I have been a PC junkie for so long and have talked a lot of smack about APPLE and how "non-user friendly" it is. I'm such an idiot!!! I just so happen to be walking along downtown Calgary, Alberta Canada one day and I stumbled upon an Apple Store. Low and behold there was a PC store right next to it. I scoffed at the "Apple Store" and walked towards the PC Store. I found that it had a sign in the window that said "Out of Business". I was oblivious to the irony. Then had no choice but to "check out" the Apple store. Long story short, I came out of that store a changed man. I did not know where to start. Should I skeet shoot my windows running, ctrl-alt-deleting, virus crashing PC from existence or should I just chalk this up as an experience. Well to my detriment, I chalked it up as an experience. That all happened 2 years ago and I have regretted this decision ever since. My business has grown and I have moved to northern BC with my family and have discovered an immense demand for professional Photo/Videography and editing. Now my POS PC will not pump out the power needed to edit, let alone render a simple 20 minute clip. I do everything from professional commercials to weddings and my PC is about to kick the bucket. Actually it kicked the buck along time ago but I performed a few spells and downloaded enough band-aid programs to keep it alive. I need powerful enough computer to not only blow away my old PC but to potentially make it orbit pluto. Here is a list of what I am about to order from Apple.ca. I need someone with enough APPLE experience to say "HELL YA" to my list or a resounding "HELL NO" start over. Here we go... Mac Pro 2x 3.0 Gz Dual Core Xeon Processors 4 Gb Ram 1 500GB Harddrive for software - purchased a lacie 2.5 Tb sata 2 raid system for data ATI Radeon X-1900 512Mb to support the 2 x 23" displays 2 x Superdrives Bluetooth and Airport extreme option I am not sure if I will go with the video card they offer on the website. I am going to research it a bit. The high end one they offer is too high end and the one I have listed, I am not sure if it is powerful enough. Comment away!!!
Don't forget to declare it as a business expense. No taxes! woot! The Radeon X-1900 gives you the most bang for your buck. The really expensive one is designed for.... something. I can't remember. But it's something most users never do.
Hell Ya!!! I used to be the same way, i don't know what changed me, but i finaly got a mac this year and i'm never looking back
Well, you're certainly excited. Congrats on the new purchase. Keep us apprised of how it's working out for you.
Congrats on your purchase, as for the video card, you made an excellent choice. The ATI card you selected will have no problem driving the displays and fulfilling all your tasks. It is an excellent card, and it is a great value. Congrats, and Good luck.
As a recent Mac convert, I'd like to welcome you! I think you'll find Macs are far superior to their PC counterparts. Make sure you get the best system you possibly can. This will make sure that the system you're going to be paying quite a bit of cash for today will be useful many years from now. It's worth it to get that new graphics card or a quicker processor if you're going to drop over $2,000 for the thing.
However, it might be worth it to buy the RAM from someone else. They all get it from the same place, and Apple is greedy when it comes to RAM.
You don't know the half of it! You get out from under this fossil of a computer and into a Ferrari..... ohhhhhhhh boy!!!! Where in PG you from? I never though of that. In fact I have no idea just what I can do about third party purchasing for this monster. I know PC's hardware almost grows on trees. Thanks for the input. I'm looking at a new hardware budget of over 40k. This includes new filming and lighting equipment. 12k just for the computer.
That's an awesome set up. Health to use. I too used a PC for may years until I saw the light Mac's rule ........ OK FJ
You think with all the rendering and rasterizing I need to do the 512Mb ATI card in this beast can handle it. Apple doesn't show the specs I need to see about what they sell on their site. I'm still looking elsewhere for specs. YOU KNOW IT!!!! MMMMMMMMm write off's!!
i am insanely jealous of you for getting that machine. you had better enjoi it! pfft... Ferrari... They are only the iMacs... The Mac Pro is more like a Veyron:
I know asking someone who has been converted to wait... but Apple should be coming out with 2x Quad Core's ( 8 CPU ) behemoths in the not-to-distant-yet-so-uncertain future. People are speculating that they will debut at the NAB conference in a few weeks. That should kick some butt... if that's not fast than nothing is.
I have never heard of the Veyron. I have heard of bugatti but not its new beast. Now that I have seen it I want one! You have got to be kidding?!?!?!?!? 2 Quads??? 8 cores??? Thats bordering on matching the human thought speed (the think it and it happens theory). AWESOME!!!
CNET swapped out the duals for quads already in a test setup: http://reviews.cnet.com/4531-10921_7-6663792.html
I have just been reading about the NVIDIA Quattro FX 5500 1Gb vid card, the best bad ass card out there (according to many non related sites). I have found the 5500 for not much more than the 4500 that apple sells. I know this is more than likely overkill in the extreme but I would not have to worry about upgrades for a while eh? The only problem is, is it compatible with Mac OSx??? It only states it is Windows compatible. Oh my dear god .... those benchmarks... can't be real?!? I don't know what I would do with that much power. I could never use it all! I still want it... but I could never use it!!! Thanks! I'm excited!
Maybe at least wait till NAB? Well if you can afford to throw it away into the trash in 6 weeks time to buy a new one then it doesn't matter, just let me know where the trashbin is
pfft. Veyron, that is not strictly true now is it. Barabus TKR 270mph faster than the Veyron Bristol Fighter S (may be the T) 1012 bhp more powerful than the Veyron. Also the Bristol fighter has a much much cooler name. But yeah the mac pro is a beast.
I am quite sure you were not in a real Apple store, but just a reseller. An actual Apple Store is coming soon in Chinook.
I couldn't tell the difference anyway unless I seen them both. It was the closest thing to an apple store I have ever seen.
So that store must have been "My Mac dealer" We are getting a apple store too soon!!! Anyway that system is great. The x1900 will be fine its not worth the extra money. Also the superdrives are kinda sad for performance. If i was you with that much money I would buy 1 stock drive, then either buy a second SATA drive (there is 2 hidden SATA ports) This way its on a different bus. Or just buy a second third party faster drive. But with problem with 2 devices on the one ATA bus it just slows right down if you using both. Common problem with PCs. So if you will be doing alot of DVD stuff then maybe a SATA drive might be worth it. Someone here on the forums has a thread on it....