I'm considering upping the ante to a new(er) machine and am considering a MacPro. Since I've continually owned iMacs as far back as I can remember, I've never really kept up with the specs of the towers. Granted, it used to be easier, but with all this 4-core and 8-core biz going on, I'll admit--as a Mac evangelist--I don't have a clue where they fall.

So Trev, if you're reading, I'd love a quick synopsis if you can spare a moment.

-Not averse to an Apple refurb and older model system
-Would assume I could find a low RAM, low HD model to upgrade myself
-Run CS3, LR2, Office, etc.
-Not sure how the processors stack up against each other (recent versus new); moderate gains? Worth the expense? (value versus processing power)

Thx!

I just went down this road, read my thread about figuring out my Mac Pro config:

http://www.opensourcephoto.net/forum/index...showtopic=33600


I ended up with a referb 8 core 2.8Ghz with 2gb (2x1gb)ram. Get the ram from someplace else. Right now i have 4gb, because at my day job we had another 2 1gb sticks laying around. But i think around 8GB would be the sweet spot. Lightroom and photoshop fly on it.

Since you said imac you might need a monitor. I went Dell for my monitor, and bought their top of the line 27 inch monitor (2709W), and it's amazing.


I will watch this thread, so just post away if you have other questions.

I am watching this thread too... I will be replacing my desk top this winter too.

A refurb is actually a great way to go, and you can save a few hundred there:

http://store.apple.com/us/product/FA970LL/A

For ram and hard drive upgrades, yes you can do both very easily.

Ram is easy...get how ever much you want to spend. From transintl you can get 4GB for 124 or 8GB for 242.

http://www.transintl.com/store/category.cf...uestTimeOut=500

You can go up from there for more money, but i'd suggest at least adding 4GB since it is so cheap. Can also start by adding 4GB, then add another 4GB later if you feel you need it.

For hard drives, keep an eye on http://www.slickdeals.net/

Newegg is also a great place to buy, and here are some options with varying size

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16822148288
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16822148298
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16822148274

I still can't believe how cheap these are getting...9 months ago I paid 120 for that 500GB drive, and now you can get 1TB for 130.


For lightroom and CS3, the computer will scream...just make sure you add some ram...as much as you can afford. Office will be fine too.

Then the last question for the value of the faster processors, I don't see it. The 2.8 8-core model screams, and I can't see spending 800-1600 on a faster processor. Put the money to ram, and enough hard drives so you have a good backup system.

The users getting the faster processors are the hardcore video guys who are also spending 800 on an internal raid card with the fast and expensive SAS drives. So unless the you see a $10,000 computer in your future, 2.8 is fine.

Give me a call Keith. Maruf's advice is great with transintl for RAM, other sources for hard drives and a refurbished mac pro if you want to save some cash. I purchased a mac pro this year and it's quite extraordinary. if you'd like to chat, my phone numbers are on my website under the contact tab.

this just came up

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16822145167

HITACHI Deskstar 1TB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s for 95 after rebate.

I don't know anything about these drives, but that seems pretty cheap

bastards! I just bought 5 more of those from them at $139 (109 after rebate) that is an AWESOME DEAL!!!!

I now own 7 of those drives and they rock... really great deal. HOP ON THAT!!!! Stick 4 of 'em in your mac pro, that would be such a kickass setup.

Just got my Mac Pro a month ago and love it, but only got the minimum 250G hard drive and I am filling it up FAST and need to get some more hard drives to stick in there. If I buy 3 of the Hitachi drives Maruf mentioned will I be OK on my own trying to install these? Does NewEgg have a help desk/online instruction page that can walk me through this? Maybe I should just go to the Apple store and buy some HDs so they can show me how to do it?

I also got the minimum RAM and want to buy some more. I have installed extra RAM on my iMac. Is the Mac Pro RAM just as easy to add to?

Thanks for any insight and sorry for the threadjack!

Also was going to mention I got a discount for being a NAPP member from Apple when I ordered my Mac Pro.

Vanessa-
Installing hard drives into the Mac pro take only about 3 minutes a drive. They have trays you pull out, 4 screws later the new drive is in, and you slide the tray back in. Then just boot the box, and use disk utility to format the new drive. At that point you could choose to make raid pairs if you want.

Memory on the Mac Pro's is also very easy, and we could walk you through that also. There are 2 riser cards, and you have to install in pairs, one stick in each riser card (pairs must be matching).

If you can wait till the new year, Mac Pros are going to be updated in January.

