Dual Quad Core too much??

[mrsgreencar]

Aloha,

I'm interested in finding out if purchasing an Apple MacPro dual quad core computer is too much computer for my needs and if I should go with an Apple IMac Instead. I will be using the computer for iWork, Microsoft Office, Photoshop CS3, Roxio Media Creator for home movies, and the web. I want enough computer to work with that will last for several years, but not spend extra money if I don't need to. I'll be mainly scanning watercolor art to be reproduced on an Epson 4880 printer. Can you please give me your opinions on which computer to go with and what memory/RAM would be needed for this situation. I want to be able to make an intelligent decision. Thanks much!

[Costas L]

Aloha,
I'm interested in finding out if purchasing an Apple MacPro dual quad core computer is too much computer for my needs and if I should go with an Apple IMac Instead. I will be using the computer for iWork, Microsoft Office, Photoshop CS3, Roxio Media Creator for home movies, and the web......

My own experience is that you will see the main benefits from a quad core in

Any form of video rendering/editing
Scanning with ICE
Rendering (such as sharpening or filters) in Photoshop

The above will all benefit from a Quad core processor. If an Apple MacPro is proving expensive, would a PC be substantially less, apart from iWork (which may be the deal breaker there) the other software runs on a PC

Edit: consider 4GB RAM and make sure you have the option to slip another hard drive into the PC box. 1 GByte drives are reasonably priced at the moment

[Kevgermany]

My take would be that a single quad core is enough for the next few years. As it's MAC, I'd look at putting more memory on than Costas suggests. Photoshop multi processes well on the MACs (ask JO-1 here).

[Costas L]

I am sitting here typing this on a quad core machine with 4 GB RAM, will probably add another 4GB but have not found memory to be as big a limiting factor as getting hard drives configured properly and oh yes, putting a quad processor in here.

Rendering video to produce a DVD was a job I used to have to do overnight because 1 hour of video could take 6 to 8 hours to render on my previous machine. Now takes well under an hour with Nero running the 4 cores at 80% useage, could do better with more tuning but its good enough

Just finished editing some pictures, its refreshing to be able to work with large layered files of 350 - 450 GB and not have to wait to see how changing your sharpening parameters affects the image. increase radius or amount and the change is there - no waiting, I remember with my previous machine having to think twice before making a change like that. Looking at the CPU monitor, I can see it uses all 4 processors for those filters

The difference in cost between a quad and a single processor CPU when I built his machine was about £70, even though a MAC uses exactly the same Intel processors you will have to pay a lot more but depending on the software you run, the differences can be huge especially with video

[mrsgreencar]

Thanks for all of the input. It was most helpful. Personally I'd rather have the small foot print of an iMac, but it doesn't sound like that's the way to go for my purposes. And with the MacPro I'll be able to drop in more memory and expand it if need be. Thanks again.

[Diane]

I have a Windows quad core with 3 GB of RAM. I don't find it any faster than my old AMD (sorry, I don't remember the specifics and I don't have the computer any more to look it up, but I can assure you it certainly was not the top of the line at the time several years ago) computer with 2 GB of RAM. The only difference I see is that I can run multiple programs at the same time, like listening to the Internet at the same time as using Photoshop CS2. But even for huge TIFF files, I see no difference.

http://msmvps.com/blogs/harrywaldron/ar ... xt-pc.aspx

[NielsN]

This is a OS question. The future OS will be 10.6 and developed to use the full power.(64 bit - multiproccesor) Adobe is surely going to follow and You will see a speed increase during the next 6-18 months. This means that Your are set to go for a long time. Great set . Good luck with it.

[ksporry]

I have a 4 year old iMac G5 1.8 GHz 2GB RAM 20" with external HDD, and it is still going strong. I use it with Photoshop and lightroom, but so far it goes liek a charm! Sometimes I like to have the latest iMac, but then I realise I don't need it. I just don't feel like my mac is old! It's amazing! In teh same time I had my mac, I worn out 3 or 4 PCs, but my powermac is still going strong and doesn't appear to need replacement in the next 2 years I recon...

[jrhilton]

This is a OS question. The future OS will be 10.6 and developed to use the full power.(64 bit - multiproccesor) Adobe is surely going to follow and You will see a speed increase during the next 6-18 months. This means that Your are set to go for a long time. Great set . Good luck with it.

Niel makes a very good point, there is often quite a lag between new hardware being released to the general market, and when OS/Software makers fully take advantage of it.

In this respect it has to be said, Apple are better than Microsoft, as the OS is written with fewer different processors in mind and optimised more, but understandably there are still delays before you can fully take advantage of new kit.

Especially when you consider it is actully quite hard to write software and design hardware than can fully take advantage of a processor that has many core's, when you get it right, they can be very fast, get it slightly wrong, and the processor won't seem much faster than the competition. The difficult part is to design everything so you don't have one core more idle than the others, load sharing when a processor is working hard (e.g. encoding a video etc) is the key, and hardest part.

[ksporry]

Niel makes a very good point, there is often quite a lag between new hardware being released to the general market, and when OS/Software makers fully take advantage of it.

Except that microsoft always designs its OS for equipment that has yet to be invented... (hence the reason I use Mac...)