Mac Pro 2008 Upgrades

bloodiedathame

bloodiedathame

bloodiedathame

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Our work machines are in desperate need of an upgrade (we do 3D animation, 2D animation, HD editing, Photoshop retouching etc) and have a decent enough budget to make them more 'perky'.

Spec 1:
4GB RAM
500GB HDD
320GB HDD
ATI HD 2600

Spec 2:
10GB RAM
3 x 320GB HDD
8800GT

I was thinking of upping the RAM so they both had 16GB ~ £540
Putting an SSD in them both for OSX and Applications ~ £ 180
Putting 3x 1TB (RAID 0) in both for content ~ £600
Then if I can swing it a Quadro 4000 in both ~ £1400 (unlikely)

What do you think? Worthwhile upgrades? The storage is probably excessive, but will the SSDs make a difference?

Any ideas on more worthwhile things?
 
Xserve is apples solution to slow machines, its allows macs to share resources across a network. Much older machines can be retired to a resource farm so that they resources can be used by other machines.

In general, macs love memory and its most likely the cheapest option to try first, we just doubled the ram in our oldest white imacs that are used by students for graphics and they are much happier.

I would stay away from SSD in a work environment, its perfect for home and if only one user uses that workstation, but that's just a personal preference.
 
I upgraded my early-2008 Mac Pro from 4GB RAM to 12GB RAM recently. It made a pretty big difference with the apps I was using and evident from checking the resources being used.

My GeForce 8800GT has just died. If I can't fix it, I need a new video card, so will be interesting if that brings any improvements.
 
SSDs!

You can put one in the second optical bay and one in the 4th hdd bay (though you need a specific adaptor unless you get a Bigfoot SSD*). Then RAID mirror them. SSDs are brilliant and well worth the expense. However they are a bit novel and so you should hedge against failure.

*The MaxConnect adaptor is quite good, as is the ICYBOX one. Make sure you specify which year your mac pro belongs to as the sleds are different.
 
Is it just me or does that £540 figure for ram seem a bit pricey I'd imagine that it would be more like £100 per machine no?
 
Foxtrot26 said:
Is it just me or does that £540 figure for ram seem a bit pricey I'd imagine that it would be more like £100 per machine no?
Click to expand...

It's DDR2-800 PC2-6400 ECC, it's way more expensive than the DDR3 that the newer Mac Pros use, unfortunately.
 
sorry it was apple Qmaster I was thinking of; but on a xserve server.

loads of people uses each machine on a daily bases, I've not tested it on a work machine, but I'm worried about all the temp files that certain apps create and fragmentation of files on the SSD shorting the life of the drives. Its fine when its on my own machines as I manage the files, but I don't want to do it on 300+ macs, or configure every program we have to store the temp files to another location. Its a personal preference, as I want to keep my work life as simple as possible.

We do use an edit share server at work,
http://www.editshare.com/
I think its pain and courses more traffic than benefits but some people that actually use it thinks its gods gift to video editing, and even ITV production comes use it, thou we use the same file servers as the bbc do.. :rolleyes:

If I had my way, I rip every out and make it all apple, but I don't pay the bills, I just have to support our very hybrid network. :)
 
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After Effects and Premiere cache a lot and if they are pointed to the SSD that will kill it pretty quickly.

We're only a small studio, we have a 'server' (Apple G5 with a bunch of external FW800 drives), we don't usually work directly off it though are trying to get a workflow sorted where we can. The other machines are fairly recent iMacs which are pretty bog standard and find for basic tasks except rendering.
 
I would have a look at the edit share, its not my cup of tea but the people who uses it swears by it. they was using cs3 with old white imacs (first intel ones) last year before I came and vamp things up. It has a raided hdd system built into it, allows multiple people to edit the same footage, and process all the video itself. Its a very long term solution.

Rendering kills all machines, it may be better if the other macs are ok with everything else expect rendering to have a few new mac pros especially for rendering, we have some set to one side for lightwave rendering, but it still takes hours but at least then they can't moan about not being able to use their machines.
 
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