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Another "here's what I'm thinking" on a new Mac Pro

R

Rafalski24

macrumors regular
Original poster
Sep 27, 2009
100
0
Denver, CO
Hey everyone,
I am starting to think about buying a Mac Pro, been wanting one for years and will finally have enough money in the next few months. My budget will be $3500. I am thinking:
New Octo 2.4GHz standard configuration.
The reason I am thinking the octo vs the hex is because for my day to day work I won't really notice the extra speed of the hex, and for rendering and transcoding I think the octo should be faster (right?). I definitely want an SSD for my OS drive, but I'm not sure exactly which one (crucial C300 has caught my eye). Could live with around 60GB, but would like more and since the 64GB C300 is under 150 I was thinking of software raiding two of those. Does this make sense? Would it be better to just get the 128GB drive?
Thanks for the advice!
 
I don't think that's the right move. The only reason I'd ever consider the 8 core 2.4 is for the additional memory slots. Otherwise the difference in clock speed is just too much for the octo to overcome, even for properly threaded software.

If you were talking 2.93 octo vs. 3.33 hex then maybe this would be a worthy discussion.
 
Well of course RAM expandability is the biggest upside to the octo. I was just rationalizing the loss of speed compared to the hex.
 
Rafalski24 said:
Well of course RAM expandability is the biggest upside to the octo. I was just rationalizing the loss of speed compared to the hex.
Click to expand...

Even in a perfectly multithreaded scenario the 2.4 octo shouldn't outpace the 3.33 hex, so I don't think you can rationalize the loss of clock speed unless you do so via the additional RAM slots.

I think the benchmarks in this post show what is likely the most optimal comparison using a full-on multithreaded test. This is the perfect test -if- the octo is going to perform better than the hex.. and it does not.

https://forums.macrumors.com/posts/10934613/

Note that the octo does come close, so maybe the additional RAM puts it over the top in certain scenarios. But also remember that most apps aren't well threaded, so the 2.4 will then fall off a cliff compared to the 3.33.. especially when you consider how much turbo will help each part. I think they are ~1GHz apart with turbo.

Another scenario where the dual socket system might benefit is if you plan to upgrade the CPUs down the road at some point.

But at any rate, to answer your original question.. no the octo will not be faster than the hexa. If you just WANT an 8 core box, consider an 8 core 2.93GHz refurb. Now that will outperform the 3.33 hex in your apps, and it is $3649 with 6GB when available.
 
The 2.4GHz 8c choice is not viable; the better choice would be the 3.33GHz 6c; if you were considered the 2.66GHz 12c, I would have said the latter would be excellent, but that's a bit pricey. Benchmarks have shown that the 6c offering is faster than the 8c offering; the 8c is a sadly a bit slow on the processing side.
 
Okay, you guys convinced me! It does make more sense to get the 3.33 hex. The only problem is it is more expensive and only comes with 3GB of RAM... I will only have a few hundred dollars left and I had planned to get an SSD, but does it make more sense to get more RAM first? (With the edu discount the MP comes to $3,379 and my budget is about $3,500)
 
Rafalski24 said:
Okay, you guys convinced me! It does make more sense to get the 3.33 hex. The only problem is it is more expensive and only comes with 3GB of RAM... I will only have a few hundred dollars left and I had planned to get an SSD, but does it make more sense to get more RAM first? (With the edu discount the MP comes to $3,379 and my budget is about $3,500)
Click to expand...

its only $200 more or so ?

yes get the ram first !!! somehow swing 1 8GB stick but then the issue of them having to match ? since I am not sure I would do some digging on this issue or hope someone jumps in that has some real experience ! I hate reading stuff from people that say I heard ? :) better to say I have tried :)
so the memory thing and amount I really cant say for sure if the 1 8 is better or worse than 2 4s ?

SSD are nice as boot but a luxury still ? those that say they make the system way faster ? well in perception maybe in reality not to much the first time you launch a program its quicker ? the second time both are about the same

so yes its quicker but once you are in the program that is where the ram will win out every time !!!! and when comparing that to a machine that has only 3 gigs vs say 10 or 11 the SSD will be a bad choice :)
 
Make sure that you're not ordering the RAM from apple, find a third party distributor which should help you a little with the costs of upgrading. Also keep in mind that while SSD are a nice option not many are showing great results over an extended period of time so if you're trying to be budget conscious I would upgrade the ram and look at a SSD down the road once the technology has improved a little but more. As I believe most of the lower cost SSD's right now show a marked performance decrease after the first year of use.
 
Upgrade the RAM to 6GB at least.

The SSD can wait; in a few months, prices will come down and capacity will go up.
 
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