New MacPro Advice Please

[Ted Harris]

I am about to buy a new MacPro and assume I am not the only one that has beengoing through purchase thoughts. I have a couple of questions specific to machine performance with Photoshop CS2, CS3, Lightroom and Aperture:

1) I am not going to go up to the 3Ghz processor, just toooo expensive. So, what do I lose if I go with the minimum 2GHz processor .... will it matter or should I stick with the 2.66?

2) Does it make any difference in performance if you upgrade video cards to the dual NVidea optionor the ATI option? If so, which one makes more sense?

Regardless of the above configuration considerations, I plan on installing at least 2 an d more likely 4 additional GB of RAM. Some of the files I will be working with in CS3 will be well over a Gig, even a few in the 2 Gig range. All advice is welcome but I am especially interested inhearing from folks who have actually purchased and are running a MacPro.

[Rick Moore]

We have both the 2.00 GHz and 2.66 GHz four-core Mac Pros at work. Using PhotoShop CS3, the 2.66 is noticeably faster, especially with large images, like 38" plate files. I feel the performance boost is well worth the small increase in price for the 2.66 GHz machines. All our machines have the ATI cards, so I can't comment on that choice. The determining factor in performance of CS3 apps, plus Quark 7, has been memory. Get at least 4GB, preferably more. I have 8GB in my personal machine, which is especially useful if you're going to run VMware Fusion or Parallels.

[Joanna Carter]

Hi Ted

I would go with the 2.66 CPU but the most important thing for Photoshop is memory; as much as you can throw at it. I am in the middle of buying a Mac Pro but, because I can get memory cheaper than from Apple, and I do mean fully buffered, I will be getting a basic 1GB and then top it up to either 8GB using memory that costs about 30% of the Apple prices (£400 extra as opposed to £1350)

[Ted Harris]

Joanna, I have been buying memory from Data Memory Systems (www.datamem.com) since 1988. They are the Midwest Photo of the memory and storage world. Don't know know how the import duty would hit you but they charge $338 for a 4 Gig kit as an example.

[Mike Lewis]

Ted-

I bought a MacPro in February. I found that it wasn't really usable for LF photo editing until I bought another 4GB of memory. I bought the extra memory from Data Memory Systems and it works fine, the machine runs quietly (a big plus) and I think the standard video card is adequate for LF editing with the 30-inch monitor. Although I agree that Photoshop is memory-bound, I think you should stick with the standard 2.66 GHz version of the computer and not go for either the faster or slower version.

Overall, it's been a pretty good computer, and I'm speaking as someone who is *not* a big Mac fan.

[Marko]

In short, buy as much memory and hard disk as you can possibly afford. Use large and fast physically separate internal disk dedicated for PS scratch disk only.

Upgrade CPU with what is left.

[Doug Dolde]

I bought a MacBook Pro 2.2 and put 4 gigs of ram in it. Works pretty well on 440mb scans. A MacPro should kick butt.

[Brian K]

Ted, I have the Mac Pro 2.66 (4 core) with 8 gigs of ram, ATI x9100XT with 512vram and 2 500 gig drives. It is very fast with files approaching even 1 gig. I would put at least 6 gigs of ram in it, that would give you the 3 or 3.5 gigs that maxs out PS and enough extra ram for running other programs etc.

I got the ATI upgrade in case I wanted to run a 30" screen or dual screens.

[Joanna Carter]

Joanna, I have been buying memory from Data Memory Systems (www.datamem.com) since 1988. They are the Midwest Photo of the memory and storage world. Don't know know how the import duty would hit you but they charge $338 for a 4 Gig kit as an example.

Thanks Ted, I wil keep that in mind. At the moment, the dollar rate is extremely favourable so the $338 could well work out at around £200 even after taxes