What to get for my mac pro?

You can get 16GB for less than $360 . . . Newegg and iRam.

 

I do video editing. I find that I need 8GB quite often with lot of other appliations open. Go for the memory.

You want to install in sets of four matched boards. I have 4 x 4gb of Ram and I'm very happy with it. I rarely use more than 8GB though, I hit 12GB once perhaps. I expect Snow Leopard to more effectively utilize memory though.

It is cheaper to buy smaller size boards. And you have space for it.

But the price just dropped for memory. Check out OWC

http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/memory/Mac-Pro-Memory

If you buy four 1 GB Boards, the cost is: $137.95 at OWC that will give you 8GB, but no room for more later.

Or you can ask your dad if you can get 4x4GB of Ram for $489.99 and then sell the 4GB you have now for $100 on eBay and you will have 16GB of memory set up for the fastest possible memory access. List it for $90 on eBay and you are good to go.

That will give you 16GB of memory in the fastest memory configutation--four matched memory boards--good for an extra 10% in speed. And it will only cost you $390.

 

I tried a Wacom tablet just for the sake of trying it and it turn out that I didn't like it and it didn't feel natural. Then again I don't draw and it didn't make it easy for me to draw masks in after effects, so i ended up returning it. If you really want to try one, get a Wacom Bamboo (not the "fun") its only $60 and you can at least see if it's something you could use.

For $360, I would do a combination of more ram and probably 2x 1TB drive that you can set up in a raid 0 for faster IO while you edit video. Though a 4870 would be cool, I think business is business and probably should take care of that first.

as for the ram, I'm sure it will work just fine but your going to get a hair slower because of the configuration of it and 4GB sticks are still expensive. Depending on how much ram your using now (by "using" i mean are you filling up 4GB not how much is in your machine). I think the 2GB per stick range is probably the best bang for your buck right now.

 

Dunno if you'd really need the Wacom, but from experience I think it's absolutely worth every penny if you use much Photoshop. Then again, I'm in art school for illustration so I do have a certain point of view on the matter.

 

Useless.

Use your mice instead.

 

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820349019

Yes, 800mhz FBDIMM with heatsinks. I put in 8GB with the stock 2GB and ran 10GB. Never had a hitch, then I bought 8GB more when the price dropped and now its great. Not that it is noticeably faster, but having 16GB is very very nice. Having a RAM Disk is amazing.