mac pro buying questions

[roletti2007]

i'm looking for a few opinions, i'm looking to buy a mac pro tower. i've seen the 2006 model going for great prices. some with two processors some with one. the reason i'm looking into this tower is to run adobe cs 5 photoshop indesign and illustrator and xcode, i'm gonna update the memory to maybe 16gb. so the question is this, should that be a good enough tower for my needs i'm not into video at all. or should i buy one brand new or wait till the newest model comes out, or am i overkilling it? thank you to everyone for their time.

 

[Macsonic]

I think your best route is to buy the current 2010 MacPro if you need it now. Or anther option, is go for a second hand 2008 MacPro 2.8ghz or 3.0ghz. Only thing about the ram of the 2008 is the buffered type which is slightly more expensive than the 2009 or 2008 MacPro

About the 2006 MacPro, it will also fill in your needs for graphic design but its logicboard is still 32bit and the default videocard, Nvdia 7300GT is usually problematic.

Thanks

 

[roletti2007]

ah ok thanks for the heads up.

 

[Macsonic]

You're welcome and happy shopping. I wanted to add, the 2008 MacPro is already 64bit. I have used MacPros from the 2006 Model, 2008 MacPro and the 2010 MacPro. All are great machines and pretty quiet. I noticed the 2008 MP and 2010 MP runs slightly cooler. The Nvdia card of the 2006 MacPro actually died and had it replaced by a Radeon card.

 

[roletti2007]

yeah, i'd like to get the newer one cause its just so much easier to upgrade, i'm just looking to get the best deal possible. i'm not concerned with having the latest hardware, i know the mac pro will have the sandbridge processors soon. but for what i need it for i think that may be over kill, plus i know having a good cpu is good but memory is what will make or break you in the long run.

 

[englishman]

I'm a big used fan eg Ebay where there are great bargains to be had.