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bearclaw99

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Aug 30, 2010
2
0
Greetings
Here is the deal I do video editing, DVD's and Photoshop work. Currently I have a Dual core 2 ghz G5 that has bit the dust. The question is, on a somewhat budget of $2500-$3000. Would it be better to buy a New single Quad core or find used duel Quad core. I have one someone is wanting to sell me that is 3ghz 8 core with 8 gigs ram for $3000(an 08 model). or is it a better deal to get one for $400 less with the newer chips better graphics but the speed is slower? Any help would be great.

Thank
 

alust2013

macrumors 601
Feb 6, 2010
4,779
2
On the fence
That 08 model sounds pretty good, maybe see if you could knock a couple hundred off the price, but any Mac Pro you buy will absolutely destroy your G5, so I think you will be satisfied with any purchase decision.
 

ytk

macrumors 6502
Jul 8, 2010
252
5
Those 08 Harpertown Macs are only "meh" in my opinion. I think $3K is a bit much to pay. I've seen similar Macs go for around $1,600-$2,400 on eBay. For $2,800, you can buy a refurbished 8-core 2.26 Nehalem, which despite the lower clock speed is a step up from the Harpertown. Plus you get a 1-year warranty on the refurb.
 

englishman

macrumors 6502a
Nov 6, 2006
730
10
If you go used make sure you get a warranty. Repairs can be expensive. Used are fine if you can get the one you want. I don't know the US market but in the UK there are some good machines to be had used, better than refurbs which are still expensive.
 

cluthz

macrumors 68040
Jun 15, 2004
3,118
4
Norway
The Nehalem 2.26GHz x8 MP is performing about the same as the 3.0GHz x8 harpertown.
The architecture on the nehalem series reduced latency greatly and a you could basically say they are 33% faster pr hz.

In geekbench the 2.26Ghz is scoring 11700, where as the harpertown 3.0 scores 9200. This is only synthetic benching, but some apps do take advantage of the higher CPU frequencies on the harpertown and thus they are pretty much average when it comes to real life use.
The older Dual Core G5 is scoring 1900, so both will be an huge upgrade.
 

bearclaw99

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Aug 30, 2010
2
0
Thanks

Thanks for all your input. It gets really confusing when your looking a all the specs and then what you should spend. After long debate, I went with a new single Quad with the upgraded 3.2ghz and the Radeon 5870 upgrade card. Mostly due to the fact that FCP editing doesn't take advantage of the duel chips yet. My company will need another one next year so well see if i go muli-core next time. Also we are adding 8 gigs of Ram after-market wise when we get the machine.

Thanks again.
 
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