I am a photographer and have a Mac Pro (Early 2008) 2x 2.8 Quad Core which is struggling with new Lightroom and all so full I have filled up to internal so I have temporarily gone onto external hard drives to edit from. So Lightroom is accessing photos from an external FW800 hard drive and is understandably complaining. I use Lightroom most of the time but most programs are slower than before.
So dilemma is either upgrading the Mac Pro or buying a Thunderbolt iMac.
I have had a look around and found this very nifty setup for putting is SSD Drives into the space of the spare DVD drive slot, which is ingenious.
http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Other World Computing/MM352A52MP/
A big 500gb SSD and maxing out the Ram should give the MacPro the boost it needs (I currently have 10gb of a potential 16gb RAM) (After a complete operating reinstall aswell).
My only worry though is that I would need to read and write from external hard drives and this would still be pretty slow. (I have a load of eSata/Firewire external HDs that I currently access through FW 800).... Ultimately I guess a Thunderbolt input would be best. But after a search it seems to me that I can't upgrade my Mac Pro with this as my Early 2008 Mac Pro is Xeon. Is this true? If so, would a PCIe card eSata for the MacPro be a decent alternative (or even USB 3)?
Maybe I would have to work out a system where I store everything that I work on temporarily on the SSD to see a real speed difference in Lightroom editing. Or get 1 SSD and put another big HD inside for Lightroom to access photos from.
Or do you think the whole upgrade approach is a bit of a waste of money? (I think the above upgrade is about £600-700)
The alternative is selling the MacPro and getting a new iMac that is Thunderbolt ready with a SSD inside and investing in Thunderbolt external hard drives when the prices come down. And just go down the more conventional route of getting a new iMac every few years rather than trying to stick to the MacPro route which my techy skills are usually stretched by!
A few pages I have looked at have suggested the Mac Mini route, but that seems a slippery slope as I often need Photoshop and Lightroom open, my heart says a jump from an Mac Mini would not be a good long term solution.
Thanks for having a look at this, this is not a money is no object problem, but I do want a solution that lasts at least a year.
So dilemma is either upgrading the Mac Pro or buying a Thunderbolt iMac.
I have had a look around and found this very nifty setup for putting is SSD Drives into the space of the spare DVD drive slot, which is ingenious.
http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Other World Computing/MM352A52MP/
A big 500gb SSD and maxing out the Ram should give the MacPro the boost it needs (I currently have 10gb of a potential 16gb RAM) (After a complete operating reinstall aswell).
My only worry though is that I would need to read and write from external hard drives and this would still be pretty slow. (I have a load of eSata/Firewire external HDs that I currently access through FW 800).... Ultimately I guess a Thunderbolt input would be best. But after a search it seems to me that I can't upgrade my Mac Pro with this as my Early 2008 Mac Pro is Xeon. Is this true? If so, would a PCIe card eSata for the MacPro be a decent alternative (or even USB 3)?
Maybe I would have to work out a system where I store everything that I work on temporarily on the SSD to see a real speed difference in Lightroom editing. Or get 1 SSD and put another big HD inside for Lightroom to access photos from.
Or do you think the whole upgrade approach is a bit of a waste of money? (I think the above upgrade is about £600-700)
The alternative is selling the MacPro and getting a new iMac that is Thunderbolt ready with a SSD inside and investing in Thunderbolt external hard drives when the prices come down. And just go down the more conventional route of getting a new iMac every few years rather than trying to stick to the MacPro route which my techy skills are usually stretched by!
A few pages I have looked at have suggested the Mac Mini route, but that seems a slippery slope as I often need Photoshop and Lightroom open, my heart says a jump from an Mac Mini would not be a good long term solution.
Thanks for having a look at this, this is not a money is no object problem, but I do want a solution that lasts at least a year.