Looking to buy a Mac Pro, advice?

I'm planning on buying a Mac Pro in the next couple of days, my first new computer in 6 years and my first ever Mac.

I'll be using it for HD video editing (Final Cut Pro), After Effects, and Pro Tools. I'd like a powerful computer that will last me quite some time, get my work done quickly and efficiently, but I want to avoid spending money on bells and whistles I won't end up needing.

Right now, I'm mostly debating between the Quad-core and 8-core, and whether or not it's worth it to shell out an extra $200 for the ATI Radeon graqhics card versus the standard NVIDIA. I'm graduating college soon, so I'd like to buy it ASAP to qualify for the student discount!

What would be my ideal machine in terms of price and performance?

Thanks so much for your responses.

interrobang said:

I'm graduating college soon, so I'd like to buy it ASAP to qualify for the student discount!

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I can't answer your question as to what would best suit your needs (I don't use any of those programs) but I can tell you from experience that the education discount is not worth much if you get it through Apple. Are you getting it through Apple or your school?

I was planning on ordering it direct from Apple. What's wrong with the education discount?

interrobang said:

I was planning on ordering it direct from Apple. What's wrong with the education discount?

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It's not that much. I can't remember what it was for me but it definitely wasn't more than $100 for my MB. The best part for ordering as a student was not the educational discount but the "free" iPod (I had to pay the taxes for which I didn't get reimbursed) I got. Now, money saved is money earned so every little bit helps. Don't let the small discount discourage you because it's still a discount.

Ah, yeah, I get what you're saying. According to the apple store, my discount is around $300. I'm planning on buying the computer anyway, so I might as well snag the discount while it's available to me.

you definitely get a lot more student saving on the mac pro. As for the graphics card, you can forget about the nvidia! It is an epic failure!!!! you will not have any luck with editing on that card at all. read some reviews about it if you want to know more. the ati card is A LOT better and it will fit your needs. 4 cores will work fine, 8 cores is nice to talk about though

If I were you, I would build a Mac Pro with everything selected as it first shows up once you start building. Choose the 4 core, and select the 2.93ghz, and keep everything else as you see it. The price should come out to $2,749.00 with student discount. I would then upgrade everything by myself because you can save a substantial amount buy buying things yourself! Good luck!

idrinorbarsaku said:

I would then upgrade everything by myself because you can save a substantial amount buy buying things yourself! Good luck!

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Agreed. Apple charges a hefty premium to do upgrades for you.

Sounds like reasonable advice. On another forum, one use was saying that the 4-core base model had poor RAM expandibility - if I wanted my computer to last for a long time (and I do) then the 8-core offers a lot more upgradability.

Any way I go, I'm planning on getting the base amount of RAM and upgrading that later.

Another thing I've been reading is that while the NVIDIA isnt all that great, the ATI isn't that much better. Many peopl eare holding out until the NVIDIA Quadro FX 4800 comes out. Any thoughts?

EDIT: The more I'm looking around, the more I'm realizing that I don't really understand how performance would be affected by having an 8-core as opposed to a Quad-core. Realistically, how and in what ways would overall performance be affected?

interrobang said:

Sounds like reasonable advice. On another forum, one use was saying that the 4-core base model had poor RAM expandibility - if I wanted my computer to last for a long time (and I do) then the 8-core offers a lot more upgradability.

Any way I go, I'm planning on getting the base amount of RAM and upgrading that later.

Another thing I've been reading is that while the NVIDIA isnt all that great, the ATI isn't that much better. Many peopl eare holding out until the NVIDIA Quadro FX 4800 comes out. Any thoughts?

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yeah, that is true about the ram, but I don't even know of a program that uses all of the 8gb of ram. Unless you have all of your programs open at the same time. I personally would go for the 8 core, but i thought you were looking for just those programs. You will probably have to get a new computer because of procesor speed problems than 8gb of ram not being enough. I visit the Cleveland Institute of Art every once n a while and all their mac pros are 4 cores, 8gb, with the previous quadra card and they are a beast of a machine!! They first got one 8 core with the quadra and 16gb of ram, but the quickly realized that they were even utilizing half of the computers potential. And that was with full rendering, editing files, and pictures that were minumum of 4gb. Then they stepped it back to the 4 core.

I do know one thing for sure though, no matter what you get, it will be a beast!

idrinorbarsaku said:

I do know one thing for sure though, no matter what you get, it will be a beast!

