So I was hoping I could get some people to weigh in on the the economic benefit of buying a new Mac Pro with 2x2.8GHz (E5462) and upgrading my processors to a pair of X5482 when the price drops--or maybe something even faster if available.
Just to be clear, my interest in getting the 2x3.2GHz machine isn't to have the coolest new hardware out this year, but because I foresee a real need for those extra cycles down the road. I am a musician/composer and a lot of my work involves custom realtime audio (and sometimes video) software that I design and I know that the way I work, if I have the cycles available, I'll come up with ways to use them. That being said, I also realize that a pair of E5462 will work wonders for the current things I am working with compared to my painfully sluggish G4 (I never said those music projects made me enough money to upgrade my computer often....yet).
I've been using Macs since my first Plus in '87, and am used to the Motorola world we lived in for so long that my gut tells me to get the beastly processors now and I'll be thanking myself next year. Now that we are in Intel-land, getting a Mac tower now means a much easier time buying upgrade parts so I am thinking I could save money by getting the two 2.8GHz chips now and upgrading later once the prices have fallen and I need the extra juice. This will be my first Intel Mac and I haven't been following the Intel pricing enough to answer this on my own: What will the pricing of 3.2GHz X5482 Xeons look like 6months from now? a year from now? When could I expect to save money upgrading to 3.2Ghz by buying the processors from an online retailer vs. getting them BTO from Apple?
Oh, and not to start more rumor talk, but is there any word from Intel on plans to release even faster Penryn upgrades than the X5482?
Just to be clear, my interest in getting the 2x3.2GHz machine isn't to have the coolest new hardware out this year, but because I foresee a real need for those extra cycles down the road. I am a musician/composer and a lot of my work involves custom realtime audio (and sometimes video) software that I design and I know that the way I work, if I have the cycles available, I'll come up with ways to use them. That being said, I also realize that a pair of E5462 will work wonders for the current things I am working with compared to my painfully sluggish G4 (I never said those music projects made me enough money to upgrade my computer often....yet).
I've been using Macs since my first Plus in '87, and am used to the Motorola world we lived in for so long that my gut tells me to get the beastly processors now and I'll be thanking myself next year. Now that we are in Intel-land, getting a Mac tower now means a much easier time buying upgrade parts so I am thinking I could save money by getting the two 2.8GHz chips now and upgrading later once the prices have fallen and I need the extra juice. This will be my first Intel Mac and I haven't been following the Intel pricing enough to answer this on my own: What will the pricing of 3.2GHz X5482 Xeons look like 6months from now? a year from now? When could I expect to save money upgrading to 3.2Ghz by buying the processors from an online retailer vs. getting them BTO from Apple?
Oh, and not to start more rumor talk, but is there any word from Intel on plans to release even faster Penryn upgrades than the X5482?
