Great time now to buy a Mac Pro

[MIDI Life Crisis]

I have a word for those people. I better not use it.

Please don't. If you delete yourself this place would fall apart.

[Shooshie]

Well, they've jacked up the price to where it's probably cheaper to snatch up a newer Mac Pro. Self-defeating business plan.


Shoosh

[Gravity Jim]

With more RAM, a couple of SSDs among the internal drives, an upgraded video card I got for free, the multi-threading and CPU efficiency of Mavericks and the radically improved Kontakt and Omnisphere handling in DP8.05... My old 8-core is a beast. I can easily wait a year or two to see whether a used 12-core or a new MacPro will be the better bet.

[Dan Worley]

I'm very interested in getting an older Mac Pro at a good price. Where should one be looking for these deals? So far I've not had any luck.

Thanks.

[frankf]

Dan, I've seen in the last few days on OWC, http://www.macsales.com several 2009 Mac pros. I believe most of these are 4,1. They do not seem to have any more recent models at the moment.


Frank Ferrucci

[HCMarkus]

I'm very interested in getting an older Mac Pro at a good price. Where should one be looking for these deals? So far I've not had any luck.

Thanks.

http://www.macofalltrades.com/Refurbish ... ps-s/2.htm
2009 or later recommended.

[Dan Worley]

Dan, I've seen in the last few days on OWC, http://www.macsales.com several 2009 Mac pros. I believe most of these are 4,1. They do not seem to have any more recent models at the moment.

http://www.macofalltrades.com/Refurbish ... ps-s/2.htm
2009 or later recommended.

Very helpful, guys. I'll be keeping an eye on those two sites.

Thanks!

[twistedtom]

Mike it is easy to put a SSD in your Mac, app you need is a conversion tray, I got one for $30 and I got a Samson 500GB SSD for $335.

[KarlSutton]

For DP, which is highly multi-threaded, the Mac Pro 12-core will out-perform the iMac by a considerable margin. I would suspect the iMac's newer GPU (which, unlike the MP's, cannot be upgraded) helps the iMac when running FInal Cut.

Is this true for DP7 or DP8?

Also what GPU is available for the MacPros that would be more up to date for FCPX?

I'll be getting a 12 core Xeon 2.66 Mac5,1 but I think the GPU only has 1GB RAM?

[HCMarkus]

For DP, which is highly multi-threaded, the Mac Pro 12-core will out-perform the iMac by a considerable margin. I would suspect the iMac's newer GPU (which, unlike the MP's, cannot be upgraded) helps the iMac when running FInal Cut.

Is this true for DP7 or DP8?

Yes.

GPU:
Take a gander over at MacRumors.com on the Mac Pro forum, and BareFeats.com. Tons of info. Note that many current NVidea cards are supported natively in OS 10.8 and 10.9, except you don't get a boot screen. AMD drivers supporting the new AMD cards likely coming soon to 10.9.x.

[toodamnhip]

I think the new mac pro so revolutionary that I do not know why anyone would NOT buy it and stay stuck in the past with the current Mac Pros. I know, it’s all about ..money..money..money..

But I will say this:
One MUST realize when the is a MAJOR leap forward and recognize it as such.
The new mac Pro is not some “upgrade”, it is a new future and buying backwards at this point in time must be looked at in that light.
The 1000 you save could be a very expensive 1000 indeed. Of course, waiting for the 2nd generation of the new Mac Pro might make some sort of sense..let them iron out bugs, add the final “new” features...but buying backwards?....not for me bubba...

[Dan Worley]

I think the new mac pro so revolutionary that I do not know why anyone would NOT buy it and stay stuck in the past with the current Mac Pros. I know, it’s all about ..money..money..money..

But I will say this:
One MUST realize when the is a MAJOR leap forward and recognize it as such.
The new mac Pro is not some “upgrade”, it is a new future and buying backwards at this point in time must be looked at in that light.
The 1000 you save could be a very expensive 1000 indeed. Of course, waiting for the 2nd generation of the new Mac Pro might make some sort of sense..let them iron out bugs, add the final “new” features...but buying backwards?....not for me bubba...

Thank you, future boy.

[HCMarkus]

Point taken 2hip, but the nMP, although revolutionary (literally) in certain aspects of its design, provides only incremental performance enhancements and forces the user to either abandon PCIe or opt for expensive expansion chassis. Thunderbolt promises nothing that isn't already available via PCIe. USB3 is a $20 PCIe card add-on for current MP owners.

But, if money isn't an object "buy" all means, get yourself a nMP when they hit. Maybe some audio software will start to leverage those dual GPUs before too long. Maybe.

For those still making do with first or second gen MPs (1,1 and 2,1), you may find a move to a 4,1 or 5,1 with ample RAM and an SSD gives you shockingly upgraded performance, more than enough to keep you happy for years to come, and at a very modest price. I continue to recommend 4,1 or 5,1 for those buying used as the 4,1 can be upgraded to 5,1 with a simple EFI flash and the 5,1 is the most likely to be supported under Mac OS for a number of years. Also, memory is cheaper for the 4,1 and 5,1 than for the 3,1 MPs. You can add a new GPU (or any other PCIe expansion you desire) at anytime.

[kgdrum]

I think the new mac pro so revolutionary that I do not know why anyone would NOT buy it and stay stuck in the past with the current Mac Pros. I know, it’s all about ..money..money..money..

But I will say this:
One MUST realize when the is a MAJOR leap forward and recognize it as such.
The new mac Pro is not some “upgrade”, it is a new future and buying backwards at this point in time must be looked at in that light.
The 1000 you save could be a very expensive 1000 indeed. Of course, waiting for the 2nd generation of the new Mac Pro might make some sort of sense..let them iron out bugs, add the final “new” features...but buying backwards?....not for me bubba...

Thank you, future boy.

The problem i'd have with buying the new MacPro besides the cost and all of the associated 1st run components you'll need is it's a 1st generation product!
Who really knows what Apple will change between the 1st year release and the 2nd year update?
After seeing the limitations users had with the early of Intel MacPro re:64bit, myself I feel more comfortable getting a late version (2010-2012) and waiting until the new MacPro gets revised once or twice and the cost of the associated peripherals comes down a bit.
Typically Apple makes major revisions to 1st generation products,I don't want to be an early adopter victim,1st generation,not me.

[MIDI Life Crisis]

Hindsight is clearly 20-20. Foresight and speculation is about 80-80.