Advice on new Mac Pro purchase please.

Sorry if this is a repeat, but I just can't find my previous post after several searches. I'm soon to be shooting with a Panasonic HPX-170 and have just installed Snow Leopard and FCP 7 in my current Mac Pro 1.1. I need to buy a new Mac Pro this fiscal year (the tax man will eat me otherwise) and I'd sure appreciate any input on which of the new Mac Pros you think best for editing HD. I've heard bad things about the Radeon cards that come with the new Mac Pros. Anything else I should be aware/wary of? I've been making 30 sec TV commercials for many years (anybody out there remember 3/4?) but am moving over to longer format, 10 minute or so videos, mostly on conservation topics. All input gratefully received. Thanks.

What format are you planning on shooting? I just checked out that camera and it says it shoots 20 different HD and SD formats. What's your destination for the footage? You could optimise your spend if this could be figured out before you buy.

The hpx170 was the tapeless successor to the panny hvx202. It shoots to dvcpro hd, dv, dv50 and dvcpro. Not sure if it does avc intra. Dvcpro hd is a very light codec to work with, and you will be fine on just about anything from FireWire 800 on singlecam shoots. For the graphics card, the current fad is a good cuda powered card for CS5. The resolve also uses cuda heavily.



www.strypesinpost.com

I'll be mainly shooting 720p.

DvcproHD is 100 Mb/s, which is roughly 14.4 MB/s with audio, and it works reliably with anything from Firewire onwards. It works well with almost any system from the G5s to the intel Mac Pros, iMacs and Macbook Pros. If you need to use Motion or Color a lot (or FCP's FXPlugs), you may want a more powerful graphics card. And yea, with Snow Leopard, you will need more RAM as it is a 64 bits natively. 6 GBs and above would be good for a minimal system. 2-4 gigs per core if you work with RED or if you do a lot of graphics and heavy rendering/encoding.



www.strypesinpost.com

you might also consider upgrading your current mac pro rather than purchasing new. The difference between what you've got now and a new one won't be so great that it would be worth it, in my opinion.

I'd consider upgrading your drives...either to a large, speedy RAID, or with an SSD drive or two. You'll probably get better performance from the SSD, but may still need the hard drive based array for bulk storage. OWC has some nice SSDs - [eshop.macsales.com]

Also, as others have noted, increase your RAM and look into a faster GPU.

Try those 3 things, and you'll probably find that performance is equal or better than a new one, and at significantly less cost. I understand the whole tax writeoff, but from a performance standpoint, it makes more sense to stick with the same machine, IMHO.

>The difference between what you've got now and a new one won't be so great

Not really. If the Macpro 1.1 is a 4 core machine, the current machine goes up to 12 cores with hyper threading and a much faster front side bus and (I suspect faster RAM). This is useful if you are working with RED, because RED usually decodes using multiple processors. But with DvcproHD, there isn't a huge difference. Faster GPU (eg. Nvidia Cuda powered) is good, but only for some processes, such as rendering FX plugs (uses openGL, I believe), Color and Motion. CUDA is huge for CS5 and the Resolve.

You could also try looking into utilizing your system for Resolve for Mac. I've been testing it out, and I'm liking it MUCH better than Color.



www.strypesinpost.com

Agreed, Strypes, but I don't know that Rick indicated that he'd be working with RED--I assumed DVCPROHD. I know the 4 core vs 8 or more core argument well, and I've seen how that can come into play (my home system is a 4-core and work system is an 8-core) when encoding mpeg-2 or h264. But from an editing standpoint (i.e. working in FCP), I still maintain that his current system (with upgrades) would be more than adequate for his needs.

Of course, if he HAS to spend $5k or more this year, by all means, get the new iron. I love a new machine as much as the next guy.

I've been hoping that someone drops one of those new MacPros into my lap. That, and a Tangent Wave.



www.strypesinpost.com

I'm definitely leaning toward the upgrade path as I won't be working with RED and will be using DVCPro. My one real lingering doubt is just how long I can expect the CPU in my Mac Pro 1.1 to last. It's not replaceable is it? I've been in this sort of situation before and did do a fair amount of upgrading of RAM and hard drives, only to end up getting a newer, faster Mac in a few months.

Last in what sense? In the sense that it will keep functioning? Or that it will be unable to keep up with newer software, higher data-rate requirements of a newer video format?

The processors will likely outlast most other components in the machine. Eventually, they will start feeling sluggish for certain tasks, though, because of the ever increasing OS/app bloat and inevitable marching on of new technology. You could always upgrade to something faster if you have a knack for that sort of thing:
[xlr8yourmac.com]

It's not as easy as a hard drive or RAM upgrade, but it's do-able for someone with experience tinkering around computers.

The way I'd look at it is that even if you do ultimately decide to upgrade to a newer machine in a few months to a year, many of the upgrades that you're considering for this machine would work in a newer machine (unless you went with an imac, mac mini or laptop), so it wouldn't be money spent for nothing.

I just know that in most cases like this, spending $1000 - $1500 or so to really trick out an existing machine will give you a lot more bang for the buck than dropping $5000 on a new machine, and then the inevitable purchases that come along with a new setup. Your machine works just fine now, and unless you really HAVE to spend the cash on a new machine, don't.

just my .02.