intended 8GB setup.

Sounds like a fun build, enjoy!

Thank you, I think I'll take your advice and start with one 30". It might be all I need. I also totally agree with you on the screens, Apple's look way better

[mac128k-1984]

Originally Posted by Mac User #001 

To all of you who have said I should get RAM, HD's, and screens from somewhere else, its a good idea, but I'm not going to take it up. Sorry. First of all, saving a bit of money isn't much of a priority.

It's your money but here's a for instance
apple is selling 4 gig of ram for 1500 dollars.
OWC is selling the same brand that apple uses for 550.

You want to spend an extra 950 dollars just so that you don't have put it in is your business but be aware of two things.
Tthe memory from OWC uses the same heat spreaders and the same mfg company that apple uses, that is apple does not make its own memory.
The second thing to be aware of is that apple made it incredibly easy to replace the ram in a macpro.

Its your money and your decision.

[Mac User #001]

Originally Posted by mac128k-1984 

It's your money but here's a for instance
apple is selling 4 gig of ram for 1500 dollars.
OWC is selling the same brand that apple uses for 550.

You want to spend an extra 950 dollars just so that you don't have put it in is your business but be aware of two things.
Tthe memory from OWC uses the same heat spreaders and the same mfg company that apple uses, that is apple does not make its own memory.
The second thing to be aware of is that apple made it incredibly easy to replace the ram in a macpro.

Its your money and your decision.

Oh, it is easier than normal eh? Someone else stressed the expensiveness of Apple's RAM as well, maybe I should just get it from another place, especially if its easier than normal to put in. And the system should recognize it no problem? As long as I have the same types of memory, which will probably be 4 2 gigs. Alright then, thanks again.

OWC: Apple Mac G4 upgrades, Laptop Batteries, Memory, Drives

Right?

[imitchellg5]

I guess if you have the money just buy from Apple. But you could do just fine with 2 or even 1 Gb of RAM for games.... RAM hardly matters. I got 640 Mb in my Power Mac G4 and it does great with the newer games with my Radeon 9800 (my sig is wrong right now).

[mac128k-1984]

Originally Posted by Mac User #001 

Oh, it is easier than normal eh?
OWC: Apple Mac G4 upgrades, Laptop Batteries, Memory, Drives

Very easy, take a look yourself Apple Mac Pro Manuals

Basically you open the case (lift up the lever and pull the side off). You pull Riser A out, add two memory cards to slot 1 and 2. Place the riser back in (providing ample pressure to make sure its seated) Pull riser B out and add the other two memory modules to slot 1 and 2 and replace the riser.

You want the 4 gig to be split between riser A and riser B to take advantage of the memory controller.

[Mac User #001]

Originally Posted by mac128k-1984 

Very easy, take a look yourself Apple Mac Pro Manuals

Basically you open the case (lift up the lever and pull the side off). You pull Riser A out, add two memory cards to slot 1 and 2. Place the riser back in (providing ample pressure to make sure its seated) Pull riser B out and add the other two memory modules to slot 1 and 2 and replace the riser.

You want the 4 gig to be split between riser A and riser B to take advantage of the memory controller.

Awesome.

Alright, if I got this Mac Pro here, is this where I'd be best to get everything?

* Two 3.0GHz Dual-Core Intel Xeon= From Apple
* 8GB (4 x 2GB)= From MaxUpgrades.com: HeatSink for Fully Buffered DIMM
* 750GB 7200-rpm Serial ATA 3Gb/s= Newegg.com - Seagate Barracuda ES ST3750640NS 750GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM
* 750GB 7200-rpm Serial ATA 3Gb/s= ^
* 750GB 7200-rpm Serial ATA 3Gb/s= ^
* 750GB 7200-rpm Serial ATA 3Gb/s= ^
* NVIDIA Quadro FX 4500 512MB, Stereo 3D (2 x dual-link DVI)= From Apple?
* Apple Cinema HD Display (30" flat panel)= From Apple, possibility of 2.
* Two 16x SuperDrives= From Apple
* Both Bluetooth 2.0+EDR and AirPort Extreme= From Apple
* Apple Keyboard and Mighty Mouse - U.S. English= From Apple
* Mac OS X - U.S. English= From Apple
* AppleCare Protection Plan for Mac Pro/Power Mac (w/or w/o Display) - Auto-enroll= From Apple

