3.2 Quad vs 2.4 Octo Mac Pro

morrisart

Hi, I'm new and can't find this info in a search, so here goes. I'm taking a full time position as an editor for a Wedding Photography company, and they are going to be buying a MacPro Computer for me to use at home. My budget was set @$3,000. I have been looking but I do not what to purchase between the two I have narrowed it down from. I have been told by the apple sales rep that an Oct-core is what I need, but another at the same store has said that a quad is perfectly suited, and that if I use the money I save in order to invest in more ram, a SSD, and a secondary video, it will actually outperform it's higher priced alternative. I am not an technical expert, but I have used macs quite a bit, So I know the software. I have literally no experience with SSD's though. My bottom line question, Is it worth the extra 1200 to get the 8 core, or would I be better off investing what would seemingly be half of that in a SSD, More Ram, and second video card? The biggest reason that cost is an issue is because after 3000, which the rest is out of my pocket. Thanks for your time everyone!

BradfordBenn

Welcome to the fun. A couple of key questions, what software are you going to be using? What is your current workflow so that we aren't finding a solution that doesn't work with your style. For instance I love having two monitors and that productivity is worth the tradeoff to processor speed as I spend lots of time culling and little time touching up. However if your work flow is editing video and touching up shots that could be a different answer.

pathfinder

Welcome to dgrin, morrisart!

The following is soley my opinion, based on using LR and PS on Macs for the last decade.

Quad core will be fine, mine is 5 years old and runs Lightroom and PS just fine. Newer machines should be lots faster than mine, as mine still has the slower 800 Mhz RAM, and the latest versions are at least 25-50 % or more faster.

Get the extra RAM and the SSD, they will make a noticeable improvement for you. You can get your RAM from Crucial.com or macsales.com and save a bundle over Apple's price for installed RAM.

If you absolutely have to have the Octo core, still get the SSD. They are that good! I have replaced all my spinning boot drives in my tower, and three laptops with SSDs, and would not go back.

There is a hybrid drive, called Fusion drive, that is a combination of a smaller SSD and a larger spinning drive, and will might work well also. Use other spinning hard drives solely for data storage these days, not OS or applications.

morrisart

Thank you! I primarily work in Lightroom and Photo Mechanic. I'll also be using Photoshop, but sparingly. I will be expected to sift through around 6000 images per week, but those all won't be edited. I delete down in Photomechanic, and then Color Correct/touch up in Light Room. I use Photoshop for Portraits that need smoothing etc (can anyone recommend a skin smooting plugin for Lightroom?) I will be working on a 27" Cinema Display, and I'd like to get two 18.4" dell's and rotate them vertically for various other things I run in the background so i can dedicate the main monitor without needing to move the central application.

Qarik

do you have to get laptop? Since you are hooking up to monitors you can get much more bang for the buck getting a mac pro or even imac?

morrisart

I already have a Macbook Pro and an iMac, I'm going to a Mac Pro.

andiamo

Performance improvement based on the number of processors is dependent on the software you are using. Multiple processors provide improvement when many simultaneous tasks are performed and each processor is assigned a task. It would be a rare event when more than 4 processors are required. Most tasks result in a disk access, so a SSD will have more impact on speed than 8 processors over 4 in most applications. Some video cards are capable of processing a separate task and the latest version of Photoshop uses that when it can. Multiple processors have their own set of problems: They compete for disk access and memory, so they may be forced into a wait state and that decreases the benefit of multi tasking.

Qarik

morrisart wrote: »

I already have a Macbook Pro and an iMac, I'm going to a Mac Pro.

ooops I read that wrong.:ivar

Seamus

The apple refurb store has some great deals, the 2.4 octo is available at a discount of $850:

http://store.apple.com/us/browse/home/specialdeals/mac/mac_pro