I'll start off saying I don't have a Mac Pro - yet. I have a G5 PowerMac and a 15" MacBook Pro.

If you are on a budget, I'd recommend looking at Apple's refurbished pages (store.apple.com/1-800-MY-A...oa/wa/RSLID to see what they have in the way of refurbished Mac Pros. That will save you a few hundred right out of the gate.

Unless you have serious money burning a hole in your pocket, don't buy extra ram or hard drives from Apple - they are heavily marked up, and installing them is a piece of cake.

I would pick the "standard" model of Mac Pro - the 2.66 Ghz - spending nearly $1k for an extra 400 Mhz, just doesn't sound worth it to me.

The 250 GB system disk, is plenty for most - you won't be putting media on that drive anyway. Extra drives are pricey at Apple = $395 for a 500 GB drive. I just bought a 500 GB SATA Seagate drive for $135 (taxes in), so you can see how that can add up fast.

I would get the bluetooth and Airport cards ($95) because, well, having them can be mighty handy.

Then we come the issue of graphics cards. More is better, but if you are working in SD, then one is plenty for now, I think.

Applecare.. Well, that is your call. If it was a refurb, I might opt for it.

With regards to after market stuff - depending where you are, tigerdirect.ca is handy. ;-) Macs *are* picky about the ram they use, so have a look around to make sure you are getting the right stuff. Aftermarket hard drives are pretty straightforward. Buy, open case, put in. ;-)

In then end, I'd probably do 2 or 4 GB (more is always better), again depending on your budget.

Hopefully, that helps.

thanks that really helps!
you are awesome.

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