Hi Jack
I am thinking of getting the 2.66 Quad machine with 8 GB of ram. My reason is that PS works mostly with a single CPU. I am also thinking of the 2.26 8 core but there is extra money. We are currently on a Power Mac 2.3 dual 8GB ram ( April 2005 ). We have to go to a Intel machine. what are your thoughts.
Denis
Tough call. For me, the whole reason to invest in a Mac Pro is for performance with silent running. Next is as long as I'm already spending, why not future-proof, and we can assume that going forward software is going to be utilizing more available cores more efficiently. That said, the Quad 2.66 even with its memory limit (4 modules total) is going to outperform the next lower competitor in the Mac line significantly, so it definitely fills a niche. However, if you are a heavy user -- meaning you spend over 50% of your working time at your computer -- I'd consider going with the fastest configuration you can comfortably afford. In that and for me personally, I would spend for the 8 core 2.93 and eat beans for a month, though would not feel under-gunned at all with the 2.66. If money were tighter, or I spent less total time at my machine, then I would probably opt for the 8-core 2.26 over the 4-core 2.66 machine simply for the ability to add more RAM at reasonable cost. But I would certainly go for the quad 2.66 over an iMac for the added performance.
Cheers,