Upgrading a Mac Pro 3,1

[GRdesigner]

Graphic designer of mostly print work...photoshop, Indesign and Illustrator almost exclusively. Typically working on photoshop and indesign files below 50meg. No video work. I'm contemplating upgrading a Mac Pro 3,1, or purchasing a 2012 Mac Pro. Budget is an issue for the company, and timing of the purchase is an issue (trying to strike while the iron is hot and business is good), which is why I can't wait for the new Mac Pro to come out. I've read a few threads on here and it seems as though I may be better off upgrading and keeping the price as low as possible.

Current specs are a 300 gig HD, 6 gigs of Ram, 2.8 quad Xeon, OSX 10.5.8

I think I would like to:
- go to a 500 gig SSD and a 1TB internal for backup
- Upgrade to...Mountain Lion? Lion? Thoughts or suggestions?
- Keep Ram the same

I don't know anything about graphics cards... Will switching provide a noticeable speed bump?...this has the ATI Radeon HD 2600 256mb Vram.

Main objective here is to improve speed as much as possible and get a good internal backup system implemented. Any other thoughts or suggestions welcomed.

thanks

 

[Macsonic]

Graphic designer of mostly print work...photoshop, Indesign and Illustrator almost exclusively. Typically working on photoshop and indesign files below 50meg. No video work. I'm contemplating upgrading a Mac Pro 3,1, or purchasing a 2012 Mac Pro. Budget is an issue for the company, and timing of the purchase is an issue (trying to strike while the iron is hot and business is good), which is why I can't wait for the new Mac Pro to come out. I've read a few threads on here and it seems as though I may be better off upgrading and keeping the price as low as possible.

Current specs are a 300 gig HD, 6 gigs of Ram, 2.8 quad Xeon, OSX 10.5.8

I think I would like to:
- go to a 500 gig SSD and a 1TB internal for backup
- Upgrade to...Mountain Lion? Lion? Thoughts or suggestions?
- Keep Ram the same

I don't know anything about graphics cards... Will switching provide a noticeable speed bump?...this has the ATI Radeon HD 2600 256mb Vram.

Main objective here is to improve speed as much as possible and get a good internal backup system implemented. Any other thoughts or suggestions welcomed.

thanks

Hi GRDesigner. Just sharing my thoughts counting Budget constraints

Ram: You can retain the 6g ram or make it up to 10gig which is adequate for graphic design. I am using 6g now for graphic design

Videocard: Either the Nvidia 8800GT 512mb, or Radeon 5770 HD 1G is adequate

Storage: 240 SSD and 2TB HD