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Good buy?

Odd no one has chimed in yet, but personally, I would not buy anything older than a 2009 (4,1) model. 2008 and earlier are gimped by old processors and memory that have no upgrade potential. Look around here and you will find threads on upgrading 2009 and newer classic Mac Pro's to make them faster than a new Mac Pro!
 
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dmylrea said:
Odd no one has chimed in yet, but personally, I would not buy anything older than a 2009 (4,1) model. 2008 and earlier are gimped by old processors and memory that have no upgrade potential. Look around here and you will find threads on upgrading 2009 and newer classic Mac Pro's to make them faster than a new Mac Pro!
Click to expand...
dmylrea said:
Odd no one has chimed in yet, but personally, I would not buy anything older than a 2009 (4,1) model. 2008 and earlier are gimped by old processors and memory that have no upgrade potential. Look around here and you will find threads on upgrading 2009 and newer classic Mac Pro's to make them faster than a new Mac Pro!
Click to expand...
What's the "better" machine? A 2009 Mac Pro or a 15" MBP from 2012?
 
Liquinn said:
What's the "better" machine? A 2009 Mac Pro or a 15" MBP from 2012?
Click to expand...
You are asking to compare "apples to oranges" :D
If you need a portable system, then the Mac Pro would be a terrible choice for that, and the MBPro would actually, well, be portable.
If, on the other hand, you need a system that will do well for you with Photoshop - lots of internal options for lots of storage, can be upgraded to alternative processors, going to alternate multi-core CPUs, upgrade to multiple graphics cards, to multiple screen video, etc, then the 2009 Mac Pro will be a much better machine (depending on your use)
The Mac Pro would not be a good choice if you need your system to be portable

If your needs are not so much, then either system can be a "good" choice.
 
I too would recommend a 2009 4,1 over the 2008. I'd even go a step further and say look for a good deal on a 2010+ 5,1 Mac Pro to be assured of a few more years before the Mac Pro is put on the legacy list and possibly dropped from OS X support.
 
It all depends on your budget. Dual CPU 2008 Mac Pro 3,1 systems can be bought for half the price of a single CPU 2009 system & while there isn't the same CPU upgrade potential a 2x2.8GHz 8-core Mac Pro 3,1 can still run all the pro applications (FCP X, Premiere Pro, Photoshop, Lightroom, DaVinci Resolve etc) really well especially if you upgrade to a more modern graphics card & SSD & 32GB RAM.

Processor performance isn't that much different - single thread performance of a 2.8GHz E5462 is still 80% that of the fastest processor that you can put in a MP 5,1 (3.47GHz X5690). Find a 2008 MP 3,1 with the X5482 3.20GHz processor & single stream performance is 90% that of a 3.47GHz X5690
 
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I have an 3,1 dual quadcore with 10GB RAM and a GTX 750Ti. Star Wars Battlefront is running with highest settings just fine.
So performance ist pretty great for the age of this computer.
 
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