Advice on replacing Mac Pro 1,1

[Chumat]

I've been the happy owner of a Mac Pro 1,1 since its release. Last year I installed a SSD as a boot drive and maxed out the RAM and I was very pleased with the performance boost. Earlier this week I took a break from working to answer a phone call and when I came back to my computer there were pink and green lines running vertically across both monitors. I restarted my computer and the lines persisted and the machine would not boot past the Apple logo. After a bit of research I've concluded that my video card has most likely failed. Considering most of the newest software releases don't officialy support this computer, I don't think it would be wise to put any more money into it. Also, today I secured a long term contract to produce frequent video content for a hunting/adventure website so it looks like a new machine is what I need.
My Mac Pro has been serving me so well that I am pretty far removed from the details of the current line up so I am looking for some advice. A little bit about my needs:
In recent years the bulk of my work has been still photography using a program called RPP for raw conversion and Photoshop CS6 for post processing (switching to CC next month). As a hobby I use Ableton Live 9 and various plug-ins for audio production. As I mentioned above, a large amount of my upcoming work will be video (compressed 1080p at the moment) using Adobe Premier and After Effects. As a Mac desktop user since the LCIII, my instinct is to buy the new Mac Pro, but I'm torn as to whether it is more than I require. The iMacs look more capable than they did last time I was shopping for a computer, and the 27" model looks nice, but is expandability an issue?
Thanks in advance for any help you can offer me!

 

[Samuelsan2001]

I've been the happy owner of a Mac Pro 1,1 since its release. Last year I installed a SSD as a boot drive and maxed out the RAM and I was very pleased with the performance boost. Earlier this week I took a break from working to answer a phone call and when I came back to my computer there were pink and green lines running vertically across both monitors. I restarted my computer and the lines persisted and the machine would not boot past the Apple logo. After a bit of research I've concluded that my video card has most likely failed. Considering most of the newest software releases don't officialy support this computer, I don't think it would be wise to put any more money into it. Also, today I secured a long term contract to produce frequent video content for a hunting/adventure website so it looks like a new machine is what I need.
My Mac Pro has been serving me so well that I am pretty far removed from the details of the current line up so I am looking for some advice. A little bit about my needs:
In recent years the bulk of my work has been still photography using a program called RPP for raw conversion and Photoshop CS6 for post processing (switching to CC next month). As a hobby I use Ableton Live 9 and various plug-ins for audio production. As I mentioned above, a large amount of my upcoming work will be video (compressed 1080p at the moment) using Adobe Premier and After Effects. As a Mac desktop user since the LCIII, my instinct is to buy the new Mac Pro, but I'm torn as to whether it is more than I require. The iMacs look more capable than they did last time I was shopping for a computer, and the 27" model looks nice, but is expandability an issue?
Thanks in advance for any help you can offer me!

Well that doesn't sound all that intensive. I would say go for the retina Imac get the M295X version for best graphics option and to be ready for 4K content going mainstream. Get it with a 512gb SSD for speed (or 1TB if you are feeling flush) and use a raid external storage system for all your files, a 3TB fusion is also a great option if you want to keep everything internally but that 128GB ssd will soon be full to overflowing with your apps by the sound of it and may slow you down a bit.

The only things easily upgradable is the RAM sticks and 32GB after market RAM can go in with ease, or often people add 16gb in the spare slots and have 24GB usually overkill for most.

The nMP is always an option but by the time you spec it out and add screens, thunderbolt cables etc it's pretty expensive. Although the base model would probably do you fine.

 

[Ebenezum]

While retina iMac is nice it might not be best solution since you already have SSD and monitors.

Used Mac Pro 4.1 or 5.1 might be better option. Just add PCI card for your SSD and it is about same speed as riMac.

It is much faster than 1.1 even without processor upgrade and if your needs change in the future you could easyly add more RAM or storage space. Processor wise riMac has a faster processor but Pro can be upgraded to faster processor while keeping cost reasonable.

In a nutshell it would cost about 50% of riMac while been much more expendable. It it will not have Thunderbolt or guarantee but it would likely serve you for well for the next 5+ years.