Mac Pro questions

[spot-ed]

Hello all!

i have some more questions to throw at everyone!

- what are the major differences between the Mac Pro Quad-Core Intel Xeon 2.66GHx and the 3.0GHz?
- what is the best breakout box for video that has composite I/O, component I/O, audio I/O, SDI, and anything else for video editing?
- is the Quad 2.5GHz PowerPC G5 comparable to the new Mac Pro's in terms of it's functionality? thinking of running FCP studio, Combustion/After Effects, and (not too sure about this one) Avid Xpress Pro. are the Mac Pro's more capable of handling all those app's or is the G5 just as capable?
- what would be the best combination of hardware for running all these app's on one machine? where would be the best place in Jo'burg to get a good deal?

appreciate any information i can get from you guys.
thanks in advance

 

[PeterCH]

I own a Mac Pro 3Ghz Dual Core Dual Processor machine,
run FCP studio.

1. The difference is processor speed, 3Ghz vs 2.66. If you order via
ZaStore you will get a top of the range graphics card with the
3Ghz vs the 2.66. You can't customise the order online
like in the US Apple store.
2. I don't really know. I would suggest you look at what's offered for
sale at BHPhotovideo.com and look at website reviews.
I use a Vanilla MacPro connected by Firewire to an AG-DVX100E.
I only edit in SD PAL. If the price of the Panasonic AG-HVX200 P2 cards
comes down I may sell the DVX100 and buy the HVX200
or just buy the HVX200
the best prosumer 1920by1080 DV-Cam out there.
3.The Intel MacPro beats the Quad PowerMac by a margin but I'm not
sure if its substantial as we've been using an Intel Pentium 4, Matrox
RTX Extreme with breakout box and Adobe Premiere Pro.
So never used PowerMac. AfterEffects does not run on Intel (not sure).
But Shake (Apple) does. Shake seems like a good deal.
4. Best machine? Depends. If you're planning to use Motion2, with FXPlug
plugins for FCP (look up Noise Industries) I'd venture get a good G-fx card.
FCP AFAIK only USES 2GB RAM, I just bought another 2 GB to make a total of
3GB and my FCP rendering now really flies, before the HDD's spun a lot when
scrolling or rendering effects (especially 3rd party effects from Boris or
Noise Industries).

I suggest get the basic MacPro, buy Seagate or Hitachi HDDs from any PC store (Sata II 3Gb/s) - mine do 40MB/sec in direct HD to HD copy;
buy RAM from TransIntl.com - they offer the best (although not always cheapest RAM) for the MacPro. They accept SA CCs without BS. Apparently it beats Crucial or so the forums say. It's about $350 for 2GB and $40 shipping plus local VAT (R400).
They offer a lifetime warranty.
Cheapest place to buy a MacPro would be from ZaStore.co.za, I considered importing from BHPhotovideo but
the price comes out even more if you import.

For a monitor I recommend the HP 30 inch (at PcMall.co.za)
it has a wide colour gamut (better than CinemaDisplay).
The Mac Pro AtiX1900XT can power TWO 30 inch displays as well,
if you're into that sort of thing .

I think you can now buy this card seperately at ZaStore for about R3000
or so. The 2.6Ghz MacPro is probably the most economical option with
a seperate order for the g-fx card and memory from TransIntl, expect
to also pay VAT in SA and the shipping is $42 for EMS (about a week).

The Mac Pro inside is a beauty. Its so easy to add HDs, memory (DIMMs) or
even PCIE cards. No wires at all. The MacPro can do 4 HDs and the standard
SONY (NEC) DVD Writer can be flashed to become region free.
There is a second bay for a BluRay Drive too.
There is also an option of connecting two extra HDDs on top of
the 4 already but I also use external LaCie and Maxtor
FW800/USB2.0 drives.

Sites:

www.zastore.co.za
www.transintl.com for RAM

 

[Skeptik]

You can't customise the order online
like in the US Apple store.

Last time I asked (last 18 months) they would do it. It will cost, and add considerably to the delivery time.

The old PPC machines may sound attractive. From what I can see they are overpriced and the technology isn't compatible with the new range. Graphics chipset, memory, etc.. all diff. It would be a walk in the past.

 

[PeterCH]

Last time I asked (last 18 months) they would do it. It will cost, and add considerably to the delivery time.

The old PPC machines may sound attractive. From what I can see they are overpriced and the technology isn't compatible with the new range. Graphics chipset, memory, etc.. all diff. It would be a walk in the past.

Yeah. But above all avoid buying Apple RAM. The TransIntl is fully certified and much cheaper, it has those huge heatsinks and the store brags that it's even better - then again any store would say that (could be BS). Then again, they processed the order nicely,
took my CC without problems and the RAM works perfectly (rendering stuff and all).

In the US Apple Store you can click and customise your machine. In the SA one, you can't, you have to telephone your order and like you say it takes long. My Mac Pro took almost two weeks, got a free BlueTooth dongle
out of it though .

 

[Skeptik]

& The rest of us can just dream of having a Pro.

 

[PeterCH]

& The rest of us can just dream of having a Pro.

