[Mac_X]

I was slightly dissapointed at the speed of the new iMacs or atleast the 17" 2Ghz C2D 1GB RAM. I know the RAM is quite low, but my eMac with 768 MB of RAM renders just as fast with iMovie 6. Although the iMac slightly faster than my eMac, it feels as if there is no great difference in processor (refering to the 2GHz C2D). So I assume if i want to use a future proof and powerful machine, the Mac Pro with 2x Xeon Cores would be the best buy. A few questions:
How is the Mac Pro overall?
What can be said about it in comparison to the G4, G5 and C2D computers?
Any noticible difference between the 2 Ghz, 2.66 Ghz & 3 Ghz models?
What differences are there in the different optional graphics cards?

[brokenjago]

I love mine. I love it.

That is all to be said.

[Cadaver]

Originally Posted by Mac_X 

A few questions:
How is the Mac Pro overall?

Fast. Very fast. Among the fastest machines I've ever had the chance to use - Mac, PC or Sun SPARC.

What can be said about it in comparison to the G4, G5 and C2D computers?

Noticeably faster than any G4 or G5 machine I've ever used (though I've never really used a G5 Quad, which I am sure is also a fast machine).

Any noticible difference between the 2 Ghz, 2.66 Ghz & 3 Ghz models?

Don't bother with the 2.0GHz Mac Pro. The cost savings isn't at all worth it. You're not even getting 50% of your price back on the cost differential of the processors compared to the 2.66GHz model. The 2.66GHz is the sweet-spot currently in terms of performance for the price. Consider 3.0GHz if you really need the top of the line machine. If you don't know that you do, you probably don't.

What differences are there in the different optional graphics cards?

The stock nVidia GeForce 7300GT is fine for nearly everything except games at very high resolution and 3D rendering with Motion, Shake or other sophisticated applications.
The X1900XT is a very powerful graphics card that will satisfy all but the most die-hard game player (since there are newer PC cards that will outperform the X1900XT).
Unless you know you need the Quadro board, don't bother. It wont do anything for you in terms of game speed.

My system:
Mac Pro 2.66GHz, 4GB RAM, Radeon X1900 XT, 30" Cinema Display, 300GB system drive, 250GB backup drive, 2x74GB Raptor RAID 0 for current projects, 4x160GB FireWire 800 for long term storage, Sony DW-D150A Superdrive (stock), Pioneer DVR-108 Superdrive (harvested from my previous G5), Bluetooth module.

[derekn]

1: Overall it's a very nice, fast, quiet, reliable machine. The access to expansion is just amazing, especially for adding hard drives. It's so easy, you literally want to do it just for fun. To add RAM, you just pull out the riser card, put the RAM in and slide the card back in. Your noise level will go up slightly if you have the X1900, but even with that, it's a VERY quiet machine and a great machine to use everyday. There have been some slight issues, the Firewire seems to be a bit flaky. You can read about that and all the other issues, observations etc here:
Mac Pro

2: It's much faster than my MDD G4s or my G5, both in boot times, encoding and as I said above, ease of installation of expansion. If you'd like to see a performance comparison that will pretty much settle that issue, check this Apple discussions thread:
Apple - Support - Discussions - Mac Pro about 7X faster than a Quad G5 ...

3: The 2.66Ghz is the best system to get. I'd personally say ignore the 3Ghz MacPro. That upgrade costs $800, gives you a 13% increase in clock speed, but will only give you about a 5 or 6% increase in real world performance when you get any at all. The only real reason to get the 3Ghz is if you want to say "I have Apples latest and greatest". Also, the 3Ghz uses 80 watts of power, the 2 and 2.66 Ghz use 65, so the price to performance ratio goes down a bit more with that.

As Cadaver said, if you play games, the X1900. If you don't, the 7300 will be fine.

[Xyrrus]

Ditto on the 2.66 sweet spot and the quietness/relative speed, etc.

The X1900 card is also a fantastic card for Aperture. I noticed a big difference between the 7300 and the X1900. Final Cut/Motion will also benefit from it if that's your thing. I'm also hearing about some open GL accelerated drawing in photoshop CS3 beta. Its not *just* for gaming, although it does do that pretty well

Get lots of RAM. 2 gigs is what'd I'd recommend off the bat. Also, with 4 drive bays and SATA drives being as dirt cheap as they are, I'd highly recommend a RAID setup.

-Xy

[thebunny]

I love mine. It's a really well done machine, a work of art. As for the video card, get the x1900 if you plan to game at high resolutions/quality or if you use Apple pro apps. Otherwise, the 7300 will do fine and it's completely silent unlike the x1900. The amount of memory and the CPUs also depend on what you'll be using it for. Video, CPUs and memory are upgradeable which is a huge help.

[Mac_X]

Ok, so the Mac Pro is as good as I imagined. I guess I'll start saving up to get one, but I think I'll wait for the next Macworld before going out on the market... might possibly wait for 10.5 to come out, with 64.bit compatibility, probablly the "octo" will come out, dropping prices of the 2.66 Ghz.
Anyway, a big dilemma I am having is with the graphics card. The X1900 semms to well superior to the NVIDIA GeForce 7300 GT. (looking at apples benchmarks, 44 fps vs. 106 fps // 35 fps vs. 75 fps). But what about 2 NVIDIA GeForce 7300 GT cards vs. the X1900? Would 2 7300 GT cards mean twice the fps?

[PowerPc = Pwnage]

I am impressed with the speed, but Adobe better wake the hell up and start coding or it will be a long time before a decent amount of people switch.

[justinbaby]

I am impressed with the speed, but Adobe better wake the hell up and start coding or it will be a long time before a decent amount of people switch.

I know of several people who agree with you. The hardware, however, is extremely elegant.

[The Ancient One]

Originally Posted by brokenjago 

I love mine. I love it.

That is all to be said.

Second the emotion. I just slapped in another hard drive. Easiest upgrade ever.

[himself]

Originally Posted by Mac_X 

...Anyway, a big dilemma I am having is with the graphics card. The X1900 semms to well superior to the NVIDIA GeForce 7300 GT. (looking at apples benchmarks, 44 fps vs. 106 fps // 35 fps vs. 75 fps). But what about 2 NVIDIA GeForce 7300 GT cards vs. the X1900? Would 2 7300 GT cards mean twice the fps?

Two 7300GTs won't get you twice the fps, only twice the display connectors. On a Mac Pro, getting two of those cards is only worthwhile if you need to attach more than two displays. The X1900 is the best option, otherwise.