Buying advice: Mac Pro w/ one 3.33GHz 6-core or Mac Pro w/ two 2.4GHz quad-core?

I'm going to be upgrading my Mac soon and needed some advice on which system is better for running FCP:

Mac Pro with one 3.33 GHz 6-core and 6GB RAM

or

Mac Pro with two 2.4 GHz quad-core and 6GB RAM

As for intended FCP uses, it's just for short Internet videos and occasional short film.

Also, in terms of a monitor, do folks recommend the Apple Cinema Display or is there a cheaper alternative I should consider?

Thanks for any advice!

E

You probably find the 6 core a lot faster due to the fact that most apps don't utilise the Multi-processors as well as they should.

The considerably faster clock speed of the 6 core can help a lot.

Have a read of this article: [macperformanceguide.com]

As far as monitor I've read high recommendations for the Dell UltraSharp U2711 27-inch display but haven't used them myself so I suggest getting down to your local retailer and taking a look.



For instant answers to more than one hundred common FCP questions, check out the LAFCPUG FAQ Wiki here : [www.lafcpug.org]

Thank you, Ben! Much appreciated.

If you have the choice, buy it from Apple with the minimum RAM possible, and buy your additional RAM from a 3rd party - much cheaper, just as good.

I always say purchase the most Mac you can afford. This will give you the longest useful operational life. Saving a few bucks today might force you to purchase a newer machine sooner than you would like to.

At our shop we run all our Macs a minimum of three years before they are replaced. I'm able to do this by purchasing the top or near top of the line Mac Pro each time. Even three years later, while the render times are certainly slower than the top of the line new Macs, a three year old Mac can run all the apps at pretty much the same speed as the newer machines. So the machines are still useful three years later.

Whatever you purchase, remember to get a minimum of 1GB RAM for each core and preferably double. While all the apps might not necessarily take advantage of all the RAM, you'll definitely find your machine works faster and more efficiently as you run multiple apps. I find this is another key is a long useful life of a machine, a lot of RAM helps older machines run more efficiently. At least that's been our experience in the shop.

As for the monitors, UltraSharp Dells are much more cost effective and the choice of myself and many of the editors I know. Apple Cinema Displays are without a doubt the best out there, and I was originally going to switch my shop over to all ACDs, but those stupid mini display cables have caused a lot of issues for us as we run all our computers remotely via Cat6 extenders. They simply don't work correctly on those. So give me a Dell with standard DVI connection over Apple's proprietary mini-display connection any day. And the Dells look superb.

Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Biscardi Creative Media
biscardicreative.com

Do a search on this forum and you will find most of us use and recommend Dells. Love mine, going on 3 years and it's still bright and cheery and a delight to work with. Wish they made HDTVs. I'm in the market now for a HDTV and doing the research and the more I research the more confused I am. There can be something said for too much research.

Michael Horton
-------------------

Thanks everyone!

Mike - in the end I think the sanest thing to do is believe your own eyes. Find a set that you like the look of in your price range and buy that. There's so much hype and intentional confusion about what's best in HDTVs that it really comes down to 'Do I think this picture looks great? Yes? Here's my credit card.'
Two things though
1. This is for home use - not broadcast advice
2. Never judge a set based on animations. Make sure to view something you would normally be watching on the set at home.

Yeah, narrowed my choice down to a Sony Bravia, simply because I've always had good luck with Sony and like the picture. But kind of waiting to see what CES brings to the new world. Here is a cool TV that will debut at CES. Yikes. Would probably suck the life out of your electricity bill. Doubt they will even allow this set to be sold in California.

[www.geek.com]

Michael Horton
-------------------

Sony Bravia has been the most impressive for me in terms of LCD screens. My favorite HDTV is still the Panasonic Vieras plasmas though. That's what we have in our home as well as our the Pro version in the edit suites.

LCD is just no substitute for plasma in terms of color reproduction and viewing angle. I'll take the higher electric bill and "thick 3" screen" for the superior image.

Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Biscardi Creative Media
biscardicreative.com

Well, this house is "trying" to go greener so Plasmas are not considered even though they have gotten much more efficient as have LCDs. California had considered banning Plasmas and/all big screen TVs if they did not get their act together and become more energy efficient. They have, but still have a ways to go vs CRT. Wonder what happened to that vote?

