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I Need to Buy a Mac Pro NOW!

S

superperfundo

macrumors newbie
Original poster
May 4, 2011
4
0
I just landed a freelance video editing gig and need to buy myself a new Mac Pro. The main programs I will be running are Final Cut Studio and After Effects (with a fair amount of rendering). I'd like it to last me 3-4 years and I'm willing to spend up to $3,500. Should I buy new? refurbished? Ebay? 4,1 or 5,1 ? Can I save money buying crucial RAM separately?

At my other job we have an early 2009 2 x 2.66 GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon with 8gb RAM. This computer runs Media Composer and After Effects smoothly, to my enjoyment, but I'd love to be ready for 2K or even 4k editing and possibly 3D animation.

I start the job next week! Help! :eek:
 
Apple has a 8 core 2.93 that would be pretty sweet on their refurb site. You'll want to upgrade the Graphics though and it is slightly over your budget. Other than that try the 6-core. You need some clock speed and a fair amount of cores.
 
Yes, you can save money by buying RAM upgrades from OWC instead of from Apple.

Will you be able to benefit from 8 cores (2 processors) with hyperthreading given the programs you are using? What else will you need to invest in? Any PCIe cards? HDDs? Displays? How much RAM will you need? That is, how much money do you actually have to spend on the mac itself?


Edit: I concur that the 2009 8 core 2.93 is a pretty sweet deal, but as stated, it's over your budget.
 
Ravich said:
Yes, you can save money by buying RAM upgrades from OWC instead of from Apple.

Will you be able to benefit from 8 cores (2 processors) with hyperthreading given the programs you are using? What else will you need to invest in? Any PCIe cards? HDDs? Displays? How much RAM will you need? That is, how much money do you actually have to spend on the mac itself?


Edit: I concur that the 2009 8 core 2.93 is a pretty sweet deal, but as stated, it's over your budget.
Click to expand...


I can definitely use hyperthreading with after effects (cs5). I am hoping to get 8-12gb of RAM and a decent graphics card. Crucial sells 12gb for $200. Not sure about the graphics card. For now I will get a cheap monitor (around $150?) and add a nice IPS monitor sometime in the future. Unfortunately I am limited to 3,500, maybe 4,000 right now for everything.
 
superperfundo said:
I can definitely use hyperthreading with after effects (cs5). I am hoping to get 8-12gb of RAM and a decent graphics card. Crucial sells 12gb for $200. Not sure about the graphics card. For now I will get a cheap monitor (around $150?) and add a nice IPS monitor sometime in the future. Unfortunately I am limited to 3,500, maybe 4,000 right now for everything.
Click to expand...
Get a refurbished 2.8 and do the upgrade for $500 to hex core. Get 16 or 24 Gigsof ram and use the rest of your money on a nice IPS monitor. Thats what I would do.

Dell's 27inch u2711 is really nice, or go bigger and get the u3011 refurbished. Both these monitors calibrated are top notch.
 
sjordan said:
Get a refurbished 2.8 and do the upgrade for $500 to hex core. Get 16 or 24 Gigsof ram and use the rest of your money on a nice IPS monitor. Thats what I would do.

Dell's 27inch u2711 is really nice, or go bigger and get the u3011 refurbished. Both these monitors calibrated are top notch.
Click to expand...



Here is the 2.8 quad to 3.2 hex upgrade thread.


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

it is under an hour to do it boosts the machine from 9700 to 15300 on geek bench. it will use up 32gb ram.. if you sell off the oem cpu it costs about 400 to 450 to do. ps it seems to fit your budget and your needs . the quad 2.8 is 2120


http://store.apple.com/us/product/FC560LL/A?mco=MTkyMTM2MDM 2120 for the quad



http://cgi.ebay.com/NEW-Intel-Xeon-...258094?pt=COMP_EN_Servers&hash=item230e914a2e 605 for the cpu


you are at 2725 with a spare quad 2.8


http://www.superbiiz.com/detail.php...-DDR3-1333-8GB-ECC-REG-Original-Server-Memory 32gb ram for about 560 you are at


3285


http://cgi.ebay.com/NEW-Intel-SSDSA...e_Internal&hash=item588da5ee19#ht_2213wt_1189 new intel 160gb for 300


you are at 3585 with a spare oem quad 2.8 and 3 spare sticks of 1gb ram. basically this is exactly my machine. it geekbenchs at 15300 to 15700 runs flawlessly handles the ram just fine passes all tests. And you have the benefit of the thread to set it up. I am very happy with it.
 
