Looking To Get A Mac Pro

[carfac]

Hey!

I am looking to get a mac pro for limited editing work... and then run windows on the side....

I will use the FCP 7, and photoshoppe. it will not be an intense editing environment, but I want to speed up some from the iMac i currently have.... plus have a nice bank of back up drives for video.

I am shooting and editing 2-5 minute industrial videos at 1080 p

So I looked at eBay, and I am thinking a mac pro 3.1 or 4.1...

obviously a 4.1 would be better, but I want to know what differences there are between the two models.... can I get on well with the 3.1, or is the 4.1 substantially better or future proofed in some way that makes it a smarter buy...

Thanks for your opinions!

 

[Macsonic]

Hey!

I am looking to get a mac pro for limited editing work... and then run windows on the side....

I will use the FCP 7, and photoshoppe. it will not be an intense editing environment, but I want to speed up some from the iMac i currently have.... plus have a nice bank of back up drives for video.

I am shooting and editing 2-5 minute industrial videos at 1080 p

So I looked at eBay, and I am thinking a mac pro 3.1 or 4.1...

obviously a 4.1 would be better, but I want to know what differences there are between the two models.... can I get on well with the 3.1, or is the 4.1 substantially better or future proofed in some way that makes it a smarter buy...

Thanks for your opinions!

The 4.1 or 5.1 would be recommended. For 3.1 2008 Mac Pro, the CPU is limited in upgrading and the ram for 3.1s are expensive and runs at DDR2. For the 4.1, some users would get the 2.66 quad and upgrade the CPU to a 3.33ghz hex or you can try getting the 8 core 2.66ghz since you do video editing.

 

[thefredelement]

The 2009 gives you a lot of headroom going forward. If you're into upgrading a bit, you can find a value getting a 2009 4,1 mac pro, then upgrade the CPUs, RAM, video card and storage.

A member here wrote this pretty awesome guide that I saved as a favorite

http://pindelski.org/Photography/mac-pro/

 

[carfac]

Cool, thanks! Will look to the 4.1!

 

[wildmac]

The 2009 gives you a lot of headroom going forward. If you're into upgrading a bit, you can find a value getting a 2009 4,1 mac pro, then upgrade the CPUs, RAM, video card and storage.

A member here wrote this pretty awesome guide that I saved as a favorite

http://pindelski.org/Photography/mac-pro/

A counterpoint here...

While a hotrod 2009 system may save some money, and potentially be a performance increase on certain tasks, you are running the risk of hitting an OS update in the future that blocks you out.

Cost savings may or may not be worth it to you, but something to consider.

 

[Korican100]

A counterpoint here...

While a hotrod 2009 system may save some money, and potentially be a performance increase on certain tasks, you are running the risk of hitting an OS update in the future that blocks you out.

Cost savings may or may not be worth it to you, but something to consider.

i dont see 2008, or above being blocked out of any os updates any time soon. 1,1 and 2,1 was phased out due to 32bit...so barring any performance incompatibilities (which I dont see happening) Im sure 2008/09 will be staying on the books.

 

[wildmac]

i dont see 2008, or above being blocked out of any os updates any time soon. 1,1 and 2,1 was phased out due to 32bit...so barring any performance incompatibilities (which I dont see happening) Im sure 2008/09 will be staying on the books.

Possibly, but it's still a consideration, especially when making as many mods as described in the article above. Not sure I would be shopping on eBay for parts for a system myself, but I'm not a hardware guru.

 

[thefredelement]

A counterpoint here...

While a hotrod 2009 system may save some money, and potentially be a performance increase on certain tasks, you are running the risk of hitting an OS update in the future that blocks you out.

Cost savings may or may not be worth it to you, but something to consider.

My thoughts are that the nMP is of a similar architecture (64 bit) that the 2008 + Mac Pros are based on. It's also the same core architecture that all of Apple's current consumer computers use. I think that when the 2008+ Mac Pros are no longer supported by software, either will any of the current computers that are being released now. To me, that makes the value of a 2009 Mac Pro, upgradable to close to nMP specs, an extremely good value.

If for some reason Apple wants to force these older machines out of the loop, I'm sure someone among us here will find a way to get the latest and greatest bits installed.

All that being said, a 486DX2 50Mhz with 8MB of RAM can still run Windows 3.1 and Office 4.3.

 

[thekev]

A counterpoint here...

While a hotrod 2009 system may save some money, and potentially be a performance increase on certain tasks, you are running the risk of hitting an OS update in the future that blocks you out.

Cost savings may or may not be worth it to you, but something to consider.

I don't think it's as big a deal for the OP. He said he wants to run FCP7 rather than FCPX. Eventually 7 won't run on the latest OSX.

i dont see 2008, or above being blocked out of any os updates any time soon. 1,1 and 2,1 was phased out due to 32bit...so barring any performance incompatibilities (which I dont see happening) Im sure 2008/09 will be staying on the books.

If you consider that Apple's vintage policy cuts off hardware service between 5 and 7 years, there's no reason to believe they would make much extra effort to support the 2008s. It could be something as simple as the cards that shipped with them don't support some OpenGL revision, or AMD/NVidia no longer support them. It can be any number of things.

 

[lexR]

i did ALOT of research before i got my MP and Nearly got a 2008 3.1 MP but something made me check this forum and found out about the 2009 4.1 having the ability to have a firmware update to take it up to 5.1 thus allowing the new 6 core cpu's.

not that i need that kind of fire power but if your making an investment for the future, better to be with a MP that gives you the option to upgrade!

good luck

 

[wildmac]

i did ALOT of research before i got my MP and Nearly got a 2008 3.1 MP but something made me check this forum and found out about the 2009 4.1 having the ability to have a firmware update to take it up to 5.1 thus allowing the new 6 core cpu's.

not that i need that kind of fire power but if your making an investment for the future, better to be with a MP that gives you the option to upgrade!

good luck

Good advice there...

Wish I could do more with my 7-year-old MP...