My finances can't quite stretch to the 2.66 Mac Pro so my question is has anyone been in a similar position & gone for the 2.0 Mac Pro & been happy with their purchase. I currently have a G5 1.8 DP with 3Gb Ram which I use for Aperture, Photoshop & dabble with Final Cut Express. I can afford to also buy an extra 2Gb of Ram for the Mac Pro. I know there isn't much a difference in the retail price between the two models for new from Apple but I've come across a nearly new 2.0 Ghz Mac Pro on offer ( less than a month old) that would be a difference of £400 against going for a new 2.66 Mac Pro from my local Apple store. I would be using the Mac Pro for some Video projects coming up in December & I feel that my G5 would get a bit bogged down with the workflow so I'm just after anyones experience with the current base model of the Mac Pro. TIA, Steve
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Have you bought the 2.0 Ghz Mac Pro?
- Thread starter skippy64
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There's probably going to be chips issued for the Mac Pro for another two years at least (there's going to be a full 45 nm line at least up to 4 GHz). You'll be able to get 3 GHz or more for cheap when 4 GHz becomes top of the line. I'd save the couple of hundred of bucks especially since the difference between the 2.66 and 2.0 isn't all that great. On the other hand, if you're Photoshopping all the time or rendering/audio producing, then get the 2.66 because it'll save you time. For my purpose (development), 2.0 is just fine.
I have the 2.0/1gb/x1900 and love it. Now I am buying an extra 1gb of ram in the very near future. But so far I have only really used it for gaming and windows. Tonight though I start with the video editing in OSX and am going to see how that works. My choice was either the 1900 card with the 2.0, or the 2.6 with the 7300. I beleive I made the right choice for $2400.
I have a 2.0GHz and I'm 100% satisfied with it. I also didn't have enough funds to stretch over to the 2.66 especially with taxes and all, but this one isn't missing anything from the middle model. The Xeons are already monsters even at this level (with 4 cores). I'll probably add in a DX10 video card once they get cheaper and maybe an extra gig of RAM too when the prices go down, but for now I'm just running a stock config and it works great.
since it seems you have a 'workflow', so i assume you'll be using it to make money, then i say go for it if it's a good deal. especially with the extra GB of ram
Yes thats what I was thinking that as a purchase for my business it was best to increase my productivity whilst minimising my financial outlay. Heres the dumb question, are the processors definetly going to be upgradeable ?
from what i've read, yes. the new 4-core processors are gonna be pricey though, at least at first
Thanks for that, I think that helps make me a bit more certain to go for the deal.
( Now just got to tell the bank of wife !! )
I've just ordered a Mac Pro and went for the 2Ghz model. The reason being that within my budget I could have got a 2Ghz with an additional 2GB of Ram, or a 2.66 with the stock 1GB ram. I think that for my use (aperture and development), I'll get more benefit from the extra 2GB ram than the 0.66Ghz of speed increase.
Perhaps, though you do have to remember that 0.66GHz happens 4 times- one per core
Yeah, true. The point is that I very rarely (if ever) max out my 2Ghz MBP with only 2 cores and it's disk thrashing that wastes most of my time. With the extra GB of ram and an extra 2 cores I'm (hopefully) going to be sorted
Just a bit of a update, I've landed on a 2.66 Mac Pro at a good price & gone for that now. Many thanks to all for the advice. Next question do I just but an extra 1gb of Ram or buy an extra 2gb ? What is the current thinking with how the Mac Pro uses its Ram with the quad processing, any pointers & suggestions would be appreciated.
Stick to using 4x one type for instance 4x512mb sticks 2 in the first riser and 2 in the second riser.