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Upgrading To New Macpro. Need Advice

boogieman

boogieman

macrumors regular
Original poster
Nov 10, 2004
187
7
Greetings

I currently have a quad 2.66 macpro from 07. I have found myself more and more using it to burn old movies (Home) to bluray. This process using toast 10 takes around 8-9 hours for it to encode. I have 8 gigs of ram. My question to you is this..... If i get a 2.26 octo can I see a drastic reduction in the time it takes to encode which is nearly 8 hours? If there is what times can I expect? I dont wont to upgrade but I do have the cash. I really dont wont to spend what they wont for the 2.66 octo or 2.93. Keep in mind I do get the education discount. Thanks
 
Depends on your software.

You still have a wicked fast machine. I would stick with it, personally.

If you are set on a new machine, and you are a student, you should get a student developer subscription for $99.

With my student dev discount, I got a 2.26 octo, ATI upgrade, wireless keyboard and mouse for $2829.
 
boogieman said:
Greetings

I currently have a quad 2.66 macpro from 07. I have found myself more and more using it to burn old movies (Home) to bluray. This process using toast 10 takes around 8-9 hours for it to encode. I have 8 gigs of ram. My question to you is this..... If i get a 2.26 octo can I see a drastic reduction in the time it takes to encode which is nearly 8 hours? If there is what times can I expect? I dont wont to upgrade but I do have the cash. I really dont wont to spend what they wont for the 2.66 octo or 2.93. Keep in mind I do get the education discount. Thanks
Click to expand...

I can't say for sure in your situation because I've never done anything like that, but assuming Toast is able to make use of all the cores/threads in the new mac pro's then you'll probably see a 2-2.5 X speed increase (based on the performance of my 2 mac pros which are the same models as yours)
 
There are a lot of benchmarks out there so you should be able to get a good idea about what to expect. I wouldn't upgrade for personal use -- *my* money could be put to better use. At work, however, small upgrades are relatively easy to justify. Time saved * my hourly wage makes it worth it. Make sense?

I don't think you'll see a boost that would really change the game. You'll still have to walk off and do something else, or go to bed!
 
eeboarder said:
Depends on your software.

You still have a wicked fast machine. I would stick with it, personally.

If you are set on a new machine, and you are a student, you should get a student developer subscription for $99.

With my student dev discount, I got a 2.26 octo, ATI upgrade, wireless keyboard and mouse for $2829.
Click to expand...

I use toast 10 to encode and burn the blurays. I have all the movies on a hard drive that I have already edited them and got them to where I wont them. Its just hard to leave it running for all that time waiting on it to get done.
 
Save yourself some money and upgrade from the quad to an octo. Check further in the posts here and you will see a few have done it. Will be doing my 2ghz to a 2.33ghz octo. Check ebay for cheaper prices. I would go to a 3 ghz but plan on using this one for my media center. Or keep your eye out for the 2008 octo's. Plenty fast.
 
Just wanted to post a quick update to my situation. I went to apple store Knoxville yesterday and purchased a 2.26 octo core. My total time now to do a bluray with toast went from nearly 9 hours to a little over 2 hours. So yes there is a termendous savings in time. I did a total comparison using the same movie.
 
Hey! That's quite an improvement! I am sort of curious how long it would take with an 8 core 2007 mac pro.
 
eeboarder said:
Depends on your software.

You still have a wicked fast machine. I would stick with it, personally.

If you are set on a new machine, and you are a student, you should get a student developer subscription for $99.

With my student dev discount, I got a 2.26 octo, ATI upgrade, wireless keyboard and mouse for $2829.
Click to expand...

How does the student dev discount work? I looked it up, but it seems vague on a few points.

1. Are all the same systems available as the apple store? Can you get all the same upgrades?

2. Can you get the applecare protection plan?

3. Is there is % discount or is it different depending on the system you are ordering?

Seems like you saved a bundle over the regular student discount.
 
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