cMP Recommendations

[parivera30]

I just purchased a Canon 70D and I'm getting into photography and video editing along with Ableton Live for audio work. I was looking at the nMP but figured I can save some money and go with a cMP. I never had a Apple desktop, currently running a early 2011 MacBook Pro with LG34UM95 monitor. Any recommendations on a cMP that I can possibly connect two 34UM95's to and have room for storage and the processing power for Final Cut/Adobe Premiere and Ableton Live software. This cMP will be used for that and running VM's for work. Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks.

 

[DougTheImpaler]

Get a 4,1 or a 5,1 and upgrade the video card with something nVidia-y. GTX 680 or 760 or higher. Some people are adventurous with the 900 series, personally I'm waiting for Yosemite to get Maxwell drivers built in, so an update doesn't bork the display.

Upgrade all the things, for that matter. Quad-core CPUs at 3.46Ghz can be had for less than $100, or 6-cores at $200, RAM is cheap, storage is cheap (or can be very fast and pricy if you want), and USB 3.0 is cheap. The big thing is driving your 2x 4K displays. For 4K, nVidia graphics. I just seem to have the best luck with their stuff.

 

[NOTNlCE]

Get a 4,1 or a 5,1 and upgrade the video card with something nVidia-y. GTX 680 or 760 or higher. Some people are adventurous with the 900 series, personally I'm waiting for Yosemite to get Maxwell drivers built in, so an update doesn't bork the display.

Upgrade all the things, for that matter. Quad-core CPUs at 3.46Ghz can be had for less than $100, or 6-cores at $200, RAM is cheap, storage is cheap (or can be very fast and pricy if you want), and USB 3.0 is cheap. The big thing is driving your 2x 4K displays. For 4K, nVidia graphics. I just seem to have the best luck with their stuff.

A+++ Explanation. I second everything.

 

[parivera30]

Thanks for the responses. Would this be a better option than the entry Quad core nMP or the iMac Retina 5K?

 

[lowendlinux]

Better is subjective but it's the way I'd go.

 

[parivera30]

Better is subjective but it's the way I'd go.

You mean with the nMP Quad Core or iMac 5K? I'm so used to always getting a laptop that picking the right desktop solution is confusing me.

 

[IowaLynn]

You mean with the nMP Quad Core or iMac 5K? I'm so used to always getting a laptop that picking the right desktop solution is confusing me.

Classic Mac Pro (2009 or later) can be upgraded in ways that for some is a better fit and can be configured for some applications and work loads to be (subjectively?) more applicable.

Can do 5k, can take a full discreet GPU of your choosing rather than limited choice and a mobile version of GTX or AMD.

Where the iMac (and I have always had trouble even as they have improved) of calling these a desktop computer, it uses more of a closed limited access and motherboard adapted from the world of laptop and the cooling requires (correct me if I am wrong) more fan rpm to maintain cooling (and 27" has more room and better cooling).

Where the iMac would likely be maxed out, you are just getting started with any Mac Pro.

If you use Final Cut Pro's latest then you might want an 8-core (custom Xeon with higher clock than the BTO that Apple offers) and $1,000 extra for D700s (two year old 79xx series?) and even here a "cMP" with dual AMD R9's and dual 3.4GHz processors might kick some butt.

You can start off with a 2009 Classic Mac Pro for $500.

It can take one or more PCIe-SSD blade drives capable of over 1000MB/sec and 4x whereas your laptop would use a 2x. The 1TB SSD in the nMP (6,1) is another one of those $1,000 BTO options too, so again people like to do it themselves on their own easy enough - and can do upgrades as needed, and as their $$ funds permit rather than all at once up front.

48GB of RAM? 96? maybe 128GB for huge Photoshop graphic projects?

4x6TB of internal storage that avoids clutter, cables and power adapters or the costs of Thunderbolt2. So storage is another area the Classic Mac Pro shines. 2TB of SSD-PCIe and the 24TB of storage along with one state of the art or two graphic cards - that may require a 2nd 450W external or extra PSU (some can go in the 2nd lower optical drive bay, again a win for cMP design - still has a place for optical drives).

That is in part how I come to see making a subjective choice in which one fits the needs of the person and applications.

The only time the Classic is a problem, for me, is having to lift and move it! my back is older now than when I bought mine (still going strong too) almost nine (9) years ago (Mac Pro 2006 1,1).

 

[lowendlinux]

You mean with the nMP Quad Core or iMac 5K? I'm so used to always getting a laptop that picking the right desktop solution is confusing me.

Both actually.

The nMP is a nice computer and you're not going to go wrong buying one but it's not the solution for me. The 5k iMac is much the same as the nMP but even more special but it's also a nice computer. All the computers will do what you need/want them to do you just need to pick the ideology that suits you. I drive a Jeep because it's a tinker toy I can take it apart and put it back together reasonably easily, I like my computers the same way but that doesn't make my choices better.

 

[MentalVizion]

Well, everything has been said IMO.

You probably get away cheapest by getting a Single CPU 4,1.
You can then upgrade it with the firmware hack tool to a 5,1 - enabling you to install Westmere CPUs along with 1333Mhz RAM.

Said CPU's can nowadays be obtained quite cheap. When using the Single CPU model, you can just pop the CPU in and you're fine. Dual model - not so much

Depending on the OS you are using you can then get yourself a nice graphics card. I don't know if a GTX 680 will be powerful enough for the work you are planning to do, but it is probably the best fully compatible bang for buck solution since you can easily flash it yourself.

SSD/HDD/RAM etc. can be easily upgraded anyways.

Hope I could help!

 

[nigelbb]

It all depends on your budget & your requirements. You can turbocharge a cMP with DIY upgrades what you won't get is AppleCare. A component failure in a souped-up cMP could potentially be very expensive to fix but if your budget won't stretch to a nMP & you can live with that risk then upgrading a cMP could be a good course of action.