[rotuts]

on a slightly different thread I asked about external connections for a new iMac that I had planned to buy on the up coming Tax Holiday

it was mentioned that video processing might not be faster at all on the i5

Im not doubting that, but id like to hear more opinions

my MacPro is and early one, 2 x 2.66 dual core Xeon.

I process personal TV from EyeTV ( edit ) then sometimes use

elgato turbo.264 HD sometimes use Mac SimplyRAR

I can only do one process at a time or the edit of the video from eyetv is

quite choppy and useless.

w the new iMac Id hope to do say two processes at the same time and get

perhaps a speed boost but w faultless editing and 'turbo.264'

many thanks.

[OreoCookie]

First of all, you need to give us more details on the configurations you have in mind (e. g. screen size, RAM, CPU speed of the iMac, whether you include an SSD).

Here are a few pointers:
- The CPU of the iMac will be substantially faster. Last year's iMac will have approximately have double the Geekbench score than your of your Mac Pro. Geekbench isn't the best benchmark, and yes, I needed to compare 32 bit and 64 bit results, but anywho. Even a two-year old iMac is about twice as fast.
- RAM is important, I'd get 16 GB.
- Get the SSD. This is the most important upgrade, much more important than a CPU or GPU speed bump. Upgrade to the SSD, then upgrade the RAM and then something else. An SSD speeds up common operations by a factor of 2+. My Retina MacBook Pro boots in ~10 seconds.

It seems to me that the iMac has become the default machine for video editing, so don't worry, you won't regret the upgrade.

[akent35]

To further endorse OreoCookie's point, both my Mac Book Air and my Mac Mini have SSDs in them, and each of them boots up in less than 10 seconds.

[Mike Wuerthele]

The SSD is a great, GREAT boost, but won't help with video transcoding speed. However, the problem with the choppy capture won't be solved with the iMac, but might by a SSD.

I also have the Turbo H.264HD, and I found that Handbrake transcoding was faster than the quad-core with the H264 dongle, but not by a lot. However...

How handy are you? I'm going to suggest something radical. Your Mac Pro has a pair of socketed CPUs in it. With the right CPU selection, for about $200 and an afternoon you can have an octocore 3.0GHz chip in a machine more suited to long processing runs than the Haswell or Ivy Bridge laptop chips in the Mac Mini or iMac.

2006 Mac Pro 8-Core CPU Upgrade, PC 5770 Video Card + EFI upgrade

And yes, I've done this.

[rotuts]

so many fine ideas

all appreciated

'back in the day' I was 'handy' not so much now.

I plan to get the 3 TB hybrid drive on the iMac.

I am really impressed by the display.

worse come to worse:

I do plan on keeping the MPro.

I can cap there, then transfer somehow to the iMac

but I doubt that will work.

I do plan to get 16 GB of RAM.

thank you all !

I plan to order 'on line' and they have already assured me they know about the

Tax Holiday.

Ive been in the 'Mall' for other things when this yearly 'holiday' comes up

the apple store is mobbed !

Politicians UnderStand " Bread and Circus " for sure !

now about those pot holes down the street:

not so much.

[Mike Wuerthele]

Originally Posted by rotuts 

I do plan on keeping the MPro.

I can cap there, then transfer somehow to the iMac

but I doubt that will work.

Why not? Capture on the Mac Pro, transfer to the new machine across the network. If this is most all the Mac Pro is doing, then its a guarantee of a smooth capture. Load it up with SATA hard drives internally, and make it a home server for iTunes, iPhoto, and whatnot. Pretty simple to set up file sharing.

If you get REALLY inventive, you can wrangle some Applescripts to automatically transfer for you!

[rotuts]

EstaNightshift

Ill ask you about the network later.

Im told, and I dont really understand it, from the Apple people at the apple store

that connecting the new iMac to the Old MP might be probematic

but Im encouraged and will go ahead w the iMac purchase.

many thanks !

