Getting a Mac Pro: Might use Avid in the future

Hello everyone,

I'll be purchasing a Mac Pro in January and I'm in a bind in terms of how to configure the set up. For background I'm in video editing and currently use a Macbook Pro that has a 256MB ATI video card in it and it works great.

So looking to build this new computer I was content with the Mac Pro having:
3.00 GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon
4GB 667 DDR2 FB DMM ECC-2×512
ATI Radeon X1900 XT 512MB
3 500GB Serial ATA 3Gb/s drive
16x SuperDrive DL
and
Airport Extreme & BT 2.0+EDR

but am thinking about the future in which I might have to purchase a copy of Avid. I have read the horror stories of people trying to run Avid with an ATI graphics card in which Avid support simply says "Try a Nvidia."

The thing is, I know I want a 512 MB video card and the Nvidia is over $1000 more taked on to the price than the ATI. At this point the Mac Pro becomes too expensive so I'm deciding if I should get a more core version of the Mac pro which would have:

3.00 GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon
1GB 667 DDR2 FB DMM ECC-2×512
250GB Serial ATA 3Gb/s drive
16x SuperDrive DL
Airport Extreme & BT 2.0+EDR

and buy some cheaper memory and hard drives so I could get the more expensive Nvidia graphics card. Does FCP run as good on Nvidia cards? If so shouldnt I just get an Nvidia card so I can run both editing systems? My only concern is buying the memory and HDDs and not having them run as efficient as the stuff pre-loaded by Apple.

Heres a link to an upgrade this guy did in which I would get the same HDDs and memory, just not as much to cut down on price so I can get the Nvidia.

Link: http://macsaregreat.com/?p=54

Memory
Hard drives

I would like some advice on my situation ;D

Thanks in advance.

I would go with the upgrade it yourself idea. Not sure about Mac Pro's but I saved a TON of money getting RAM from NewEgg instead of Apple for my iMac and my father-in-laws Macbook Pro. If it does not void the warrany, upgrade the hard drives and RAM yourself and get the better card. Or upgrade all of it yourself looking elsewhere for the card as well. I have seen these cards for the same price as Apple charges for the upgrade. This would let you sell the card it comes with to make some money back. Just a thought.

Two things.

Typically you can save money by buying third party memory and drives. You can find recommendations for memory and I'm sure drives too. Buy name brand quality memory. Regardless of your card decision, this is a positive thing for your pocket book.

Second, buying an expensive card now for something you 'might' buy in the future doesn't make sense to me unless you are going to utilize the card now. You could always buy the card later when or if you need it.

The NVidia cards are mentioned in the recommended section of FCP Suite, so I would expect it to perform well. I'm not involved enough to know weather one brand is better than the other.

Thanks for the replies

In the past ATI cards were preferred for FCP and Nvidia for Avid but as time went on it looks as if Apple has done some things to make Nvidia cards run good with FCP.

I know in the future I will use Avid on my computer, and I'm currently using FCP a lot. So I guess the question is to buy the ATI now and sell later when I need to use Avid (maybe in a year or so.. maybe less) or bite the bullet and get the Nvidia now.

The only concern I had with buying memory from Newegg and installing it myself was something I read while configuring my Mac Pro. It had to do 3rd party memory running hotter than the memory they would put in, thus you wouldn't get the full memory load from the memory you installed yourself. There's something nice about just buying everything installed from Apple and not having to worry about anything.

I guess what I'm going to do is buy the memory and HDDs from Newegg and get the Nvidia card. Still not too sure and have a whole month to figure it out. I've just been very pleased with my MacBook Pro (w ATI graphics) and how it handles FCP.

Ghouldrool said:

The only concern I had with buying memory from Newegg and installing it myself was something I read while configuring my Mac Pro. It had to do 3rd party memory running hotter than the memory they would put in, thus you wouldn't get the full memory load from the memory you installed yourself.

Click to expand...

I've never heard of such a thing. Can you elaborate further.

Just make sure you get properly spec'd memory. One thing you might want to do is buy from an dealer who concentrates on Macs. Newegg is a general retailer as opposed to say OtherWorldComputing.com who has a neat navigation system to zero in on the purchase you are interested in. If nothing else, that can help you find the right purchase that you might actually buy cheaper somewhere else.

xstep said:

I've never heard of such a thing. Can you elaborate further.

Click to expand...

Sure. Its on the Apple website when you build a MacPro. Heres a pic



link

So, buy ram with great heat sinks, that fit.