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Buying MP

A

apeden

macrumors member
Original poster
Jul 21, 2011
56
0
Well the new ones are not coming out anytime soon, so I am going to go ahead and buy myself one. I am going to be doing editing with FCP. Should I go with the 4 cores or is it worth the money to go with the 8 core for $900 more? This is really my only question...hold on, what kind of graphics card should I consider as well (I dont know really anything about them lol)

Thanks guys
 
Are you planning on upgrading to FCX at some point? FCP is not multi-threaded very well so the quad core would probably perform better but the FCX is quite well multithreaded so the 8-core should be faster for that.

I think the best option for you is to buy the 4-core and then buy W3670 from eBay and upgrade the CPU on your own. I've seen people doing the upgrade for less than $400 so it's very affordable and the performance increase is huge as it's 6-core at 3.2GHz.
 
Hellhammer said:
I think the best option for you is to buy the 4-core and then buy W3670 from eBay and upgrade the CPU on your own. I've seen people doing the upgrade for less than $400 so it's very affordable and the performance increase is huge as it's 6-core at 3.2GHz.
Click to expand...

If you're going to void the Apple warranty, why buy a MacPro at all then? Just build a Hackintosh.
 
better yet now that the 3.33 has dropped in price put that one in

a real company with 1,500,000 plus sales has the 3.33 for under 620 a full 3yr warranty;

http://cgi.ebay.com/NEW-Intel-Xeon-...57?pt=CPUs&hash=item2312528b49#ht_2969wt_1189

I used the same company to buy the 3.2 hex

http://cgi.ebay.com/NEW-Intel-Xeon-...EN_Servers&hash=item588e8a32cd#ht_2941wt_1189

price is still 615 so now the better deal is the 3.33

here is the thread on the upgrade


https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1122551/



a link for the base model

http://store.apple.com/us/product/FC560LL/A?mco=MTkyMTM1OTY

so for 30 to 60 minutes and under 650 this goes from a quad to a hex plus a spare 2.8 quad cpu
 
I am going to keep FCP and not go with FCPX. How about the graphics card on the MP? So....should I buy the 4 core or the 8 core? Which one will save me money in the long end?

Another question, can I buy a SSD (120gb) and make that my main hard drive for booting up and then have the 1TB that comes with the computer as a second hard drive?

Thanks again guys :D
 
apeden - you appear to have some extremely limited understanding of a Mac Pro for someone who is about to drop $3000 ++ on a new computer - kind of puzzling?

What are you using now? Have you used FCP and , if so, on what computer?
 
I have been using FCP for 4 years now. I have a MBP 2.2ghz with 4gb of ram
 
My two cents would be a single hexcore or an 8 core - go with the base gpu and run at least 16 GB of aftermarket memory (crucial or owc).

I will have a new OWC 240 GB SATA 3 SSD delivered tomorrow for my Mac Pro. It will be used for boot & apps only - most all files residing on SAMSUNG F3 drives in bays 2,3,4.

You should take 20 minutes and review the features on the Mac Pro on their site.
 
What do you mean? You say go with a 8 core but then you say go with the base gpu lol Not really sure what you mean...?
 
Does AppleCorps know about FCP 7 limited core use? Frequency is the best bet over 4 cores in FCP 7. So to the OP: If you are buying off the shelf (please say yes) go with the 3.2GHz quad or the 3.33GHz 6-core. Get 12GB 3x4GB sticks of memory and keep the base 5770 GPU. But honestly the new i7 iMac would be great with 16GB RAM. Do you like external HDD's or care?
 
Base GPU Graphics Processing Unit - no need to spend extra $$.

I'd still go for more than a quad core - they will be there as more software takes advantage of more cores.

I certainly would NOT predicate my MP requirements on the EOL status of FCP.
 
So then, how many cores does FCP use then? Only 4 cores...or 2 cores? Or will FCP be able to use all 8 of an 8 core machine?
 
