Worth it? (octo)

[zoranb]

Guys, ive been wanting to get a mac since the announcement of the Intel transition, a mac from the professional series that is. Ive been waiting for Adobes Universal apps, and now that they are out, i was glad. Not so fast though, cause all these rumors regarding redesigned MacPros bla bla bla in WWDC really put me into thoughts. As if this wasnt enough, the new octo came into the game, to really shake things up, and perhaps say "forget about new redesigned mac pro rumors, the octo is here to stay"!

Real questions now are:
1. is it worth the money? What will i need it for? Well im a graphic designer using fully CS2 apps, DWeaver, Flash and surelly a DV editing app (i hope it will be PremierePro) but that only for my hobbie purposes.
2. What do u really think about the octo for this use
3 Let me ask, might it be a mac that will last easily up to the next 5-6years with its huge power?

 

[fryke]

If money's no issue? Get a fully loaded octo core. But if it _is_ an issue, I'd go with a quad core with more RAM rather than an octo core with less.

5-6 years? That depends on your needs in 5-6 years. We don't know how they'll change - and we also don't know what you'd get in a few years. If you look _back_ 5-6 years...

I'd say: Go with what you can rationally afford and as the years go by, look at what comes out and find the sweet spot for selling the old machine towards a new one.

 

[symphonix]

1. is it worth the money? What will i need it for? Well im a graphic designer using fully CS2 apps, DWeaver, Flash and surelly a DV editing app (i hope it will be PremierePro) but that only for my hobbie purposes.

Our graphic designer where I work has recently updated to the 8-core Mac Pro, and it is a fantastic machine with stellar performance. Mind you, the price tag is a little high for "hobbie purposes" and it was really only justified for our company since he was using it to setup more than 50 printing jobs every single day including over a hundred different football record booklets every week.

In his case, the top-most system was fully justified as he needs to open and close a huge graphic file every few minutes, all day long. On the other hand, I know plenty of top graphic designers in my local area who are more likely to sit down with one client and one project for an entire three-hour stretch before finishing up and moving onto the next one, and most of them are happy with a G5 or dual-core Mac pro - the responsiveness is the same while working/designing. If your business model isn't high-workflow then the Octo would just be a great way to blow several thousand dollars that you'd be better off spending elsewhere.

2. What do u really think about the octo for this use

How many clients / projects / books / websites or ads do you do each day? If it is less than twenty then I would look at a more cost-effective Mac. The desire for the latest and greatest can sometimes cloud your thinking and you need to remember that a dual-core or even a G5 will be nearly as fast to design any single website, banner, booklet or whatever, at around 10% of the price-tag.

3 Let me ask, might it be a mac that will last easily up to the next 5-6years with its huge power?

Don't count on it. It is the leader of the pack now, but 5-6 years is a long time in computing. Six years ago the highest-end most expensive Powermac was a G4 with a top speed of 733mhz. If you expect to still be using your MacPro in six years, expect it to seem like a dinosaur.

I advise people who want to stay current to budget to update their machines every 2 years, even if that means getting a middle-of-the-range or even low-range computer.

 

[Satcomer]

Well I have a friend that replaced three machines for the 8 core Mac Pro. He now can test his web sites on three different operating systems on one the one Mac through Parallels (see a video about how to do this) and test his web creations. This way with multiple monitors he can have all three systems up at once to speed up his work flow.

 

[fryke]

Of course you can do that with _any_ current Mac. Run Windows/linux/Solaris etc. in Parallels, I mean.