Which Mac Pro to get?

[midnightsun]

I have the opportunity to upgrade from my G5 Quad to a new Mac Pro. Is it worth the money to get the most powerful processor (expensive), or would I be better off getting the most modest, but modern Mac Process and then getting extra RAM and additional harddrives?

It seems like the price goes up exponentially as one moves toward the bleeding edge of Mac technology and one can only stay on the bleeding edge for 3 to 6 months at best anyway.

I remember when my G5 was king (lasted for 2 month) and then the Intel Mac Pro was released. This is not a complaint as I am glad they they keep improving.

My biggest concern is not the actual cost, it is the effort that I am going to have to go to in order to get moved over to a new machine. The effort could take up a whole weekend or more!

[lwilliam]

I have the dual 2.26Ghz quadcore and am pretty happy. 16 cores show up in PT. I think it was around $3300 base. I didn't want to spend $1400 for a small .4Ghz Ghz bump myself.

If you use a ton of VIs or modelling software like Amplitube, Guitar Rig, then the extra Ghz might be an advantage. I traded up from a dual 2.5Ghz G5 and the difference in power is huge.

[D'Animation]

processor speed is a tough one (I'd go 8core for longevity as software will eventually be able to take advantage of them all ) but if your not afraid of the guts of a computer get the ram/harddrives from elsewhere (somewhere reputable like Other World Computing) and save your money that way
D

[JFreak]

Get the cheapest one! This is a no-brainer IMO

[Eric Lambert]

Originally Posted by midnightsun

I remember when my G5 was king (lasted for 2 month) and then the Intel Mac Pro was released.!

G5s were king for a loooong time, and they're still perfectly adequate machines for ProTools. You jumped on the bandwagon late in the game if it was 2 months before the Intel release.

[midnightsun]

Originally Posted by Eric Lambert

G5s were king for a loooong time, and they're still perfectly adequate machines for ProTools. You jumped on the bandwagon late in the game if it was 2 months before the Intel release.

Ya, I moved into a DAW from RADAR II. I am actually fairly content with the G5. I am just in need of a computer (not a DAW) for which the G5 would serve well. So the new, more powerful computer may as well be for the DAW. In terms of waiting for the software to catch up with the "more powerful" computer, sometimes that never happens. I remember the G5 Quad and the hype that programs would be written to take advantage of the 4 processors. Logic Pro 7 & 8 never rose to the occasion nor did photoshop.

[Ian Palmer]

What else do you have with your G5? Mojo? Plugins? etc etc.

We tried to upgrade a G5 to Mac Pro and discovered we would need to spend a lot more than just the machine upgrading PT, OSX and our plugins. The exact same version of OSX, PT and plugins will run fine on both computers but the Mojo needed a later version of PT to work on the Intel Mac.

Make sure you find out if everything will work on your new system before splashing out otherwise you may need to fork out even more.

[youngas75]

One word of warning, check your Accel cards. If they are PCI then they won't fit into the new mac pro machines as they are PCIe. I hope I'm not stating the bleeding obvious but I have one G5 and one Mac Pro and they both needed different cards.

[midnightsun]

Originally Posted by Ian Palmer

What else do you have with your G5? Mojo? Plugins? etc etc.

We tried to upgrade a G5 to Mac Pro and discovered we would need to spend a lot more than just the machine upgrading PT, OSX and our plugins. The exact same version of OSX, PT and plugins will run fine on both computers but the Mojo needed a later version of PT to work on the Intel Mac.

Make sure you find out if everything will work on your new system before splashing out otherwise you may need to fork out even more.

All I am running is an PTHD3, PCIe cards, and D Command. I occasionally run Logic Pro

[Ian Palmer]

Aye, we're on HD2 7.3.1 with PCIe and a ProControl. As I said before it all swapped across perfectly. I installed all the software on the MacPro. Swapped the HD cards across, plugged it in and fired it up. The only problem was the Mojo.