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Tempted to buy previous gen MP.

ayeying

ayeying

macrumors 601
Original poster
Dec 5, 2007
4,547
13
Yay Area, CA
Its a 8-Core 2.8GHz Intel Xeon Mac Pro w/ 2GB ram, 2600XT video card, single superdrive at the refurb store for a little over 2k.

Is it worth it to buy a previous generation? I'll be using it for mostly photography (aperture/photoshop) with a side of windows gaming (going to upgrade to ATi 3850 though and more ram).

Furthermore, since it comes with 2x1GB ram, if I were to get 4x2GB and stick it in there, would the 2x1GB interfere with operations or would it be okay (bring a total of 10GB)
 
ayeying said:
Its a 8-Core 2.8GHz Intel Xeon Mac Pro w/ 2GB ram, 2600XT video card, single superdrive at the refurb store for a little over 2k.

Is it worth it to buy a previous generation? I'll be using it for mostly photography (aperture/photoshop) with a side of windows gaming (going to upgrade to ATi 3850 though and more ram).

Furthermore, since it comes with 2x1GB ram, if I were to get 4x2GB and stick it in there, would the 2x1GB interfere with operations or would it be okay (bring a total of 10GB)
Click to expand...

Mixing memory shouldn't be a problem.

The forum contains hundreds of posts about the pros and cons of going with the previous gen MP for various applications. If you don't want to look at them, the gist is that for most purposes, the previous gen is very good deal for the performance you get.
 
For photoshop and gaming, there is no doubt that the 2.93 quad of the current generation will be faster. Processor wise it is slightly faster than a 3.2Ghz quad of the last gen had there been one.

You wont see any advantage in photoshop or gaming from having 8 cores. The only downsides are the RAM limitation of 16GB and the price. It depends whether you are will to pay more for the fastest, or are satisfied paying less for a little slower system.
 
Abidubi said:
For photoshop and gaming, there is no doubt that the 2.93 quad of the current generation will be faster. Processor wise it is slightly faster than a 3.2Ghz quad of the last gen had there been one.

You wont see any advantage in photoshop or gaming from having 8 cores. The only downsides are the RAM limitation of 16GB and the price. It depends whether you are will to pay more for the fastest, or are satisfied paying less for a little slower system.
Click to expand...

I thought the limit was 32GB?
 
awesome computer at just a little over 2k. The 2008 mac pro is a beast of a machine. For what you'll be doing with it, I think you'll be very happy. Plus with the upgrade potential, you're pretty much set :)
 
I just finished setting up my new 2008 2.8 8-core. It replaces my Dual 2.0 G5. I too was seriously looking at the brand new models, but the price was just too much to stomach.

I also bought (from OWC) a couple 1TB hard drives, and 6 x 2GB RAM, which seem to be working just fine. I added my new RAM to the 1GB sticks that came with it, for a total of 14GB. No problems at all.

That's a 8-core 2.8GHz system with 14GB RAM, and 2.3TB storage for $3300 (including tax and shipping). I think I did pretty damn good.

Haven't had much chance to do any work on it yet, but it seems quite zippy compared to my G5 so far. I work with CS4 a lot (multiple apps open at once) and large Photoshop files (200GB or more). I expect the big difference will be in the increased processor speed, and not so much the additional processors themselves, as most have indicated here. The first real test will be in the next few days as I have some sizable projects to get done.

I'm hoping the 8-cores will come into play someday down the road when software gets rewritten to take better advantage. Who knows when that will be, but I am inclined to believe the software makers will eventually listen to the demands of their market and do whatever they can to increase multi-processor usage. We'll see.

So my early recommendation is to grab last year's model and save yourself some greenbacks. I think you'll be very happy.
 
UltraNEO* said:
Doh... Dunno why you're even arguing, the OP clearly mentioned it's an 8-Core 2.8GHz Intel Xeon Mac Pro, incase you missed it the first time. :p
Click to expand...

