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Posts published in “Day: September 16, 2009

So… I did it.

Hi everybody! I’m back from the great wild northlands of Minnesota where and tremendous time was had by all. But that is not what this post is about. I have photos and thoughts and anecdotes forthcoming. Now, I am here to let my readership know that I took the previously considered plunge into the deepest pools of computational mystery. I placed the order just before leaving for my trip and everything arrived safely and soundly at Juli’s work the week I was gone. On Monday, I called Herr Jesse Allen up to borrow him (and his car) to help me move the boxes home. It would have been a total shit show otherwise.

The breakdown of the system purchased is as follows, with notes describing any alterations to my plan:

  • Mac Pro Quad-Core 2.93 gHz refurbished — I went for one higher on the processor scale than my original 2.66 gHz plan since a) Apple didn’t have a refurbished 2.66 in stock when I went to purchase, and b) the refurbished 2.93 was only 50 dollars more than a NEW 2.66. Done and done.
  • HP LP2475w — This is what I had planned to buy and I couldn’t be happier. An excellent monitor. I will definitely be adding another at some point. And, regardless of sketchy reviews online regarding its color accuracy, with tweaking and my hardware calibrator I was able to reach my ideal 6500K / gamma 2.2 / 120cd/m^2. That’s good.
  • 12GB RAM
  • EVGA GTX 285 – Awesome
  • Edirol MA-15DBK powered monitors

A savvy reader will notice to omissions from this list. The first is the new Final Cut Studio. I decided at this time to hold off at least until Apple releases a round of bug fixes for the brand new software. I do have Final Cut Studio 2 already. The new features are seriously tempting, but tacking an extra grand onto an already serious expenditure was unnecessary. Perhaps when I get toward the end of The Frontiersman’s Wife I will take the plunge since I am particularly excited about the changes regarding the integration of Final Cut and Color.

The second is that I went with the much less expensive Edirol MA-15Ds instead of the Focusrite Pro DSP 24 and a pair or KRK RP5g2s. This was a financial decision also. Initially I didn’t buy any speakers at all, but after using the system for a few days with just headphones, I recognized that this was no way to go about working. I went to B&H today (tied with Adorama for best place in the world) and picked up a pair and an optical cable so I could enjoy direct digital output from my computer. I am not displeased. After getting them about 1 and 1/4 inches off the desk (thanks 2 identical copies of Crime & Punishment!), they sound fantastic—much better than the 179.00 price tag would lead you to believe. There’s something really nice about good stereo separation that makes my ears feel nice. Also, these things will get much louder than I would ever need them too. If zero volume is at 7 o’clock, I currently have them at 8 o’clock with iTunes at 75% and I think it’s a pretty comfortable listening level.

Really, this has been such a tremendously positive new computer experience I’m almost afraid. The only hiccup I experienced was using Migration assistant to move my old data from the laptop to the MacPro. It seemed to transfer fine, but my system was just totally fucked afterwards, so I wiped it clean and started over. One bonus was that I had expected to have problems with the EVGA card since it’s not the card that ships in the tower. EVGA’s tech support had confirmed my fear that if I needed to reinstall the system from scratch that I would need to reinstall the original GT120, install the system, install the EVGA drivers, and then reinstall the GTX285. But, when I tried to install the drivers for the first time, I noticed that it told me that the system was already compatible which I thought was weird, but just went with. And when I wiped the hard drive clean, I was able to install 10.6 without replacing the GTX285. It just worked fine right away. Awesome! I guess I should tell EVGA about that.

Anyway, that’s it for now. More thoughts later as I continue hacking away on this thing. Now it is time for tacos and dailies syncing.