Now my question is, for everything I'm not getting from Apple, what do I when ordering the Mac Pro? Do I order 1 150GB hard drive and then sell it on eBay? Order 1GB memory from Apple and sell it on eBay? And should I get the graphics card from Apple? If I don't, get the worst and sell that on eBay? Also, should I get 2 30" screens?

[mac128k-1984]

Looks good, do a searchon seagate drives here, some people have reported less then stellar results, I'm not sure if an issues exists, and if so does it exist for a specific model.
Other then that it looks good.

As for your questions
Keep the memory since you'll have room to within one of the risers
Not sure what to do about the HD, I always like to keep it just in case but then I don't have 4 drives
Graphics card, your only real choice is only to buy from apple because PC graphic cards expect the computer to BIOS where as Macpros use EFI.

2 30" monitors seem a little over-kill to me, but I'm not the one using it.

[brokenjago]

* NVIDIA Quadro FX 4500 512MB, Stereo 3D (2 x dual-link DVI)= From Apple?

Please note that unless you will be doing 3D modeling, or Computer-Aided Design (CAD,) that the Quadro FX is actually slower in some tasks than the X1900XT, especially in games. The only reason one would get that card is because it offers some very specific features that some people who do 3D professionally need, such as antialiasing of lines.

2 30" monitors seem a little over-kill to me, but I'm not the one using it.

Agreed.

Oh, it is easier than normal eh?

Almost Everything (except installing additional Optical Drives) is easier on the Mac Pro than a regular computer. It's made that way. Wanna install a hard drive? Don't need to mess with any cables, just screw it in, slide it in, done. Wanna install more RAM? Just slide out the memory riser, plonk it into the slots closest to the Mother Board, slide the riser back in, done. There's even a tutorial movie available so you can know for sure how to do it.

(Don't get confused when they mention all that stuff about it having to be from the same manufacturer and matched pairs. All they mean is that each pair of two need to be the same size and same brand. So if you have two sticks you want to install they both need to be 1 GB, or 2 GB, etc.)

Looks good, do a search on seagate drives here, some people have reported less then stellar results, I'm not sure if an issues exists, and if so does it exist for a specific model.
Other then that it looks good.

Seagate drives with Firmware 3.AEE or higher experience no issues.

Do I order 1 150GB hard drive and then sell it on eBay? Order 1GB memory from Apple and sell it on eBay? And should I get the graphics card from Apple?

Yes, Yes, Yes, respectively. You can't get the graphics card anywhere BUT from Apple, actually, so that one's a no-brainer. You can also trade-in the 1 GB to OWC for credit towards your 8 GB, and use the 160GB as an external if you'd like. Note that if you install a 32 bit version of WIndows XP/Vista on your Mac Pro, it will only see up to 4 GB of RAM.

There's got to be Apple gamers.

Yeah, and I'm one of them. I didn't buy my Mac Pro JUST for gaming, but it's one of the many uses I have it for.

And as one final note, please realize that some of the latest games will have trouble displaying at full native resolution (2560x1600) with all the settings maxed out. This is because that's such an insanely high res and most graphics cards (this includes both the ATi X1900XT and Nvidia FX 4500) will have a hard time rendering them acceptably. Older games should be fine, but newer ones, such as Supreme Commander, and Command and Conquer 3 might have some trouble on a 30". And this is under Windows.

