So i'm seriously contemplating on getting a mac pro

saturnin

saturnin

Well-known member
one of the new Mac Pro 2.93GHz 8-Core Intel Xeon units

as we all know macs are stupid expensive, so it hopefully be an investement for me.

My question is, how long will a mac like the one i've mentioned be relevant in the editing world? Will i be albe to get 5 years out of it? More/less?

My pc with premiere was good since 2004-2008(all i did was sd on it)


I know that by the time i get this mac pro it'll already be outdated....

thanks
 
That really depends on you. I replace my Mac Pro every 2-3 years just to stay on top of things. But I know people still cutting on G5 Macs 4 or 5 years old. You'll never buy a 'last computer'.

Noah
 
Expect up to 4-5 years before some update to the OS or the editing software will force you into buying a new setup. The only reason I changed from a 2.5GHz Dual G5 to the 3.2GHz 8Core Xeon was the end of Power PC line and the inevitable end of software for it.
 
If you can't quite fork out the money for a mac pro. ....I'd suggest getting a Imac. I couldn't afford the Mac pro so I got the Imac 24" with 2.9 Dual Core and 4 GB ram. I use the new final cut studio and I edit DVCPRO HD 1080 without any problems whatsoever. Actually I am working on an hour long project right now and have been SUPER amazed at this thing. It's so fast in Final Cut, so much so that most of the time I don't need to prerender things to watch them. And I def. don't have to full render until I'm ready to output the project. Again, its AMAZING and I highly recommend it.
 
Yeah the iMac's are a great deal- however they are very limiting in terms of expandability. If you are cool with desktop only editing it's not a big issue. But for example forget about throwing in a Kona card and getting HD-SDI output for Color...

Noah
 
What does the Kona card do? I don't use an external monitor with my imac because the HD quality screen is so big I don't really need one. I still use color fine. Is that card specifically for a monitor?
 
Well it lets you monitor HD on a broadcast monitor in REC709/YUV color and gamma space for one thing. What you see on a Mac's display is an RGB proxy preview interpretation of your footage. It's fine for editing but totally unsuitable for broadcast destined color correction. Of course everyone has their own definition of 'broadcast quality'... :violin:

-Noah
 
I've been somewhat obsessed with buying the right mac pro for a while now. From what I've read, aside from the 4 core vs 8 core debate, most things I've read suggest the 2.93 isn't worth the extra $ over the 2.66.

But, irregardless at this moment both versions are on the refurbished site which would save you around $800 or so off normal price. http://store.apple.com/ca/browse/home/specialdeals/mac/mac_pro

Also, with the talk of the imac, rumor is the new imacs may be announced on Tuesday and they may be 4 cores. So, if you aren't planning on doing heavy editing you may find them to be the perfect system.
 
Unless you're doing some serious processor intensive work, I would go with the quad-core. Any new mac will give you a good 3-4 years. It just depends on what you use it for. My 3 year old macbook pro still edits HD like a champ, I've had to make a few upgrades but it gets it done.
 
And to mix it up a bit, there is now talk about a new MacPro in Q1 of 2010 featuring six-core processors from Intel.
 
This MacPro decision should not be based on the performance it affords you, but the workflow requirements. If you need just blazing fast performance, you'll either with the Apple Scale Model keep buying x-serve rack mount computers, or with the PC model buying the fastest thing ever every 6-8 months.

MacPro's are not that upgradable. PC's are. MacPro's (unless you mess them up) are fairly stable. PC's are not.

Apple offers only Laptop and Server Intel processors, so performance calculations compared to desktop Intel Core 2's are impossible. Only slight comparisons could be made to 64-bit workstation computers from the likes of Dell and HP which cost about the same or more. Server grade Xeon machines will make so much noise you'll run. (Cheap buy noisy) - (Yes even an iMac 24" has a Laptop CPU).
 
ive been editing on my pc(premiere for a long time) i'm happy with a new pc every 3 years..thats not the problem. The issue comes where i dont get jobs because the client wants FCP, u know the whole FCP is taken seriously and Premiere isnt stigma. @ this point i cant be turning down work because i dont have FCP to thats how all this started, trust me i'd be happy doing what i'm doing in Premiere, but i just cant afford to give up work especially now.

So a new Macpro in Q1...not sure if i want to wait that long but i'll see whats up. Either way, just like any ohter tech..it will be upgraded and this and that every year so im not to worried, as long as i have a good machine that can handle what i throw @ it.
 
What I think he meant is that even though they are upgradable, there aren't that many hardware products to choose from when compared to what's available for windows based pc's.
 