100 $$ coupon ! also

[OreoCookie]

Originally Posted by rotuts 

I can cap there, then transfer somehow to the iMac

but I doubt that will work.

Why shouldn't that work? It's dead simple: Just let them join the same network (wired for faster transfer, but wireless also works), and enable file sharing. It's dead simple. Depending on what software you use, you can also send rendering jobs to your Mac Pro. But honestly, in most cases, the added complication isn't worth it. I'd probably use the Mac Pro as a file server, though. That's much cleaner than handling external hard drives.

[rotuts]

many thanks

""" Pretty simple to set up file sharing. """

how do I do this ? cables, etc ?

much appreciated.

[Mike Wuerthele]

How do you connect to the Internet now, I'm assuming you have a router and Wi-Fi set up?

[Mike Wuerthele]

Apple step-by-step

OS X: How to connect with File Sharing using SMB

[rotuts]

many thanks

I have FiOS, and an ActionTeck router, which I currently dont use as I have one computer and no current need for WiFi

it seems to have 4 ether net ports on the router.

would the iMac and the MacPro both connect to the router
and each ( probably only need the 'main' iMac ) to connect to the internet?

would file sharing then go through the router ?

and BTW, would the i7 chip in the top of the line make a big difference in doing several

video tasks at the same time ?

I plan to kep the iMac for quite some time, but doubt Ill be doing more processing

than Im doing now in the future

those days are in the Rear Mirror !

you help is invaluable and many thanks for it !

[OreoCookie]

Originally Posted by rotuts 

I have FiOS, and an ActionTeck router, which I currently dont use as I have one computer and no current need for WiFi

it seems to have 4 ether net ports on the router.

would the iMac and the MacPro both connect to the router
and each ( probably only need the 'main' iMac ) to connect to the internet?

Yes, you plug in both, and both computers should just connect to the internet using the default settings. Once you activate file sharing, both computers can see each other through this wired network.

If you transfer a lot of video files, you should verify that you have a router with a Gigabit switch, though. Cheaper routers only sport 100 MBit/s network ports rather than 1 GBit/s. 100 MBit/s yields an effective speed of 10~12 MB/s while 1 GBit/s is 10x that. If you only occasionally transfer large files, that difference doesn't matter. You can verify the speed now on your Mac Pro: launch Network Utility located in /Applications/Utilities, select the interface en0 and verify the Link Speed.

Originally Posted by rotuts 

would file sharing then go through the router ?

Yes.

Originally Posted by rotuts 

and BTW, would the i7 chip in the top of the line make a big difference in doing several

If you can afford it, yes. As long as you prioritize the SSD and RAM upgrade, though.

[rotuts]

my macpro is only connected to FiOS directly, and not through the router.

the network utility says (en0) is 100Mbit/s

its about 300 $ for changing the processor to the i7

I think I can afford that if Im going to be getting less hassle.

my tax savings is going to be about 150 $. that real money

on the other hand, since Im used to what i have

perhaps I should wait until the next iMac refresh ?

maybe the i7 will move down the line ?

[rotuts]

the router I have says '100 10' on each port ( 4 )

[rotuts]

Airport Extreme is 200 buck

and Airport Express is 100

its not clear to me that the Airport Express and GB connecitons

Im assuming either would connect to my FiOS

again appreciate the help.

also will the MacPro transfer files at gibabit speed ?

[Mike Wuerthele]

Okay.

FiOS requires you to keep your old router in the mix to supply the guide and on-demand to your cable boxes. Sucky, but there it is. This is not a super-big deal -- you'll just need to connect it to any router you may buy separately with your wired connection.

Gigabit ethernet is only WIRED connections. 802.11 speeds vary, but will ALWAYS be less than wired. So, use wireless if you MUST, but wired is loads better.

The Mac Pro is gigabit ethernet, but the router must ALSO be gigabit. So, with the 10/100 router, you'll only get 10/100 speeds, despite being technically able to receive gigabit speeds.

