The Mac Pro: Power and Room to Grow

A professional photographer wrote to me recently saying that they were "looking for a computer that can handle Adobe Photoshop CS4 and anything else that I throw at it." Like me, this photographer is interested in purchasing a serious workhorse system with long-term value. "Workhorse" and "long-term value" are hard to define, but to me they mean a substantial computer that will still be a solid performer in four or five years.

My advice for this photographer, and all of the others out there currently sweating the big computer purchase, is to get a Mac Pro tower. In the interest of full disclosure, let me state that I am an Apple and a Dell affiliate and that I teach digital photography using both Mac and Windows computers. If you look around on this site you will find plenty of advice on buying Dell (Windows) laptops and desktops. It is true that there are lots of other machines on the market right now, fall 2008, that cost a lot less, but I have not found a comparable computer to the Mac Pro which can deliver this much power.

The thing that keeps running through my mind as I write this article is that each year the complexity of the photographic tasks that I undertake rise. Five years ago, shooting a six megapixel jpeg image with a DSLR was considered "state-of-the-art." Today we expect to work on high megapixel digital camera raw files in real-time. Likewise, three years ago HDR and panoramic merges were rare and special. Now these things are pretty run-of-the-mill projects for professional photographers. See, each year I want more out of my equipment and my art. This is why I think the Mac Pro tower is worth the price and these are the reasons I am so keen on the Mac Pro towers right now.

1. Processor Power - In business, time is money. As a freelance digital photographer, this means that the more tasks I can accomplish the more profitable my day is. Right now Adobe Photoshop Lightroom v.2 and Adobe Photoshop CS4 are pushing the limits of raw file processing to new heights. These programs now allow us to perform non-destructive local adjustments, like burning and dodging, on our digital camera raw files! The door to a faster, more productive, and thus more profitable raw image workflow has suddenly swung open, but you need a serious machine to perform this kind of work.

Local adjustments on raw files force the computer to do a whole lot of really complicated math. We are talking millions or trillions of calculations here. If I try to use these tools to burn or dodge a raw file with Lightroom on my one year old MacBook Pro, the process is painfully slow. Yes, the tools work but I waste a lot of time waiting before I can see the results. I love my MacBook Pro and I love the iMac, but if you want to get your money's worth out of Lightroom v.2 or Photoshop CS4 then these computers are just not powerful enough.

While I certainly want a powerful computer for my business productivity, I also need lots of power to keep my art fresh and interesting. With Adobe Photoshop CS4 Extended now on the market, there are tremendous new opportunities for all of us to push the art of photography further. Suddenly a door has opened, for those with the right equipment, to work with 3D images and to composite multiple frames together in new and exciting ways. Wow! With CS4 we can now tie multiple frames together to expand the depth of field in our images and explore the interesting new world of spherical panoramas.

2. RAM - Adobe Photoshop CS4 and Lightroom v.2 need more than 4 gigabytes of RAM for peak performance. Today's cutting-edge photo projects demand both a lot of processing power and a lot of RAM. For the average "word-processing / web-surfing only computer" 2 or 4 gigabytes of RAM is plenty, but for digital photographers, the 4GB RAM cap is now a serious handicap. I wish that the current line of iMacs, or the newest MacBook Pro models, could handle 6 or 8 gigabytes of RAM but, sadly, only the Mac Pro tower delivers in this critical area.

This is also where 64-bit processing comes into play. To see any benefit from 64-bit applications, you need more than 4GBs of RAM. Adobe Photoshop Lightroom v.2 is already 64-bit compatible for both Mac's and PC's and, looking ahead, we know that Adobe Photoshop CS5 will run as a 64-bit application on both platforms when it gets released in eighteen months or so. Without getting too deep into the advantages of 64-bit processing, let me simply explain that 64-bit routines promise much better performance when you are working with big files.

Adobe conservatively estimates the performance boost for Lightroom as a 64-bit application vs. Lightroom as a 32-bit app at around 8-12%, even when you are performing simple tasks. Adobe Product Manager John Nack points out that as our cameras get more and more powerful that 64-bit processing will "become a [much] bigger win." Remember that we are shopping here for a machine that will not be underpowered anytime soon.

3. Room to Grow - With room for multiple video cards and up to four internal hard drives, the Mac Pro tower is a machine that you are not going to outgrow anytime soon. Few other computers on the market offer this much room for expansion as your needs change. When you read my recommendations, you will see that I am not suggesting that photographers invest in these features right now, but I sure like the idea that I will be able to add them when I am ready.

So which model of Mac Pro do I recommend? I have two suggestions here, depending upon your budget.

For those with deeper pockets I suggest purchasing a Mac Pro tower with:

• Two 2.8GHZ Quad-Core Intel Xeon Processors

• 2GB (2x1GB) RAM*

• 500GB 7200-rpm Serial ATA Hard Drive

• NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT 512MB Graphics Card

• One 16X SuperDrive

• iWork '08

• The AppleCare Protection Plan for Mac Pro**

For those with a tighter budget, I suggest the Mac Pro tower with:

• One 2.8GHZ Quad-Core Intel Xeon Processor

• 2GB (2x1GB) RAM*

• 320GB 700-rpm Serial ATA Hard Drive

• ATI Radeon HD 2600 XT 256MB Graphics Card

• One 16X SuperDrive

• iWork '08

• The AppleCare Protection Plan for Mac Pro**

Bargain hunters might want to check the Apple-certified refurbished Mac site for deals everyday. Supplies on this site are limited and the listings change daily, but every now and then you can find a factory refurbished Mac Pro for 10-15% less than its retail price.

There is a little bit more that you should know before you make a decision about one of these computers. First, you need to remember that this entire post has been about the tower or CPU part of the computer only. You are also going to need a monitor to complete the system. For advice on monitors and monitor calibrators please click here.

Second, I put those asterisks (*) in there for a reason. The first asterisk is to warn you that 2 gigabytes of RAM is not nearly enough. I suggest equipping your new Mac Pro with 6 or 8GBs of RAM, but I think that Apple charges a ridiculous markup if they do it for you. The price difference between adding more RAM yourself and getting it installed at the factory is just staggering!

Trust me, installing more RAM in these towers is a piece of cake. Anyone can do it. The only tricky part of the whole process is getting the right RAM blocks. For RAM upgrades, I always use Crucial.com. This link should make it easy for you to get the right parts. (Just in case, be sure that you get RAM for an Apple Mac Pro Tower with an 8-core Xeon 5400 "Hapertown" Series processor.)



The second set of asterisks are next to the AppleCare Protection Plan. It bothers me that the default warranty for a computer this expensive only lasts for one year. Even worse, without the extended AppleCare Protection plan, you would only get free tech support via telephone for a mere ninety days. Hopefully, I'll never need to have anything repaired or replaced, but on a purchase this size I absolutely want more than ninety days of free phone tech support.

I should point out that you are not required to buy the AppleCare Protection Plan right away. You can opt into this program at anytime within the first year of purchase. If money is tight right now, consider skipping this option with your initial purchase, but I do urge you to sign up for it before the standard one-year warranty expires.



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