Now, OLED technology will help but that's years down the line if you want affordability. Bet ya a whole bunch of those will show up at CES. LCD/LED TVs are kind of a black killer, but ARE more efficient. LCD viewing angle is a bit of a myth, at least with the 2010 TVs. Yeah, you lose some brightness but its not nearly as bad as it was a couple years ago. So...I am leaning towards the "who cares about black levels and viewing angle, just give me a 40 inch TV that runs on 20 watts" and doesn't look sucky when playing SD.

Michael Horton
-------------------

Hola, Mike! We picked up a Sony Bravia yesterday. Chris did his research. Ask him about it!

Walter,

Do you have a link or model# of the Panasonic Plasmas? Also, do the pro versions make a big difference over the consumer versions? thanks!

Here's the whole family of Panny Pro Plasmas. The only difference between the Pro and the Consumer is the consumer has a TV Tuner with fixed inputs while the Pro does not have a TV Tuner and has modular input so you can change your inputs as you need to.

[www.panasonic.com]

We run both the 50" and 42" models in our shop.

Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Biscardi Creative Media
biscardicreative.com

Thanks Walter. Do you have the 720p or 1080p plasmas? Also, since the difference between the consumer and pro versions are the tuner, would the consumer plasmas be an option assuming picture quality will be the same as the pro models? thanks for clearing things up!

I spent some time over on avsforum.com during my research, specifically the "Sony KDL-EX710 LCD-LED TVs" forum. Boy was that a mistake. If anyone is looking for a HDTV, stay the hell away from the HDTV forums or you will NEVER buy a TV or view a TV ever again without seeing something wrong with it. Kind of like this forum. If I was ever in the market for FCP, I'd never buy it if I lurked in forums. The guys in those forums study every pixel and and have customization settings madness. People post their settings and others copy it. They massage, yes MASSAGE the corners of their TVs in hopes of getting rid of flash lighting issues. They post 20 step "How to clean the screen" tutorials. They warn of improper unboxing. They scare the crap out of any new buyer.

After reading several dozen posts in that form I came to the conclusion that the Sony KDL-EX710 LCD-LED TV is the worst TV ever built by man and you'd be better off if you bought a toaster oven.

But I'm still getting it, so take that avsforum.

Michael Horton
-------------------

One thing I know from my time selling esoteric audio gear was that it is very easy to trick the consumer. Since we were not on commission we could tell clients how to shop and what to look for. For example, if a salesman wanted to sell a specific speaker because he got more commission from it, in a comparison between it and another speaker, all he would have to do would be to turn up the volume ever so slightly. The customer will always buy the speaker that sounds louder. It's a pyschoacoustic thing. If a speaker is not as efficent as the one he wants to sell, then he really wouldn't have to do anything because, going through the same amp/processor, the inefficient speaker, which may be the better speaker, will not play as loudly because inefficiency does not mean that it isn't as good. All it means is that it takes more power to reach the same decibal level as the efficient one does. Again, the buyer will go for what he percieves as the louder, cleaner speaker. We always corrected for the efficiency of speakers in a demo right there in front of the customer so that they were listening to two different brands/models on a level field. (A side note, the very best speakers are generally very inefficient and need more power)
A similar situation exists when buying T.Vs. For one thing, they come out of the factory with the settings for brightness and contrast boosted. In the actual store, the salesman will often, again, boost them or even turn down the brightness and contrast of the TV he doesn't want sold because he would get less commission. The customer is tricked.
Once you actually put down your money on a set, burn it in for 150-200 hours and then have a professional calibrator come to calibrate your TV. It is not cheap but he will actually open up the workings of your set and adjust things from within bypassing your typical color/contrast/brightness controls that you find on your remote. I'm no technician and I wouldn't dare take apart my own Sony Bravia but proper calibration can greatly improve the performance of your purchase.
Steve

steve-sharksdelight

joeboo20 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Thanks Walter. Do you have the 720p or 1080p
> plasmas? Also, since the difference between the
> consumer and pro versions are the tuner, would the
> consumer plasmas be an option assuming picture
> quality will be the same as the pro models?
> thanks for clearing things up!

We have the 720p plasmas in all our suites. They display 1080 beautifully so we don't have a need to spend the extra cash for the 1080 models.

Yes, the image from the screens will be identical BUT there are less controls for the screen settings in the consumer models. With the Pro models, there are some advance color tuning controls that you don't get in the consumer models. That's the main reason we go with the pro models here.

Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Biscardi Creative Media
biscardicreative.com