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Seriously! I'm using a 6 year old PC with 512MB of ram, pretty sure anything I get will blow me out of the water. I'm leaning towards the 8-core just because I want this puppy to be around for a long time and I feel that model will be the most future-proof. I'm also thinking I'll skip on the ATI - If the NVIDIA isn't working out for me, I can always upgrade later, when I have the money.

The NVIDIA card on my Mac Pro has just failed after 18 months. Avoid! And by the way, it (the NVIDIA) is absolutely terrible with After Effects. An abacus would process the information faster.

Tutor Says

Save some bucks and get a low end refurbished Nehalem Mac Pro from the Apple Store (or elsewhere) that you can upgrade at your leisure with a 3mm long neck Allen (hex) wrench, the Nehalem processor(s) of your choice (depending on whether your initial purchase was a one cpu or two cpu beast), and some Arctic Silver Compound when you have a free 30 minute period and some more cash. The Nehalem processor(s) that came with your initial purchase can be used to build another or other machine(s) or can be sold by you. All things are possible with the Nehalem Mac Pro. Dream on as I did until you get the itch. The screen shot, below, is some basic information on my 2.26 GHz 8-core after I upgraded it.

Here are the my Cinebench 10 stats (average of three highest scores) under Vista 64 Ultimate in BootCamp on my 3.2 (formerly 2.26) GHz 8-core Mac Pro:

CB 1 CPU av. = 4712.33
CB 16 (8 Physical) CPU av. = 31331
OGL Std av. = 7322.

The PowerColor AX4890 1GBD5-UH video cards (which I overclocked to 1000/1100) work great in BootCamp and OSX 10.5.7. The PowerColor AX4890 1GBD5-PPH video cards (which I overclocked to 1000/1100) work great in BootCamp, but I'm getting nothing but a black screeen in OSX 10.5.7. I'm going back to the lab on the PowerColor AX4890 1GBD5-PPH. So for the time being, I'm using two PowerColor AX4890 1GBD5-UH in my system. The opengl viewer scores for those video cards are set forth by me in the thread "Mac Pro - How many users have Ati 4890 on their MP???" ( http://www.mac-forums.com/forums/apple-desktops/155998-how-many-users-have-ati-4890-their-mp.html ).

My latest latest geekbench scores are at "Top Geekbench Results" at Home : Geekbench Result Browser . Browse all top results.

For further information, check out (1) Possibility of 3.2Ghz Nehalem Mac Pro? ( Possibility of 3.2Ghz Nehalem Mac Pro? - Mac Forums ) , (2) Ultimate Thread: 4890 in Mac Pro ( Ultimate Thread: 4890 in Mac Pro - Mac Forums ) and (3) Early 2009 MAC PRO 2.26 Octa upgrade questions ( Early 2009 MAC PRO 2.26 Octa upgrade questions. - Mac Forums ) .

^ That is one beastly machine you have.

Too bad the OCed GPUs won't work on the Mac side of things. T_T"

Tutor Says

CrimsonRequiem said:

^ That is one beastly machine you have.

Too bad the OCed GPUs won't work on the Mac side of things. T_T"

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Thanks. Sorry is I gave you the wrong impression. The opengl viewer scores for the two PowerColor AX4890 1GBD5-UH video cards that are set forth by me in the thread "Mac Pro - How many users have Ati 4890 on their MP???" ( How many users have Ati 4890 on their MP??? ) are for the two overclocked cards currently installed in my 3.2 GHz 8-core Nehalem Mac Pro and running in OSX 10.5.7, i.e., the Mac side and are available for running Motion, Final Cut Pro, etc. In fact, the opengl viewer scores are from the Mac side. Here are the Windows Vista Ultimate 64 in BootCamp opengl scores (couldn't make print screen function work):

1.1 Passed 1425
1.2 Passed 1446
1.3 Passed 1320
1.4 Passed 1090
1.5 Passed 1092
2.0 Passed 1089
2.1 Passed 192

Parameters settings: Resolution 1920 x 1200 x 32 bit, multiple cubes, 4 Multisample, 8 Anisotropy.

Tutor Says

Anandtech has published an article on Nehalem Macs and how to upgrade them: AnandTech: Upgrading and Analyzing Apple's Nehalem Mac Pro.