Very happy with 2009 MP 2.66 Octa

[seadragon]

Well, I've had my new Mac Pro for a couple of months now and couldn't be more pleased. This thing rocks (literally). I'm using it mainly for Logic Studio and it just flies compared to my G5 iMac that it replaced.

Here are a couple of pics of my setup:

 

[FunkyChicken]

Quad or Octo?

Nice setup SD! I'm currently running Logic 8 on my G5 dual processor PowerMac. I'm in the market for a MacPro but am unsure whether I should be looking at the quad (2.66) or the octo (2.26). Can you please tell me your thought process behind your decision to go with the octo? I've read that Logic would benefit more from from the greater speed rather than the additional cores. I also don't wanna get left behind when more and more apps take advantage of the extra cores. THANKS!

 

[goodcow]

Nice setup SD! I'm currently running Logic 8 on my G5 dual processor PowerMac. I'm in the market for a MacPro but am unsure whether I should be looking at the quad (2.66) or the octo (2.26). Can you please tell me your thought process behind your decision to go with the octo? I've read that Logic would benefit more from from the greater speed rather than the additional cores. I also don't wanna get left behind when more and more apps take advantage of the extra cores. THANKS!

I just bought an octad 2.26.

My thought process was:

1. Future proofing - Even if the clock speed is slower, four more cores and Snow Leopard with Grand Central Dispatch should mean the octad will last another year or more. Along with that, higher resale value.

2. RAM - The quad having four slots is ridiculous to me and just makes it seem gimped. I wanted 12GB of RAM and 4GB chips for the quad would've been very prohibitively expensive.

I'm extremely happy with my octad. Compared to the octad 3.2 I use at work, I can tell Handbrake (which uses all cores) runs faster here. MPEGStreamclip though, which uses only two cores, is faster at work and that's quite noticeable comparing 2.26 to 3.2.

But overall this machine just seems like I can throw anything at it and it doesn't break a sweat. It stays responsive and I can easily multitask.

Octad 2.26, 12GB RAM Radeon 4870.

 

[bbadalucco]

I just bought an octad 2.26.

I'm extremely happy with my octad. Compared to the octad 3.2 I use at work, I can tell Handbrake (which uses all cores) runs faster here. MPEGStreamclip though, which uses only two cores, is faster at work and that's quite noticeable comparing 2.26 to 3.2.

I've had both and I feel the 2008 3.2 is much faster with handbrake. with the 2.26 I was getting around 13fps on a blu ray encode...with the 3.2 I'm getting around 26fps average. Also, handbrake only uses 8 cores so the 8 virtual don't help.

I'm not arguing (if you feel its faster thats great), it just shows why people always ask similar questions...the response are rarely the same.

 

[Zokim]

Who wouldn't be happy with a new Octo???

 

[rub]

nice machine/setup there. i have a 2006 mac pro with plenty of ram and i still think it performs like a beast. how do you like that HP monitor? i'm looking to get one of them, myself.

 

[goodcow]

Also, handbrake only uses 8 cores so the 8 virtual don't help.

HandBrake on my octad uses 1350-1400% CPU in Activity Monitor.

 

[seadragon]

Well, I was a bit tossed as to which machine to get, but I just felt the best overall machine was the 2.66 octo. Somewhat fast processor and somewhat future proof as far as multiprocessor software goes.

The HP monitor has been great. No complaints at all. I traditionally have always purchased Apple monitors, but to be honest, I think its a joke having fixed video cables and way too short at that (24 LED).

This new computer doesn't even break a sweat for the things I do with it. It should last me a long time.