Sell the original 2006 Mac Pro?

[kenmitchell1969]

Hi All:

I need opinions on this dilemma from you wise gentleman.

I own an original 2.66 GHz dual-core Intel Xeon Mac Pro that I purchased back in 2006. It currently has 9GB RAM and 4 HD’s in it totaling 3.25 TB of storage.

I use this machine (affectionately named “Juggernaut”) for the following:

• Primarily for music creation with Logic Studio, Ableton Live 7 and various AU plugins
• Light iMovie editing, although I will likely begin to dabble with Final Cut Express now since I just purchased a brand new AVCHD camcorder for recording 1920x1080 HD video
• Usenet/Bittorent
• Handbrake/Visualhub/MKV transcoding for my PS3
• Streaming of HD video to PS3 over AEBS 801.11N network
• Typical web surfing, mail, and maintenance of a 170GB+ iTunes Library

Needless to say, this machine has served me well over the years, but I am keenly interested in the upcoming Gainestown Mac Pro’s, so much so that I am contemplating selling this unit on eBay before the new units drop and picking up a Unibody 17” MBP as my desktop replacement for the interim.

I realize that the Mac Pro in general is probably overkill for what I use it for, but I gravitated to it because I like the security of knowing that I have infinite expandability and a relatively-future-proof machine with the ability to house multiple drives.

With that being said my questions are a follows:

1. Am I nuts for considering selling this unit in preparation for a new Gainestown Mac Pro unit whenever that may be?

2. With my usage, would I see any significant gains with that new model especially considering that if I got the new model, it would be awhile before I’d be able to upgrade the memory to any amount larger than 4GB?

3. If I decide to keep my current Mac Pro and install Snow Leopard on it, will I see a significant performance difference? Enough gains to justify keeping it?

I’ve searched all the boards and read up on the Nehalem/Gainestown stuff but I’m still a bit fuzzy on it all which is why I decided to seek the sage advice of you all.

So tell me am should I sell my old MP and wait for the new MP or keep what I have and run with Snow Leopard?

Thanks in advance for all opinions.

 

[Tallest Skil]

Snow Leopard, if you believe the pundits, will be quite good to your machine. We're talking about 2x performance here.

However, we know virtually nothing about the OS right now, and since I'm not one for pirating prerelease operating systems, I can't tell you anything from experience and neither can anyone who has a legitimate copy.

If you want Gainestown, get Gainestown. Don't waste your money in the interim, however.

Here's what I think you should do:

1. Keep your Mac Pro until the new ones come out. Snow Leopard will be out a few weeks thereafter.
2. Read reviews on how Snow Leopard performs on your model versus the Gainestown model.
3. Buy a copy of Snow Leopard, install it on your current Mac Pro, sell it, and get Gainestown.

 

[kenmitchell1969]

Tallest Skill, that sounds like a reasonable plan indeed.

Thanks for your quick reply.

 

[vendettabass]

maybe add an NVIDIA 8800? It'll improve your performance when snow leopard arrives with OpenCL

 

[nylon]

I think it depends on the return on your investment and your financial position

In Dec I sold a 2006 Mac Pro stock configuration for US$1800 on ebay. Apple computers generally have pretty good resale value. In my view if you can afford to upgrade to latest and greatest for a few hundred dollars it's well worth it.