Mac Pro or not?!

[iranintoavan]

Hello everyone, I am a PC user. One problem...my PC just died on me yesterday. I am a Digital Photographer and so therefore I seriously use photoshop and some RAW conversion programs. I have been looking at the Mac Pro and I'm pretty sure I have decided upon the 2.0 Ghz / 2 Gig Ram / Everything else stock config. Would this be plenty for use of aperture, and photoshop (I realize photoshop is not universal yet)? Or would the Mac Pro 2.66 and 1 gig of ram be better? I could upgrade ram later...is 2 gig gonna make a huge difference?

One thing I have been worried about is, I won't be getting the "full mac experience" by not getting like an iMac or anything. With out the iSight, there's no video chat or photo booth, no front row with apple remote. Would the top of the line iMac deliver near Mac Pro performance?

Let me here your opinions. Thanks!!

 

[iGary]

You'll be fine with that machine.

Buy some additional RAM and an iSight. Aperture will eventually become frustrating with the stock card, mind.

 

[iranintoavan]

You'll be fine with that machine.

Buy some additional RAM and an iSight. Aperture will eventually become frustrating with the stock card, mind.

Stock video card?

 

[MacsAttack]

Stock video card?

Apps like Aperture make heavy use of the video card. The "stock" 7300 card is find for Photoshop or Illustrator, but is going to have a big impact on the speed of anything that uses Apple's Core Image technology.

Good news is that mid-range ATI card Apple offers with the Mac Pro has been reduced in price apparently.

Deffinatly go for 2GB memory. More if you can get it.

 

[iranintoavan]

Apps like Aperture make heavy use of the video card. The "stock" 7300 card is find for Photoshop or Illustrator, but is going to have a big impact on the speed of anything that uses Apple's Core Image technology.

Good news is that mid-range ATI card Apple offers with the Mac Pro has been reduced in price apparently.

Deffinatly go for 2GB memory. More if you can get it.

I'd like the better video card, but it's just not in my budget. I'm really pushing it doing what I am.

 

[I'mAMac]

a good machine would be the 2.66 ghz with 2 gigs and the 1900xt and i dont know how much hdd space you need so you can add that. If you can get by with 1 gig do that but you should try to get 2. and also get an iSight, when leopard comes out it comes with photobooth so you can just install leopard onto mac pro and u have it

 

[iranintoavan]

a good machine would be the 2.66 ghz with 2 gigs and the 1900xt and i dont know how much hdd space you need so you can add that. If you can get by with 1 gig do that but you should try to get 2. and also get an iSight, when leopard comes out it comes with photobooth so you can just install leopard onto mac pro and u have it

So your saying since I'm on a budget, the 2.66 and 1 gig is better than the 2.0 and 2 gig? Getting the upgraded video card is not an option right now, it's too much money, and I don't want the delay.

 

[crazycat]

I bougt a mac pro and i am not really happy with it, its most likely because it has 1GB RAM only. When i can get my hands on mac pro RAM i would probebly have 4GB in it and it will be better. Remmber with OS X RAM is your friend.

 

[zap2]

Get a Mac Pro...it will last longer..RAM can be upgraded, but Core Duo to Xeon, will its not happen

 

[iranintoavan]

I bougt a mac pro and i am not really happy with it, its most likely because it has 1GB RAM only. When i can get my hands on mac pro RAM i would probebly have 4GB in it and it will be better. Remmber with OS X RAM is your friend.

Well will 2GB be ok, I built my PC and it is a 2.8 Pentium 4 with 512 ram. I am gonna notice a big difference right? I just don't wanna be disappointed...

 

[iranintoavan]

Get a Mac Pro...it will last longer..RAM can be upgraded, but Core Duo to Xeon, will its not happen

Alright, do you suggest the 2.66 and 1GB or 2.0 and 2GB?

 

[I'mAMac]

So your saying since I'm on a budget, the 2.66 and 1 gig is better than the 2.0 and 2 gig? Getting the upgraded video card is not an option right now, it's too much money, and I don't want the delay.

yes 2.66 and 1 gig would be better because u can easily upgrade the RAM. why dont you just get the 2.66 and 2 gigs its not THAT much more?

 

[Sun Baked]

Well will 2GB be ok, I built my PC and it is a 2.8 Pentium 4 with 512 ram. I am gonna notice a big difference right? I just don't wanna be disappointed...

Probably will notice a bigger difference with less than 2GB of memory.

10-20GB/s is a lot faster than 50-75MB/s -- so add memory as you budget permits... up to 32GB on the Mac Pro.

While you don't have to add memory as 4 matched DIMMs at a time, it is another method for getting more speed out of the Mac Pro by making use of quad channel memory.

 

[iranintoavan]

Probably will notice a bigger difference with less than 2GB of memory.

10-20GB/s is a lot faster than 50-75MB/s -- so add memory as you budget permits... up to 32GB on the Mac Pro.

While you don't have to add memory as 4 matched DIMMs at a time, it is another method for getting more speed out of the Mac Pro by making use of quad channel memory.

