Hi, I’ve been looking at the refurbushid section for mac pro in the apple store, holping I could get one of the 3.33 6 cores, however they are hard to come by.
Can you recomend a decent one for around $2.000?
I already have many drives, Samsung Pro SSD, ATI 4770 and The 23 cinema from my 2.66 1.1.
Thanks
For another $350 I could take this route:
Available to ship: 2-4 business days
Hardware
What work will be done with this machine?
If you do not do serious Photo, Video, or Sound editing, any-old-Mac can do the other jobs like web surfing, so buy the prettiest one.
I use Adobe Lightroom which works ok but for Final cut X it takes long to render the footages and export. All of those are home videos and family pictures which is a lot.
I don't understand when you say buy the "prettiest one" because if thats the case I would then buy the Macbook Air for the looks.
Grant, I love your posts but you could have given me a better awswer with all due respect.
Best Regards
I am sorry I did not provide the advice you needed.
But honestly, if all you needed to accomplish was Web Surfing, any of today's Macs are capable of doing that and way more -- including AirFrame Stress Analysis and Fluid Dynamics modeling. We used to require Barn-sized mainframe class computers to do that work.
Now that you indicate that you need to run Final Cut, then the 2009 and later Mac Pro is your best bet, in my opinion. It will accept larger RAM memories, and its memory is Error-Correcting Memory, so you will not face the problem of bad memory causing undetected grief. It has PCIe expansion slots, so SSD-on-a card is an additional speedy option, as is eSATA external expansion.
If you buy a fast four-core model, it can be user-upgraded in the future to the 6-core. Any 6-cores that appeared on the Refurbished list were snatched up in a hurry. The slowest 4-core will tend to be a bit slower overall, because some tasks are still not multi-threaded enough to make a big difference.
The 8-core pays a penalty for its two-chip solution. Coordination between the two chips takes a lot of overhead, and you lose some of the increased power you hoped for. And the prices of those machines mean you could almost have two complete four-cores for the same price.
The 2013 model has taken a strong step into the Professionals-only category. Its raw compute power (including better OpenCL processing power for array processing) and graphics ability are remarkable. But its price point (including required expansion chassis) is so high that only those using it all day every day to make money can justify the cost.
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I find the iMac less than compelling because it is not upgradeable in more than its memory size, and that has a limit too close to what one might like for Final Cut work. I also worry that the screen and the processing-unit will age at different rates, and one will be obsolete long before the other.
Thanks Grant.
Lightroom: use SSD for the catalogue is a big help
MacRumors member did a test and the newest Intel 4th gen processors beat out the W3680 but just for FCPX, and that is suppose to get an upgrade.
I don't like buying new off the lot usually, takes months to get past the first production and first firmware and for a new OS to catch up but the new Haswell processors and PCIe SSD configuration are compelling. Even a MacBook Pro and use your own 27" display.
The new Haswell iMac
http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9243689/Hands_on_The_new_Haswell_chip_iMa c_
Yes Hatter, I have the catalogue on the second SSD and it does help, only FCX is the only one that doesn't perform very well (Rendering and Exporting), but I don't do it for a living, so I usually set everything on the que and go to bed.
I'll keep looking for the six core I guess
Like Grant pointed out, you can upgrade a basic quad-core model yourself. A base-model 2009 2.66GHz quad can be turned into a 3.33GHz hex (like the ones that vanish from the Apple refurb section) for less than your $2000 budget.
A 2009 quad goes for $800 or so on eBay (or even OWC, MacOfAllTrades). A Xeon W3680 hex is $600 new.
With your $2000, that leaves hundreds of dollars left over for Ram and GPU upgrades.
Thanks Studio K
You mean the Mac Pro 5.1. right?
Could it be the 2.8 Quad Core version? Just want to make sure. I've seen a few on Craigslist.
Thanks again
no he does mean 4,1 flashed to 5,1 and cpu upgrade.
No, I meant the 4,1 from 2009. You CAN upgrade the CPU on the 5,1 to 3.33GHz hex. But the cost of a 5,1 is higher. If you can find a 2010 2.8GHz base model for a price that you can live with, then go for it.
I mentioned the 2009, because they are hundreds of dollars cheaper (in most instances) on the used market.
That is the model that I bought. They are easy to find for $700-$900.
When upgrading CPUs, The main diffenrece to be aware of between 4,1 and 5,1 (besides faster CPU and GPU options---stuff you'd upgrade on your own anyway) is the boot rom firmware version.
The 4,1 CAN be updated to the 5,1 firmware, and you then have the ability to install a 6-core CPU and 1333MHz ram. All for less money than you'd pay for a real 5,1.
don't quote me butnewer w3680's may work now also in 2009 model which I'm going by one or two comments in the thread on macrumors dealing with the cpu upgrade
I had not heard about that. That would be convenient if it's true.
The hatter wrote:
don't quote me butnewer w3680's may work now also in 2009 model which I'm going by one or two comments in the thread on macrumors dealing with the cpu upgrade
yes it is nice and likely true. would show as a later stepping and that Intel has implemented new firmware in the chip.
That buys you support for 1333MHz RAM in the process so I would still do the firmware update to 5,1
Thank you all for the great info. I now know which way to go for my new station. I will be able to use all the drivers that I current have, monitor and maybe move my older Mac pro to the basement and set it as a server (headless) running Plex media server.
Thanks again
Recommendation for a Refurbished
