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6 hour to decide: quad 2.93 or octo 2.26???

B

bohdanz

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Dec 27, 2006
12
0
I have until 7 pm to decide which new Mac Pro tower to buy...
LA County tax rate goes up tomorrow for starters
---- and I'm dying to get my 2009 Mac Pro (upgrading from G4 733)

I get an education discount through school so my choices are:

1. quad 2.93
2. octo 2.26

...and roughly there's about a $500 difference with the discount

As a long term investment... because for now I'm focused on the normal tasks.

I'm a certified Avid and trained FCP editor so that may come back into my life down the line.

Having had the G4 733 you can tell I don't change out models every year.
So this will be an investment for a good number of years to come.

REALLY appreciate your advice. I've read the various forum threads and keep going back and forth on my decision.

Bohdan
 
jjahshik32 said:
I agree, get the 2.26GHz model. Actually I'm trying to decide on a 2.26GHz or a 2.66GHz octo models.
Click to expand...

I've been contemplating the exact same thing. I'll probably go with the 2.66 I just won't tell my GF :D. She would kill me if she knew I bought a $5,000 computer that doesn't include a monitor. lol
 
bohdanz said:
I have until 7 pm to decide which new Mac Pro tower to buy...
LA County tax rate goes up tomorrow for starters
---- and I'm dying to get my 2009 Mac Pro (upgrading from G4 733)

I get an education discount through school so my choices are:

1. quad 2.93
2. octo 2.26

...and roughly there's about a $500 difference with the discount

As a long term investment... because for now I'm focused on the normal tasks.

I'm a certified Avid and trained FCP editor so that may come back into my life down the line.

Having had the G4 733 you can tell I don't change out models every year.
So this will be an investment for a good number of years to come.

REALLY appreciate your advice. I've read the various forum threads and keep going back and forth on my decision.

Bohdan
Click to expand...

Given your needs, I really think you should try to scrape together enough to buy the 2.66 Octo. If you go with the 2.26 Octo, you will have a powerhouse encoding machine, but everything else will feel like you are running on a laptop.

If you go with the 2.93 Quad, everything will feel alot snappier but it will take longer to execute encoding/rendering runs.

Personally, if I was in your shoes and couldn't afford the 2.66 Octo, then I would go for the Quad, but that's because I value speed for every-day tasks and could afford to let big encoding/rendering jobs run overnight if necessary.

Ultimately, only you can decide what your real priorities are.
 
As your Mac will not ship today, you will pay the higher sales tax rate.
 
darn....
looks like the new LA County tax will hit me ..

but...

is the ATI stock card good enough for the time being?
I can always upgrade down the line when I have money and the need for the 4870.
 
I really like the time limit! I read why he "thought" he would make the cut, but that's still funny. I got a mental picture of money literally burning a hole in his pocket. Once the time runs out he gets burned! :D
 
rdowns said:
As your Mac will not ship today, you will pay the higher sales tax rate.
Click to expand...

On my order, placed over the weekend, my tax was calculated upon receipt of the order... are you saying they will adjust the amount of tax billed at the time the credit card is actually billed?
 
I would go with the 2.93 Quad 100%

I bought the 2.26 and got rid of it within the 1st week I had it. It seemed sluggish in day to day operations. I now have the 2.93 Quad, 8GB RAM, ATI 4870, Velociraptor boot drive...much happier!! And in a year or two you can bump it up to 16GB ram and add a few SSD drives in a raid 0, you'll be set!
 
superpalmtree said:
I would go with the 2.93 Quad 100%

I bought the 2.26 and got rid of it within the 1st week I had it. It seemed sluggish in day to day operations. I now have the 2.93 Quad, 8GB RAM, ATI 4870, Velociraptor boot drive...much happier!! And in a year or two you can bump it up to 16GB ram and add a few SSD drives in a raid 0, you'll be set!
Click to expand...

Agree!!!
 
I agree with the Quad 100%.

The OP stated he had video editing experience and that "may come back into his life" but I'm not sure that's what he's doing with it now.

Octo will be more efficient (theoretically :)) with rendering tasks, but even within FCP the majority of editing tasks are not multithreaded.

Coming from a G4 733 - I'd say go for the fastest single threaded experience at the moment since that's what the majority of your computing tasks will most likely revolve around.

If and when you do kick in some rendering, you're still on a Quad core and it's going to be looooooooads faster then your G4. :)

I'm upgrading from a Quad G5 within the next two months and I'm going with the Quad for sure - even when the majority of my work is in the Adobe CS4 suite, FCS2 and Cinema 4D.

