Looking for buying advice

[Pedrith]

Hi. I'm looking for some buying advice as I need to upgrade my 2006 Mac Pro (base model with 4 HD drives) and well everything has changed so much. When I bought my Mac Pro I was doing video and sound work for the high school I worked and was quite happy with Final Cut Pro 7. Now it's more hobby video and itunes the occasional game and and Daz Studio. I'm also really wanting to play Eve online but it requires Shader Model 3 and I don't have that, or OS 10.6. I'm still on OS 10.4.

I want to get a new mac pro before the Thermal Core one is released because I don't have a ton of money and I do want internal storage. I also qualify for the educational discount. I would like to pick a machine that would meet my need and could potentially last another seven to ten years

I have a few questions that I hope you guys can answer:


1) When I bought my 2006 mac pro I was sold on the idea of two processors. Now that I'm looking at it and it is talking about cores. I was looking at the 3.33ghz 6 core, but it sounds like it would be one chip. Will it be faster than what I currently have? The 12 core one is a lower speed than what I have but there's two of them. Does that mean it will be slower than what I have? I did try and look it up but don't get it. How much of a speed boost would I be looking at...twice as fast or faster???

2) Will my Adobe CS4, Final Cut Pro 7 and Adobe After Effects 6 work with the new OS 10.8?

3) Is it better to get the 4 hardrives from Apple and let them install them? Can I plug my old hard drives into the slots and get bigger drives later?

4) Is there a way to copy my emails from the mail program to the new version of mail, or do I need to forward all 6000 to my work email and forward them back once the new computer is up an running?

5) Is 8 gigs of ram enough (it would be double what I have now)

6) Does anybody play Eve Online. I checked the system requirements and it needs an I-core something processor. Is this different from the 6 core I was looking at?

7) How hard is it to port over my itunes stuff. It sits at about 180 gigs. Will the new version of Itunes automatically set up the playlists based on the old info or will I have to spend weeks resetting everything up?

Thanks for all your help.

Sincerely,

David

 

[designs216]

I have a few questions that I hope you guys can answer:

1) When I bought my 2006 mac pro I was sold on the idea of two processors. Now that I'm looking at it and it is talking about cores. I was looking at the 3.33ghz 6 core, but it sounds like it would be one chip. Will it be faster than what I currently have? The 12 core one is a lower speed than what I have but there's two of them. Does that mean it will be slower than what I have? I did try and look it up but don't get it. How much of a speed boost would I be looking at...twice as fast or faster???

2) Will my Adobe CS4, Final Cut Pro 7 and Adobe After Effects 6 work with the new OS 10.8?

3) Is it better to get the 4 hardrives from Apple and let them install them? Can I plug my old hard drives into the slots and get bigger drives later?

4) Is there a way to copy my emails from the mail program to the new version of mail, or do I need to forward all 6000 to my work email and forward them back once the new computer is up an running?

5) Is 8 gigs of ram enough (it would be double what I have now)

6) Does anybody play Eve Online. I checked the system requirements and it needs an I-core something processor. Is this different from the 6 core I was looking at?

7) How hard is it to port over my itunes stuff. It sits at about 180 gigs. Will the new version of Itunes automatically set up the playlists based on the old info or will I have to spend weeks resetting everything up?

1) The hex is the sweet spot in the current Mac Pro lineup and the one I purchased. It has speed for today and extra cores for tomorrow as applications are slowly rewritten to be "core-aware". Also, it won't require one to get a second mortgage. Speaking of the 12-core, it may appear slower than your '06 based on numbers but it's actually faster at lower MHz. Let me know if you have other questions about my MP setup.

2) Check with Adobe.

3) Don't buy the drives from Apple. Buy from anywhere else and save a bundle. They are super simple to install. Your old drives may be 5400s but assuming they are 3.5" SATA drives you could use those and replace them as you gain the funds.

4) I would think you could export an archive and re-import to the new program. Knowing Apple, it may be even easier than that.

5) 8GB is a good start. Again, buy it elsewhere and install yourself as you can afford it.

6) No. I don't play.

7) iCranky is not as smooth/intuitive as one would expect from Apple. Importing the content will probably be easy but it's likely you'll have to redo the playlists.