Some Questions About Mac Pro Specs

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heraclitus

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Hello everyone. I was wondering if some of you would be kind enough to give me some advice on the specifications I should choose when I buy my Mac Pro, which will be within the next 2-4 weeks. I'm on a budget, like everyone else, and was wondering what was most important for editing using Final Cut Studio. I will be editing with DV and later HD footage from a Panasonic HVX-200, so there should be alot of data I suppose. I also want to be versatile: the hope being in a year or so I couold edit other people's work as well. So any Hd footage etc.

I'm opting to get the extra processing power at the 3 Ghz, but was wondering how much memory you would all recommend? I could definitely swing the upgrade to 2 GB, but the 4GB upgrade is an extra 700 some $. Is it necessary? Any other specs you recomend? And what about a monitor? I was looking at a Viewsonic 22" VX2235, 720p for about $400. Would that be good?

Any of your help would be greatly appreciated
 
Don't buy the extra hard drives or RAM from Apple...they inflate the price way too much.

You can find RAM online for your computer at crucial.com, datamem.com, or macsales.com

Pick up hard drives from places like newegg.com and zipzoomfly.com
 
That's good to know. Thanks! But, the processor should be through them right? I think I've heard they are difficult to upgrade yourself. And the RAM is that easy to install personally?
 
I'm trying to make sense of building a Power Mac too and I just got back from the Apple store. [if you love Apple and don't want to read my venting skip to the end...]

They made me talk to the "Genius" (seriously that's what they call themselves?) who told me that you have to purchase the RAM and internal SATA drives from Apple or it voids the warranty. This is why I hate Apple. $400 for the identical SATA drive that I can purchase for $179 -- give me a break.

They had a Mac Pro with FCP on a 30" monitor, man that was as close to an orgasm as you can have with a computer. I could really get used to that! Of coarse Dell is having a sale on the 30" for about $1200 but I'm if I had asked the "Genius" would say that it won't work or void the Apple warranty........Aarrg

As for the monitor, you can purchase a refurbished Dell 24" for $599 [that monitor rocks or a refurbished 30" for around $1050, both have full factory warranty.

I'm opting to go the other way, get the 2.66GHz proc and put that additional money towards RAM. Motion is a memory pig and 4GB is as low as I'd go. Also I'd suggest going with the Radeon XT1900 with a 256MB cache.

I have "played" with both the 2.66 and the 3.0 Mac Pro's and there wasn't much of a difference in interface speed, [although I guess where you might see a difference is in rendering] both were very smooth and responsive.

Apple sells the 500GB SATA drives for $399, I've seen the identical drives for around $179 and for 4GB of RAM Apple wants an additional $1099, I've seen 4GB "Apple approved" [whatever that means] with heat sync for $756 but that would give you a total of 5GB. Although I don't know how many slots the Mac Pro has and you have to add double buffered RAM in pairs so you might have to remove the 2x512 sticks.
 
heraclitus said:
Hello everyone. I was wondering if some of you would be kind enough to give me some advice on the specifications I should choose when I buy my Mac Pro, which will be within the next 2-4 weeks.
Click to expand...

If you can wait a bit longer, the Leopard OS upgrade should be out early sometime next year, probably by the end of February.
 
As much as I love Apple, I hate the people they employe in their stores. Third party RAM will not void your warranty, and is very easy to install. External secondary drive has nothing to do with warranty. You need one for editing anyway, so don't bother upgrading the internal drive. Get your RAM from Crucial or Other World Computing. Get your external drive from Other World Computing. Go with whatever external monitor you want that has a DVI connector. Although Apple's Cinema HD Displays are about the best quality around, you pay for it. Many folks are very happy with other brands.

As for Leopard coming out, well, that has no bearing on your hardware. All the Intel Macs will run it. So there's no real need to wait for Leopard before buying a Mac.
 
3rd party RAM and hard drives will not void your warranty...

I would suggest getting the 2.66 with the ATi 1900 video card. Throw in a few SATA drives and RAM and you'll have one hell of a machine.

As much as I love Apple and their products, they tend to employ people that have no idea what they are talking about. I went in one time and asked for an AC power cord for a 12" powerbook and the guy handed me a battery for a macbook pro...
 
bigbossbmb said:
As much as I love Apple and their products, they tend to employ people that have no idea what they are talking about
Click to expand...

Ditto that. I love the Mac products, but walking into an Apple store is like walking into a GAP, and the employees would be just as at home (and perhaps happier) there.

By the same token, The Mac Store (mostly on the West coast in Seattle, Portland and San Francisco, and some other places) also employs clueless "dudes" (at least at the front counter, the tech guys seem okay).

The problem lies with Apple serving two different markets, and the ipod market is the one that brings the most people into the store. Also, retail doesn't pay squat, so the only people willing and able to work in an Apple store are college students, for the most part.


And yet I never can say goodbye...
 
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