Is the 2008 Mac Pro fine or does the 2010 offer that much more?

[Kevin Monahan]

Have a look at his shootout: https://www.barefeats.com/macs11_01.html
It’s mostly Apple software, but you can use it to see what’s faster.

Kevin Monahan
Sr. Content and Community Lead
Adobe After Effects
Adobe Premiere Pro
Adobe Systems, Inc.
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[Vince Becquiot]

[Pat DeFilippo] “I need to replace my G5 Quad and am leaning toward an 8-core Mac Pro over the 4-core MacBook Pro. Does anyone know if there are major advantages in operating these three pieces of software with the 2010 “Westmere” Mac Pro over the 2008 “Nehelam” Mac Pro? They’re both 8-cores of 2.8ghz processors. “

If you can snag a 3.1 2008 for under $1300, that would be a good deal. Once you upgrade the RAM (to say 12GB) and the video card (CUDA preferred), you’ll still have a powerhorse. We have a 3.1 in our one of suites and it’s still going great.

[Pat DeFilippo] “s there a better and/or less expensive 8TB eSata solution than the GTech Q (it also needs to work with my 17″ MacBook Pro).”

You are really trading a lot of speed for the MBP compatibility.

When it comes to an affordable single suite RAID system, there is no contest in my mind. The Caldigit Element.

We still get an average of 320 MB/s Read/write with a nearly full array in RAID 5. It’s been very, very solid, and their support is fantastic.

It might be worth checking with them is there is a Mini sas converter out there that would work with the Macbook pro.

Just make sure you have an empty slot in the MacPro for the card.

Vince Becquiot

Kaptis Studios
San Francisco – Bay Area

[Tom Daigon]

My 3,1 functions very well with CS5 where it seems some of the newer models have more issues.

Tom Daigon
Avid DS / PrP / After Effects Editor
http://www.hdshotsandcuts.com
Mac Pro 3,1
8 core
10.6.8
Nvidia Quadro 4000
24 gigs ram
Maxx Digital / Areca 8tb. raid
Kona 3

[Jim Wiseman]

Having no major problems with a Hexacore 2010 5,1 3.33 Ghz, 24 gb RAM. GTX 285. Good price relative to the new dual quads.

Jim Wiseman
Sony PMW-EX1,Pana AJ-D810 DVCPro, DVX-100, Nikon D7000, Final Cut Studio 2 and 3, Media 100 Suite 2.1, Premiere Pro 5.0 and 5.5, AJA ioHD, AJA Kona LHi, Avid MC, Hexacore MacPro 3.33 Ghz 24Gb RAM 120GB SSD, Macbook Pro 17″ 2011 2.2 Ghz Quadcore i7 8Gb SSD, G5 Quadcore PCIe

[Alex Udell]

The following is based on discussions I’ve followed here on the Cow.

If you are looking for a combination of I/O and monitoring….

might I suggest the following….

AJA’S Kipro or KiPro Mini – this gives you the flexibility of direct to ProRes Capture. And according to threads an optional workflow that might be a faster way to handle creating Prores Masters… (TOM????)

for client monitoring, why not get the Qualified Nvidia dual head display card and set up one big monitor as your display and dedicate the second, optionally as necessary, as a client monitor? This would give you both Mercury Hardware Acceleration for better real time editorial and the benefit of a pretty nice client monitoring experience when you need it

Again…..if you read through the threads here….you will see people have raised concerns in:
dealing with client monitoring
dealing with Prores ingest
dealing with faster mastering options

So that’s where my suggestions come from….

I welcome feedback on this thread to see what the other gurus think 🙂

Alex

[Tom Daigon]

Hi Alex. Yes, mastering to Ki Pro Mini seems viable. AJA ended up doing the tests in lieu of sending me a demo unit.The only limitation is related to Premieres seeming inability to output time code on the SDI signal from the Kona 3. TC could trigger the Ki Pro Mini, but you can manually start it as well.Luckily the KPM generates its own time code when creating the Prores (oreventual DNxHD) master for you And if matching TC on the master is important, someone told me of a utility that allows you to change the TC to suite you needs.

Tom Daigon
Avid DS / PrP / After Effects Editor
http://www.hdshotsandcuts.com
Mac Pro 3,1
8 core
10.6.8
Nvidia Quadro 4000
24 gigs ram
Maxx Digital / Areca 8tb. raid
Kona 3

[Tim Kolb]

For any system that isn’t the latest and greatest, more RAM can compensate for less spec in other areas. I’d typically recommend 24 GB of RAM in a dual-quad core Mac…

I have 16 GB in my Windows laptop.

More RAM is better with Adobe products…pretty much across the board.

TimK,
Director, Consultant
Kolb Productions,

Adobe Certified Instructor

[Pat Defilippo]

Wow – thank you all for your great input!

I’ve spent time more off than on over the last few weeks gathering specs and prices. Since this is coming out of my own pocket, the $7000 (without monitors yet) that I’m adding up to right now is about as much performance-wise as I can get!

Regarding the Mac Pro, I’ve done a lot of looking around and am arriving at a refurbished 8-core “Westmere” (the latest) for $3200 delivered. I’d need to add RAM as it comes with 6-1gbs, but have found 8-4gb cards (32gb total) from OWC for $274.

