Q&A. Mac Budget Of $7600

Waldo asks a few questions regarding a new setup he plans to purchase.

I am in the buying position for a new Mac Pro and a new IiMac 24″. I currently do video editing currently on my iMac G5 with the old Final Cut and i just got the new Final Cut Studio 2 for Christmas, I also do audio production on my iMac with the old Logic, looking to get Logic Studio.

For years I have always wanted a Mac tower but never had the money, I am looking at the educational store to make my purchase. I finally have the money and I want the best Mac Pro I can get for my money and a baseline 24” iMac which is $1700. I have a budget of $7,600 and I want 2 x 30″ display set up for my Mac Pro.

Does your setup need two 30″ Apple Cinema Display’s, or would you be okay going with another brand? I would stay away from the Apple Cinema Display’s at this point in time as they’re on the verge of an update. Instead, I’d recommend two of Dell’s 3007 displays. These retail for $1399 each. If you’d be willing to stretch the budget, opt for the newer 3008 model ($1999 each). Saying you choose the 3007, this leaves $4800 left in the budget.

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What is the best option for me? My Final system must include 2 30″ Cinema Displays and the 24″ iMac as well as the best Mac Pro I can get with the money. If it goes a couple hundred over….thats ok….but only if I really need it.

With the Mac Pro recently updated, your timing to make the large investment is very good. As far as I can tell, I see the Two Quad 2.8Ghz system to be the best value for money. First of all, you say you need the 24″ iMac. That’s $1700 more of the budget gone, $3100 remains to play with.

I’d suggest ordering from Apple with the following specs (prices from normal, non education store). Pretty much order the stock machine, with the exception of changing to video card to the NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT 512MB, an extra SuperDrive, and a AirPort Extreme card (Wi-Fi). The machine totals in at $3200, putting you $100 over budget, not taking into account the educational discounts you’ll receive.

Any extra money saved I’d spend on third party upgrades. I’d suggest keeping the 320GB drive for a Leopard (boot drive), then picking up a 750GB drive for storage ($170). As far as RAM goes, it’s dirt cheap now. Pick up a 8GB kit for $400 at OWC. You’ll notice the difference far more than any processor upgrade the money could be otherwise spent on.

Comments

  1. #1

    Dan

    I agree with everything you said here. I would recommend Waldo waiting for Steve Job’s keynote tomorrow, because there may be new ACD’s with built in iSight cameras. If not, then I think he should go with the Dell displays.

  2. #2

    Glenn Wolsey → www.glennwolsey.com

    One reason why I like answering some of these questions here, the reader feedback below for more help for the original question asker. Thanks Dan!

  3. #3

    EDIT-XTREEM → iappblog.com

    I don’t agree with the wireless keyboard, other than theat looks great, make sure to add in the $1200 for fcs and your set. It would aslo great to pick up a training dvd or two and your set..

  4. #4

    Waldo

    Thanks guys…i don’t think i would go with the dell displays cuz I’m an all apple guy and wouldn’t settle for anything else…anyone have any suggestions about what brand of hard drive’s to put in the machine? Glenn..i was thinking about purchasing 4 g’s of ram to make it a total of 6 g’s….am i going to see a major difference between 6 & 8. Thanks …keep the comments coming.

  5. #5

    Michael

    Personally for external HDD’s I would go for the Western Digital brand. I think Glenn did a post on them a while back - they have completely revamped their whole production line. If I was buying money wise I would take one of those, easily. Thats my personal opinion - I have had really good experiences with all WD drives.

  6. #6

    Nathan Bolender → www.nathanbolender.com

    I’m not sure how it works in New Zealand, but in the States you have to worry about taxes, too. On something such as that, you could spend an additional $192 on sales tax alone (at 6% sales tax, as in my state). That’s just another thing to keep in consideration when looking at your Mac Budget. ;-)

  7. #7

    Umair Ata

    I agree with Michael, WD is a good option for external drives. I also have a WD external drive and im satisfied. Waldo, I must say, thats a big amount you got there for your setup man. You are lucky and I am happy for you. I am still in the process of saving money for my setup. Wish me luck :)

  8. #8

    Pierre Lourens → honestchaos.com

    Nathan! I completely agree with you. I always forget to factor in tax, and then am surprised when I see the final bill. This, of course, happened when I was on a tight budget.

    I learned my lesson, haha.

  9. #9

    Waldo

    To bad there was no news/announcements about new ACD’s. Maybe there still in the coming months?

  10. #10

    Bunty

    Nathan Bolender:

    there is a 12.5% Goods and services tax in NZ. Usually prices are listed including such a tax though, is this not the case in U.S.

  11. #11

    Dan

    Waldo, hopefully there will be new ACD’s soon. I think that they are need to be updated soon. So Waldo, what setup are you going to be going with?

  12. #12

    Waldo

    If the displays don’t show-up within the next few weeks this is my options.

    Mac Pro: AirPort Extreme card (Wi-Fi)
    Two 16x SuperDrives
    Two 2.8GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon (8-core)
    Apple wireless Mighty Mouse
    Apple Wireless Keyboard (English) + Mac OS X
    2GB (2 x 1GB)
    320GB 7200-rpm Serial ATA 3Gb/s
    Accessory kit
    ATI Radeon HD 2600 XT 256MB (Two dual-link DVI)
    $2,784.00

    IMac 24″

    2.4 GHz Intel core 2 duo
    $1699

    Apple Cinema Displays
    2 30″ Displays
    $3198

    Mac Sales

    4 g’s for ma cpro
    500 gb HD for mac pro
    4 G’s for Imac 24″

    Total G’s for Macpro= 6
    Total G’s for Imac= 4

    Thanks guys..keep the comments coming

  13. #13

    Jay

    dude, where do you get all this money? do you have a part time job in high school?

  14. #14

    Waldo

    I actually invested some of my saving’s in Apple Stock (AAPL) I bought shares at 125 and sold at 158 so apple’s basically provided the money for me to purchase back their products. LOL. I also own my own business called Mayo Video and i basically take peoples old home movies/ Photos and put them on DVD. I make the photos into slideshows with menu’s and chapters and I Edit the home movies.I am also an Actor and have done several Payed commercials.

  15. #15

    Liam

    I think you’re “compromising” when you buy apple displays; the dells are better and cheaper. BTW, the dell is down to $1040.

  16. #16

    Charles

    (through the education store, about 6200 right now, it’s actually part of a larger $14,000 budget plan)

  17. #17

    Waldo

    The Mac Pro has been ordered. Bumpt up the HD to 500GB and ordered an extra from OWC so thats a total of 1T in the machine. Now i ordered the Mac Pro on Jan 17th still has not prepared to ship or ship. This sucks…..the waiting.

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