Which Mac Pro?

[hunthearin]

I'm currently running Logic Express 7 on a 1.5 GhZ Powerbook G4 with an RME Fireface 800. Now that I've upgraded my Preamps and A/D conversion, I want to upgrade my computer to allow for greater expandability and processing power.

Here's what I want to run:

-Logic Studio
-Waves Platinum Bundle
-Waves Vocal Bundle

Now.....here's the dilemma. I'm unsure of what processor to customize with. Between the 2.0, 2.66, 3.0, and 3.0 Quad-Core, I'm unsure of what is necessary and what is just overkill. I understand that the general consensus is to "buy as much as you can afford", but I'd like to build my new Mac Pro just as I've built the rest of my studio - having the ability to grow (to an extent) with my needs.

What would be a processor speed, configured with 2 to 3 gigs of ram, that would allow me to run my sessions with a decent amount of processing?

Thanks,

Hunt Hearin

[Tweak]

I am in the same boat and will be getting a Mac pro soon. I might wait one more cpu cycle to see what is up but i am thinking the 2.66 is going to be fine. I've been happy with 6GB in my G5 and will want at least 4gb in my Mac Pro, mainly because I often run multiple apps with large sample libraries or will run Logic and Final Cut Pro together.

Drives, too. I am thinking 4 500 GB drives, but not from apple. Seagate Baraccudas are $150 or so

[hunthearin]

[quote="Tweak"]I am in the same boat and will be getting a Mac pro soon. I might wait one more cpu cycle to see what is up but i am thinking the 2.66 is going to be fine. I've been happy with 6GB in my G5 and will want at least 4gb in my Mac Pro, mainly because I often run multiple apps with large sample libraries or will run Logic and Final Cut Pro together.

Drives, too. I am thinking 4 500 GB drives, but not from apple. Seagate Baraccudas are $150 or so[/quote]

What was your track count in Logic with your G5?

[Razorruss]

Doesn't the first drive bay have to have at least the factory hard drive from Apple with OSX on it? Do I have this wrong?

The other three hard drives can be bought anywhere, but doesn't the first one have to come with the Mac Pro? What am I missing this time?



I was looking at these.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6822148151

Is this the one you were going to get Tweak?

[nanashiwanderer]

I am thinking 4 500 GB drives, but not from apple. Seagate Baraccudas are $150 or so

I would definitely second this . The 320GB Seagates are 85$ and they have rave reviews. The Platter sizes make minor differenences in the performance and reliability, so I've been heavily advocating the 320 is.

[bean438]

I went through the same thing before I bought my Mac Pro.

I am of the "by as much as you can afford" school of thought.

All I could afford at the time was the 2.66 quad core Pro. I added 2 gigs of crucial ram, and added 2 more hard drives each paycheck.

Any Mac pro will be expandable.

Although I am really, really considering Logic now that the price is so good.

Saying that my future expandability will actually be along the lines of Logic nodes.

Being extremely happy with the OSX platform, all future computer purchases will be Mac's, with each one adding more power to my DAW.

[robbiedo]

I recently bought the 2.66 based on the idea that the machine was readily upgradeable to to quad core processors if the need arises in the next 12-18 months. The 2.66 quad core is more than plenty of processing power for my needs right now, but I am not sure what will happen with 10.5. On the one hand, it is full 64 bit, and Logic 8 should be able to take advantage of that. On the other hand, 10.5 might give qith one hand, but take with the other. However, each incremental release of OS X has tended to improve performance on recent machines.

My recommendation is if you really don't need the performance today, then I would wait until the the Mac Pro is refreshed for two reasons.

1. There should be some good values for a short window on the old models.

2. The base models may all be 8 core machines, and 10.5 with Logic 8 should take advantage of this added power if you need it.

I bought mine a few weeks ago because I was running into serious bottlenecks with my MacBook which was not going to wait for a few months, and I figured the opportunity cost was going to be approximately 500-600 dollars to buy after market quad core processors down the road.

The power of the current Xeon processors have not been fully leveraged and I expect this should occur with the next revision of the OS, and Logic 8.

[nanashiwanderer]

A serious upgrade to the Mac Pro will happen likely in the next month or two. Intel has a new processor release scheduled. an Unlike 8 Core this is a major upgrade (enough to be called Core 3). So I expect a price drop on the Mac Pro.

the Processor will be called Xeon 7300 code name is Tigerton.

[hunthearin]

Do you expect an immediate GhZ increase?

At this point, if I dont wait for the new Macs, I'll either buy the Quad Core 2.66 or 3.0

[davidaltemeier]

there's all kinds of debate about this stuff on the mac forums. it seems like a fairly safe bet that the new line will either have 3ghz as the mid or top processor speed, with the whole line having dual quads.

"So I expect a price drop on the Mac Pro. "

are you referring to the current models or the refresh? i'm sure any left overs from the current line will go down in price, but it seems likelier that the new one's will have more or less the same price points with refreshed specs. at least that seems to be the way apple usually does it....

[nanashiwanderer]

there's all kinds of debate about this stuff on the mac forums. it seems like a fairly safe bet that the new line will either have 3ghz as the mid or top processor speed, with the whole line having dual quads.

"So I expect a price drop on the Mac Pro. "

are you referring to the current models or the refresh? i'm sure any left overs from the current line will go down in price, but it seems likelier that the new one's will have more or less the same price points with refreshed specs. at least that seems to be the way apple usually does it....

I think the whole apple usually does it needs to be laxed a little. There on X86 so they have to stay competitive with PC prices. The Mac Pro in and of itself is very competitively priced with PC Servers. however the way intel does things. I'll expect it to go something like this. New Chips are released at the price points of the chips they are replacing I.E the new top dog assumes the price of the old top dog. The Old Top Dog then takes a couple of week before intel kicks in with a price drop. of significant portions. When Price drop occurs all processors price drops not just old models. The Price drop is not uniform... new models naturally do not drop as much as old ones.

Given the scenario I think the out came is the same. The New Xeon 7300 will be price the same as the current 8 cores. The thing is thoug there is a massive speed increase per core. The current 8 cores depending on the drops may be discontinued or drop to replace the Quad Core

I expect apple will stop offering quad core mac pros with in year or so... this is my guess. I don't know if we'll se quad iMacs because they are on laptop architecture. But the PC Desktop is approaching a point where Quad core is affordable to most upper midrange systems I.E Dell can sell you a quad core system for under 2000$ including monitor keyboard, mouse speaker. With Penryn around the corner, Quad core will be a staple.