Gonna buy a used MacPro. Which One??

[contramark]

My PC finally kicked the dust and Im looking to upgrade with a Mac.

Looks like I have 3 main options:

1. MacPro 2006 Two 2.66 GHz (5150) Dual-core Intel Xeon "Woodcrest"

2. MacPro 2008 Two 2.8 GHz (E5462) Quad-Core Intel Xeon "Harpertown"

3. MacPro 2009 One 2.66 GHz (W3520) Quad-Core Intel Xeon "Bloomfield" or two 2.26 GHz (E5520) Quad-core Intel Xeon "Gainstown" with 8 MB of L3 cache

Im really liking the price on the 2006 model if that is still a powerful machine today? I have a RME Fireface interface (possibly looking to upgrade to UAD Apollo) and 1x UAD-2 2x UAD-1.

Please let me know what is my best option? I need to get my studio back and running ASAP, clients calling and I cant hold them off for too long.

[tobymusic]

The 2006 is not a good machine, I'd not waste money on that. The 2008 Harpertown is still very powerful and affordable, but comes with a really bad graphics card (that can be replaced with a 5770). I'd go with the 2009 dual Nehalem if you can afford that.

[Matt Hepworth]

The 2009 version is almost twice the power. That said, so are the 8 core earlier models that sell used around $1200. You can find the other early models for $700-800.

[kstackm]

Originally Posted by contramark

My PC finally kicked the dust and Im looking to upgrade with a Mac.

Looks like I have 3 main options:

1. MacPro 2006 Two 2.66 GHz (5150) Dual-core Intel Xeon "Woodcrest"

2. MacPro 2008 Two 2.8 GHz (E5462) Quad-Core Intel Xeon "Harpertown"

3. MacPro 2009 One 2.66 GHz (W3520) Quad-Core Intel Xeon "Bloomfield" or two 2.26 GHz (E5520) Quad-core Intel Xeon "Gainstown" with 8 MB of L3 cache

Im really liking the price on the 2006 model if that is still a powerful machine today? I have a RME Fireface interface (possibly looking to upgrade to UAD Apollo) and 1x UAD-2 2x UAD-1.

Please let me know what is my best option? I need to get my studio back and running ASAP, clients calling and I cant hold them off for too long.

Short Term - The 2008 2.8 GHz

Long Term - The 2009 2.66 GHz

The 2009 can eventually be turned into an extremely fast 6-Core by replacing the processor with a 6-Core 3.33 GHz or 3.46 GHz processor in the future. The 2008 has a much smaller upgrade footprint. The 2006 is in most cases much too slow and replete of real CPU power for most modern applications.

[contramark]

OK thanks for the advice! Maybe it is worth saving up a little more for the 2009.....Actually i did fix my PC today running some fixdisk utilities, so i have a little more time now.

Will there ever be another MacPro released?