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Mac Pro Purchase
I am planning on buying a new Mac Pro in the next two weeks. My original plan was to buy a new 8 core but there are a lot of used ones that are significantly cheaper. I produce a show that airs on cable and we shoot 1080i 24p on Panasonic HDX900 and Panasonic HPX 500. We also do marketing and corporate work. We don’t do a lot of elaborate graphics, but the usual motion graphics for a TV show or low to mid budget corporate video. If I were to consider a used 8 Core, is there one you would recommend? There are some that are 2.26ghz, 2.66ghz, 2.8ghz and 3.0ghz. I assume these numbers correspond to the year it came out? What is the difference between a Nehalem Xeon, Xeon “Harpertown” or Westmere? Are all of these Graphics cards fine what what I do? ATI Radeon 2600, NVIDIA GEFORCE GT 120, ATI Raedon X1900 XT 512MB and NVIDIA GeForce 7300 GT 256MB.
I realize the best answer is always to buy new, and that more than likely is what I will do, but we may need to buy two, and cash flow is an issue right now so any help with what used to buy would be extremely appreciated.
Thanks!!
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2 Replies
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You can look up they year and specs of any Mac here: https://www.everymac.com/ultimate-mac-lookup/
Arnie
Post production is not an afterthought!
https://www.arniepix.com/ -
-“There are some that are 2.26ghz, 2.66ghz, 2.8ghz and 3.0ghz. I assume these numbers correspond to the year it came out?”-
No, those are processor speeds.
-“What is the difference between a Nehalem Xeon, Xeon “Harpertown” or Westmere?”- Check:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xeon
I have been informed they are processor types with differing chipsets. I don’t believe there are software makers optimizing for each, or for just one. Contact your software companies and see what they say.
If you can get 2 dual quads you should be good for a year, then think about trading them in for 12 cores running Lion. (24!)
Used are fine if you can get a warranty or apple care for them and it might be cheaper to purchase ram for an older machine. I was running a dual 2.3 until last week (early 2006 model) and it served me fine until Intel-only software. And my ram was considerably cheaper. If you can maximize the processing power and keep the system running clean, there should be no problem purchasing and older (year or so) 8 core intel machine.
-“Are all of these Graphics cards fine what what I do? ATI Radeon 2600, NVIDIA GEFORCE GT 120, ATI Raedon X1900 XT 512MB and NVIDIA GeForce 7300 GT 256MB.”- What do you do? Just for your monitor? I have used the stock video card with no problems and I use Maya and After Effects. You might want one with more that 512 mb though as more and more apps are using the gpu these days. Just find the requirements for your software, and that it’s mac compliant and fits into your pc slot. What mac are you currently running? (processor speed, memory, graphics card and year of old model) Hope this helps!
-BeefReality? What did you make it?
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