D500 vs D700

[CH12671]

So I'm about to pull the plug and go ahead and order my nMP. My system will be hex core, 12 gig RAM (upgraded with crucial when it arrives), 1TB hdd, but I can't decide on video card. I really don't want to spend the $500+ extra on the D700's if I'll never notice much difference. Some are saying there is no difference between D300 and D500, but I believe the extra RAM and bus bandwidth will eventually be utilized by software, so I'd like to not go with the base offering here.

My uses are mainly low-end (read:small-time) video editing in 1080p (maybe some 4k stuff later in the year) for high school purposes. I also use Aperture (I currently have about 20K or more pictures in my library) with my D3000 Nikon. This machine will be replacing a 2011 iMac 2.5 i5, so I know it's an upgrade. Anything I order should be faster, and beefier.

I also know that if I can buy the D700's later, and if I decide I need them, then at that point it will likely be in the thousands to upgrade (in which case I'd just buy a new nMP).

So, if I'm not driving 4k monitors (2 to 3 monitors, 1440p at most), and if I'm not editing much 4k video, and my edits/renders are of videos 1 hour or less in length......shouldn't I just save the $540 (educational upgrade price) and use that for RAM/peripherals, etc?

Or should I bite the bullet, spend the extra $540 and never wonder?
UGH, I hate money decisions.

 

[Ludacrisvp]

I'd probably get the D700 cards out of the box, and go with the quad core CPU.
The CPU has been confirmed to be user-upgradable by many sites.
So you could save the money on the CPU now, and upgrade the graphics now.

I say this as while you mentioned that going to the newer graphics cards later will cost thousands the CPU is pretty plug and play and since other systems will use this CPU in time you will see used ones at good deals.

"Quad Core" 3.7 (Late 2013) 3.7 GHz
- 4 Core Xeon E5-1620v2

"Six Core" 3.5 (Late 2013) 3.5 GHz
- 6 Core Xeon E5-1650v2

"Eight Core" 3.0 (Late 2013) 3.0 GHz
- 8 Core Xeon E5-1680v2

"Twelve Core" 2.7 (Late 2013) 2.7 GHz
- 12 Core Xeon E5-2697v2

Basically the CPU price will fall and the graphics card price likely never will.
For example the 12 core is on ebay now for less than $1500 ... Apple has it at $3500 upgrade from the quad core model.
And there are good chances that many processors of this generation will work in the mac pro.

 

[CH12671]

Makes perfect sense. I had thought about that route as well. I've just never had a machine with more than 4 physical cores, so I really fancied having at least 6 out of the box.

I'm giving serious though to your suggestion. I think it has much merit!
Thanks

 

[Umbongo]

Basically the CPU price will fall and the graphics card price likely never will.
For example the 12 core is on ebay now for less than $1500 ... Apple has it at $3500 upgrade from the quad core model.
And there are good chances that many processors of this generation will work in the mac pro.

Link? It's a $2,600 CPU, they aren't going to go for much less because even wholesalers don't get them much cheaper than that. Intel CPU prices don't drop drastically on non-mainstream models for years. Xeons typically get low prices when old server equipment gets sold off.

Not that getting GPUs now and a CPU later isn't a good idea, but look at the W3680, they still go for $450. The E5-1650 probably won't go for much less than $500 for a couple of years.

 

[Ludacrisvp]

Guess I should have looked at the ad a little closer ... seems they are engineering samples they are selling ... not saying that they wouldn't work in the Mac but it would potentially be risky.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/131016422699

Real / non Eng samples go for the expected $2500 ... which is cheaper than Apple does it and you could sell your current processor after swapping too and make some of that money back.