Mac Pro desktop, Upgrades that have been worth it for photo work?

[Lust4Life]

Hi Folks,
Going to part with my trusty Early 2008 Mac Pro.

I've just purchased the Mac Pro desktop used.  Still has Apple Service remaining on it until Feb. 20, 2018, and I paid substantially less than a new one with only 1 year warranty!  Big Smile!

So, here is the given:
Proc's are 3.7 Quad.

Base configuration with 12 GB RAM and the 256GB SSD.


Now, I do a lot of panos - typical file in PS CS6 is 1.352GB each.


I am seeking input from those that got to the Mac Desktop before me on configuration ideas.
What I'm thinking:
Pull the default 3 x 4GB RAM chips and replace with 2 x 16GB chips.
     Kicks me to 32GB RAM and I still have two slots open that I can add two more 16GB chips IF I find 32 is not enough.
          Make Sense?   IF so, suggestions on best RAM manufacturer?  IF NOT, what?  Go straight to 64GB?

Put a Thunderbolt Two 4TB External drive on.
     STRICTLY use the SSD for Apps; PS CS6, LR CS6, PT Gui; Photomatrix Pro; X-Rite iProfiler, etc.
     
Pull ALL docs and image files on the external Thunderbolt 2 drive.
          Looks like LaCie has one of the few Thunderbolt 2 drives available in 4TB - Suggestions?

Now, Improvements on the above sought from all that actually OWM a Mac Pro desktop.
Last, how to back up all of this, or what ever configuration I end up with.

Jack

[jerryrock]

I bought 64 gigs (4x16) of RAM FROM OWC Computing who inturn bought back the 16 gigs (4x4) installed RAM from Apple on my 3.5 GHz 6 core Mac Pro 6,1.

I also bought the Promise Pegasus R4 Thunderbolt 2 RAID device with four 2TB hard drives setup in RAID 5 for a total of 4TB with one redundant drive (in case of drive failure you won't lose your data).

I use a second Thunderbolt device (Seagate) for Time Machine backup.

This configuration has worked flawlessly for me since 2013.

[Lust4Life]

Thanks for your comments Gerald.

So far, I have upgraded the RAM to 32GB and added two Lacie Thunderbolt 2 external drives of 4TB each.
One I expect in the near future I will add the Lacie SSD internal drive to the primary drive for extremely fast saves of large image files.

I am keeping only Application files on the Mac Pro internal SSD 250MB drive.
All docs and image files will be on the external Thunderbolt 2 4TB drive with the Lacie SSD installed in it.

I will use the 2nd Lacie Thunderbolt drive for Time Machine backups of the Mac SSD drive AND the primary Lacie external drive.

Now, in my work so far I am not finding a need to go to 64GB of RAM, but I'm just getting started so next week when I have time to really work on some of my large files I'll have a better idea if I need to make that upgrade. 

Have you found going to 64GB of RAM to provided a noticeable improvement in your work?

Right now, I seem to be extremely pleased with the new machine and the above setup.

Jack

[Joe Towner]

32gb should be fine, even for stitching.

As for the 256b drive, the price point to upgrade that is way too high - https://eshop.macsales.com/shop/ssd/owc/mac-pro/2013

Due to the price point, I recommend getting an OWC Thunderbay diskless enclosure and putting in a SSD or two and a few platter drives.  This gives you the speed of SSDs for your initial work and any swap, plus large capacity hard drives all in one enclosure with 1 power cord.  Do a pair of 512gb SSDs and a pair of 5tb drives (mirrored)

https://eshop.macsales.com/item/OWC/TB2IVKIT0GB/

[Lust4Life]

Appreciate the comments. 

I will receive my 2nd 32GB of RAM sticks tomorrow and pop them in to take me to 64GB.  Was inexpensive, $185 and will be interesting to see what I gain from it.  Bear in mind many of my images are 1.35 GB in file size.

Will stick with my current external drive configuration as they seem to be doing the job described above in my earlier post.  Might pick up the 128GB SSD insert for the working Lacie 4TB drive, but I feel it is way over priced.  However, it might speed up the workflow.

Need more time with my new Mistress (the Mac Pro Desktop) before I can define that expense being justified.

Jack

[alatreille]

Hey Jack,

I'd be very interested to hear if the move from 32 to 64 improves performance on stitched images.

Please keep us posted.

Cheers

Andrew

[michaelbiondo]

I would also be interested to hear how it went!
Thanks,
Michael