[Mac User #001]

Originally Posted by mac128k-1984 

Looks good, do a searchon seagate drives here, some people have reported less then stellar results, I'm not sure if an issues exists, and if so does it exist for a specific model.
Other then that it looks good.

As for your questions
Keep the memory since you'll have room to within one of the risers
Not sure what to do about the HD, I always like to keep it just in case but then I don't have 4 drives
Graphics card, your only real choice is only to buy from apple because PC graphic cards expect the computer to BIOS where as Macpros use EFI.

2 30" monitors seem a little over-kill to me, but I'm not the one using it.

Oh yea, I'll have the room, I'll just keep the memory. I could only buy 3 HD's and just keep the one from Apple.
And yea, I've only seen a few serious editors with 2 30" screens. I won't get 2.

Originally Posted by brokenjago 

Please note that unless you will be doing 3D modeling, or Computer-Aided Design (CAD,) that the Quadro FX is actually slower in some tasks than the X1900XT, especially in games. The only reason one would get that card is because it offers some very specific features that some people who do 3D professionally need, such as antialiasing of lines.Agreed.Almost Everything (except installing additional Optical Drives) is easier on the Mac Pro than a regular computer. It's made that way. Wanna install a hard drive? Don't need to mess with any cables, just screw it in, slide it in, done. Wanna install more RAM? Just slide out the memory riser, plonk it into the slots closest to the Mother Board, slide the riser back in, done. There's even a tutorial movie available so you can know for sure how to do it.

(Don't get confused when they mention all that stuff about it having to be from the same manufacturer and matched pairs. All they mean is that each pair of two need to be the same size and same brand. So if you have two sticks you want to install they both need to be 1 GB, or 2 GB, etc.)Seagate drives with Firmware 3.AEE or higher experience no issues.
Yes, Yes, Yes, respectively. You can't get the graphics card anywhere BUT from Apple, actually, so that one's a no-brainer. You can also trade-in the 1 GB to OWC for credit towards your 8 GB, and use the 160GB as an external if you'd like. Note that if you install a 32 bit version of WIndows XP/Vista on your Mac Pro, it will only see up to 4 GB of RAM.
Yeah, and I'm one of them. I didn't buy my Mac Pro JUST for gaming, but it's one of the many uses I have it for.

And as one final note, please realize that some of the latest games will have trouble displaying at full native resolution (2560x1600) with all the settings maxed out. This is because that's such an insanely high res and most graphics cards (this includes both the ATi X1900XT and Nvidia FX 4500) will have a hard time rendering them acceptably. Older games should be fine, but newer ones, such as Supreme Commander, and Command and Conquer 3 might have some trouble on a 30". And this is under Windows.

Ok. First of all, I thank you greatly for telling me about the Quadro FX. I'll mostly be using my Mac for gaming, but with some video and photo editing, so the X1900 would be the best I guess.
I don't think I'll mind having to play games at lower resolutions than native, but thanks though.
As to the memory recognition in Windows, that should be fine. 4GB will be enough for gaming anyways, which will be all Windows is for, with a few exceptions.

I know its not the right area of DB, but C&C 3 is simply awesome! I bought it yesterday Been a fan of C&C since the beginning!

[Mac User #001]

Just to clear things up, I'm not buying a Mac to mostly use BootCamp Windows. Wouldn't make much sense.

Windows is for gaming not yet ported to the Mac and a few other random things not yet on the Mac.

Mac is for everything else. Games, work, video and photo editing, any kind of word processing, music, web browsing, programming (haven't really even started, but I plan on it) and other things.

[olePigeon]

This is what I would do for a Mac Pro setup if money wasn't an issue:

Dual (Quad?) Xeon (whatever the update will be)
16GB RAM
160GB HDD, chuck it on eBay (will explain later)
Dual SLI Video cards (nVidia or ATI, whatever comes out at NAB [if it does], otherwise, ATI)
Single 30" Cinema

For the hard drives, buy a Serial Attached SCSI Card and pick up four of these bad boys. Fujitsu 15,000 RPM 160GB SAS drives.

