Mac Pro... used or new... $1500-$2200... advice...

[whyrichard]

Hey,

The first and the last windows desktop machine I will ever owned bit the dust. Thank god.

But i need a desktop machine, and I should get a mac pro to replace it. (i needed windows for architecture programs, but since the move to intel...)

So, my question to you all is... (i know so little about the mac pro's...)

-how best to spend $1500-$2200 on a used or new mac pro machine?
some things i need: i do rendering and 3d modeling often. I will likely use parallels and bootcamp. I can sometimes run computationally intensive programs like catia and maya, but not tooo often. sometimes i edit video. Lots and lots of images and image editing...

usually i put my money towards monitors, but i'm happy with the two monitors i have presently. my peripherals are fine... i just need a new machine.... emphasis on RAM and processor, then video card, then hard drive... I want it quiet and to last at least 5 years...

which mac pro should i hunt down? mac pro: dual core, quad core, 8 core?! thinking ram min of 8 gigs... but thats upgradable (so long as the slots are there)... want it to run quiet... videocard is good enough but not super duper....


thanks for any advice!

r.

 

[Hellhammer]

Any chance to squeeze your budget to 3300$? Then you would get previous generation 3.2GHz 8-core Mac Pro. If not, current quad is our only option unless you want to buy used

 

[whyrichard]

$3300 is a bit far from $2200....

... and i don't mind a used machine.

is there much software written to take advantage of all 8 cores? how is that going on the software front?

r.

 

[Hellhammer]

$3300 is a bit far from $2200....

... and i don't mind a used machine.

is there much software written to take advantage of all 8 cores? how is that going on the software front?

r.

I think there's no app that can really use all 8 cores but with Snow Leopard's Grand Central Dispatch it's going to be a lot easier. If you think about future, 8-core is better of course.

Anyway, current gen 2.66GHz quad goes for 2149$ from refurb store. It's very capable machine too

 

[whyrichard]

this doesn't seem right....

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dl...8&ssPageName=ADME:B:WNA:US:1123#ht_500wt_1008

.2 GHZ 8 CORE APPLE MAC PRO TOWER
14GB RAM 4TB HARD DRIVES UPGRADED GRAPHICS CARD

ending in six hours, $2200....?
r.

 

[macrumorsMaster]

this doesn't seem right....

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dl...8&ssPageName=ADME:B:WNA:US:1123#ht_500wt_1008

.2 GHZ 8 CORE APPLE MAC PRO TOWER
14GB RAM 4TB HARD DRIVES UPGRADED GRAPHICS CARD

ending in six hours, $2200....?
r.

Six hours is an eternity in Ebay time.
There can be many bids within the last 5 secs

 

[pagansoul]

2,685.00 with 4 hours to go

 

[pagansoul]

It's going to make it over 3k by the time its over. If I didn't already have one from 3 years ago, still working great, I would give it a try.

 

[Hellhammer]

It's going to make it over 3k by the time its over. If I didn't already have one from 3 years ago, still working great, I would give it a try.

At least 3k. It started from 1$ 20 hours ago so 4k or even 5-6k wouldn't surprise me.