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2007 MacPro vs Imac?

M

MaddenMan

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jul 16, 2011
8
1
I'm really sorry if this is not where this should go but there are certain time constraints that make this urgent. The crux of the matter is this. Should I swap my 24" Early 2009 3.09 GHz 4GB RAM + GeForce 9600 GT 512MB +1TB HD for a 2007 MacPro (quad-core) 2x 2.66 GHz, 5GB RAM + ATI Radeon X1900 XT + Two Monitors + Two Disk Drives + 1TB HD?

I have read it may not be able to support 64 - bit and that apple will stop supporting 32 bit after Lion. I am an animator and a video editor, motion graphic artist mainly so I just need to know if it can handle newer applications with ease and if not I would upgrade to 8 core for a few hundred pounds, obviously doing the labour myself. The Imac cost me close to a £1000 a year ago. IS IT WORTH IT?

Many Thanks
Harry
 
I wouldn't trade a 2 year old system for a 5 year old system. My biggest concern would be what happens if it dies a week after you get it. Parts aren't cheap.

It has benefits in power and expandability, but the age, the X1900XT (many had failures), used displays would put me off.

If you are happy to gamble on the age and are willing to put money in to it then they are still decent systems.
 
I'd have to say no, keep your iMac. And save up to purchase a new mac pro when the time comes. Im not entirely sure about this but I would think that you wouldn't see any noticeable increase in performance., plus it's a five year old machine. That's like 300 in computer years.
 
yup, really unsure.

I know the video card is a piece of crap, but i got excited when i thought about upgrading it and making a beast out of it once again. but I guess you are right nearly 5 years is a gamble. and for all the cores and ram i upgraded it would be completely obsolete within a year... although I have heard an octo-core upgrade could get its benchmarks up around a late 2009 Pro....
 
I have to agree with the previous posters. It doesn't seem like a good deal given the age of the Mac Pro.

MaddenMan said:
I'm really sorry if this is not where this should go but there are certain time constraints that make this urgent. The crux of the matter is this. Should I swap my 24" Early 2009 3.09 GHz 4GB RAM + GeForce 9600 GT 512MB +1TB HD for a 2007 MacPro (quad-core) 2x 2.66 GHz, 5GB RAM + ATI Radeon X1900 XT + Two Monitors + Two Disk Drives + 1TB HD?

I have read it may not be able to support 64 - bit and that apple will stop supporting 32 bit after Lion. I am an animator and a video editor, motion graphic artist mainly so I just need to know if it can handle newer applications with ease and if not I would upgrade to 8 core for a few hundred pounds, obviously doing the labour myself. The Imac cost me close to a £1000 a year ago. IS IT WORTH IT?

Many Thanks
Harry
Click to expand...
 
I have a similar machine, though with more memory and a 5770. My best friend has that exact iMac. I can assure you the performance gap is at least on par with the 25% geekbench shows, start doing more than one thing at a time and that gap grows quickly. Add to that the fact that my old reliable Pro doesn't feel like it's going to catch on fire when encoding and I'd argue you would likely be looking at a longevity upgrade after a video card swap. The monitors would be a deciding factor for me, not many aftermarket monitors can equal even a 2009 Macs 24" display, if the displays coming with Pro are quality I'd probably go for it. If they are cheap junk, it may be a different story. If anything, I'd try to drag a little cash out of the deal, if you can manage to get 100 back, you can sell the old X1900 and with that be most of the way to paying for an Apple branded 5770. Obviously the flash route would be even cheaper.
 
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