New Mac Pro Purchase dual CPU question

[bernuli]

I am ready do go all out on a new Mac Pro purchase. Had pretty much decided on the "Two 3.06GHz 6-Core Intel Xeon" configuration. However I am starting to get the impression that the faster clock rate on the single CPU configuration might actually be faster for what am doing. Also, I could buy 2 of the single CPU Mac Pros for the same price as the dual CPU configuration.

I assume the the only benefit to 2xCPU on one machine would be had by video encoding, 3d rendering etc?

Will be running 3 displays, (1) 30" Cinema and (2) Dell 24" displays. Adding more displays later, topping out at 5 total.

My main applications are Excel, remote desktop/VNC, LIGHT Photoshop work, VMware (VMs of Win XP, Win7, Win8 and OS X) not but not necessarily running all at once) and, X-Plane 10. Safari, iTunes and xmms for multiple audio streams.

32 GB of ram should hold me over for a while, though I do like the option of 64 in the dual CPU config.

Any opinions or real world experience with the current lineup would be greatly appreciated.


B

 

[brentsg]

I would go with a single socket 6 core for that application.

That's what I own and my usage patterns aren't much different from yours.

 

[biggd]

Why buy now? Tim Cook said new ones soon

 

[xcodeSyn]

32 GB of ram should hold me over for a while, though I do like the option of 64 in the dual CPU config.

Using 16GB RAM modules, we could have 48GB max for a single-processor MP(2009 and later years) and 96GB for a dual-processor from this link. Unless you really require more than 48GB RAM in your work, I tend to agree with others that there is no practical reason to get a 12-core MP. You could probably get much better GPUs from the saving to support your planned 5 monitors.

 

[24Frames]

Not sure why you would want a Mac Pro to do any of those things...

 

[feinberj]

I got the 6-core 3.33 Mac Pro in 2010, and over two years later it's still the fastest Mac you can buy (once upgraded with an SSD) for most things. The dual-processor Mac Pro will only be faster for very specific tasks, none of which are on your list. The 6-core 3.33 is still available today and much cheaper than a dual-processor Mac Pro. I bought a Samsung 512Gb SSD maybe 6 months ago, which gave a really nice speed boost. Definitely buy your own SSD for the Mac Pro - you'll pay a huge premium if you get it from Apple. The Velocity Solo x2 card will give you most of the speed of the newer 6G drives, and leave all of your drive bays free.

An intriguing storage configuration would be to buy a smaller SSD, and set up a fusion drive...

 

[nigelbb]

The Velocity Solo x2 card will give you most of the speed of the newer 6G drives, and leave all of your drive bays free

at the expense of one of the 3 spare PCIe slots.