To debate whether or not the 2.8 last gen is worth it... there has to be a comparison against something. I was talking about the current quad cores. I mentioned the quad's memory limit as one of the two drawbacks of buying a current gen machine vs the 2.8 he is talking about.

You might know why I was arguing if you actually read what I wrote.
 
Abidubi said:
No the quad's are limited to 16GB since they only have 4 slots.
Click to expand...

Okay, now I understand where you're going at. I was wondering why the previous generation 8-Core only has a limit of 16GB yet they were sold with 32GB of ram.

I do plan on keeping the system for a while due to its extreme expansive capability. The Ram alone would keep me happy for several years, including 8-cores for future software that takes advantage to multiple cores, SATA w/ Raid 5 for up to current 8TB of drive space (2TB drives each), yadada.

I forgot to mention, I do have a budget even though I can afford the newer model, I'd prefer not to if its not that much different from a previous gen in order to save a few bucks for other things (like ram or hdd).

I'm grateful for all your opinions. I'm still in debate whether or not I need it since my 17" is okay, but it is my only system so if anything happens, i'm screwed (Especially since I ride a motorcycle with the laptop in the backpack, more chances of something happening). Not hoping for the worst, but its something I have to consider as a back up.
 
After talking to my dad after getting a request from another user here that's selling his Mac Pro, he suggested I purchase through the refurbished store because we get cash back on our credit card.

I just ordered an 8-Core 2.8GHz Mac Pro. Can't wait till it comes in :D
 
ayeying said:
After talking to my dad after getting a request from another user here that's selling his Mac Pro, he suggested I purchase through the refurbished store because we get cash back on our credit card.

I just ordered an 8-Core 2.8GHz Mac Pro. Can't wait till it comes in :D
Click to expand...

congrats!! :D
 
ayeying said:
Okay, now I understand where you're going at. I was wondering why the previous generation 8-Core only has a limit of 16GB yet they were sold with 32GB of ram.
Click to expand...

Dude you are confused. The Mac Pro (Early 2008) has a maximum RAM of 32 GM. NOT 16 GB as you seem to think :)
 
You'll be pretty happy with the 2008 MP. I had the opportunity to swap my 2.8x8 for any of the new ones, almost went with the 2.93 QUAD, but glad I didn't.

When snow leopard comes around, the extra cores should help significantly.
 
ayeying said:
Its a 8-Core 2.8GHz Intel Xeon Mac Pro w/ 2GB ram, 2600XT video card, single superdrive at the refurb store for a little over 2k.

Is it worth it to buy a previous generation?
Click to expand...

Hells yeah! You're getting a nearly identical machine performance-wise, for $2,600 cheaper! And it's more expandable too! I'd look in to flashing a HD4870 or HD4890 ATI card for it though. And of course I'd upgrade the RAM. At 2GB you're a bit performance limited.
 
Tesselator said:
Hells yeah! You're getting a nearly identical machine performance-wise, for $2,600 cheaper! And it's more expandable too! I'd look in to flashing a HD4870 or HD4890 ATI card for it though. And of course I'd upgrade the RAM. At 2GB you're a bit performance limited.
Click to expand...

Yes. I plan on upgrading the ram first. My dad's iMac has the ATi 2600XT and it was fine with most of the games I play (I've used his system to play some of my games) so the video card would not be my 1st yet. I do plan on upgrading to at least 8GB of ram as soon as I can.

I already have several 1TB hard drives laying around so I can install them for a RAID setup.

Abidubi said:
You need to read the thread from the top.
Click to expand...

Okay. I think we can stop arguing. Lets just congratulate me for buying something pretty expensive in a recession :p
 
The 2008s came with both memory boards (8 slots) in all configurations for a max of 32gb. The 2009 MP however only has 4 slots for single cpu configurations.

In either case, the 2008MP is still a beast, and at that price its a pretty fantastic machine.
 
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