From the listed usage, I gather this is for personal use (presume ATM you're not going to be earning a living with it).
Even with FCP's next release apparently going to be n core multi-threaded, is it worth spending that much money on an Octad or Dodeca?
The SP Hex might be a nice compromise if the Octad is reasonable for you, as it's similar in price ($200USD more). Granted, it's 2x fewer cores than the base Octad, but they're running at a faster clock which makes up for it for multi-threaded applications, and runs faster for single core software.
Take a look at Geekbench (granted this is a synthetic benchmark, but it can show you what they're potentially capable of).
32 bit Benchmarks:
- Mac Pro (Mid 2010) Intel Xeon W3680 3.33 GHz (6 cores) = 14049
- Mac Pro (Mid 2010) Intel Xeon E5620 2.4 GHz (8 cores) = 12722
64 bit Benchmarks:
- Mac Pro (Mid 2010) Intel Xeon W3680 3.33 GHz (6 cores) = 15781
- Mac Pro (Mid 2010) Intel Xeon E5620 2.4 GHz (8 cores) = 14083
Please note that this doesn't take disk I/O or GPU into consideration (CPU and memory only).
For particular applications, there are benchmarks out there if you search (not aware of performance data for FCP's next release yet).
So it might be wise to carefully consider your needs as well as budget in order to avoid over-buying. Particularly as the economy still hasn't really turned around for individuals yet).
Just a thought, not a condemnation (prefer to get users matched up with the right system; sometimes this means they can save money, others spend more, particularly for upgrades).
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As per storage, if you're looking to do this on the cheap, you'll want to take a look at using an eSATA card with a Port Multiplier enclosure (
kit example, and the card does work in the MP via driver support). There are different ways to configure the drives, so you'd have options (single disk, JBOD <concatenation>, or software based RAID <OS X is capable of 0/1/10>).
- RAID 0: I'd recommend avoiding this configuration, as it's less reliable than a single disk, and if one disk goes, all the data is lost (means re-ripping your movie collection).
- JBOD <concatenation>: This one can allow you to recover the data on the drives that aren't damaged (requires software recovery tools, such as Disk Warrior). Until such a recovery is performed, the data will not be accessible until you do). It has the advantage of reducing the amount of effort involved on your part.
- RAID 10: This offers redundancy (allows you to loose 2x disks without data loss). The down side is, usable capacity, as you'll only have access to half of the total capacity due to duplication. So you end up spending 2x the money on disks, and may need an additional enclosure to obtain enough usable capacity).
There are other solutions as well, but they're more costly (i.e. hardware RAID).