These suckers will be faster than a bat outta hell. I'd RAID 2 each together.

Drive 1: Fujitsu 15K RPM 140 GB SAS Drive
Drive 2: Fujitsu 15K RPM 140 GB SAS Drive
Drive 3: Fujitsu 15K RPM 140 GB SAS Drive
Drive 4: Fujitsu 15K RPM 140 GB SAS Drive

RAID drives 1 and 2, and then RAID drives 3 and 4. Put OS X on the first RAID array, and Windows on the second RAID array. Dual boot for maximum performance between production and game play.

[brokenjago]

I know its not the right area of DB, but C&C 3 is simply awesome!

Totally Agree. Downloaded the Demo, and the game should arrive on Monday or Tuesday. Can't Wait

Windows is for gaming not yet ported to the Mac and a few other random things not yet on the Mac.

Same here. The new Mac Pros should be *awesome*, especially considering that there are some rumors that ATi is designing a card variant *specifically* for the Mac Pro, the new X2800XTX! Support for DX10 and a ton of of other new features make that pretty exciting.

And don't forget Octo Cores and stuff.

[brokenjago]

Woops!

Nevermind.

Mods, delete if you care to.

[osiris24x]

You didn't mention what you'd be using this system for, so a recommendation is pretty much impossible.

If you're doing professional video work, then the system you speak of would be plenty sufficient, otherwise it's overkill. A quad core Mac Pro with 2 to 4 GB of RAM and a single 250 GB drive with one 30" display, would be a killer system and more than enough power for just about anything.

[Mac User #001]

Actually, I did mention what I'd be using it for later on, but its alright, I've got it all figured out, I know what I need to know.

Thanks though.

[olePigeon]

If anything, go for the SCSI drives I mentioned. Dual 15K RPM SAS drives would be insanely fast. Screw SATA. Since SAS can interface with SATA drives, you could just use one set of RAID 15K RPM SAS drives, and then put in two 750 GB SATA drives in the other two drive bays for 1.5 TB of storage.

In any event, I would strongly recommend the SCSI drives. You can't get any better than that in performance and speed.

[brokenjago]

I dunno. 600 GB for double the RPMs? It depends on what you're doing.

And they'd be LOUD.

[olePigeon]

Originally Posted by brokenjago 

I dunno. 600 GB for double the RPMs? It depends on what you're doing.

And they'd be LOUD.

Well, if money's not an option, he could stick it in a sound proof, air conditioned 12u rackmount cabinet.

[Frugle]

I would also recommend getting a super HD also.

Doesn't have to be scsi though... why not a super SATA? Newegg.com - Western Digital Raptor X WD1500AHFD 150GB 10,000 RPM 16MB Cache Serial ATA150 Hard Drive - OEM

anything with 10k RPMs... doesn't have to be that specific model.. and it doesn't really have to be SATA 2... those drives outperform any sata 2 drive even on sata1..


BTW: isn't the mac pro now limited to 32GB of RAM with the introduction of 4GB sticks? of course no-one would want it since it is DDR3... but strictly for bragging rights (because we all know that the amount of RAM we have equals our penis size) you can now get 32GB of RAM.

[Frugle]

BTW: Don't waste your money on 750GB drives... Hitachi (should have already) is realeasing its 1TB HDs for 399... so I def. wouldn't pay 600 dollars from apple to get a 750GB drive.

so your mac pro can have 4TB of space internal! AnandTech: Hitachi Deskstar 7K1000: Terabyte Storage arrives on the Desktop

[brokenjago]

Well, if money's not an option, he could stick it in a sound proof, air conditioned 12u rackmount cabinet.

I would certainly hope money is an option, otherwise how will he pay for it?

