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Help me build a Mac Pro!

C

cydspal

macrumors member
Original poster
I have been waiting since before Xmas because of expo, now its time! I want your suggestions for what I should do, $3k to spend (for now) and I will outsource RAM and Hard drives (if you so advise!). A part of me still wants an Imac instead....

I will it for basic internet and video/home movie editing.

Thanks!🙂
 
cydspal said:
I have been waiting since before Xmas because of expo, now its time! I want your suggestions for what I should do, $3k to spend (for now) and I will outsource RAM and Hard drives (if you so advise!). A part of me still wants an Imac instead....

I will it for basic internet and video/home movie editing.

Thanks!🙂
Click to expand...

Given the budget you have set aside and its stated purpose, I would go with the single 2.8 quad core, beef the video up to the 8800gt and add airport extreme (wi-fi).

you should have a little leftover after taxes that could go towards additional ram and hard drives.
 
Maybe all you need is an iMac...😉 basic video/editing can be handled well and the entry 24" is priced way lower than the standard Mac Pro. Then the extra $$ can go to Ram and external HD.

If you buy the Mac Pro and the budget is $3k it is tight. The base is $2799 + tax (I will go with 6%) that just about takes care of the bill at $2966 - leaving you with enough left for some DVD's.

If you went with the single quad that is $2299 - then adding the 8800 card as a $200 option would land you at $2499 then ad in the tax again...$2648 which leaves you with some change in the budget for the needed additional hard drive(s) and Ram. Either case it is much $$$.

Getting back to the 24" iMac that can be had for $1799 - you can then up the ram to 4GB - it is way cheaper than the Pro ram. You can even add on another spiffy monitor and some other items with the savings.

Here is another breakout the iMac 24" + macbook is just about equal to the cost of the base Mac Pro...

BTW - I am running all these scenarios through my head too...🙂 No decision on my part either.
 
I disagree. Get the 8-core stock. You don't need the better GPU for that and the 8-cores will scream for rendering. RAM prices will plummet soon enough. Use any old drive you have for now.
 
ziwi said:
If you went with the single quad that is $2299 - then adding the 8800 card as a $200 option would land you at $2499 then ad in the tax again...$2648 which leaves you with some change in the budget for the needed additional hard drive(s) and Ram. Either case it is much $$$.
Click to expand...


If you're looking for immediate expandability within storage, ram, hard drives and etc., I would go with the single quad route. However, if you're willing to expand later when finances allow, then get the stock double quad and wi-fi.
 
cydspal said:
I have been waiting since before Xmas because of expo, now its time! I want your suggestions for what I should do, $3k to spend (for now) and I will outsource RAM and Hard drives (if you so advise!). A part of me still wants an Imac instead....

I will it for basic internet and video/home movie editing.

Thanks!🙂
Click to expand...

I think an iMac would server you better, as mine has done well for the last year, hence it is going up for sale. If your intersted in a slightly used model, you can get a pretty nice setup for around 1k in the marketplace, or shoot me a PM.
 
Ok, a few questions:

How different are the video card upgrades? When I punch in the suggested 8800, I notice the next upgrades are only $100 and $250 more, is it worth it?

Get extra RAM and HD elsewhere right? What about all this RAID stuff?

I assume there is a big difference with the one or two quad cores?

I do want an Imac, but I just hate the thought of not being able to upgrade!

Thanks!
 
cydspal said:
Ok, a few questions:

How different are the video card upgrades? When I punch in the suggested 8800, I notice the next upgrades are only $100 and $250 more, is it worth it?

Get extra RAM and HD elsewhere right? What about all this RAID stuff?

I assume there is a big difference with the one or two quad cores?

I do want an Imac, but I just hate the thought of not being able to upgrade!

Thanks!
Click to expand...

It's worth it for the 8800GT if:

1) You don't mind the wait
2) You do gaming or HD video editing
3) You want the video card to last a LONG time.

Yes, hard drive and RAM from third party is so much cheaper, and unless you really, really need a RAID setup, but you don't want to even experiment with it, then I guess you are stuck with asking Apple for it.

One or two CPU matters if you have applications that support them, but with the recent trends, they favors multicore/CPU, so if you don't mind the $400 or so extra, it's worth it.

I won't get an iMac because the video card in there is pretty bad, especially if you want to do decent games 2 or so years down the line - don't think it can last that long, at least in acceptable performance... Besides, the price different start to disappear once you get really high end on the iMac.
 
cydspal said:

How different are the video card upgrades? When I punch in the suggested 8800, I notice the next upgrades are only $100 and $250 more, is it worth it?

Get extra RAM and HD elsewhere right? What about all this RAID stuff?

I assume there is a big difference with the one or two quad cores?

Thanks!
Click to expand...
First the upgrade prices on the graphics cards are essentially the additional cost of going to the next card. The 8800 GT is where you want to be.

Extra ram and HD's are far cheaper elsewhere. Don't buy them from apple... just make sure you're getting the right kind of RAM!

In terms of one or two quad cores I'm not really sure if an average user would notice the difference a lot. But when more multi-threaded apps come along having 8 cores of processing power should make a big impact.