So wait, if I have less than 2GB (which means 1GB) I will notice a bigger difference over my old machine than 2GB?

 

[ModestPenguin]

get 2.66 Ghz and 1 gb of ram

do everything you can to get the X190XT because it will add life to your mac pro

it just dropped in price about $100 I believe, today infact

 

[Sun Baked]

So wait, if I have less than 2GB (which means 1GB) I will notice a bigger difference over my old machine than 2GB?

You will notice a big enough dissapointment with 1GB ... especially if you use Rosetta.

The 2GB on the Mac should be similar to the 512k on the older PC, being the minimum you want to use.

 

[AvSRoCkCO1067]

I picked the iMac, but just because you didn't have an option for a 2.66 GHz Mac Pro with 1 GB of ram (which would set you up for years to come, if you added some more ram down the road).

 

[iranintoavan]

You will notice a big enough dissapointment with 1GB ... especially if you use Rosetta.

The 2GB on the Mac should be similar to the 512k on the older PC, being the minimum you want to use.

Alright thanks a bunch.

 

[napolihos]

iranintoavan,

Obviously, you've got some tradeoffs to make. Here's my input...

Proc - as mentioned, 2.66 is the best option perf/price. it's very close to 3.0 in performance according to benchmarks and much better than 2.0.

Ram - 2GB in a 4x512 config is frankly you're best starting option, since it's the lowest config that allows the mem system to run in quad-channel mode, i.e., you hit the full mem bandwidth potential. I think you'd shortly be unhappy with 1GB and want to upgrade sooner.

Vid card - from what I've read in other forums, the x1900xt is going to serve you much better in terms of bandwidth and future-proof-ness than the 7300. With the price drop by $100, it's worth the $250 upgrade to get a card that will perform better and last you longer.

BTW, I chose these options for my new rig. Cheers.

 

[amin]

Wait for the iMac to be upgraded with a Core 2 Duo processor and then get it. It won't be long. Either that, or spring for a 2.66GHz Mac Pro.

 

[iranintoavan]

iranintoavan,

Obviously, you've got some tradeoffs to make. Here's my input...

Proc - as mentioned, 2.66 is the best option perf/price. it's very close to 3.0 in performance according to benchmarks and much better than 2.0.

Ram - 2GB in a 4x512 config is frankly you're best starting option, since it's the lowest config that allows the mem system to run in quad-channel mode, i.e., you hit the full mem bandwidth potential. I think you'd shortly be unhappy with 1GB and want to upgrade sooner.

Vid card - from what I've read in other forums, the x1900xt is going to serve you much better in terms of bandwidth and future-proof-ness than the 7300. With the price drop by $100, it's worth the $250 upgrade to get a card that will perform better and last you longer.

BTW, I chose these options for my new rig. Cheers.

Alright, I will probably get the 2.66 and 1 gig ram. I do not have enought money to get anything more than that, I would love the video card but I can get it later. But my one consern is that, with the 1 gig of ram, will it be faster than my 512 in my pc? I would assume yes cause its double the ram. I just dont want to buy this expensive new mac, and have it end up being slower than my pc.

 

[amin]

Alright, I will probably get the 2.66 and 1 gig ram. I do not have enought money to get anything more than that, I would love the video card but I can get it later. But my one consern is that, with the 1 gig of ram, will it be faster than my 512 in my pc? I would assume yes cause its double the ram. I just dont want to buy this expensive new mac, and have it end up being slower than my pc.

In Photoshop it may bee slower than your PC since PS is not yet universal. Depends on the PC you had before. If your PC was not current and high end, the Mac Pro should still be faster. If your RAW conversion software is universal (eg Capture One), it will be way faster on your Mac Pro than on the PC. You'll be okay with the stock graphics card. Your next purchase, when you have more money to spend, should be getting two more 512MB FB-DIMMs, which will enhance the experience considerably.

 

[t0mat0]

Ability to upgrade might be a consideration.

 

[iranintoavan]

In Photoshop it may bee slower than your PC since PS is not yet universal. Depends on the PC you had before. If your PC was not current and high end, the Mac Pro should still be faster. If your RAW conversion software is universal (eg Capture One), it will be way faster on your Mac Pro than on the PC. You'll be okay with the stock graphics card. Your next purchase, when you have more money to spend, should be getting two more 512MB FB-DIMMs, which will enhance the experience considerably.

Alright thank you, before I had a 3 year old 2.8ghz Pentium 4, 512 ram, 80gig hd, and an ati radeon 9600 pro. Do you suppose it will be faster than that? I realize that photoshop will be slow until it becomes universal, and I am willing to deal with that. I do not think the raw conversion program I use now is universal but I am willing to make a switch to get the speed

 

[FFTT]

You'll have to ask the photo pros, but you might be able to run your P/C version
of Photoshop on a Windows partition.

Adobe will swap out your Windows license for a Mac OSX license for a nominal
fee.

The 2.66 Mac Pro will scream once Adobe releases CS3.

By that time you should be able to scrape together enough to buy more RAM too.