2.8ghz 8-Core or the new 2.66ghz Quad Nehalem?

[nicolasmasset]

Thanks Tesselator. Like I said in the other thread about ram, I'm probably gonna stick the 2x4gb in it, for 10gb in total with the stock ram. I hope that'll be enough to get the slugginess out!

 

[AndyDiamond]

I went for the older '08 2.8 ghz model. With the money I saved, I put in 4x 1tb hds, and 16gb of ram.

I make music (yes, the ram is future-proofing, but certainly not needed now!) and this thing is amazing. ALL music programs are compatible with it RIGHT now (protools, ableton, logic pro, UAD2 which i ALL use...)

oh right - good call then - ProTools is not currently qualified for the 2009 MP so if you need to use it NOW then the 2008 is a safe bet.

I just installed PT8 - runs great.
Uses all 8 cores for RTAS plug-ins too.

 

[cybeross]

first of all, there is no way in H*** that 16gb is even *close* to necessary... My biggest projects, with other apps running in the background (like live, and standard stuff) can't seem to use more than around 6gb. I bought it because I wanted to be done with it, and hopefully future-proof the machine a bit more. Also, I have tinkered with the idea of getting final cut when it comes out, and perhaps w/ snow leopard, more ram can be useful. But, it's FAR more than what I'm using now, which is a good situation to be in, as far as i'm concerned!

 

[lannister80]

I made this same decision a about a month ago (right after the 2009 MPs were announced) and I went with a 2008 8x2.8 MP on eBay ($2300 total for stock config, no tax, freeshipping).

The fact that the machine has Applecare until April 2011 was what sold me. I hate buying expensive things from eBay, but I knew I'd be covered by Apple if something was wrong with the machine. With Grand Central coming soon I really wanted 8 cores (regardless of the new architecture's increased speed). Remember hyper-threading is all well and good, but it's NEVER as good as having that many actual cores.