Alex / Vanessa / Trevor / Maruf / Twake -- Thanks for the insight on this! I appreciate the links and info on y'alls recent foray into the MacPro environment. As I mentioned, it's helpful as I haven't kept up with the particulars of these machines, especially their processors and how recent models stack up against newer ones, and the whole 4-core/8-core scenario had me a little perplexed.

My broad goal would be to pick up a refurb with minimal RAM and hard drive (since I'm pretty familar with replacing those) ... and it sounds like the recommendation is to pick up an "Early 2008" model with the two, 2.8GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon processors (8-core, right?) ... and maybe wait until January when they probably update the line up.

Is it the 4-core models that take a special, less available type of RAM module and the 8-cores take a more standard make up? (Maybe I read something wrong, but thought I saw that...)

I've been buried the last couple days since originally posting, but I'll take you up on the call Trevor later this week...thanks for offering.

Thx!

The early 2008 2.8 dual-quad (for simplicity's sake, yeah, 8 core!) models are rock solid. I haven't heard of any model having less available RAM but I'd stick with the 8-core model and call it good - RAM is very available for all of the systems as far as I know, and my choice for RAM purchases is www.transintl.com

I'd love to chat with you sometime this week. Just shoot me an e-mail and we'll set up a time... I do have a couple of things going on this week but I'm always available in the evenings and most afternoons.

Any other questions, feel free to let us know!

ETA: I see you mention office in your original post... I assume you mean MS office? Don't waste you rmoney... get NEO OFFICE! It's a free, open-source KICKASS office suite that has just about all of the features and pretty much the same layout as MS office for not a fraction of the price, but none at all! http://www.neooffice.org

I am revisiting this thread... I was just online building my dream machine, and it is quite pricey! So, I am looking to see what I can omit and add myself, such as the hard drives and the Ram. I am a little nervous about trying this myself.

So, do I want to wait until Jan, until the new ones are out?

Please do not add ram and hard drives from apple. They really are very simple to install. No cables at all are required for the drives, and the ram is super easy too. There are big riser cards that slide out so you have room to actually get the new ram chips in. They once in, they slide right back in.

Personally, I wouldn't wait for a new Mac Pro at this point. There isn't much in terms of real upgrades in the pipeline, and i'm not sure we'll see new ones in January. My guess it they'll be closer to the June timeframe. That would put them on an 18 month cycle, which is more typical for the mac pro.

Besides, its a desktop. I like the form factor of it, the expansion slots are more than enough, the price of ram is good at this point, it has bluetooth built in. All is good.

The places I want to see some updates are displays and mouse. I heard rumors of a multi touch mouse a while back...who knows if that ever happens, and it would be nice to have the new 24" LED display with the cam, speakers, and mic, but without the glass. But, doesn't look like thats gonna happen any time soon. Their stance on glossy is pretty firm now, and it will be at least a year until that loosens, if ever.

They do not have the 8 core standard config as a refurb right now, but they do have a 4 core 2.8 refurb available for 2000. This will not be as good as the 8 core of course, but will be better than the iMac.

One thing you need to consider when deciding between an 8 core mac pro, a 4 core mac pro, and a 2 core iMac are the applications you will be running, and are they geared for multi threading.

Take a look at the benchmarks form macworld

http://www.macworld.com/article/131538/200...acprobench.html

The difference in overall score between the 8core pro and the 2 core imac is pretty big, but the imac actually beats it in photoshop, and get killed in all the video scores. This is because the video apps make great use of multiple cores, where photoshop does not...yet.

There are many reasons to still prefer the 8 core though...one of them is Snow Leopard on the horizon. This will make the mac pro even faster because the underling OS will have hooks to make multi threading easier, and will be better built on multi threading. So once that comes out, i'd expect the overall score of the 8 core to go up alot. I iMac will go up too, but not as much, and photoshop will likely have minimal changes.

But, if you had to buy something right now, since there are no standard 8 core configs available, available options are the 8 core for 2800 and the 4 core referb for 2000. Thats a big difference. You can wait for a standard 8 core referb to pop up, which would be 2400, but who knows how long that will take.

Hope that wasn't too much, and hope it all makes sense, but the simple answer to your real question, just get the standard config from apple and add ram from http://www.transintl.com/ and harddrives from whoever is selling 1TB for close to 100. They will be out there when you are ready to jump on it. Here is one now. Seagate Barracuda 1TB 7200.11 SATA Hard Drive $103 from Dell, no rebate.

http://www.slickdeals.net/permadeal/14725/...03-or-100-w-DPA

And installing them is really easy.