IS this worth the purchase?

[Zeebedy]

Hey guys, im in the market for a new computer, a Mac Pro..

What do you think of these specs and will it be fairly powerful. I will be using it mainly for Graphic Design work (PS, DW, FL) etc:

RAID .
3 * 1TB organized as a 1TB striped volume.
1 * 250GB boot volume

Mac Pro
2006 Model
2 * 3GHz Dual Core Intel Xeons
6GB DDR2 667MHz FB-DIMM
System Bus Speed 1.33GHz
Graphics Card: Radeon X1900

 

[shardey]

Hey guys, im in the market for a new computer, a Mac Pro..

What do you think of these specs and will it be fairly powerful. I will be using it mainly for Graphic Design work (PS, DW, FL) etc:

RAID .
3 * 1TB organized as a 1TB striped volume.
1 * 250GB boot volume

Mac Pro
2006 Model
2 * 3GHz Dual Core Intel Xeons
6GB DDR2 667MHz FB-DIMM
System Bus Speed 1.33GHz
Graphics Card: Radeon X1900

I can say that these are really quick computers as I have the mac pro 1,1 2.66 with 7gb ram 2 320gb, 1 40gb intel ssd (windows boot) and 1 80gb intel ssd (os x boot) and the 4870 for the graphics. I will say that computer will be able to handle what you are wanting to do however I highly suggest using a SSD for your boot volume.

 

[nanofrog]

How long do you plan on running this machine?

I ask, as there's a few things you might want to be aware of:

1. The firmware is EFI32, which currently limits you on graphics card choices.
2. Once OS X goes K64 (64 bit Kernel only), you will no longer be able to upgrade OS X as EFI32 can only run K32 (K32 is currently supported in the developer releases of Lion, but I wouldn't expect this to continue with 10.8, as Apple's indicated that dual Kernel support won't last that long - it's even possible Apple will drop K32 support in the RTM version of Lion, but hopefully they won't).
3. Stripe sets are dangerous, so if you go this route, make sure you have a backup of the important data stored on it, as well as can put in the time to recover the array (replace disk, restore data off of backups, and re-perform any lost work that occurred between the last backup and the failure).
4. DDR FB-DIMM is expensive.

Just a few things I think you need to be aware of. If you're planning on using this system for some time, I'd go no older than a 2008 model (3,1) IMO, as it was the first system to use EFI64 (can still use the latest graphics cards and continue to be able to upgrade OS X once it goes purely to K64).

 

[Tower-Union]

The X1900 WILL overheat and fry, try to get an 8800 if you can, or hack in something more powerful.

 

[Zeebedy]

Hey again guys.I believe I'm going down the route of a 2009 mac pro. Specs are:

Apple Mac Pro 2.26 GHz 8 CORE* XEON 6GB RAM 640GB Disk (MB535B/A)

What do you think, also is brand new with a years warranty.


RTJ

 

[NightSun]

Hi Rip-the-jacker,

I just went for the same spec (2.26 8-Core, 2009), a brand new one from a leftover stock of a UK-based seller, and had a discussion with other fellows in an other thread if it is worth or not (https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1158208/).

If you can get a good price, well under that of a new or refurbished one, this may be a nice option. However, you have to be prepared for exchanging CPUs for higher clocked ones (Nehalem or Westmere architecture), since the pair of 2.26 Ghz Quad-core CPUs do not perform very well in single-threaded tasks, and there are many software out there, which are still not written well to exploit multiple cores. Changing the CPUs in a Dual-Socket Mac Pro is more expensive than in Single-Socket ones, as only those equipped with dual QPI link can be used (- regarding this see Nanofrog's explanation on the other thread).

Furthermore, specifically with the 2009 DP Mac pro it is also more of a hassle doing that, as the stock 2.26 CPUs are lidless, while any substitute will come with a lid that requires caution when installing back the heatsink - I'm gonna face this situation soon…). So, think twice about this purchase. On the long run this can turn out to be fruitful, but unless you have a great discount on the machine, it may be better to get a 2009/2010 single CPU, base quad-core version and possibly swapping it now or later for a W3670 3.2 Hex-core, which is probably the cheapest way to get outstanding performance both in single-threaded and multi-threaded software. This was originally what I wanted but finally I only had the option for the 2.26 Octo and I took the plunge.

 

[Zeebedy]

Do you mind if I ask what you paid? I managed to get it from over stock too and for 1500 pounds, is that reasonable?

RTJ

 

[NightSun]

Yes, I got exactly the same price. That's certainly a good one. Apple is selling it refurbished for 2449 EUR, so our price is ~700 EUR lower than that.