I did not mean TYPES of products. I meant variety within each type. IE Not just a few graphic cards to choose from but hundreds etc...
 
just got some 'inside info'

check the spec out on this baby !!

"According to one of our sources, Apple is finalizing the future Mac Pro models. They are currently testing the last evolution of Xeon CPU, known as Gulftown, that Intel only demoed a couple of times so far," linathael reports for HardMac.

linathael reports, "This Xeon is an evolution of those already powering Mac Pro 2009 with some new features:"

• 6 cores and 12 threads for each CPU.
• 12 MB of shared cache instead of 8 MB today.
• 32-nm engraving vs. 45 nm today.
• Power consumption of future hexacore Xeon 32 nm will be slightly lower than the one of current quad core Xeon engraved at 45 nm.

"We currently do not know if all future Mac Pro models will be using this hexacore Xeon or if Apple will keep quad core XEon for the entry level model," linathael reports. "However, we know that the motherboard will be modified and especially sport a Ethernet 10 Gbits/s port, and those Mac Pro will support 8 and 16 GB RAM modules (vs. 4 GB today) to push the maximal memory that could be installed in the future Mac Pro to 128 GB."
 
DanDOF said:
Could you expand on that? I thought MacPro's were very upgradable, even compared to PC's.
Click to expand...

Compared to tweaking Gaming PC's MacPro's and their G5 Quad and Dual counterparts are not available for too much tweaking. Including replacing CPU's, GPU's (including GPU offerings/vendors) and only 4x of total of 32LANE PCIe to which only one operates at 16x LANE.

On a Core 2 DUO ASUS motherboard you can buy processors until you run out of front side bus.

I hope i've expanded enough on my statement.

Most of the shortcomings of flexibility of upgrading a MacPro is

A) Lack of OpenFirmware support for bootable boards vs. BIOS based devices.
B) Lack of Software Drivers inbuilt into OS X or provided by the makers of devices.

Yeah, swapping an HD or buying more RAM is fairly standard. Tweaking the case out, or using some weird PCIe boards is a NoGo.

Example:
Adding a 5th or a 6th internal drive would be a no-brainer in PC/Mobo land,
just buy a bigger case and a SATA PCI card, stick 2 more drives in, and off you go.

MacPro's however limit this seamingly easy function by

1. Not having enough (or any) power plugs for hard drives from the power supply. (splitters omitted as the power is on the board of the chassis)
2. Having no space to mount the HD's in the internal case
3. Having no boot-and-go support for any additional storage card you may put in.
4. Having funky layout so additional SATA cables may interfere with cooling and other, or not route correctly through the case.

But don't get me wrong, those limiting conditions are good, I'm frankly tired of tuning and tweaking - I'd rather just work on something that works
so having those limitations, allows me to spend more time working in an app and not on the hardware that runs the app.

(P.S. Apple RAID board, is the biggest .... I've ever dealt with - installed 5 of them in some systems, what a pain in the ... , including its little raid management software and battery error messages) If you're gonna get SAS RAID Card in a Mac Pro, get one shipped and be ready to loose a PCIe slot, aftermarket install is a PITA.
 
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The issue of lack of expandability hasn't been issue at all for us. I've done the PC upgrade-over time thing in my own personal system, the motive has always been for gaming. A FCS system dedicated for editing really won't run into such limitations worth pursuing.

As DJDecay stated, you realy just want a system that works for you, so you can concentrate on your work and not messing with the system & software all the time. By the time your system starts to feel "old", you'll just want to buy a whole new tower anyway, and you can slave your "old" system to some other duty, or sell it for a fairly good resale value compared to any PC system you can get.

And on the Plus side, you can run both Premiere & FCS on a Mac Pro, giving you the both worlds of what you want. ( IMO Premiere is the better editing app at this time. FCS 2009 is a let down. But there is new werd on the street that a much more revised 64bit version is heavy in development. I guess that means QT X is not as far behind as it looks in it's lackluster Snow Leopard release. )

Mac Pro's support 4 internal SATA Drives out the box. and you technically could add a 5th if you forgo the 2nd DVD/CD drive.

There are external RAID solutions you can use either FW800, or by utilizing a eSATA PCIe card. Yes it is unfortunate that Apple Doesn't support eSata, but I imagine it's related to it's lack of daisy-chain ability that FireWire has. And they are working on a new technology in an attempt to replace everything with one universal connector.... Apple can be quite picky.

but interim you do have options. The biggest "expandability" you would most likely consider is the Kona cards Noah alluded to, a newer graphics card, more RAM, and either internal or external storage solutions.
 
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