My Mac Pro

Last summer I made the switch from a SD camera to an HD camera. Previously I had been using a Panasonic PV-GS300 which I bought in 2005. I replaced it with a Canon HF-10 AVCHD camera, which was then partnered with a later purchase of a HV-40 HDV camera. During this time I was doing all of my editing on an iMac with multiple external hard drives plugged into it. The iMac was good, but I needed something with a little more power if I wanted to handle HD video. I began to look into making the next step up to a Mac Pro desktop.

In September, I became a proud owner of a Mac Pro. I bought the 2.66GHz Quad core model using a student discount through Apple's online store. I also configured it with 6GB of RAM, and paid for the ATi 4870 video card. I also was able to buy the extended warranty, because I have made use of these warranties in the past with my Macbook. I eventually sold the iMac on ebay, and I used the money to buy some more upgrades. I bought two 1TB hard drives, a Blu-ray burner, an elgato EyeTV USB TV-tuner, another 21" Acer 1080p monitor, and a nice Blu-ray player for my HDTV.

Today, the Mac Pro is a beast. It can handle just about anything I throw at it, and it barely breaks a sweat. One thing I love about the machine is how upgradeable it is. I could have never put three extra hard drives in my iMac, because it was not made to be user upgradeable. I am hoping that this Mac Pro lasts for five years. I think I'll even venture into upgrading the CPU in four years when the warranty expires.

(This picture is from before I bought my new 1080p TV. I have also organized all my wires as you can sort of see in the second picture)