Re: Buying a New MacPro

I got my new 8-core about a month ago, and here's what I can tell you:

If you are doing any kind of After Effects work, chances are very, very good that the cost differential between the 8-core and a dual-core (4 processor) will be made up very quickly in terms of gains in productivity...

I recently completed a pretty complex AE animation - about 10 seconds long, approximately 175-200 layers.... The animation took me about 2.75-3 days to complete... I'm certain that the 4-processor machine would have meant an extra day or so in work, waiting for RAM previews, etc.... At my daily rate, it would only take a few of these projects to more than make up the difference between a "4-core" and an "8-core".

As I figure it, the price premium for an 8-core is around $1500.... do you do a lot of After Effects work? Do you use Compressor a lot? How many hours a week do you use these programs? If you could accomplish these things twice as fast, at your current hourly/daily rate, how long would it take for you to make up this premium? If the answer is anything less than 18-24 months, then it makes sense to invest in an 8-core.

Also, you have to think that Apple (and other software developers) will begin to update their applications to take full advantage of 8-core machines, as they will become more prevalent... Can't wait for a Final Cut that harnesses all 8 processors in the same way After Effects currently does.

Playing HD without dropping frames is much more a function of your RAID than it is pure processing horse-power.

BTW, I did third-party RAM. It was really, really easy to install... and I'm not a real big "under-the-hood" guy.

-Christain