Don't get me wrong, plenty of people can make use of the processor upgrades Apple offer. In my experience though, for most people, especially those who don't know if they actually need it or not, the extra expense can't be justified. But that is for you to calculate, and if you measure your processing in tens of hours a week, every week and your time is valuble it very well may be worth it, but again I would think if that is the case for you, then you'd surely have upgraded when the Mac Pros came out 22 months ago, or at least when the 8 cores came out over a year ago. Not trying to insult you, just trying to get you to think about what you are actually getting for your money.
I have my own film production house, where we make commercials and some documentaries. I came to Mac and Final Cut Pro very cautiously, as this would be a big investment for me. So first a laptop and then the G5, which has more than repaid the investment in trms of money and ease of use over the last four years.
I did not consider a Mac Pro at first, as I prefer to let the first few months of a new product line pass by for a while so that Apple can iron out the bugs. Of late, my G5 has been acting up and I believe I will have to replace the logic board or junk the machine altogether. Hence the Mac Pro - now. Also the need for the maximum processing possible. If the software (in this case, FCP Studio 2)is capable of doing a lot, I believe that it requires the processor to match.
You don't need to buy it all in one go, buy 8GB (4x2GB) and monitor your usage.
That is the way I am veering right now
I wouldn't bother using a RAID card unless you need it for hardware configurtion i.e. RAID 5 or SAS drives. If you do reconsider on the SAS, do bare in mind SAS drives tend to be very noisey.
No, I think I will drop SAS for the moment. large volume SATA looks like the way to go.
I believe you can buy it from other sources, but I doubt it is considerably cheaper, so it is probably best to get it through Apple. I don't know much about Huge drives, but you seem a little unsure on this so just check that you actually need it. How are you currently connecting them to your G5?
Good idea - will try and get through to Huge. My confusion is only because they have been acquired by Ciprico and the website is a little confused.
I personally reccomend WD at the moment, but Seagate are a fine alternative. Go with whatever you feel comfortable with though.[/QUOTE]
At this point, I am just looking for the most stable of the choices. I would like to buy 3 x 1 TB drives and I would be grateful for any recommendation you could make in this area.
Many thanks for taking the time to reply, guys.
G
