so iam thinking about upgrading to a mac pro. I've done a bit of research and I've read some reviews that state that the difference in performance between the quad core and eight core mac pros are minimal. so I was wondering if any pro users who populate this forum might want to chime in there opinions. quad core or 8 core? cheers John.

Hi John, go with what you can afford.... and buy what is useful and performance orientated now. The whole 8 core thing isn't that well supported by software including the O/S at the moment so to be honest, I think the 8 core is a nice thing on paper, but in reality is not that much of a performance advantage. Yes, future software updates are going to tap in to the extra cores but when are these software updates are going to be released, and when are they going to be bug free to rely on in a working studio/ setup is another thing!? You might find yourself waiting for a couple of years for everything to be rejigged for proper multicore threading and by that time, there will be new processors out there that will make up the difference in speed anyway! Spend more money on RAM and separate hard drives for your system and sample libraries, and you will see much better performance gains than getting 4 cores you can't use right now. my 2c

Hi Guys, I concur with YADJ and all his salient points... IMHO, Money spent on RAM and seperate hard drives is the way to go... It all depends on your budget... Cheers, Bj

yeah that's the conclusion I had pretty much reached myself. my only worry about going quad was how many years I could get out of it and would the 8 core be a better long term investment. but in the end the price gap is too large. thanks for helping me decide.

Hey John I'm a bit late to this discussion... I agree with Yadj and Bj. However, It's difficult to know whether the upcoming Snow Leopard will harness the 8 core machines to give them a greater performance boost over the quad's or not with Logic 8 or a future version of Logic. You can make the Quad core into a better investment by using faster external or internal HD's, getting more ram and investigating using dsp cards for increased performance, e.g. UAD. HTH Rounik

.... one more nail in the 8 core coffin, I've yet to see anyone max out a quad core processor in logic. The amount of plugins and software instruments you can run and not even tickle 25% is huge so I really wouldn't worry about it. When Snow Leopard does come out, if it does address multithreading, it will also mean it will improve quad core performance further so you will still reap some reward. Cheers, j

sorry for the late reply, Rounik pretty much summed up what I was worried about. mac are almost certainly going to a developing with the 8 core machines in mind aren't they? when making such a huge investment one concern is how much life can I get out of this machine befre it is made redundant? but as you have all pointed out the price difference is too great to justify buying a machine which iam not sure I'll even be able to get full Use from anytime soon. on another note, do you think apple will be cutting the price of the quad core anytime soon?

If I knew how I could I would!... but still... there's a certain conviction in what you were saying at least! Quad core prices could come down in price, or they might not. Software, including operating systems, will definitely be optimised for more cores..... and that might happen, in a bug free state, this year, it might not. It could be in time for Snow Leopard, it might not. Logic will also have to be updated, as will it's plug ins, 3rd party and otherwise, for it to take advantage of a) snow leopard and b) muti cores. That could happen this year.... or it might not. As a result, if you hold off for buying a new computer hoping that the planets will align in your favour... you might be waiting a while.... or you might not. There's no easy answer I'm afraid BUT, what is a fact is even with a Quad core machine, I've yet to see any one max one out ... even with BIG logic sessions. Hence why I personally think your money is better off going towards a truck load of RAM and separate hard drives. You have to think of your system as a combination of bottle necks and hard drive and RAM choking will happen a LOT sooner than processor speeds maxing out.... Snow Leopard, Logic 10 and superfangalistic hyperthreading enabled.... or not! I might be being devils advocate here.... but do you need a Mac Pro? If money saving is the game then how about a well specced iMac with external hard drives for sample bays etc?

good day to all some really good food for thought here. it's less about saving and more about making the absolute best investment taking bang for buck and life expectancy etc into account. it's a really tough choice. but it seems the quad core is the way to go. hey JF: I use a lot of heavy duty CPU munching stuff like Vienna and intend to use a lot more over the next couple of years so I've been considering the node as well. and Vienna has the ensemble mastering suite which allows use of a slave computer va Ethernet. so I've been thinking of that too. but if it's practically impossible to max out a quad core then I may not need to use it! john thanks for the advice everyone