Help with New MacPro choices

[louoates]

I've been planning to upgrade next month to the latest MacPro but find the options bewildering. My main goal is speeding up my CS5 Photoshop handling of large photo files, often 2 GB+. I will be working on some 3+ GB files soon. Price is no object but I'd hate to spend on specs that won't significantly improve performance from my current MacPro. I could also wait a few months if any earthshaking technology is just around the corner. I'd love to hear your comments.
Here's my current setup followed by what I chose today at the Apple Store:

[natas]

Looks good to me...but I would make a few changes.

First get the base memory from apple and go to some other place and get yourself 16gigs or more memory. Secondly I personally would get a couple of ssd drives...one for boot and one for scratch disk. The newer ssd write really fast and are perfect for scratch disk....this will help out on big files.

[louoates]

Thanks natas. Good idea on the 2 ssds, and the extra ram.

[red2]

You might check out Lloyd Chambers site if you haven't already done so:
http://macperformanceguide.com/
As mentioned, buy the minimum RAM from Apple and get the rest from elsewhere. OWC is a good source. There are others.

[David S]

You might consider a faster single processor model since most software does not use both processors and multiple cores all that well.

Also agree - get minimum RAM from Apple and add third party RAM to max. OWC serves me very well.
Also agree - I use an SSD startup disk from OWC and it has significantly improved startup times on programs and startup in general. I am running 10.6.7 on a 2009 quad core MacPro with 16 G of RAM.

Dave

[sandymc]

Personally, if I had the machine you currently have, I'd upgrade that:

1. Fill the rest of the RAM slots
2. Replace the 2600 GPU with a a 5770 or 5780
3. Put in an SDD boot drive - 128GB

Probably cost less than 20% of what the new box will cost, and performance within 90%

Sandy

[louoates]

Excellent advice Sandy. I can wait until Fall for a new MacPro if I can upgrade this one as you suggested. I sent all my box specs along with all the advice I got here to my Mac hardware expert who can evaluate those upgrades for my system and possibly do the changes. I'm not real confident opening the box myself and poking around.

Thanks much for all your help!

[graeme]

Excellent advice Sandy. I can wait until Fall for a new MacPro if I can upgrade this one as you suggested. I sent all my box specs along with all the advice I got here to my Mac hardware expert who can evaluate those upgrades for my system and possibly do the changes. I'm not real confident opening the box myself and poking around.

Thanks much for all your help!

I'm pretty cack - handed but find the Mac Pro easy to work on internally.

Definitely don't buy RAM from Apple.

Graeme

[DeeJay]

Won't be that long until a new Mac Pro comes out. It will have Sandy Bridge processors and thunderbolt so worth the wait.

If you can wait, do it.

If you need it right now the 6 core is the best bang for buck option.

[schrodingerscat]

Is your main consideration PS work, or is gaming, etc., also of concern? Had just run across an article(can't remember, sorry) where the author ran PS tests comparing the latest i7 iMac against an 8 core MacPro, with the iMac outperforming the MP.

As PS is CPU intensive, the take away was:

While maxing RAM is always advisable, the CPU is the primary consideration and multiple core utilization by adobe products is bound to improve.
HDD speed also has a major impact.
The video card has little impact. A decent 512MB card will be more than adequate, unless you're also doing video and game heavy lifting.

Apple has refreshed both the iMac and Macbook lines with the latest CPU technology, and the MP is probably not far behind. The latest version was released in July of last year, so seems about due. Lots of scuttlebutt flying about.

[DeeJay]

The 8 cores are a bad choice for Photoshop which is written to handle as many cores as you can give it one one processor. It's not written to use multiple processors.

So multiple cores and higher clock speed is what works best. The 3.3 6 Core is the sweet spot in the Mac Pro range for photoshop. Pile in the RAM too.

[louoates]

Thanks a bunch for your all your help. I'm leaning toward waiting for a new MacPro with Sandy B. And I'll sure get 2 of the SSDs and perhaps 32 G RAM.

I'll only be in AZ for another 3 weeks and that's where all my big computer and printer toys are. When I go back to IL for the summer I have a MacPro there that's too old for CS5. I never do any of my printing in IL so this summer it will be shoot, shoot, shoot and manage images basically with CS4.

The main reason for the upgrade is to more easily handle very large file sizes in the 2-4 GB range. I'm planning a 360 degree panorama of the entire Phoenix valley and all its mountains from a helicopter about 2,000 up. Each shot will be with a 200 mm lens on my Canon 1ds Mark III, so you can imagine how many large files will need to be stitched together for the final image. What with the hazy conditions here now in the Phoenix area (and high winds lately) I may need to wait until September to do that panorama.

[RobSaecker]

The 8 cores are a bad choice for Photoshop which is written to handle as many cores as you can give it one one processor. It's not written to use multiple processors.

Huh? Cores are processors, it's just a shorthand way of saying that there are multiple processors on one piece of silicon. If an application is written to take advantage of multiple processors, it shouldn't care if they are on one piece of silicon or two.

[DeeJay]

Sorry, I was incorrect. Photoshop does not exploit more than 4 cores. Clock speed matters and the 8 cores have low clocks speeds. The 6 core has a higher clock speed so is the better choice.