So i'm seriously contemplating on getting a mac pro

i'm not much worried about the expandability as it will only be a eDIT machine, for gaming i have my pc that i can expand and play around with.

i guess my only concern is, do i get one now or do i wait till the new annoucement of the 6core systems.. i know that i can be waiting till the cows come home to get a good system, and i know the minute i buy it is already outdated, thats not my issue. I just need to be able to edit HD smoothly, so i'm trying to get the best machine i can so it'll last for years as i wont be upgrading for a while on the initial investement.

if the new mac pro's with the nahalen chip have no problem editing full HD, i might just go for one of those...@ this point the HD cameras are pretty much @ a peak so to speak.... there is no new format coming out so its safe to say that they'll stick around for the next few years, kinda like SD did back in the day. So as long as the new macpro can handle the current state of HD footage its all goode
 
Answer it this way. If your loosing jobs & money NOW because you don't have one... then now is the time to get one.

Right now the best deal is with the 2.66 8 Core. The difference in performance under the 2.93 is minimal, unless your budget is not hindered at all. Or perhaps if you expect to edit a lot of RED footage ?? ( I've not done any but I'm under the impression that it's hardware demanding. ) The money saved on the extra few megahertz will go nicely towards some additional RAM or HD space which will likely make more of a difference. Oh and let's not forget you will need to buy FCS 2009 and maybe even Mac CS4 premiere & photoshop???
 
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I'm working on a 8 Core 2.26 Nehalem right now. It's about the same speed as our first gen 3.0GHZ Clovertown ( 2007 ) towers. It is certainly nothing to complain about considering the cost is less then the Clovertowns were at their release. But it was a bit disappointing to me to see that they weren't faster considering they are much newer. I would have loved to have us gotten the 2.66 versions. But the budget didn't allow for it this time.

On the plus side, we did add two towers to our overall render farm! :~)

I say buy as fast as you can afford. But the 2.66 seems to me the best compromise between speed & price point.
 
I just bought the 2.26 8-core and am impressed on what it can do with all the programs I ran so far. I'm receiving Final Cut Studio this week and have A TON of HD footage collecting this as this brand new studio of mine has been forming shape. I'll give it some tests and let you know how it performs. My guess is that it'll do everything I want it to do.
 
Imac for sure. The mac pros are just so expensive.. and by the time you want to go for an upgrade in your stuff.. just buy a whole new imac and it would still be cheaper

:bath:
 
I would highly recommend a Mac Pro for editing. I used to do all my editing on Windows XP with Adobe (Premiere, AE, etc) which I though was 'okay' until it started crashing a lot as I did more and more intensive work and finally it stopped working - turns out it was only the power supply but decided it was as good a time as any to upgrade and WOW!

The Mac Pro is unbelievably fast in comparison and for finding video files using search I can locate a file in seconds that I haven't touched for months and can't be bothered looking for. After a couple of issues early on it has been rock solid and for rendering is brilliant. What would take me 50 minutes on my windows machine with only the one program open and often crash it takes about 8 minutes on my mac while I'm working at the same time on Graphics, have itunes playing, and photoshop, illustrator, aftereffects and so forth are open in the background.

If you are worried about the money I'd say that it will save you money. If you can do a job in, let's say 70% of the time it would take you on the old system and times that out across an entire year...

Also having the ability to add decklink cards and so forth means that you can start off simple then build your edit suite as you go spending a few grand each year as your needs grow. Also being able to run Final Cut, Avid, Premiere and so forth means if it's make or break for a big job whether you have 'that' piece of software you can get it.

A year and a half ago when I started my business everything was windows based, (edit suite, laptop, desktops computers) a couple of months later the edit suite received the mac pro treatment and in under 3 weeks from today EVERYTHING at Shon Productions will be mac based, going to be a few weeks of hell getting all the files over but am so impressed since getting the Mac Pro it will definitely be worth it.

Good Luck,

-Shon
 
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