is it better when buying the new mac pro's to get the 2.6 gHz processor or the 3.0 Ghz processor (is it really needed), or is more ram better than a faster processor?

thanks

Get the fastest computer you can afford,
with the most RAM you can afford!

For editing in FCP, I doubt you'd notice any difference between the two cpu's. I upgraded from 2Gb to 4Gb of RAM a couple of months ago and I didn't see any improvement in FCP, although Motion does run a lot better.

The only time the processor(s) will be pushed is during rendering, and even then FCP ignores most of the processing power of your machine. While rendering an HDV25P timeline in FCP my cpu's are 50% idle! I read somewhere on apples support pages that this is because the HDV codec doesn't make good use of the xeon multicore CPU's, although if you export as quicktime and then render with a cluster through compressor you will see the cpu's being maxed out. I have found clustering to be a tad buggy though if you try to render straight from FCP.

Personally, I'd go for the 2.6 and spend the extra on the built in RAID controller & drives. I didn't get it with my mac pro and wished I had as it's not available as a separate upgrade after purchase.

Paul.