I picked up a G4 MacMini about a year ago and played around with it, while maintaining a PC as my main computer. I am now ready to switch fulltime to a new Mac with the advent of BootCamp and Parallels to run a few of the PC apps I still need. I already have a notebook for work and the Mini is too under powered for me so it came down to the iMac vs the Mac Pro.
The new 24" iMacs are mighty tempting. The all in one is both a blessing and a curse. The obvious real estate, lack of cable clutter, and superb screen are tremendously appealing. But the lack of expansion and upgrade path with an all in one is also a detriment.
The Mac Pro has more power, a better video card option, and tons of expansion capability. It also costs more, takes up more space, still has cable clutter, and doesn't replace my 20" LCD, meaning even more cost to get a 24" monitor.
During my research I noticed the discount for the Apple Developers Connection program. Since I work at a software company, it wasn't a big stretch to convince my boss to pay for it, giving me a healthy discount on the new computer. The price break is much bigger for the Mac Pro vs the iMac.
So after lots of agonizing about both choices and nearly purchasing both at one time over the past two weeks, I finally bit the bullet and ordered a Mac Pro last night. It is a lot of money for a computer, but with the ADC discount it was slightly easier to swallow. I ordered the 2.66, 2 gig RAM, 250 gig drive, dual super drives, bluetooth/wireless, x1900xt and with the discount it came to $2630 plus tax. Now the seemingly never ending wait for it to ship!
The new 24" iMacs are mighty tempting. The all in one is both a blessing and a curse. The obvious real estate, lack of cable clutter, and superb screen are tremendously appealing. But the lack of expansion and upgrade path with an all in one is also a detriment.
The Mac Pro has more power, a better video card option, and tons of expansion capability. It also costs more, takes up more space, still has cable clutter, and doesn't replace my 20" LCD, meaning even more cost to get a 24" monitor.
During my research I noticed the discount for the Apple Developers Connection program. Since I work at a software company, it wasn't a big stretch to convince my boss to pay for it, giving me a healthy discount on the new computer. The price break is much bigger for the Mac Pro vs the iMac.
So after lots of agonizing about both choices and nearly purchasing both at one time over the past two weeks, I finally bit the bullet and ordered a Mac Pro last night. It is a lot of money for a computer, but with the ADC discount it was slightly easier to swallow. I ordered the 2.66, 2 gig RAM, 250 gig drive, dual super drives, bluetooth/wireless, x1900xt and with the discount it came to $2630 plus tax. Now the seemingly never ending wait for it to ship!
