Mac Pro CPU Upgrade

[Mark Petereit]

What are you trying to do that your current Mac is just too slow for?

How much RAM do you have?

How big are your hard drives? How many? What configuration (i.e. single internal drives, internal RAID configuration, external drives, etc.)

What video board(s)?

[David Webber]

Hi Mark thanks for the post

I am a FCP and Motion user. Normally in FCP I do heavy compositing with tons of layers with blending modes and fx.

I am now getting into HD using a DSLR T2i. My footage is giving my computer a heart attack. I transcode in Compressor to Pro rez 422 before I import in FCP. I would hate to work off line.

The machine is a 2x dual core 2.0 ghz, 8 gigs of ram, 2x GeForce 7300 GT and I have three internal media hard drives (2 Tera @ 7200 RPM) I also have a slew of external Lacie raid drives via Fire wire 800.

Everyone says i can pop out the CPU and make it 8 core but I cant seem to find the exact parts that is mentioned on these websites. Ideally it would go from being a quad 2.0ghz to a 8 core 2.4ghz.

I could put my money into a SSD internal, more RAM and eSATA RAID which would help a lot but it seems like increasing CPU would be the first step.

Any thoughts or comments would be great. Thank You.

David

[Zane Barker]

You cannot upgrade the processor. You can only upgrade ram, hard drive and video card.

**Hindsight is always 1080p**

[David Webber]

Well I have found two decent posts on how to upgrade the CPU.

https://www.o0o.it/pro/
https://www.codepirate.org/codepirate/macpro.html

Ideally i would use E5320 2.4 but I cant seem to find any for sale.

[Mark Petereit]

Increasing the number of cores isn’t going to make what you’re doing any faster. You’re only using 1 core, with 3 mostly idle. If you upgrade, you’ll be using 1 core with 7 mostly idle. Kind of like saying if I had two cars I could drive to work twice as fast. The only exception to this is if you have your multiple cores configured in a QCluster and are an extremely heavy user of Compressor. Compressor is the only application in the Final Cut suite capable of utilizing more than 1 processor at a time.

Being a heavy Motion user, you might benefit from upgrading your graphics card. And if you’re thrashing your drives you might benefit from combining your internal drives into a RAID configuration to double or triple your effective drive speed.

But the bottom line is, for the current version of Final Cut Pro and Motion, adding cores isn’t going give you ANY speed boost.

Here’s hoping that Steve Jobs’ announcement on the 20th changes that.

[Jason Jenkins]

[David Webber] “I have a Mac Pro 1,1 2x 2 Ghz Dual Core intel Xeon
This mac is just too slow for the work I am doing and I can’t afford a new rig.”

Hi David,

I was basically in the same position with a Mac Pro 1,1 and not quite ready to go all out for a new one. Finding appropriate processors to upgrade to is going to be tough, considering the Mac Pro 1,1’s are four years old now. Also, as mentioned, Final Cut Pro is not going to benefit from more cores, but would benefit from a faster clock speed. I think you are on the right track with an SSD, eSATA raid and more RAM. I ended up upgrading my system drive to an SSD and upgraded from Tiger to Snow Leopard, as well as upgrading to Final Cut Studio 3. I’m editing in DVCProHD, so I haven’t felt the need to do a RAID, but if it would speed up renders significantly, I would consider it. So, while my renders aren’t noticeably faster, everything feels fresh and snappy, so I’m happy for now.

Jason Jenkins
Flowmotion Media
Video production… with style!

[David Webber]

Ok this is great information. Thanks to you all!
I am definitely going with the SSD HD, more RAM and then improved graphics card for Motion.

Will upgrading to Snow Leopard and Final Cut Studio 3 improve performance?
I am running 10.5.8 and FCP Studio 2.

D

[Jason Jenkins]

[David Webber] “Ok this is great information. Thanks to you all!
I am definitely going with the SSD HD, more RAM and then improved graphics card for Motion.

Will upgrading to Snow Leopard and Final Cut Studio 3 improve performance?
I am running 10.5.8 and FCP Studio 2.”

FYI, Other World Computing has great (fast) SSD’s, and you can get your RAM upgrade there as well. Regarding the software upgrade, I can’t give you a definitive answer, but it can’t hurt. It’s only $300 for the Studio upgrade.

Jason Jenkins
Flowmotion Media
Video production… with style!

[Dave Jenkins]

When is the last time you wiped your system hard drive and installed from scratch?
This can make a big difference. If you’re planning on going to FCS 3 now would be the time.

Dajen Productions, Santa Barbara, CA
MacPro Two 2.8GHz Quad Core – AJA Kona LHe
FCS 3 OS X 10.6 QT 10