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Ultimate Mac Pro for Photoshop ?

H

HooHar

macrumors member
Original poster
Nov 18, 2007
46
0
Nottingham, UK
OK folks - wish I could say money no object - BUT - what's the best VALUE FOR MONEY solution. If I was to get a Mac Pro for photography (huge amount of storage req'd (currently have 1Tb of files) - needs to be fast as well but I'd rather spend by £ on extra RAM than extra MHz that won't make as much difference. Also - are scratch drives really that important nowadays given that these machines are so fast anyway. What would be your choice - dual v's quad, What HDDs (fitted or aftermarket ;)), how much RAM (regularly working with files up to 500Mb), what monitor - can't wait for new CDs any longer.

Interested to hear your thoughts...
Cheers
HooHar
 
HooHar said:
Also - are scratch drives really that important nowadays given that these machines are so fast anyway.
Click to expand...
Scratch files are essentially about virtual memory space, not processor speed. You don't want your fast processor to be waiting for files, so a dedicated scratch drive is a good idea even/especially for a fast processor.
 
Quad 2.8GHz should be fine. See if you can find a refurb if you want to save a little extra cash.

Memory: 10GB of memory as it's reasonably cheap (buying two 2x2GB from a 3rd party). Buying 8GB from Crucial UK is about £40 or so more expensive than importing from OWC (macsales.com). You don't need to buy it all in one go of course, can buy 4GB and see how you get on.

Graphics: I don't know if the 3870 is easy to find here yet, might want to wait for the 4800 series cards, but you may not need more than the 2600XT anyway.

Storage: You have many options and really it's all about how much redundancy you want and how valuble your files are to you. I mean you could have current work, applications & OS and archieved files all protected against hard drive failure with one or more RAID setups and also off site storage. A scratch disk might be beneficial too, but you might want to see how you get on without one first, or at least if you have a recent SATA drive try using that to start with rather than buying a high speed drive from the kick off. Really you won't go wrong with any recent Samsung, Seagate or Western Digital drive.

Display: Depends how much you want to spend. For a starting point on colour accurate displays try www.colourconfidence.com or www.cancomuk.com if they have a store near you go down and speak to advisors and look at what they have. Maybe you have a different store near you that can offer advice. I really wouldn't just buy a display without seeing it first, or at least what else is on offer if you don't have to. www.trustedreviews.co.uk may also be useful.
 
For color accuracy the NEC 2490 is pretty awesome if you work in sRGB. If you work in Adobe RGB then the NEC 2690 is also awesome.

I'm not a big fan of wide gamut displays (such as the 2690) so for me it came down to the 2490 or the Apple cinema displays. I opted for the Apple displays because they were cheaper and because I live very close to an Apple store. Makes it easier dealing with any problems vs. having to ship a 2490 back to wherever. That being said, the 2490 is a superior display vs. the ACD in pretty much all aspects.
 
Fast Shadow said:
For color accuracy the NEC 2490 is pretty awesome if you work in sRGB. If you work in Adobe RGB then the NEC 2690 is also awesome.

I'm not a big fan of wide gamut displays (such as the 2690) so for me it came down to the 2490 or the Apple cinema displays. I opted for the Apple displays because they were cheaper and because I live very close to an Apple store. Makes it easier dealing with any problems vs. having to ship a 2490 back to wherever. That being said, the 2490 is a superior display vs. the ACD in pretty much all aspects.
Click to expand...

Would you still get an ACD today? - even though they're old tech in comparison - I'm still tempted - they're so beautiful...
:rolleyes:
 
HooHar said:
Would you still get an ACD today? - even though they're old tech in comparison - I'm still tempted - they're so beautiful...
:rolleyes:
Click to expand...

Yes! As far as I am concerned they are better then any monitor I have owned and are comparable to a NEC with a cheaper price tag.
 
HooHar said:
Would you still get an ACD today? - even though they're old tech in comparison - I'm still tempted - they're so beautiful...
:rolleyes:
Click to expand...

That's the main reason I think people still buy them ;). They are decent displays and when properly calibrated they are good for colour accurate work. However it doesn't cost much more to get an NEC over the ACD and they are most definatly a better display. Then on the other end if colour accuracy isn't so important Dell and HP and the like have much more functionality to offer at a better price.
 
Bit the bullet and got myself a nice MacPro today - wonderful !

Here's my spec:

2.8 Octo
16Gb RAM
4x1Tb HDD
30" ACD

I could wait forever - I don't think there will be any changes around the corner that will make me regret this decision. Hope not anyway !
:D

Cheers
HooHar
 
HooHar said:
Bit the bullet and got myself a nice MacPro today - wonderful !

