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Debating which Mac Pro to buy with a brief introduction.
- Thread starter 100Teraflops
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Everyone I talk with, for a noobie perspective, prefers Premiere. Final Cut is set to get a major update this year, probably - if it comes out before you loose access to your student discount be sure to snag it!
BTW - I wouldn't grab packages just to grab them, esp. if you are planning to upgrade later - almost every publisher excludes educational software from upgrade eligibility.
Since your not relying on the machine (yet, anyway!) to make you money, the quad will more than suffice. The only thing I don't like about the single CPU Mac Pro's is they only have four memory slots. That's pretty limiting since memory is cheap and you can get more bang for your buck performance wise from more RAM than from CPU speed in all but the most demanding tasks.
The only thing that pegs my Mac Pro at 100% on all cores is BOINC when I have it cranking on distributed scientific research applications
The latest update of Creative Suite takes much better advantage of multiple cores, but there is still room to grow. I would assume the rumored Final Cut update will really leverage core Apple technology such as Grand Central - the next generation of major Pro applications should make a huge difference and that's where multiple cores will really shine. Besides, even with apps that don't fully leverage all cores today, that just means you can push more stuff to the background without it interrupting as much what you are doing in the foreground.
You can never have too much CPU, RAM, GPU, hard drive space, etc.
If you can swing it, the dual CPU machine will last you quite a bit longer - because of the extra CPU as well as the extra potential for RAM upgrades.
And as for your earlier question about Aperture or Lightroom - they are for photo management and initial image processing. They are workflow applications aimed primarily at pro or prosumer photographers that take lots of pictures, especially in their camera's RAW format. If you are not really into Photography at the moment, I wouldn't bother. Plus Apple just dropped the price of Aperture to $80 - not exactly a hardship and a discount over even the previous educational pricing.
Everyone I talk with, for a noobie perspective, prefers Premiere. Final Cut is set to get a major update this year, probably - if it comes out before you loose access to your student discount be sure to snag it!
BTW - I wouldn't grab packages just to grab them, esp. if you are planning to upgrade later - almost every publisher excludes educational software from upgrade eligibility.
Since your not relying on the machine (yet, anyway!) to make you money, the quad will more than suffice. The only thing I don't like about the single CPU Mac Pro's is they only have four memory slots. That's pretty limiting since memory is cheap and you can get more bang for your buck performance wise from more RAM than from CPU speed in all but the most demanding tasks.
The only thing that pegs my Mac Pro at 100% on all cores is BOINC when I have it cranking on distributed scientific research applications
The latest update of Creative Suite takes much better advantage of multiple cores, but there is still room to grow. I would assume the rumored Final Cut update will really leverage core Apple technology such as Grand Central - the next generation of major Pro applications should make a huge difference and that's where multiple cores will really shine. Besides, even with apps that don't fully leverage all cores today, that just means you can push more stuff to the background without it interrupting as much what you are doing in the foreground.
You can never have too much CPU, RAM, GPU, hard drive space, etc.
If you can swing it, the dual CPU machine will last you quite a bit longer - because of the extra CPU as well as the extra potential for RAM upgrades.
And as for your earlier question about Aperture or Lightroom - they are for photo management and initial image processing. They are workflow applications aimed primarily at pro or prosumer photographers that take lots of pictures, especially in their camera's RAW format. If you are not really into Photography at the moment, I wouldn't bother. Plus Apple just dropped the price of Aperture to $80 - not exactly a hardship and a discount over even the previous educational pricing.
DocNo, thanks for the informative reply! Yet another 8 core salesman.
I am still deciding between the 6 core and the 8 core. The thought of having tons of ram sounds intriguing thought. As you pointed out, I seek longevity, who doesn't, right? Hence, I will not upgrade every reefresh for the sake of it. I will spend a lot of money on the debated equipment, so I cannot or will not spend this much money every year or so. Also, I hope the refresh can steer me in the right direction. The sad thing is that my bookstore does not offer Apple software. I will snag up a copy of Final Cut eventually. Thanks for informing the forum or just me that Aperture 3's price has decreased.
I am still on the ropes for some of the equipment. I will continue to research on and off the forum. Oh yeah, I am interested with photography. In response to purchasing education software: I understand what you are saying, but if the programs function properly, then I will not upgrade. However, the option to upgrade is nice, as I like options. Also, we both agree that my situation is hypothetical and I have time to change my mind.
Thank you for sharing your knowledge, as it is greatly appreciated!
I am on the ropes debating between a 6 core or a 2.4 8 core machine that will replace a 17" laptop. I wil buy an ssd 240/256 GB and use it as a boot drive, buy a 2TB HDD 7200 and use it as my backup drive, while utilizing the 1TB HDD included with the machine as my scratch disk. I will not use RAID, as I still do not understand how it works. Bad plan?
I am debating between 4 GB and 8 gb modules of ram. I prefer the latter and would like to buy two 8 GB sticks, but this may change depending upon which machine I buy. Furthermore, I plan to buy several progams that require a workstation or I think a workstation is required.
I have adopted a new personal philosophy to learn how to use as much software as possible. A student discount for software does not hurt either.
1. Adobe Master Collection
2. Office Mac Academic
3. Final Draft 8
4. Final Cut Express or the Pro version (in addition to Premiere Pro?)
5. Autocad (Mac or Windows based?. I know certain programs are Windows only and I assume that using Bootcamp does not count?)
The next list is software I am still contemplating:
1. Auto Desk Suite for Entertainment, which includes Maya and Mudbox for Mac, full suite for Windows.
2. Filemaker Pro 11 (still trying to figure out the use of this program)
3. End Note X4
4. Lightroom 3 or Aperture 3 (in addition to photoshop, bad idea?)
I am new to most of the mentioned software programs, so bare with me here. I want to create/edit video, learn the craft of photography/editing, mess around with mechanical engineering, and possess a better understanding of how video games are created.
I was lurking around this forum disguised as a guest for weeks.
Now for some questions. Which machine is right for me? The trusty high clocking 6 core or the ram expandable yet low clocking 8 core? Have I overlooked something along the way, aside from a depleted bank account?
With my best British accent: "My apologies chaps, as this bloody thread is lengthy!"
6 core Mac Pro it's a good choice unless you need to use more than 16GB. Then it's the 12 core. 6 core is faster than 8 core.You can't upgrade CPUs. I have a 2009 8 core with 8 GB and it works perfect for me. Clock speed in 6 core is 3.33GHz compared to 2.4GHz on the 8 core. If you use soft that doesn't take advantage of multiple cores, 6 core is faster. If you use one or more that does, it will still be faster. If you can't afford 12 core I'd go for 6 core.
Actually OWC offers an upgrade plan from 6 core to 12 core but...its...very...very...pricey....
Also you can comfortably do 24 gigs in the Mac Pro 6 core and still have the benefits of triple channel memory. 3 x 8GB.