[X4U] Mac Pro fresh updates?

[Joe Sporleder]

On Jun 16, 2010, at 6:41 PM, Zane H. Healy wrote:

> At 1:53 PM -0700 6/16/10, zapcat wrote:
>> On Jun 16, 2010, at 1:25 PM, Zane H. Healy wrote:
>> 
>>> Once you start beefing a iMac up to Mac Pro levels of RAM, you might as well
>>> have gone with the Mac Pro.
>> 
>> Well, not to disrespect your experience, and as always "YMMV" applies, but a current iMac right out of the box is plenty for most print needs. There is an argument made that the Photoshop Pro requires *the* very latest, most pimped-out rig available, but it doesn't sound like the OP is doing high-end photoshop retouching.

Our main use for Photoshop is adjusting and processing photos for color and black and white newsprint. 

> 
> I'll agree on the YMMV, and I think your advice to the OP to stick with what he has, or look for a refurbed Mac Mini is a good one. If the Mac Mini had eSATA ports or better yet Multilane port, I'd be more tempted by it.  It is very close to what I need, but lacks the I/O and RAM.  Even the iMac is very close to what I need.  The screen on the 21.5" is lower than what I consider acceptable, and if I were to go with the 27", I'd want to max it out at 16GB (I currently have 7GB and it isn't enough).

What I have for my own personal workstation is a 13" MacBook Pro, which I will be upgrading from 4GB to 8GB of RAM, and from 320GB to 640GB of HD this week. When I'm in office involved with production, I use a 24" Acer screen to extend my desktop area.

> 
>> Rather, he said something like "It'd be nice to have some extra-muscle." To my mind, this does not bespeak a mission-critical need to be on the absolute cutting edge.
> 
> Agreed, and I have to question any need for more than two monitors. My personal experience is that I find 1 monitor to work the best, but then this is a serious YMMV type situation.

We are in the process of converting our manual pagination system where our production manager/sales manager physically lays out our weekly shopper (24-32 page average tabloid sized, 100% advertising type publication) on old fashioned pasteup boards, too much time is spent cutting and waxing and pasting. The workflow I am imaging there's an advantage of being able to see multiple views of different pages of a single document, with minimal window switching. Thus, the MacPro's ability to configure with up to 8 monitors would be useful in this particular scenario. Plus, we are too small to be able to afford the auto and semi-automatic pagination systems, which are not necessarily a perfect fit for a shopper anyways, they are more designed for newspapers that have a mixture of news and ads. Our entire publication is like the classified section of a newspaper. The specialized automation software is very pricy because of their vertical limited audience nature. I could buy 3 to 5 base model MacPros custom configured (I'd do my own ram and screens - Apple's RAM and LCDs - although very nice, are too expensive) with 16GB of RAM and 8 nice 24" LCD screens and an extra hard drive or 3 for the cost of the automation software. Then with some carefully organized sharepoints on our server, I can create a nice semi-autiomatic pagination work flow.

Our publishing company also owns the local radio station, and we've been working on turning their website into a reliable local news site. In addition to the written story, we've started adding audio and video content. I've been learning how to use a consumer camcorder and iMovie on my MacBook to upload video to our Youtube and blip.tv accounts for embedding with content in our website. I can see myself upgrading to Final Cut Express or Pro down the road as I gain more knowledge in this area. Its been a pleasant change of pace, considering my professional career using Macs for the past 17 years has been in newsprint. Would a Mac Pro have much advantage over its smaller Mac family members?

Part of the reason I'm justifying a MacPro for this "special workstation" is that it'll have multiple uses - as a pagination system with lots of screen real estate, as a fast Photoshop and Illustrator machine when the occasional more complex task comes along, to a video and audio editing machine for our radio station's website. Plus, for the pagination workflow, our production manager (we'll call him a legacy issue) will be retiring soon, along with another employee, so this is a great opportunity to use the payroll we'd save with their retirement for some technology to streamline our workflow and also at the same time absorb the duties of the retirees into the remaining staff.

Joe