Have fun with your new MP!
 
I bought a MacPro 2.66 last year. Love the machine but in hindsight I sometimes think I would have been better off with an iMac. The video I edit is SD and the iMac can handle that just fine and I don't edit often enough to warrant spending the additional money for the MacPro. When I first bought it, I tried to justify the purchase by thinking I was going to use it a lot for video compositing, 3d rendering and other processor intensive tasks. Truth is, I spend more time surfing the web, watching movies and other menial tasks that the iMac would suffice. Quite often I feel a bit guilty knowing that I spent a lot of money on a professional level computer just to read and post on MacRumors. It's like buying a BMW to drive to the corner grocery store.
 
Wow! Now you really have me debating the pro! I am just an amateur home video Dad, but I just dont want to be "stuck" with something I cant upgrade when I continue to improve my photography over the next few years (e.g. HD video shooting, etc.).
 
Spend $400 For Four 2GB Sticks To Get 20% to 47% Better Performance

iBookG4user said:
Here's the most bang for your buck Mac Pro:

Base configuration Mac Pro - $2800
4GB RAM in addition to the 2GB pre-installed - $200
500GB hard drive in addition to 320GB pre-installed - $90

That'll be a bit over your budget, but if your going to be doing video editing you'll want a lot of RAM and hard drive space.
Click to expand...
I agree with this config. If you can find $400 buy four 2GB sticks from OWC and put each pair in the AB slots top and bottom ram cards plus the pair of 1GB sticks that came with it in CD of the top ram card. Barefeats has found that by filling up those AB slots in both cards you gain 20% to 47% faster performance.
Barefeats Memory Test said:
FOUR FB-DIMMs ARE STILL BETTER THAN TWO
Though the newest Mac Pro will run with only two FB-DIMMs (one on the top riser and one on the bottom), it moves data to/from memory faster with four FB-DIMMs (two on the top riser, two on the bottom riser, slots 1 and 2 in each case.)

For example, with only two FB-DIMMs, we recorded a score of 2649 with the Geekbench memory test. Adding two more FB-DIMMs, in rose to a 3192 rating (or 20% faster). Adding the full eight FB-DIMMs, however, did not provide any additional gains.

We also ran the Xbench 1.3 memory test. With two sticks, 8.6Gb/s fill rate. With four, 12.6GB/s fill rate. That's a 47% gain.
Click to expand...
 
MacRoom said:
I agree with this config. If you can find $400 buy four 2GB sticks from OWC and put each pair in the AB slots top and bottom ram cards plus the pair of 1GB sticks that came with it in CD of the top ram card. Barefeats has found that by filling up those AB slots in both cards you gain 20% faster performance.
Click to expand...


1..If one buys 6 1GB sticks and then fills all the AB slots for a total of 8GB, then does this arrangement give a 20 percent faster performance over four 2 GB sticks totaling 8GB? (Considering that one removes the 1 GB sticks, for equal comparison, and puts 4 X 2GB in the AB slots on both risers/cards)

2..Would eight 1GB sticks generate the same or more heat than four 2GB sticks?
 
cydspal said:
Wow! Now you really have me debating the pro! I am just an amateur home video Dad, but I just dont want to be "stuck" with something I cant upgrade when I continue to improve my photography over the next few years (e.g. HD video shooting, etc.).
Click to expand...

Don't debate whether or not to get the pro, think of it this way. The iMac uses laptop parts, laptop processor, laptop ram, but has a desktop hard drive. With the iMac you are limited to 4GB of RAM, while this may sound like a lot of RAM, it's not really that much relative to image and video editing. I am an avid photographer and I run out of RAM a lot when using Lightroom and Photoshop and I have maxed out my MacBook Pro with 4GB of RAM. With the iMac you'll be running out of hard drive space and externals aren't as fast as internal hard drives, and you'll run into the same RAM problem I am running into.

That's why you shouldn't doubt getting a Mac Pro. Even though I have a very fast laptop, it is still about 2-3 times slower than the Mac pro and you can get 8 times more RAM and 16 times more hard drive space (4 times more with the iMac) than my computer. Think about how long you want to use it for, the 24" iMac will set you back about 2/3 of what a Mac Pro will, but it will be several times slower. 2 cores vs. 8, etc. For just 1/3 more money, you'll be set for several years more, that's saving money in the long run.
 
Roy said:
1..If one buys 6 1GB sticks and then fills all the AB slots for a total of 8GB, then does this arrangement give a 20 percent faster performance over four 2 GB sticks totaling 8GB? (Considering that one removes the 1 GB sticks, for equal comparison, and puts 4 X 2GB in the AB slots on both risers/cards)

2..Would eight 1GB sticks generate the same or more heat than four 2GB sticks?
Click to expand...

1. No, the article said one test showed a 20% gain while the other showed a 47% gain. They were comparing either 8 slots vs 2 slots or 4 slots vs 2 slots. The sweet spot in bandwidth is 4 slots. 8 slots will introduce additional latencey.

2. From what i know, 8x1GB will generate more heat than 4x2GB.

The point is that if you want 8GB of RAM, go with 4x2GB and not 1x8GB.
 
