Mid 2008 8 core VS mid 2010 Quad core...

[steveOooo]

Mid 2008 model:

8 core 2.8ghz Xeon
Nvidia 285GTX 896MB (worth apparently £350)
16gb ram
320gb hdd (will replace with 4 x 1TB drives at around £160)

(+£160 for harddrive upgrade)

OR

Mid 2010 model

4 core 2.8 Xeon “Nehalem"
ATI Radeon HD 5770 1GB (i assume)
512GB SSD (not sure if SSD, possible 1TB HDD)
3GB RAM

(+around £280 for Ram and HDD upgrade - upto 12GB Ram and 8TB HDD)

So, which one to go for? 4xmore cores but half the HDD space, less Graphics, slower RAM?

Essentially ill be doing Video editing with FCP7, Motion 4, but looking to use Premiere CS5 and After FX CS5, ill be using 3 bays as a RAID and one bay for general storage

How much would you pay for the mid 2008 above and the mid 2010 above (with / with out applecare)

Also can you upgrade the processor in the mid - 2010 model above to a 6 core or 8 core - ie is there a service centre you can take it to as its quite tricky.


hmm or just wait for the new mac pro and essentially get it a mid-end processor (ie 8-12 cores) and upgrade the hdd, ram myself?

 

[Amethyst]

WAIT!

Sandy-Bridge-E will give you > 20% performance boost.

 

[derbothaus]

Yes. Wait. If you must, get the 2010 it is slightly faster. 7680 (2008) vs. 8860 (2010) in geekbench. And you can put a hex (3.2GHz) in it for pretty cheap. The memory is also cheaper for the 2010 vs. the 2008.

 

[steveOooo]

Yes. Wait. If you must, get the 2010 it is slightly faster. 7680 (2008) vs. 8860 (2010) in geekbench. And you can put a hex (3.2GHz) in it for pretty cheap. The memory is also cheaper for the 2010 vs. the 2008.

Im swaying towards the 2010, going to offer £1200 - providing theres still applecare i can extend.

can you take it to a computer shop and get someone to put the new 3.2 processor in (after applecare has expired). At the mo im using my MBP so anything will be better than what I have and im sure I could make do for a year or two with the supplied processor

 

[The-Pro]

Several threads with step for step instructions on these forums. Its really easy to do. And you would save yourself about 100 quid or more (that probably what a store would charge if they do it)