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superpalmtree

macrumors regular
Original poster
Mar 6, 2009
166
0
North Dakota
I currently have both the Quad 2.93 and Octo 2.26 Mac Pro 2009. I'm going to be doing work from a remote office for 6 months and am only bringing one along. The Quad has 8GB RAM, the Octo has 16GB RAM - used for Photoshop, lots of VM, and office tasks. They both have dual Velociraptor Raid 0 for boot and 1 VR for Vista X64. -- What one would you pick if both on a table and you had to grab one before leaving? My other one will stay home for my wife to use. Thanks.
 
The obvious question would be: What are you supposed to be doing on it?

I would in most cases opt for more ram.
 
Usually when I travel I take my laptop.

However, if I were leaving for six months, I'd decide whether a more powerful machine would be of greater benefit to me. In most cases, I find it smarter to leave the more expensive or harder to replace equipment in a secure location (like home) and travel with as little as possible.

But, I have never left home for six months at a time...
 
I currently have both the Quad 2.93 and Octo 2.26 Mac Pro 2009. I'm going to be doing work from a remote office for 6 months and am only bringing one along. The Quad has 8GB RAM, the Octo has 16GB RAM - used for Photoshop, lots of VM, and office tasks. They both have dual Velociraptor Raid 0 for boot and 1 VR for Vista X64. -- What one would you pick if both on a table and you had to grab one before leaving? My other one will stay home for my wife to use. Thanks.

Really depends what sort of work your gonna be doing on it... perhaps it'll be good to give readers an idea of what you'll be using it for, or what's the typical nature of your work.


Unlike NickyD, I don't take my laptop with me when i'm travelling over sees for work, mostly because the slowness of the machine will drive me insane. And I'm not going away for a day or two. A typical trip for me usually last a few months to a year at a time.
 
Really depends what sort of work your gonna be doing on it... perhaps it'll be good to give readers an idea of what you'll be using it for, or what's the typical nature of your work.


Unlike NickyD, I don't take my laptop with me when i'm travelling over sees for work, mostly because the slowness of the machine will drive me insane. And I'm not going away for a day or two. A typical trip for me usually last a few months to a year at a time.

Thanks. And actually it's not bad travel, it's just to a state where I do business and will live for 6 months.

The computer is mainly used to run my business back home, basic office stuff, it will also be used with photoshop and used for design, nothing super pressing.

I want the best of the 2 computers with me, but from all the talk I'm not sure if the Octo is better or not. Are most people buying the Quad?
 
Well, do you use your VM with OSX running quite a bit? If you absolutely need your VM running while you are doing something in OSX (or vice versa), I would go with the Octo-Core. The quad (from what I hear) would be better for Photoshop, but the VM would eat a bigger chunk out of the quad then the octo.

Or at least, that's my reasoning.
 
The quad core might be a little better for photoshop, because of the faster clock speed and the fact that photoshop is most dependent on the amount of RAM and speed of HDD's, not multi-core CPUs. If you want the better machine with you, i'd take the 8 core because of the RAM, and because you indicated that you'll use photoshop and VM.
 
The quad core might be a little better for photoshop, because of the faster clock speed and the fact that photoshop is most dependent on the amount of RAM and speed of HDD's, not multi-core CPUs. If you want the better machine with you, i'd take the 8 core because of the RAM, and because you indicated that you'll use photoshop and VM.

Thanks, these have been great replies! I will take the Octo with. In my daily tasks I do not feel any difference in either machine, but the Octo does seem to handle my VM better, so it's probably a good idea to bring that one with.

If you had a choice of either computer for free would you pick Octo 2.26 or Quad 2.93? Same specs rest of way? Just curious.
 
Same specs the rest of the way? I think i would take the quad core. I don't need an excessive amount of ram (I havn't ever had major paging issues on my new MP with 3gig or my MB with 4). I do however enjoy me some speed :D
 
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