£2300 !!

[Phage]

Hi All,

Our arthouse has asked for their PowerPC based macs to be upgraded as CS4 apparently requires intel-based machines. The price is £2300 per 2x Quad Xeon Mac with 6Gb RAM.
Given the current tough times, can we get a better deal ?
Do they really have to do this on a Mac ? Why not a PC ?

All opinions welcome, but as I have to find the budget for 7 of these, I'd love to hear from people who actually know about Macs and their pricing / utility for CS4.

Thanks in advance

[Funkstar]

You could get 3% back from Quidco

Using a PC will depend on how scared the designers are. There is no reason that I can see why you couldn't use a PC. But if the designers get scared because they are not using a Mac, then you could easily loose any saving (and a lot more) in lost productivity.

I do not believe there is a reliability issue or a raw performance issue with using a PC. Obviously if they are badly configured or badly supported you are going to have issues. Same as any other system, be it PC or Mac.

the other question is: do they need CS4? and do they need it right now?

[Phage]

That's the issue. I am unable to tell if they need CS4.
TBH I can't see myself weaning 'artistes' away from the pretty macs.
I guess it's the price and the assumption that they need an 8-core Xeon solution.

[Blaineoliver]

Well, they dont need that much processing power, i am sure. If you know someone with an NUS card, you get 15% off, and if you bulk buy, you will get a discount. Phone up apple and ask.

[Lowe]

Is that including monitors? If so that's not at all bad...

Why not look at the new 27" iMac with the quad core i5?

http://store.apple.com/uk/browse/hom...co=MTMzNzQ4NzA

£1600.

[Phage]

No, that's without monitors.
it's the WTF factor at £2300 and an 8-core Xeon !!

Does anyone work in this sort of role ? What is a reasonable spec for a Pro-grade mac workstation ?

[peterb]

Talk to Apple or an Apple store. I'm sure you will be able to negotiate a discount on volume or commercial terms.

[Funkstar]

I didn't think Photoshop scaled with the cores, certainly not past 4 anyway.

CS4 Extended may be different because of the 3D features, but are the being used.

Sounds like the designers need to justify why they need the upgrades.

[Syllopsium]

It depends what you're looking for. The Mac Pro is actually quite good value for money, considering what it is - the issue is that it's possible to find lesser options that perform the job adequately.

There's a cheaper quad core Mac Pro version for starters. If expandability is not a requirement the cheaper iMacs may be an option, although they are based on laptop chipsets rather than the workstation chipset the Mac Pro uses.

Looking at the PC side, an air cooled quad core non workstation class system (limited to one Core2/Nehalem processor) is easily half the price of the Mac Pro.

Also bear in mind that if you do choose to get a Mac Pro, whilst some may argue if it is expensive, there is no question that Apple is a complete ripoff on memory and hard disks. You can buy those third party.

PK

[Phage]

Right. I rang the Apple Store.
7% discount off the bat, with a RAM upgrade thrown in.
<mutter, mutter, ....artistes....>
I still think they don't need a spec that high though.

[Phage]

There's a cheaper quad core Mac Pro version for starters. If expandability is not a requirement the cheaper iMacs may be an option, although they are based on laptop chipsets rather than the workstation chipset the Mac Pro uses
PK

Can you send me a link to the quad core Mac Pro ? I can't see it anywhere.

[Syllopsium]

It's very unlikely they need a spec quite that high.

Bear in mind that the PowerMac G5 has only dual G5 processors. The chance of magically needing to go from 2 cores to 8 is really rather low.

[Syllopsium]

Can you send me a link to the quad core Mac Pro ? I can't see it anywhere.

It's right on the page of the Mac Pro in the Apple UK shop :

http://store.apple.com/uk/browse/hom...family/mac_pro

PK

[Phage]

Thanks to all of you. I have shamlessly ripped off your advice and emailed it back to the Art House.

Hi XXX,

Obviously a PO will need to be raised for this capex.
As Capex we just need to ensure that the depreciation is charged back to the Art house cost centre. YYY or ZZZ will be able to help you with creating a purchase order.

On a separate note, who came up with the specification and the price ? The price for the new systems appears to be nearly full retail.

http://store.apple.com/uk/browse/hom...co=MTA4MTg2MjM

See the attached email. I rang Apple and have obtained a quote for seven 8-core models for £14,602 with a RAM upgrade to 8Gb. Compared to the quote obtained for £16,093 with only 6Gb RAM.

An 8-core Xeon solution is a massive amount of processing power. I didn't think Photoshop scaled with the cores, certainly not past 4 anyway. Smaller Macs will still be a huge leap forward from the current PowerPC-based systems and cost far less. CS4 Extended may be different because of the 3D features, but are they being used ? A quad-core solution is approx £1900.

http://store.apple.com/uk/browse/hom...47d017f0173115

I have obtained a quote on these platforms, and the quad-core solution for 7 machines would come in at £11,431. Please let me know how you wish to proceed.

Thanks

[Stoo]

Bare in mind that CS5 will be due out next year, and probably will have multicore support (it's a ground-up rewrite in Cocoa), and that you want to be looking at it as a longer term thing than just a 1 year cost.

I've been doing something similar, but the business knows that the machines will be in use for the next 5 years.

9 * 2.9 GHz Quadcore Mac Pro's 6GB/2*640GB drives (RAID) + 24" Screens + CS4 design standard + Quark + Office + Applecare = ~£36K

= one happy publishing dept

[Blaineoliver]

3-4 cores is a minimal increase on CS4, let alone 8 cores!