Admittedly it's not as cool as a Mac Book Pro. You can use it to grate cheese though if you're bored with it .

My PC upgrade moolah went into it, don't feel bad, I'm WinXP till year 2015 .

 

[bwana]

Admittedly it's not as cool as a Mac Book Pro. You can use it to grate cheese though if you're bored with it .

My PC upgrade moolah went into it, don't feel bad, I'm WinXP till year 2015 .

Have to say I'm mighty happy with my MBP - it's exceeded my expectations 10 fold so I'm confident in thinking the G5 probably doesnt hold a candle to the MP.

 

[spot-ed]

thanks guys!

does anyone know if i can run a combustion on a 3GHz Mac Pro with the ATI XT1900 card? haven't really seen detailed specs for combustion.

i'm looking to purchase a machine from a place that offers great after sales support. don't want to have run from one place to the other trying to sort out a problem.

 

[PeterCH]

thanks guys!

does anyone know if i can run a combustion on a 3GHz Mac Pro with the ATI XT1900 card? haven't really seen detailed specs for combustion.

i'm looking to purchase a machine from a place that offers great after sales support. don't want to have run from one place to the other trying to sort out a problem.

ZaStore also has B&M stores, they have one at the V&A Waterfront but you'll pay more if you buy your Mac there. I don't know about Combustion but
since the Mac Pro (which is upgradable easily to 8 cores ie 2 quad core Xeons) is the fastest Mac for this purpose at the moment, should
run any Mac app - as long as it's Intel Native. Rosetta emulation sucks for
PhotoShop for example and makes the system very slow.
Call ZASTORE (accredited Apple retailer) and ask who does support for them,
but I can personally say that I needed no support for my machine.
I installed more RAM, HDDs and even flashed the SONY DVD-Drive to
it's original NEC form without problems. So unless you get a dud, I don't
think you'll need help.

The ATIX1900XT card is the fastest you can go on the Mac. Yes you can also go for
the NVIDIA QUADRO for about R10.000 more - so maybe you should check that.
If Combustion needs the OpenGL features of the Quadro (maybe the ATI is
does not have all the features) maybe you'll need that.

However for Final Cut Pro, Motion2, Shake and AE you don't need anything
better than an ATI X1900XT.

BTW for great MAC (and other) tutorials check out www.vtc.com

 

[C3 - Applecart]

Final Cut and Mac pro

Hmm... Easier way to get a Full Solution...

Just come to us!

Ok Basically the best form of "Breakout Box's" we like to use are the Decklink. They are made by Black Magic Design (Go check out their site). www.decklink.com They have quite a couple of types of cards. If you need more info on pricing etc... just gimme a PM.

Put it this way Final Cut loves Decklink. We can still get the AJA IO and the Canapus devices although we do not like them. Of our 15 Years of Apple Business we found way to many returns and defective cards.

If you were to Compare the PPC G5 Quad to the Mac Pro. Right out of the Box the ENTRY level 2Ghz Quad is about 1.7x Faster than the PPC. Also if you have the universal versions of FCP etc etc then there is Apple's 2.5x Increase in performance. On the 3Ghz quad the real time rendering is awesome. Especially through Motion 2 since it uses your Graphics card more than the Processor.

If you guys are looking for support then you really need to come to Applecart. I did not really join to boast about our company, but if there is anything we strive in it's our Support. We mainly deal with Corporate Clients, some being the likes of SABC, Red Pepper Productions ect ect... All these guys are running Macs with FCP. So we are well versed in the field of After Service support.

Just be careful tho if you are getting yourself a Mac Pro to use a Video Editing Suite. If you are Injesting the data and doing your editing of-line you need to take in consideration that FCP is a 47+-GB installation and the Mac Pro only has 1x 250GB drive. Luckily the Drives are not too expensive so I usually give my clients another 3x 250Gb's so they have 1TB of Drive Space.

Also Motion 2 (In the FCP Studio Suite) Requires 4GB's of Memory so that you can utilize the real time rendering. Be very careful because this is what can boost the price of the setup. The Memory that the Mac Pro takes is Server Memory we use in Windows Servers. They are 667Mhz speed chips that have Error Correction Control (ECC) and they are Fully Buffered (FB) What does this mean? Bloody expensive!

 

[PeterCH]

I saw that 'gamer's ram' for PCs on local SA sites is even more that the MacPro ram. I bought 2GB of 667 ECC FB RAM (with the Apple heat sinks)
from TransIntl.com for $328 plus $42 shipping plus R400 VAT.
At Prophecy.co.za I see 2GB kits for R2-3000! Definately RAM no better than this proprietory RAM.
http://www.transintl.com/store/cate...ID=3809264&CFTOKEN=4778487&RequestTimeOut=500

There is also this blurb:
To take full advantage of the 256-bit wide memory architecture, four or more memory modules should be installed.

I've seen it on the Apple.com forums too although the speed improvement is hardly ever noticeable.

http://www.prophecy.co.za/transcend...ifetime-warranty-pri-2300.html?reviews_id=416
512MB Transcend RAM at R638 per 512MB, so R2500 or so for 2GB.