As long time readers will know, earlier this year I applied to graduate school at Hunter College for their MFA in Creative Writing program. I wrote what I thought was a petty solid piece of fiction, but, unfortunately, I didn’t make the cut. They only take 6 students a year and neither Juli nor I were accepted or even waitlisted. Bummer. Anyway, throughout the writing and application process, I told myself that if I didn’t get in, then I would invest in a new desktop computer for more heavy duty processing needs. In March, just after finding out I wasn’t accepted, Apple introduced the new Nehalem-based Mac Pros. Pretty awesome, and definitely something to look into once the smoke of the new release had settled a little bit and RAM prices leveled out a bit.
But, then I lost my job at the beginning of June. Oops! Not that it was my fault, of course, but the income hit was significant even earning my relatively ungenerous $430 from the government, which is really my money so I’m not really earning, sort of just “taking back”. That dashed my computer plans a little as I took the summer off from life and everything, if you didn’t notice from the sparsity of posting here on The Black Laser for the last few months.
As summer fades and autumn forces itself back into our lives, the lazy dullness of summer-brain is leaving me and that means it’s time to get back to work. I’ve got more pictures to take and a fuckload of stories to write and, even better, a short film to cut. As much as I love the laptop I’ve been using since January 2007, it’s starting to choke a little on modern life’s higher data throughput requirements, particularly the raw files from the 5D Mk II and more than one stream of high def video in Final Cut. I also feel limited by the fairly small amount of screen real estate. Add to that some strangeness that has been happening since it accidentally fell out of the back of John’s car in February, and it feels like time to upgrade.
While window shopping at Apple.com a week ago, I noticed that they had a fresh batch of refurbished Mac Pros in stock. The one I want is the bottom of the line quad-core Mac Pro which normally goes for 2499, but refurbished is 2149, a 350 dollar savings. Not bad seeing as that 350 dollars goes most of the way toward the 490 dollars I need to outfit the system with 12gb of RAM. IT IS NOT EXCESSIVE. What makes all of this so damned tempting is that Apple is offering 12 months same-as-cash financing (read: no interest as long as I pay on time). It breaks down, overall, to a much more manageable amount of money to pay over the next year. I want to build a machine that will serve me well for the next 4 to 5 years. This is how my intended system breaks down.
- Mac Pro 2,499.00 (2149.00 if they have one refurbished)
- One 2.66GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon
- 3GB (3x1GB)
- 640GB 7200-rpm Serial ATA 3Gb/s
- NVIDIA GeForce GT 120 512MB
- One 18x SuperDrive
- EVGA GeForce GTX 285 449.95 – because the more graphics muscle the better with FCP, After Effects, Photoshop, whatever.
- Final Cut Studio 3 999.00 – now I am using a quasi-legal version of Final Cut and that kind of sucks. I ought to properly own a real copy.
- 12 GB RAM (3x 4 GB DIMMS) 489.99 – you can never have too much RAM
That satisfies most of my needs for the time being. Additional hard drives can be added as they are required. Besides Final Cut, I don’t need any other software either. In the future I might upgrade to the newest version of Logic, but I have a perfectly good, legal version already which gives me no real reason to rush out and upgrade.
Two issues remain, however: monitor(s) and audio.
For the monitor I’m thinking the HP2475w 24″ 16:10 display, which goes for about 550 dollars and has overwhelmingly positive reviews around the web. The other option is the Samsung 275T+ 27″ 16:10 display, which goes for about 1100 dollars. Though it is 3″ longer in the diagonal than the HP, the pixel resolution is identical, and—something that just occurred to me as I writing this—I could pick up two of the HPs for the same price as one of the Samsungs. The choice is obvious. I am excited to have more real estate for my photos. There is no need, of course, to buy BOTH HPs right now. I can always add a second later when I’m feeling less poor from the investment.
Audio is a less clear choice. I could go for a decent set of computer speakers like the Edirol MA-15Ds which can connect directly to the optical out on the back of the Mac Pro, requiring no other additional audio interface. At 150 dollars for the pair, they are also economical. Alternatively, I could purchase a Firewire audio interface and a pair of capable, though not too expensive, monitors. The current forerunner is the Focusrite Pro 24 DSP, 399, and a pair of KRK RP5g2s, 149.50 each, or a pair of Mackie MR5s, 149.99 each. To save money and because I really only NEED a way to get audio in and out of the computer—the on board DSP features of the Focusrite are nice but overkill—I might go with the Edirol FA-66, which is only 279. And if I’m going to save 120 bucks on the interface, why not shovel that savings into a pair of the more robust KRK RP6g2s, at 199.50 each?
The subtotal of things I definitely need is 4987.94, or 4637.94 if the computer is refurbished. Add the cheapest audio interface and speakers on there and the total with a new computer is 5565.94 (refurbished 5215.94). Now, I can finance 3947.95 of that over 12 months, which is a very manageable $329/month (refurbished 3597.95, and $299.83/month). The rest—a single monitor, audio interface, and speakers—come to 1617.99, a lot of money, but not a ridiculous amount for what I’m getting. Fortunately, I have all this money in the bank, but paying all of it out at once would basically empty out my savings, hence the financing.
Since I was approved yesterday for the card to finance with, I have 29 days left to make my decision. I am going to wait and see if more of the 2.66 quad-core Mac Pros come back into the refurbished line up before I pull the trigger since this is a lot of money we are talking about and every little bit I can save matters. Even better is that most of the accessories can move between computers should I need to replace it before 4 years. It’s just a large lay out at once because I’ve been using a laptop exclusively for 8 years or so and don’t already own many of the necessities.
Anyway, I’m thinking about it. Do any of you, my faithful readers, have any suggestions?