I think the Quad is the better deal for now. :)
 
Thanks on the advice

I read enough of the postings that I'm going with the Quad instead of the Octo and can't wait to order it tomorrow...

even if I'm going to get hit with the next LA County tax of an additional 1%!!!! Hate that!

Time to get out of CA
 
For a bunch of the SW pre-Snow Leopard that isn't some of the top Pro Level, you'd like get more speed out of the Quad.

But, once Snow Leopard hits and the apps get upgraded to take advantage of the better threading ... the Octo will become the better choice.

Since you do plan this as a long term investment, the Octo likely would be the better choice -- especially with it having an extra 4 DIMM slots.

That double the RAM will likely be much more important during your extended term of ownership than anything else.

$500 for 4 DIMM slots may sound like a lot, but at the rate things are taking advantage of the memory it might mean something big in 3 years.

And during that period the extra 4 cores will make a difference as the apps are updated.
 
I would say Octo for snow leopard. Especially since you will be doing rendering. The future lies in cores, not clock speed. Programs with the next few months/years will start taking advantage of cores because they will be able to run faster.
 
The deadline came and went. Once I found out I'm getting taxed the extra one percent.. I wound up reading and then re-reading all the postings on macrumors.

And now I'm torn between the quad 2.93 (stock video card) and the 2.26 octo (stock video card). Each has its supporters. Each has reasons it's a good buy for now and for later.

But I am not editing for $$$ now.

Now THIS might be the deciding factor - and I ask you again to indulge me with your opinions. I forgot to mention I am a music fanatic/former musician and want to start composing and recording again. It may never get further than my home but IF I want to do audio... and at some point FCP...

Quad 2.93

or

Octo 2.26

Thanks, again.
 
Mac Husky said:
What a phrase.
Click to expand...

Yeah, it's really become like an election when choosing a computer. Choose your faction and vote all over the forums no matter what the OP's needs! At least that's what it seems like I've been reading since the new MP's came out. New vs. EOL MP and quad vs. octo nehalem MP's. Most people except for the thread starters have already made up there mind or are "voting" for their computer because "how is a new mac pro a value when my EOL mac pro is sufficient for my needs right now and I'm not upgrading yet!" or "How could anyone get the "crippled" quad when I feel justified in the octo core." People have specific needs and yes everyone has a right to their own opinion, yet sometimes more than not I feel that it has been less than objective on these forums. I must say though, after the updated benchmarks came out everyone calmed down a little more and have become slightly more objective. Sorry for the rant, but saying "ticket" is reminiscent of what has been going on throughout the forums.
 
topgun072003 said:
Yeah, it's really become like an election when choosing a computer. Choose your faction and vote all over the forums no matter what the OP's needs! At least that's what it seems like I've been reading since the new MP's came out. New vs. EOL MP and quad vs. octo nehalem MP's. Most people except for the thread starters have already made up there mind or are "voting" for their computer because "how is a new mac pro a value when my EOL mac pro is sufficient for my needs right now and I'm not upgrading yet!" or "How could anyone get the "crippled" quad when I feel justified in the octo core." People have specific needs and yes everyone has a right to their own opinion, yet sometimes more than not I feel that it has been less than objective on these forums. I must say though, after the updated benchmarks came out everyone calmed down a little more and have become slightly more objective. Sorry for the rant, but saying "ticket" is reminiscent of what has been going on throughout the forums.
Click to expand...

I'm just going by what I would do if I was in his position. He is asking what should he do, most people answer by what they would do.

I wouldn't buy the quad, so I stated that the 'octo is the ticket'. Whether or not the original poster agrees with me is up to him/her.

I could just have easily said go buy a Dell tower. Once again, the OP has to put everything together and decide what he wants based on what information is relevant to him.

This is a public forum where people come together and talk. It doesn't matter what's right and what's wrong. It's all about sharing ideas.

Enjoy whatever machine comes your way. If you really want my deep down inside feelings then - buy whatever is the best value for money. Personally I still think the 2008 Octo 2.8 is the best value for money machine right now, and at $1,899US is it incredible value. I wish they were that price in Australia.
 
JasO said:
Personally I still think the 2008 Octo 2.8 is the best value for money machine right now, and at $1,899US is it incredible value. I wish they were that price in Australia.
Click to expand...
The price in Germany still is up from 3.000 USD :eek:
Sold by Apple Store for 3.300 USD before the Nehalem came along.
Always crying, when I read about the US prices :mad:
 
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