I'm trying to decide on a new Mac Pro. I have been watching an 8 core 3.2 on Apple's refurbished list. I like the idea of having really high speed on each individual core to handle big software synths. (Like NI Massive). The brand new Mac Pro with similar power per core would be 5 grand. The refurbished Mac is $3200. Would I be better of getting a brand new Mac Pro with less power per core? (to save money) Or is the 8 x 3.2 refurbished Mac the way to go? I'm not sure if a Nehalem chip with less power would compete with the previous generation Harpertown with much more power per core. Does anybody have first hand knowlege? Rob

Hi Rob I don't have first hand knowledge of all these setups... but I'd advise checking out macrumors.com buyers guide to see when the next models may be arriving... [url]http://buyersguide.macrumors.com/#Mac_Pro[/url] ... The Nehalem chip at $3200 is good value and should perform very well... what is your current Mac and performance like? Are you running Logic 9.1.1? Cheers Rounik

I have a G-5 dual 2.3 running Logic 8. I will most likely notice a substantial performance increase with any 8 core machine. I like the Idea of being able to load the big synths without worry. Also I should be able to load as many Waves plugins as my heart desires. It may be just like having a TDM set up. I have read about the Nehalem processors and the hyper-thread and virtual cores. I can't seem to find info on weather Logic will recognize more than 8 cores. Plus, I'm not sure how much of a performance boost I will need to worry about anyhow, over what an 8 core 3.2 machine will do. At some point it may just be overkill.

Well, the big benefit you'll see with Logic 9.1.1 (in 64-bit mode) is the ability to run compatible plugins without worrying about exceeding the 4GB ram limit in 32-bit mode. Having said that, we're in a 32 to 64-bit transition... Hopefully you will notice a huge performance boost! Have you checked out the free videos on 64-bit Logic by Steve H? http://www.macprovideo.com/tutorial/logic107 :) Rounik