Specs of Rex

I am waist-deep in the intricate process of choosing a new computer for my photography business. As a card-carrying member of the "Cult of Mac", it will be an Apple, but I am agonizing about which model to pick, and how to best outfit it for my needs. The iMac is a very nice computer, but that uber-glossy display, along with very limited upgrade options is slowly bumping me up the ladder to a full-blown Mac Pro.

For the uninitiated, the Mac Pro is a muscular computing beast of epic proportions, a kind of computational Tyrannosaurus Rex out roaming the late-Cretaceous landscape.

This technological terror boasts two of Intel's red-hot Xeon "Harpertown" 4-Core Processors for a total of 8 cores. It can be expanded up to 32 GB of very fast RAM, four 1-Terabyte hard drives, and a host of awesome graphics and display options. And all these powerful guts are tucked inside a gorgeous shining aluminum armor, like a knight outfitted for battle.

But what do I really need to best suit my photographic workflow? Well, there are a few things I can do to really make this beast better fit in my stable, as it were.

I don't need the hottest graphics card available. This machine is going to be used for photography, not 3D games. I am more interested in 2D pixel-pushing power than in getting 200 frames-per-second in Quake 4. So this saves money that can be used to add more all-important RAM.

Also, although I would love to spread my photos out on that brilliant wall of light that is the 30" Apple Cinema Display, the 23" ACD is really all I need. It has a respectable size, good color, and it's not glossy like the iMac screen.

And "The Beast" has great expandability for the future...I can add memory, drives, displays, etc. as needed. This thing is not cheap, and I want it to last me a while. One good way to do that is to make sure you're ahead of the curve starting out, and leave plenty of options open for the future.

I still have quite a bit of research to do, but don't be scared if you hear a roar coming from the vicinity of my house one day.