It looks like FCP 7 isn't multithreaded or able to efficently use all the cores. After some quick researching it looks like certain parts of FCP use multi-core threading such as Compressor or After Effects ( i'm a Logic Pro guy, don't know a whole lot about FCP) Since you're familiar with FCP do some google searching for your answer but it does appear most people say it doesn't multi-thread very well. Regarding the current MP's, I would hold out. If your MBP is doing the job just hold out for a refresh. I would hate to be some of the people that got MBA's a week before the refresh and find the new ones are twice as fast, even faster than last years MBP's. More than likely the new base MP model will still be 4 cores maybe 6 but it will support Hyper Threading. As far as graphics go, stick with the default card, it should be able to show at least 3 screens on one 5770. The Mac pro is probably gonna be my next Mac, i've been building PC's for 7 years and like the fact that if a HD dies, i can replace it, not so with a iMac. I wish though, 27" iMac is awesomely spec'd out. You can get an SSD as a primary, although it maybe a pain now with Lion not shipping discs or thumb drives, i guess they are sometime but as far as i know not with new Mac at this point. If you just bought an SSD aftermarket you would have to install OSX on that drive and format the other one and use it in the 2nd drive. Again, idk if Apple is shipping some form of media at this point to be able to do that. It seems that thumdrives will be available for 70 bucks with Lion on them in the near future though.
 
apeden said:
So then, how many cores does FCP use then? Only 4 cores...or 2 cores? Or will FCP be able to use all 8 of an 8 core machine?
Click to expand...

Certain codecs and Compressor use multicore. You don't want a Core2Duo. You want at least a Quad with hyperthreading. But when we are arguing 4-12 cores it is better to get high frequency. 8-cores over 3GHz would be ideal but they do not offer that. 2.4GHz is way too slow for the main app in the 8-core variety.
The 6-core is great at 3.33GHz the 12-cores are total overkill unless you need AE work.
 
Hellhammer said:
OP said he won't be upgrading to FCPX. FCP won't magically gain multithreading support, it will remain as crappy as it is today.
Click to expand...

HH - my thinking is that many people who are saying today that they will not move to FCP X may well change their tune as support / updates stop - the software ages / and FCP X stabilizes and adds the missing features over the next 6 - 12 months. He will see a significant improvement over his current MBP either way he goes - I just believe more cores (up to a point) will be the better path.
 
Is there a big difference in performance with the 2009 8 core 2.26ghz vs the 2010 2.4 8 core?
 
Apple Corps said:
HH - my thinking is that many people who are saying today that they will not move to FCP X may well change their tune as support / updates stop - the software ages / and FCP X stabilizes and adds the missing features over the next 6 - 12 months...
Click to expand...

I don't believe they have the intention of adding anything at all. I believe Apple is building a 'core' editing program and will allow third party developers to step in and make it more advanced through plug-ins, etc. That 300 magnetic, game-changing software is going to end up costing a great deal more to make it do what it was doing just one version back.
 
Apple Corps said:
HH - my thinking is that many people who are saying today that they will not move to FCP X may well change their tune as support / updates stop - the software ages / and FCP X stabilizes and adds the missing features over the next 6 - 12 months. He will see a significant improvement over his current MBP either way he goes - I just believe more cores (up to a point) will be the better path.
Click to expand...

Personally, I think it is better to get a computer that is most suitable for your current usage. Future-proofing is always tricky because you don't really know what is to come. In this case, we don't know what FCPX will gain and when.

The 6-core would be the sweet spot anyway since it has the highest clock speed and offers about the same amount of raw CPU power as the 2.4GHz 8-core.
 
The 6 core is about the same price as the 8 core one, is the 6 core one better you think? Because of the higher GHZ?
 
If it were me - I'd buy the biggest CPU I could whether FCP used it or not.
I would get the best graphics cards offered.
I would buy as much ram as I could afford - 32 GB in my case.
I would also get the largest drives you could afford.

The CPU and graphics would be from Apple. The increased Ram and raid drives would be aftermarket.
Then I would proceed to have as much fun as possible with my video/film shooting and editing.

Eventually when Apple fixes FCX for the professional world and you switch the multicore will benefit you.

Just Sayin...ya know...
 
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