One of the points Vince brought up was trading performance for MBP compatibility. So, I looked at a lot of options and have found a best-price Mini SAS solution with the G-Tech ES Pro 8TB ($1547) plus the ATTO R680 card ($683) for 400 MB/s transfer rates. I haven’t found any lower price situation for that speed after looking at Drobo (which uses the ethernet port) and Caldigit. I haven’t found an Mini SAS Express34 card for connectivity to my 17″ MBP, but I do have an older 1TB two-drive eSata solution with an eSata Express34 card that I can use on-site when the rare situation occurs.

For connectivity to my older, seldom used UVW1800 Beta-SP deck, I talked with the folks at AJA who said the best bet is their LHi card ($1324). It upconverts & downconverts from/to everything and has HDMI for whatever monitor I go with. AJA said the best extra about that card is that it plays nicely with FCP natively, but also Premier AND Avid with driver downloads.

I see that Tom has the NVidia Quadro 4000, which is a card that I would add at some point in the future once I get deeper into the switch to Premier from FCP.

So, thanks to all of you for your input and guidance! If you know of any of these components that I can get at a lower price, please let me know as I’ll be wearing out my personal credit card by the end of this month!

Also, if you have any suggestions for a good, low cost LCD production monitor, please let me know. I’m looking at an entry-level Sony LMD-2110 for $900 – 21″ 16×9 with 1920×1080. It has HDMI, but I can also input a few other sources like component (from my DA from Beta-SP), S-Video (directly from my Sony DSR-40 DVCam deck, which I hope to be able to get a FW800 cable for to go straight in to the Mac Pro) and composite.

Thanks again,
-Pat

G5 Quad Desktop with 4GB Ram, 750GB HD & eSata ~ 30″ Cinema Display & 17″ Sony SVGA
~ Swift Data 200 Internal 1.6TB SATA II RAID 0 ~
2.33gz Intel MacBook Pro with 3GB Ram, 500GB HD
AJA Io LA
Final Cut Studio 2 on G5 & 3 on MBP
Sony UVW-1800 Beta-SP
Sony DSR-40 DVCam

P D Post Productions, Inc.
TV~DVD~WEB-Device
for Corporate Communications, Commercials, Infomercials, Television Programs and Family Occasions since 1983
E-mail PD@PDPost.com
Website http://www.PDPost.com
Business/Cell Phone (847) 275-5671

[Tom Daigon]

Pat, be forewarned that some folks with the latest Mac Pro are reporting some concerning issues running Premiere Pro. If you are planning to use that NLE you might want to research this before it impacts you after making such a major investment. Personally, at this juncture I think buying a Mac is a mistake, but that really is a reflection of my desire to buy a PC and have better performance than Macs seem to offer. Best of luck in your endeavors!

Tom Daigon
Avid DS / PrP / After Effects Editor
http://www.hdshotsandcuts.com
Mac Pro 3,1
8 core
10.6.8
Nvidia Quadro 4000
24 gigs ram
Maxx Digital / Areca 8tb. raid
Kona 3

[Pat Defilippo]

Thanks, Tom, but there are a few things I’m banking on:

1) At this point, I mostly edit with Final Cut Studio 3 – so, the latest Mac Pro should shake hands pretty well with that Apple-only software.

2) By the time I get up to speed with Production Premium CS5.5 (which the upgrade from CS4 is “in the mail”) will be in a few months, at which time I would think that Adobe would have fixed more bugs to get it to shake hands with the latest Mac Pro.

3) I’m primarily a Mac guy, starting non-linearly with Avid and the ImMix VideoCube in 1994. For as possibly better as a Windows system might be, I don’t have any desire editing on it given my experience with several of their OS’s since Windows 3.0. Just the thought of a virus taking down my entire system in the middle of an edit or on-site is enough in-and-of-itself to keep me on a Mac.

I see that you have the NVidia Quadro 4000, which looks like something I might look into in the first or second quarter of 2012 (depending on how quickly I make the transition). I read the info about that.

I’m needing to re-learn Avid (and I’ll be upgrading to 6.0 by 12/31) first, though, in order to edit in-house with it at a couple of corporate facilities, so I’m a little ways off before I get around to getting up to speed with CS5.5. I should be completely off of Final Cut Studio by the end of 2012, yet still have all three software titles on my system for versatility.

Thanks again everyone,
-Pat

G5 Quad Desktop with 4GB Ram, 750GB HD & eSata ~ 30″ Cinema Display & 17″ Sony SVGA
~ Swift Data 200 Internal 1.6TB SATA II RAID 0 ~
2.33gz Intel MacBook Pro with 3GB Ram, 500GB HD
AJA Io LA
Final Cut Studio 2 on G5 & 3 on MBP
Sony UVW-1800 Beta-SP
Sony DSR-40 DVCam

P D Post Productions, Inc.
TV~DVD~WEB-Device
for Corporate Communications, Commercials, Infomercials, Television Programs and Family Occasions since 1983
E-mail PD@PDPost.com
Website http://www.PDPost.com
Business/Cell Phone (847) 275-5671