About to buy a Mac Pro. A few questions first.

[amin]

I am about to buy a Mac Pro (2.66 GHz model) with a 23" Cinema display. I use Photoshop frequently and will buy the new universal version whenever it is introduced. The only other CPU intensive thing I do is edit and compress family videos using iMovie and QTPro.

Questions:
1) Will the $315 upgrade (edu price) to a x1900xt affect performance on those things?
2) Would it be easy to add another hard drive later if I start with a modest HD?
3) Is this model likely to support all the core feature in Leopard?
4) Would it be easy to add a second Super Drive later if I start with just one?
5) Anything else I should know or consider before I pull the trigger?

Here is my cart:

Thanks for any advice.

 

[yellow]

Questions:
1) Will the $315 upgrade (edu price) to a x1900xt affect performance on those things?
2) Would it be easy to add another hard drive later if I start with a modest HD?
3) Is this model likely to support all the core feature in Leopard?
4) Would it be easy to add a second Super Drive later if I start with just one?
5) Anything else I should know or consider before I pull the trigger?

1) Not 100% sure. But the X1900 is a kick ass video card.
2) Yes
3) Yes
4) Unknown, probably.

 

[menziep]

If you can i would upgrade to 2 Gb Ram since the more Ram the faster Photoshop will run

Hope this helps,
menziep

 

[yellow]

Good advice..

But the RAM will undoubtly be cheaper from a (reputable) 3rd party source.
You really pay out the nose for Apple to put Samsung RAM in there for you.

But still excellent advice. Getting another GB of RAM will be very important to you.

 

[amin]

If you can i would upgrade to 2 Gb Ram since the more Ram the faster Photoshop will run

Hope this helps,
menziep

Thanks menziep. I am planning to add some third party RAM later when I have more $$. Probably I will buy the RAM when the universal PS comes out. I wonder if CS2 will run faster in Parallels on this machine than it runs on my G4 PB.

yellow, thanks for your answers as well. It would be a real bitter pill if Leopard had an amazing feature that I couldn't use due to early adoption of the Mac Pro.

 

[yellow]

I find it highly unlikely that there will be anything in Leopard that can't be used with a MP. I could be wrong.. but I REALLY doubt it.

 

[amin]

Cool, thanks.

 

[mahonmeister]

Why not get the 2GB Nano($179) and use the $179 iPod rebate? If you are getting the education discount then you qualify for the additional iPod rebate; am I right?

 

[ricgnzlzcr]

Yea, it would be really embarassing for Apple if their top of the line OS cannot run on their top of the line machine. I believe leopard will still work with lots of G3's and I think that G4's with a decent video card will get all the features. I think you'll be running the latest OS with all the new features much past Leopard. Good luck with that awesome machine.

 

[spencecb]

Thanks menziep. I am planning to add some third party RAM later when I have more $$. Probably I will buy the RAM when the universal PS comes out. I wonder if CS2 will run faster in Parallels on this machine than it runs on my G4 PB.

yellow, thanks for your answers as well. It would be a real bitter pill if Leopard had an amazing feature that I couldn't use due to early adoption of the Mac Pro.

I'm almost 100% certain that all Macs sold within the last year will be able to take advantage of all of Leopard's new technologies and features. Apple has never sold an OS that will alienate someone who just bought a computer a few months before the OS ships, especially a Pro machine. That is just silly.