Sounds like a nice machine.

But it sounds like you want something that's reasonably current that takes a boatload of RAM. An XServe might work well and be substantially cheaper. But if it's not out of your pocket, then ... :-)

They're cheap.

You'd have to put some parts in it (an SSD, etc.) to make it comparable to the MacPro. The graphics card in the XServe might be a turtle as well, so it's not really an apples-to-apples comparison at those prices. :-(

Good luck.

Cheers,
Scott.