The Airport Extreme wired ports are gigabit. The Airport Express' port is NOT.

For now, I suggest using the Verizon-supplied router for wired. You can always go Gigabit later when you're comfortable messing with networking more.

I really, REALLY like i7 processors. The FPU performance on it (which is a pretty accurate measurement of how well it will encode video) is loads faster than the i5. The SSD is super-nice for day-to-day operations, as is more RAM. For what you do, get what you can with your money -- you really can't go back and add an i7 later.

[reader50]

He could add a gigabit switch after the router. No fooling with configuration pages that way. The FiOS router (assuming it's wireless) would still supply the wireless connections, but 100Mb isn't much of a wireless bottleneck.

[Mike Wuerthele]

Originally Posted by reader50 

He could add a gigabit switch after the router. No fooling with configuration pages that way. The FiOS router (assuming it's wireless) would still supply the wireless connections, but 100Mb isn't much of a wireless bottleneck.

Yeah, that makes more sense. Duh.

I'm colored by my own perceptions of my Verizon router. Nasty piece of crap.

[rotuts]

I guess the right thing to do would be to get the i7 w the 3TB hybrid drive

see how that works out for EyeTV processing / elgatoTurbo / handbrake / Simply RAR

connect the MacPro ( w its 4 HD's ) with the router I have and see on those transfer speeds i might get.

later perhaps or not, some how connect the AP Extreme if I feel Id like faster

transfers from the MacPro to the iMac

does this make sense ?

many thanks for such fine advice.

[Mike Wuerthele]

Yeah- change as few variables as possible when introducing new tech. Insert the iMac into the existing network, see if the speeds work for you as-is.

If they do, then you're done.

[rotuts]

So many thanks !

[OreoCookie]

Originally Posted by rotuts 

perhaps I should wait until the next iMac refresh ?

You'd have to wait pretty much another year, because the new Intel processors won't come out until mid-2015. (The mobile versions will be introduced earlier in late winter/spring 2015.) It's pretty safe to buy an iMac now.

[ghporter]

The gigabit switch idea is the way to go. You can get a good quality switch for less than $40 (Newegg has a Netgear business-class 5-port switch for $32.99), which will give you everything you need to keep both computers connected to the Internet and talking to each other as fast as possible.

A note on cabling: most Cat 5 cables will support gigabit speeds, but Cat 5e will handle the speeds better. Ethernet is fault tolerant, so drop outs or occasional mistransmitted packets are managed by retransmitting. Cat 5e is spec'd for gigabit speeds and while you might not notice "slowness" between your computers using older cables, you WILL go consistently faster with Cat 5e cables. Cat 5e cables are available everywhere and, unless you decide to pay extra for a "major brand name" like Monster, they're very affordable. You want ALL the cables between your machines, switch and modem to be Cat 5e. So that's pretty much 3 cables if I understand the proposed setup correctly, which means probably no more than $30 for cables no matter how long you need them to be.

[rotuts]

amazon has the netgear router :

Amazon.com: NETGEAR GS105 ProSafe 5-Port Gigabit Ethernet Desktop Switch - 10/100/1000 Mbps: Electronics

and class 6 cables ( nave not located 5e yet )

Amazon.com: Cable Matters 5-Pack, Cat6 Snagless Ethernet Patch Cable in Black 3 Feet: Computers & Accessories

this the way to go ?

the 'switch' connects to the Verizon router I already have, correct ?

thus each computer gets internet this way :

FiOs -> Veriszon router -> netgear switch -> one port to iMac, second port to MacPro

many thanks.

[ghporter]

You've got it, except that I'll remind you those Cat 6 cables are only 3' long, so make sure that's long enough for your setup.

[rotuts]

I thank you all for your help .....


" Its On the Way "

i7 etc etc

[OreoCookie]

Congrats, I hope you enjoy your new machine!

[rotuts]

BTW forgot an important fact :

its Tax Free ! as MA has a tax free weekend each year !