Qaundary with added pickle over upgrades to my Mac Pro 2 x 2.8 2008!

[xiovoix]

I've recently purchased a new Mac Pro 2 x 2.8 2008 for a paltry sum of £1299. I'm stoney broke at the moment and I am considering dispensing with my uMBP 2.53 late 2008 with 2yrs 5mths Apple care. I went to my local CEX store (it's like a pawn shop for US brethren). They offered me £1118 for it. Should I do it and get SSD drives, extra RAM upgrade video card? Any suggestions welcome!

 

[GoCubsGo]

Should you upgrade a machinewithout telling us what you're using it for? Sure whatever. I am confused. If you're broke and you bought another computer then wouldn't it be wise to sell the unibody and keep the cash? Are all the upgrades necessary to you work/hobby? I'll bet you a fat c note that you don't ever need SSDs to actually do your job (or hobby).

 

[xiovoix]

Oh! I forgot the rest of my rant! I'm doing an MSC in Educational Multimedia at Queens Belfast! I teach kids in schools video editing, flash animation, DVD authoring all that jazz. As a technician/musician and for a hobby I record local bands using protools, reason blah, blah so I think I may be justified in saying SSD may help me a tad

 

[Genghis Khan]

SSD may help you a tad, but you still have to justify it economically...i.e. the speed boost will pay itself back in time savings...

Also, nice score on the Mac Pro btw
...but as it seems you scored a one time offer...do you need it now? It doesn't appear that you could've afforded one without this deal you got. So perhaps you don't need the Mac Pro NOW, and were getting along with the MacBook Pro.

Therefore, my advice would be to keep the MacBook Pro, and save for a month or so...



Then you should get the following upgrades...
- RAM: 4GB or 8GB from eBay (or somewhere else you may know)
- HDD: yes HDD's. Get however many in whatever size you want, and consider setting up a RAID 0 for speed
- Graphics : Get an 8800GT or a GTX285...whichever you prefer

Those upgrades for me cost ~AU$700 on top of the AU$3,300 the Mac Pro cost.


Just be patient, and in a month or so you'll have a pimped out Mac Pro AND a sweet MacBook Pro


- Michael


btw, I used to live in Belfast, it's where my family comes from. Rough place, but the people can be golden

 

[xiovoix]

@GK

No I REALLY need the MP! I've been noticing with PTs in rewire mode with Reason and a few plugins open that the MBP is beachballing a lot and suffer buffer under-runs (hah that ryhmes!). Using Maya/Poser etc renders take forever and so on! I don't intend to keep this current incarnation of MBP as the wife will probably just commandeer it for web browsing and that's sacrilege! Also officially restricted to 4gig of ram!

BTW what part of Belfast? You should come back and visit the place is really buzzin' at present

 

[Genghis Khan]

Well, if you feel that you should sell your MBP anyway...go ahead...

however, I'm always inclined to either keep things or upgrade them (the Mac Pro isn't really a replacement for the MBP). I would still strongly recommend waiting a month. The Mac Pro should be faster than the MBP as it is...if you're desperate for speed, start upgrading it week by week as you get money in (starting with the RAM).

Good luck,
- Michael


*i'm from the falls road...pretty sure my entire genealogy is on that road

 

[xiovoix]

Yeah! I can keep the MBP and upgrade with an SSD or an esata expresscard adapter and run external esata drives etc but cant officially upgrade ram to help multithread apps! May need a portable machine come September when I,m back at Uni! I just think I'm resigned to losing the MBP as i can't see where the moola is gonna come from! Have 3 nippers to feed

The West is the best BTW!