I need some confirmation about this purchase. I have a 2008 2.8 Dual Quad with 8 gigs of ram and 1TB HDD. The guy also spend a little over $300 to upgrade the graphics to run with FCPX. I don't know the exact card though. He offered to sell for $650. I am coming from a borrowed Mac Pro 1,1 dual 3.0 4 gigs of ram and an XT1900. I do not own this computer. It is borrowed and having issues with the graphics card. I really only have about $650 to spend anyway. We have a 2009 i7 27" iMac at church to do HD video editing on. I'm satisfied with the performance of it for what we do. If the 2008 Mac Pro is similar in performance with the 2009 iMac I would be happy with that. I'm looking for something to get me through 2 years and then I will evaluate.
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2008 Dual 2.8 Mac Pro
- Thread starter weaverra
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I think in general the MP will be slower.
It will perform faster for apps that utilize multiple cores I believe.
8GB is not much RAM and memory for your model is expensive.
FBDIMM DDR2 ECC 800 mhz needs to be installed in pairs.
It will perform faster for apps that utilize multiple cores I believe.
8GB is not much RAM and memory for your model is expensive.
FBDIMM DDR2 ECC 800 mhz needs to be installed in pairs.
The 2008 Mac Pro will get the job done and can last more than 2 years. Just regularly have the interior clean from heavy dusts. Sometimes dusts can affect the ram performance. Putting in SSD also helps speed up things. Just store your working files on a separate HD and just have your main boot HD containing your apps. I am guessing if the video card is color red with black it may be a Radeon 5770HD or 4870HD. I could be wrong though, as the seller mentioned he upgraded the card and spent $300.
Could be the 3870 (I have that one in my 3.1)
Anyway, a mini would be faster, and would consume less energy. In the mac pro, the advantage is that you can upgrade the hard drives really cheap (4 trays).
8GB of ram is plenty of ram for video editing up to HD 1080, more ram is expensive in this old FB-Dimm models.
The price is fair, is a good machine, and can be upgraded.
Anyway, a mini would be faster, and would consume less energy. In the mac pro, the advantage is that you can upgrade the hard drives really cheap (4 trays).
8GB of ram is plenty of ram for video editing up to HD 1080, more ram is expensive in this old FB-Dimm models.
The price is fair, is a good machine, and can be upgraded.
I think its a good buy IF the graphics card is ATI 5770 (or even better if 5870). But if it's the Nvidia 8800GT, then it's a miracle his lasted this long as mine started crapping out after 3-4 years (I had mine right at 2008) and had to bake it, which many people have had to do. Found a cheap 5770 on Craigslist and never had a problem after that.
And yes, RAM is expensive too. All in all, this machine would last you a couple years at most and then you'll want to upgrade again.
Or if a few hundred bucks can be added to your budget, a 2009 Mac Pro will last you even longer.
And yes, RAM is expensive too. All in all, this machine would last you a couple years at most and then you'll want to upgrade again.
Or if a few hundred bucks can be added to your budget, a 2009 Mac Pro will last you even longer.