Here's my spec:

2.8 Octo
16Gb RAM
4x1Tb HDD
30" ACD

I could wait forever - I don't think there will be any changes around the corner that will make me regret this decision. Hope not anyway !
:D

Cheers
HooHar
Click to expand...

Did you get the RAM and Harddrives from Apple? Not there's nothing wrong with that. I support people who have the money to give to Apple, since Apple puts allot back into R&D.
 
shfreelance said:
Did you get the RAM and Harddrives from Apple? Not there's nothing wrong with that. I support people who have the money to give to Apple, since Apple puts allot back into R&D.
Click to expand...

I'd hope not. 16GB of RAM and four 1TB drives costs £2,350 ($4,150) more from Apple than a third party.
 
any 8-core mac pro will do more than fine... add an internal hard drive to run your projects and files from. at least 4gbs of ram. CS4 will be a plus when it is available. any video card will be decent up front and can be upgraded in the future.
 
shfreelance said:
Did you get the RAM and Harddrives from Apple? Not there's nothing wrong with that. I support people who have the money to give to Apple, since Apple puts allot back into R&D.
Click to expand...

No - I'm sorry but I don't think Steve will go hungry. Got the base machine from an Apple approved seller and got them to put the HDDs and RAM in for me but prices were really good. RAM almost as cheap as I could have got by mail order but fully fitted. HDDs more expensive than mail order but no waiting and extra hassle.

From phone call to having the machine in my hands took just 2 hours - is that great service or what !

Apart from telling me there was 1 minute left to wait for the final hour of migration from my MBP everything is smooth so far.

Cheers
HooHar
 
HooHar said:
Would you still get an ACD today? - even though they're old tech in comparison - I'm still tempted - they're so beautiful...
:rolleyes:
Click to expand...

Old Tech? :eek:

Wait... if your serious about using Photoshop for anything creative and desire colour accuracy and matching for print. The ADC's are the way to go. You're not gonna find a good alternative with spot on colour - they're what we used to call 'pre-press monitors'.

If your just using the machine for image manipulation only, and light DTP then any of the iMacs/MacPro's will offer you more then enough power. Currently Photoshop will only support about 4Gb of RAM so unless your planning to expand into film productions and animation, buying a MacPro would be an over kill. Though doesn't mean you shouldn't as they'll offer more future proofing.
 
UltraNEO* said:
Old Tech? :eek:

Wait... if your serious about using Photoshop for anything creative and desire colour accuracy and matching for print. The ADC's are the way to go. You're not gonna find a good alternative with spot on colour - they're what we used to call 'pre-press monitors'.

If your just using the machine for image manipulation only, and light DTP then any of the iMacs/MacPro's will offer you more then enough power. Currently Photoshop will only support about 4Gb of RAM so unless your planning to expand into film productions and animation, buying a MacPro would be an over kill. Though doesn't mean you shouldn't as they'll offer more future proofing.
Click to expand...

Well you can get better alternatives, but in the UK you are looking at another £500 for a 30" NEC or Eizo. Not to take anything away from the ACD though as it is perfectly fine for colour accurate work.
 
i/o

i'm not to certain what your budget is, but have a look at this site. the quick summary is that you'll get excellent i/o numbers.

Quick quote:
The HyperDrive4* is the fastest Internal Hard Disk in the World. It does 44,000 random read and write balanced 0.5KB file Inputs and Outputs per second as measured by Intel's IOmeter Benchmark).
Click to expand...

a personal opinion, i'm not entirely certain that you can boot from that drive, but even then, you'll still be flying thru' most tasks limited to the CPU(s) as of now.
 
HooHar said:
Would you still get an ACD today? - even though they're old tech in comparison - I'm still tempted - they're so beautiful...
:rolleyes:
Click to expand...


No. I know pretty things are important to people but it's the quality of the picture that is most important, is it not ? The NEC, Eizo and LaCie monitors have MUCH higher image quality. Good luck
 
iamcheerful said:
i'm not to certain what your budget is, but have a look at this site. the quick summary is that you'll get excellent i/o numbers.

Quick quote:


a personal opinion, i'm not entirely certain that you can boot from that drive, but even then, you'll still be flying thru' most tasks limited to the CPU(s) as of now.
Click to expand...

Odd. So it looks like a DDR RAM Tray with a SATA connector. That's a LOT of money for a 16GB Max hard drive.
 
guess that's the current price for speed at the moment ... cheaper than 16GB RAM from AppleStore?
 
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