2008 Mac Pro to run CS6 - upgrade or replace?

[MrMondayN1GHT]

Hi I am looking at buying the Adobe CS6 Master Suite once it is released. I do Motion Graphics and Editing. I am unsure if it would be worth upgrading the 2008 mac pro or if I should search down a 2010 model.My mac pro is

Snow Leopard
3.2GHZ Quad Core x 2
12Gb Ram
Geforce 8800gt 512mb ram
1tb 7200rpm hd and 250Gb 7200rpm hd(start-up disk)
I am running 2 22 inch flat screen monitors

If upgraded this is the info I researched so far and wanted to verify it is correct.

Possibly using a Quadro 4000 graphics card, either 1 or 2 of them
a SSD for boot up
Upgrading to 24Gb of ram
getting Lion 10.7
and buying 2 3tb internal Hd and setting up a RAID1 Mirrored

Any help as to what would be better, or if the upgrade list is spot on, or if it would be more economical and easier to get a mac pro 5,1. This would be the first Comp I have upgraded so I am new to this process. Thanks in advance for any help.

 

[goMac]

Upgrade, but to be honest, your current config is just fine for running CS6. A better graphics card would help, but the 8800 GT is certainly a decent card for CS6.

I'd go for SSD over RAID at this time.

 

[MrMondayN1GHT]

Upgrade, but to be honest, your current config is just fine for running CS6. A better graphics card would help, but the 8800 GT is certainly a decent card for CS6.

I'd go for SSD over RAID at this time.

Thanks for the fast reply. SSD is a good Idea but one for the storage I need it is so expensive it's crazy. I was leaning more toward upgrade but I was not sure if the system was able to handle cs6. I will look more into upgrading it.

Any other opinions on this situation, I would like to hear them. Thanks

 

[jablko]

For me, CS6 runs just as well as CS5 did on my 2008 Mac Pro, but I know it has the potential to run faster. I often wish I had more RAM and that my graphics card supported CS6's GPU acceleration (I have an ATI card, so I know it doesn't, and I don't think the older Nvidia cards, like the 8800gt is supported either, but I'm not certain).

For me, upgrading parts at this time doesn't make sense because I'm scheduled to get a new machine whenever they are available (fingers crossed for this summer), but if I were going to use my 2008 for a couple more years, I'd do just about exactly what you are suggesting: new Nvidia graphics card, more RAM and SSD.

On my laptop (which is a Lenovo W520), I have a Quadro card, 16gb of RAM, and both an SSD and a 2tb HD. While I dislike having to use Windows, the performance, wide-gamut matte screen, and dual drive option are worth it. The way I've optimized performance with the SSD is to keep my OS and programs on it, as well as whatever projects I'm currently working on. Once I've finished the project, it gets moved to the 2tb HD to free up space on the SSD. The system works fairly well, but honestly, I hadn't realized just how much of a difference the SSD makes until I started editing 36 megapixel images from my D800. It's sad when it takes my massive desktop machine noticeably longer to load an image than my laptop--though I'm sure if I worked with video, I would have reached this conclusion much sooner.

Needless to say, I'm having an increasingly hard time being patient waiting for new Mac Pros to come out.

 

[handheldgames]

The new pci express based ssd raid from owc should leave your laptop in the dust. I can't believe I'm saying this and please don't quote me... But considering IBM made sandforce fix their technology, it should be stable now. Add a quiet yet powerful 6870 and your 2008 is silent.

 

[thekev]

Thanks for the fast reply. SSD is a good Idea but one for the storage I need it is so expensive it's crazy. I was leaning more toward upgrade but I was not sure if the system was able to handle cs6. I will look more into upgrading it.

Any other opinions on this situation, I would like to hear them. Thanks

The Quadro 4000 isn't that new. It came out in 2010. I think amazon and some others had the Mac version cheaper than Apple. It was $700 or $800 as opposed to $1200 for the PNY mac edition.

On my laptop (which is a Lenovo W520), I have a Quadro card, 16gb of RAM, and both an SSD and a 2tb HD. While I dislike having to use Windows, the performance, wide-gamut matte screen, and dual drive option are worth it. The way I've optimized performance with the SSD is to keep my OS and programs on it, as well as whatever projects I'm currently working on. Once I've finished the project, it gets moved to the 2tb HD to free up space on the SSD. The system works fairly well, but honestly, I hadn't realized just how much of a difference the SSD makes until I started editing 36 megapixel images from my D800. It's sad when it takes my massive desktop machine noticeably longer to load an image than my laptop--though I'm sure if I worked with video, I would have reached this conclusion much sooner.

Needless to say, I'm having an increasingly hard time being patient waiting for new Mac Pros to come out.

I avoid migrating files as much as possible. I can't seem to find a good file copier under Lion, and I do not trust the system to do this flawlessly across thousands of relatively large files (in the long term, not in a day). The newest nikons make me want to leave canon. Anyway how do you like that Lenovo? They always looked really good, but a couple people have mentioned them becoming a bit more plasticky.