Need some input for a nMP purchase

[Tim Allen]

My company has instilled faith in me to purchase a new mac pro for them for designing, we'll mostly be using After Effect, Premiere, and I think they will want to start doing some form of 3d modeling at some point in time, (we do custom plates for hotels, restaurant etc.)

Anyways we have a budget of about 5K and I am wonder which direction I should go.

Option1: 3.0GHz 8-core
12GB DDR3 ECC
256GB flash storage
Dual AMD FirePro 2GB

Option2:3.5GHz 6-core
32GB DDR3 ECC
256GB flash storage
Dual AMD FirePro 6GB

For what we will be using it for will there be a huge difference between the 6core suped up setup, or a more base 8core? Both price out right around 5k and I am no computer expert on these set-ups. From what Ive learned everyone seems to be saying these will not be very upgradeable, other than say RAM so not sure if we should have it more balanced or go straight for highest cores in our budget and hope we can upgrade down the road if need be.

Let me know what your opinions are on these set-up and what may be best suited for our needs if you can.

Thanks

 

[VirtualRain]

My company has instilled faith in me to purchase a new mac pro for them for designing, we'll mostly be using After Effect, Premiere, and I think they will want to start doing some form of 3d modeling at some point in time, (we do custom plates for hotels, restaurant etc.)

Anyways we have a budget of about 5K and I am wonder which direction I should go.

Option1: 3.0GHz 8-core
12GB DDR3 ECC
256GB flash storage
Dual AMD FirePro 2GB

Option2:3.5GHz 6-core
32GB DDR3 ECC
256GB flash storage
Dual AMD FirePro 6GB

For what we will be using it for will there be a huge difference between the 6core suped up setup, or a more base 8core? Both price out right around 5k and I am no computer expert on these set-ups. From what Ive learned everyone seems to be saying these will not be very upgradeable, other than say RAM so not sure if we should have it more balanced or go straight for highest cores in our budget and hope we can upgrade down the road if need be.

Let me know what your opinions are on these set-up and what may be best suited for our needs if you can.

Thanks

I believe both Premiere and After Effects can leverage those GPUs, so Option 2 with D700s makes a lot more sense. I would expect you could get a lot more out of two higher-end GPU's and more RAM than a couple more CPU cores. But we really should wait for someone familiar with these Apps to comment.

 

[echoout]

I believe both Premiere and After Effects can leverage those GPUs, so Option 2 with D700s makes a lot more sense. I would expect you could get a lot more out of two higher-end GPU's and more RAM than a couple more CPU cores. But we really should wait for someone familiar with these Apps to comment.

It helps to know what kind of tasks in After Effects. GPUs do very little for AE in the vast majority of tasks. Higher clock speed will have the biggest impact and more cores for some tasks.

The GPUs will definitely help in Premiere.

 

[Tim Allen]

After Effects we use Trapcode a lot doing different cloud effect and things of that sort.

 

[cohen777]

good article about new Mac Pro options

http://arstechnica.com/apple/2013/12/you-can-spend-9599-on-a-mac-pro-but-should-you/

 

[Tim Allen]

Cool thanks for the input gents, I guess it boils down to. Do we gamble and hope that someone down the road makes upgradable parts or do we go with a smaller 6core and beef up in other parts

 

[wildmac]

Cool thanks for the input gents, I guess it boils down to. Do we gamble and hope that someone down the road makes upgradable parts or do we go with a smaller 6core and beef up in other parts

Really, another factor should be, how long do you expect this rig to last you, and can you afford to completely replace systems in a few years for business needs?

 

[Bear]

Cool thanks for the input gents, I guess it boils down to. Do we gamble and hope that someone down the road makes upgradable parts or do we go with a smaller 6core and beef up in other parts

I'd say the 6 core as you have it configured. The CPU is likely to be easier to upgrade than the video cards.

One question... will 256GB SSD be big enough that you don't have to micromanage what is on your system disk? You may find yourself needing to install applications to an external drive. (Yes 256GB may be enough, but I like to make sure that it is thought about.)

 

[Tim Allen]

I'd say the 6 core as you have it configured. The CPU is likely to be easier to upgrade than the video cards.

One question... will 256GB SSD be big enough that you don't have to micromanage what is on your system disk? You may find yourself needing to install applications to an external drive. (Yes 256GB may be enough, but I like to make sure that it is thought about.)

Yeah I think we'll be upgrading as need be for storage, or at least that's what I was told. Apparently our server here at the office is massive and we'll be storing the majority of our work on there.

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Really, another factor should be, how long do you expect this rig to last you, and can you afford to completely replace systems in a few years for business needs?

To be honest I don't know, the company gave me the limit but I mean were a 5-6mil a year company so I would say if they HAD to upgrade in the next 3-5 years it wouldn't kill them.