Last edited:
superperfundo said:
I just landed a freelance video editing gig and need to buy myself a new Mac Pro. The main programs I will be running are Final Cut Studio and After Effects (with a fair amount of rendering). I'd like it to last me 3-4 years and I'm willing to spend up to $3,500. Should I buy new? refurbished? Ebay? 4,1 or 5,1 ? Can I save money buying crucial RAM separately?

At my other job we have an early 2009 2 x 2.66 GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon with 8gb RAM. This computer runs Media Composer and After Effects smoothly, to my enjoyment, but I'd love to be ready for 2K or even 4k editing and possibly 3D animation.

I start the job next week! Help! :eek:
Click to expand...

Does the $3.5K include the cost of FCS purchase? If so, you'll have a VERY hard time building a MP + display + memory + FCS for that price.

JohnG
 
sjordan said:
Get a refurbished 2.8 and do the upgrade for $500 to hex core. Get 16 or 24 Gigsof ram and use the rest of your money on a nice IPS monitor. Thats what I would do.

Dell's 27inch u2711 is really nice, or go bigger and get the u3011 refurbished. Both these monitors calibrated are top notch.
Click to expand...

This sounds very nice, thanks for the info!
 
superperfundo said:
I am open to a hackintosh too, do you know of a good recent guide?
Click to expand...

I dont but I am sure theres one somewhere. You could build something with a crap load of fast ram, a fast graphics card and a multi core cpu and probably have enough left over for an SSD or some other gadgets for it.

I'll let you know if I see anything. I would do my AMD but I don't want the headache of patching every time for my cpu. But it isn't too hard to hackintosh. You could probably get something going with like 12 gigs of ram 0.o 3500 is a lot! : )) Good luck.

Of course and official Mac Pro is always better. A Caddy is a caddy to say the least : )
 
superperfundo said:
This sounds very nice, thanks for the info!
Click to expand...

FYI, you can get a u3011 refurb for $899....you just have to check dells site daily :) I caught one last week and bought it right away. It came in yesterday. No dead pixels and it looks brand new
 
superperfundo said:
I can definitely use hyperthreading with after effects (cs5). I am hoping to get 8-12gb of RAM and a decent graphics card. Crucial sells 12gb for $200. Not sure about the graphics card. For now I will get a cheap monitor (around $150?) and add a nice IPS monitor sometime in the future. Unfortunately I am limited to 3,500, maybe 4,000 right now for everything.
Click to expand...
Well then it really comes down to the display and HDD options.

If you dont need 4 or 5 internal drives, and the iMac 27'' display is perfect for you, then there's no reason to spend money on a Mac Pro right now.
 
JeepGuy said:
Last time I checked the single socket hex core stomps the iMac.
Click to expand...
At $999 for the BTO processor. I would place my bets on the Core i7 2600 unless I was going for a dual socket system.

The single socket Mac Pro is dead again until its next update. It is 2005 all over again.
 
Ravich said:
Well then it really comes down to the display and HDD options.

If you dont need 4 or 5 internal drives, and the iMac 27'' display is perfect for you, then there's no reason to spend money on a Mac Pro right now.
Click to expand...

This is true unless he needs color accuracy. The iMac 27 display is big and pretty but not up to par for people who work in environments where color accuracy is important.
 
sjordan said:
This is true unless he needs color accuracy. The iMac 27 display is big and pretty but not up to par for people who work in environments where color accuracy is important.
Click to expand...
Drop the money on a CCFL IPS Dell display. Then again it has already been suggested in this thread.
 
JeepGuy said:
your right about that it certainly isn't cheap.
Click to expand...
I will admit that you are going to win if you are doing video work 24/7 with a Westmere hex-core but the cost of getting there vs. the gains are not really a worthwhile investment.

You could get end high end iMac and U27xx/30xx display and still be under budget. While I am not fond of Apple's hardware, when you have the income and necessity, the iMac is usually updated long before the Mac Pro and offers more power than the base Mac Pro configuration.
 
Eidorian said:
At $999 for the BTO processor.
Click to expand...
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819117242&Tpk=W3680
That chip ain't cheap. For once, Apple's prices are actually in line with other retailers. Remember that this is a server class chip we're talking about here. There's a lot more to the chip than speed. Also keep in mind that the iMac isn't exactly future-proof; trust me, I've owned one. I've been much happier with my Pro.

IMO, the 2010 dual socket quad core box is the best bang for the money right now. You can always upgrade those 4 core chips to the 6 cores later; they share the same socket type. Also, the dual socket Pros will take 64GB of ram to the iMac's 16. Something to keep in mind down the road.
 
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