New Mac Pro

[Anonymous]

Hi,

I am a new member and I want to buy a new Mac Pro; I want to know your opinion for that configuration:

Mac Pro CTO Two 2.8GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon /320GB/SD/MAC OSX LEOPARD

OPTIONALS (plus):
2 X HDD 320 GB SATA
1 X NVIDIA GEFORCE 8800GT 512 MB
8 GB RAM ( 2 x KIT 4 GB)
MAC PRO RAID CARD

and I want to use raid 5

[Dwight]

Excellent choice!

Get 12 GB RAM

Buy your additional drives aftermarket - they are easy to install and getting cheaper all the time. I am putting in 1TB drives as required.

The RAID 5 system is a waste considering modern drive reliability. Use Time machine to back up instead.

[drh64]

12 gb of Ram????
Are you serious?

Will that much really make a difference?

[Dwight]

You are surprised by this advice. Why would I jerk a guy planning an esoteric RAID around by recommending excessive RAM? He is obviously aiming for the elite.

My personal experience is that the Mac Pro can use about 12Gb with everything that i use switched on and rendering. Usually two Archicads, Artlantis, Cinema, Photoshoppe stuff, etc.

And any ordinary day it hovers around eight.

I put sixteen Gigamegz in for plenty of headroom. It is cheap. 8x2Gb i think.