You Can Add The Two 1GB Sticks To Four 2GB sticks With No Loss In Performance

Jonny427 said:
1. No, the article said one test showed a 20% gain while the other showed a 47% gain. They were comparing either 8 slots vs 2 slots or 4 slots vs 2 slots. The sweet spot in bandwidth is 4 slots. 8 slots will introduce additional latencey.

2. From what i know, 8x1GB will generate more heat than 4x2GB.

The point is that if you want 8GB of RAM, go with 4x2GB and not 1x8GB.
Click to expand...
Yes and the article says you can add the two 1GB sticks it came with to the top CD slots with no performance hit at all. So total 10GB that way which for an 8 core is kind of minimal. READ the entire article.
Barefeats Memory Tests said:
In summary, I installed the four 2GB FB-DIMMs in slots 1+2 on each riser. Then I put the two factory 1GB FB-DIMMs in slots 3+4 on the top riser. That reported 10GB and produced the same fill rates as the four or eight stick configs in our brief testing.

Some of you just want to buy two 2GB FB-DIMMs to add to the two factory 1GB FB-DIMMs for a total of 6GB. That configuration will slow you down. Don't do it. Again, the BEST performance setup is eight matched FB-DIMMs. The second best is four matched FB-DIMMs.
Click to expand...
 
cydspal said:
Wow! Now you really have me debating the pro! I am just an amateur home video Dad, but I just dont want to be "stuck" with something I cant upgrade when I continue to improve my photography over the next few years (e.g. HD video shooting, etc.).
Click to expand...

I'm in exactly the same boat as you are (although I'm a uni student).

I really love the design of the iMac's and think they're great machines, but I just hate the thought of them being all laptop components and I hate the idea of having to pay Apple £150 to UPGRADE to a 750GB hard drive, when I can buy 2 750GB hard drives for that from a third party.

I don't know whether to buy a Mac Pro or an iMac because I don't really want the additional cost of a screen, but then I hear all the stories about faulty screens on the iMacs.

I don't keep my computers long (I would probably keep a Mac Pro for about 2 years max), but the Mac Pro will have a higher resale value when I come to replace it...and the monitor is only a one off purchase.
 
Any thoughts on display's and external Hard drives? Is the new apple wireless drive going to be fast enough?
 
cydspal said:
Any thoughts on display's and external Hard drives? Is the new apple wireless drive going to be fast enough?
Click to expand...

For an external hard drive, I've bought a NAS enclosure which holds 2 drives in RAID configuration, and has a built in Print Server and FTP server so I can access my files anywhere in the world and I can share my printers on my network too.

As far as displays go, I'm not sure. I'm kinda asking the same questions. Ideally, if I buy a Mac Pro, I'd want an ACD but they are so overpriced at the moment, I couldn't justify buying one at the moment, so I might use my current HP 22" monitor until the ACDs are updated.
 
gazfocus said:
I'm in exactly the same boat as you are (although I'm a uni student).

I really love the design of the iMac's and think they're great machines, but I just hate the thought of them being all laptop components and I hate the idea of having to pay Apple £150 to UPGRADE to a 750GB hard drive, when I can buy 2 750GB hard drives for that from a third party.
.
Click to expand...

Surely thats all it is? "A thought" of the components been laptop equivalents?
I too think the same and have a 2.8" imac. I read through posts on here daily in the vain hope that I can justify buying a new Mac Pro but I only do the same as the OP, SD video and other menial tasks.
But moving back to the "laptop components" surely these are only labelled as this due to the fact that they are a lot smaller than their desktop equivalents? They will do the same job as desktop components.

Totally agree with the Hard drive upgrades.
 
johny5 said:
Surely thats all it is? "A thought" of the components been laptop equivalents?
I too think the same and have a 2.8" imac. I read through posts on here daily in the vain hope that I can justify buying a new Mac Pro but I only do the same as the OP, SD video and other menial tasks.
But moving back to the "laptop components" surely these are only labelled as this due to the fact that they are a lot smaller than their desktop equivalents? They will do the same job as desktop components.

Totally agree with the Hard drive upgrades.
Click to expand...

Not really. The FSB on a laptop processor is a lot lower than the FSB on an equivelant desktop one. The Mac Pro can take a lot more RAM, and has a superior Graphics Card.

For me, all these things don't matter too much. My main concern would be the fact that the iMac's are the same spec as my year old Windows PC and therefore I'd be very reluctant to pay £1400 on essentially the same thing I already have.

My other (kinda) reasoning is that if the display goes in the iMac, yeah you can still use it with an external display but doesn't that kinda defeat the object? Whereas with the Mac Pro, if the display goes, you just buy another one.
 
Ok, just so I got this correct,

"put each pair in the AB slots top and bottom ram cards plus the pair of 1GB sticks that came with it in CD of the top ram card" (hope I can figure that out). Does this look like the right sticks to buy?

4.0GB Mac Pro Memory Matched Pair (2GB x 2) PC6400 DDR2 ECC 800MHz 240 Pin FB-DIMM Modules
 
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