Help? 3.2GHz Quad-Core or 2.66GHz Nehalem?

[Eyeful]

I was about to buy a new MP Nehalem 2.66GHz (16GB Ram, ATI Radeon, 1TB) when a friend called selling his system (below). Now I'm torn. The new Mac Pro cost a lot more with less. I'm a power user (Adobe CS3 Master Collection) and now need to edit in HD. I don't want to be left behind, but Apple's Nehalem Mac prices are very high. What would you do?

• Two 3.2GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon
• Memory: 16GB (4x4GB)
• MacPro RAID Card
• HD 1: 300GB 15,000-rpm SAS
• HD 2: 300GB 15,000-rpm SAS
• NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT 512MB
• Two 16x SuperDrives
• Apple Care Protection Plan (2.5 years left)

$5,300.

Nehalem Mac Pro 2.66, 16GB Ram, ATI Radeon, 1 superdrive, 1TB SATA, AppleCare, Extreme WiFi = $5,798 before tax.

 

[MCHR]

How long will you be keeping it? If it's for about 4-5 years, the Nehalem. If you'll flip it while working it, get the 3.2.

I'm in the same boat, and if I tag a Nehalem, I'm essentially hoping software will catch up with the Mac Pro architecture.

 

[mcavjame]

Waited on purchasing until after the announcement. Purchased a used Octo 3.0 with 10GB used for $2700 CAD. Have used the savings to beef up the RAM and put in 4 additional drives.

If you can use the RAID setup, that would be a wicked machine. It's interesting that the RAID and SAS drives add such a premium to a used machine.

 

[crazzyeddie]

Nehalem Mac Pro 2.66, 16GB Ram, ATI Radeon, 1 superdrive, 1TB SATA, AppleCare, Extreme WiFi = $5,798 before tax.

With Apple prices... get the computer with 4x2GB (8GB) and upgrade to 16GB for $145 from OWC. For $100 you can get a 2nd 1TB hard drive from just about anywhere, like OWC or Newegg. This way you have a boot/apps drive, plus a huge scratch drive, which as a Pro is what you need.
$5300 + $145 + $100 = about $5500.

The machine will be faster, have cheaper RAM for upgrades later on, and have a brand-new warranty.

However, if you are only use Adobe apps for editing, they don't recognize all the cores of the newer machines, so the 3.2ghz might be slightly faster for those apps. Using Compressor or Motion, however, the newer machine will be faster. Also, keep in mind that Snow Leopard will be adding OpenCL/Grand Central to leverage the newer architecture more, and Pro apps will be the first to take advantage of that...

 

[micsaund]

That's a pretty nice machine he's selling, especially with the SAS setup. That alone is not cheap

I'd say that you can get 2-3 years from his machine easily. It's pretty beastly and by then, the next chips will be out, probably with DDR3 that's faster or even DDR4, etc. etc.

I'd probably go for the used machine myself, especially if he has an Applecare on it. Not that there's likely much to go wrong since he's already burned it in, but still.

Mike