[ninahagen]

Hi everyone,
I have the last PowerMac quad-core, with 8MB of RAM, and am about to upgrade to the 8-core which will be coming (fingers crossed at NB).

I bought the quad-core because I am an art dealer and about publish two books, so I have work with multi-layer, hi-res images (500MB to 1GB) in photoshop all the time. I had the same questions as "fresh faced recruit" about what is really needed, and never got any great answers. Luckily, this second-hand machine came up with 8GB RAM, and quad 2.5, so I figured I would use this until I found someone who knew. Can any of you help me? I have some observations & questions here and would be really thankful for some solid answers.

— Even with all that RAM, it still takes 10-30 seconds to do an advanced Photoshop operation with a 1GB tif file...even more if there are layers. No complaints, that is fast, but as I move toward a higher volume images, I would like to minimize that processing time...
If 16GB would cut the time by 3%, it wouldn't be worth it, but by half it would be worth a lot over time...the graphic designer working for me makes around $15 an hour, so saving half the processing time means $7.50 an hour sound $3000 extra bucks for RAM would be paid back in 400 hours of work (about 2 months)...if it is 25% faster, then 4 months. Can anybody guess how much extra speed I will get?

One note: I also have just a fair vid card, a mid-grade Nvidia from 1 1/2 years ago...that might be affecting the speed of the current machine...which bring me to the next question. One very considerate respondent said that Quadro FX was not the fastest in all applications...really glad to know that...do you know which would be the fastest for hi-res photoshop work?

Also, I totally agree with all about the screen...I have the lucite Mac 23 cinema, and that is already pretty big... my go to a single 30, but two, I can only imaging it useful for viewing sequences of video frames, or try to put together an exhibition from many, many pics.

Hope to hear back...
Thanks,
John

[rotuts]

Id really look at two smaller monitors cost about the same:

I have samsung 24" (main) and samsung 21" (right)

all off one videocard.

all the pallettes etc on thr R

seems best to me

cheers

[danviento]

For ninjahagen:

Although I don't have an awesome powerhouse for a machine lilke you, I must stress the importance of more RAM. Every drop helps. I recently made my architectural portfolio which took 100's of PSDs that were presentation board size and took the content down to a book size. After about page 30 of 90, Pages (great publication app, btw) slowed to a crawl, and that's with my poor PB maxed out @ 2GB of RAM.

My suggestion would be to NOT buy the stock RAM from Apple. They charge quite a bit more than you can get it for elsewhere, and with the design of the MacPro, a simple install like this is ridiculously easy. Take a look at Newegg.com - Buy Computer Parts, PC Components, Laptop Computers, Digital Cameras and more! and the sit can steer you towards the exact kind of memory your machine takes. If you take a little time, say about an hour, to surf the web, you can find much better deals. If you're interested in getting that return on your purchase as quickly as possible, find the lowest price. Good luck!

[ninahagen]

Thanks for the reply,

Very nice to get your answer. Yes, I saw a huge difference moving up from around a GB RAM to 8 GB, but some people told me that 8 > 16GB would make a much smaller difference, and as you know, it is a pretty large difference in price. Can anybody guess the difference between 8 and 16?

Anybody know about the video card quandry?

Thanks again,

John

PS Appreciate your answer Dan...:-)

[ninahagen]

I wonder though, is there any difference at all in performance between Mac RAM and secondary suppliers...manufacturing tolerances, resale value, compatibity, etc?

Also, I read one other forum member knew of blazing fast hard drives... I know Hitachi plans to come with a 1 TB HD soon, and I guess the 8-core will have it...wouldn't Apple use the best in their premiere machine?

[ninahagen]

Dan,

How heavy were those psd files?

John

[rotuts]

my MP has 3GB the min. two add on RAM do not have the heavy deal heat sinks and Ive had no problems.

but the truth is what you do. has everybody seen this and bookmaked it or even printed it for ref? :

diglloyd: All About Apple Mac Pro Memory

cheers