2009 mac pro or 2010 mac pro

[Tony5787]

hey do you think i should buy a base model 2009 mac pro and then later upgrade the gfx card and ram for xmas and later than that (probably next year) upgrade to the xeon 3580 or should i wait to see what the new mac pros have in store? cost is a big factor and ive considered the i7 imacs but i need expandability. id rather pay now than in 3 years need a new computer. so basically what im asking is how much do you guys think the base model 2010 will be and what do you think will come standard on the base model?

[bbadalucco]

Originally Posted by Tony5787

hey do you think i should buy a base model 2009 mac pro and then later upgrade the gfx card and ram for xmas and later than that (probably next year) upgrade to the xeon 3580 or should i wait to see what the new mac pros have in store? cost is a big factor and ive considered the i7 imacs but i need expandability. id rather pay now than in 3 years need a new computer. so basically what im asking is how much do you guys think the base model 2010 will be and what do you think will come standard on the base model?

I'm kinda in the same boat as you. I already have an 09 quad 2.66. I'm either going to upgrade to a 3580 or get a gulftown...I'll going to wait until benchmarks come out which will probably be a few months yet. I think it depends on what you plan on using the MP for. My biggest concern is encoding video and the more cores/faster the better my experience is.

[Tony5787]

yea im buying mine because im just starting college now and im either majoring in film or photography and this would be ideal in either of those. im leaning towards the current mac pro. do you know if any retail stores sell them? because i was thinking of going to delaware for one but if they dont sell them that would save me the 2 hour+ drive to buy something they dont carry in store. i found that bh sells the model im looking at which is just the base model for 2299 which is the student pricing but there would be no tax which is a plus

[nanofrog]

Originally Posted by bbadalucco

I'm kinda in the same boat as you. I already have an 09 quad 2.66. I'm either going to upgrade to a 3580 or get a gulftown...I'll going to wait until benchmarks come out which will probably be a few months yet. I think it depends on what you plan on using the MP for. My biggest concern is encoding video and the more cores/faster the better my experience is.

Be mindful of the software you want to use though. Not much out there can use all the cores. PS for example, only uses 2. So even Octad's aren't necessarily going to help.

You'd be better off with higher clock speeds, and given the expected costs of the Gulftowns, they're going to have slower clocks in the same price range than Nehalem.

Something to think about.

Originally Posted by Tony5787

yea im buying mine because im just starting college now and im either majoring in film or photography and this would be ideal in either of those. im leaning towards the current mac pro. do you know if any retail stores sell them? because i was thinking of going to delaware for one but if they dont sell them that would save me the 2 hour+ drive to buy something they dont carry in store. i found that bh sells the model im looking at which is just the base model for 2299 which is the student pricing but there would be no tax which is a plus

There's a big difference between photography and editing though (especially if you render with the system). Even an '06 MP is fine for photography work with current software from posts by such users (bozz2006 comes to mind).

An '09 base Quad would certainly do (for either while in school). But the software may be more $$$ than you bargain for to purchase while in school. The uni should have what you need, but no idea if you can network to it as a client, or if you'd have to use a physical machine in a lab somewhere to access it.