Mac Pro Advice

[twjroe]

# Hi all,

My macbook pro 2015 is getting too slow for my needs and I'm looking at getting a mac pro. I mainly use it for photo and video editing (capture one, photoshop and premiere) with large 50mpx files.

I dont want to buy a new mac pro now because the new one will probably come out within a year so I'm thinking of getting one on ebay to last me until the new one comes out.

I was thinking of getting a 2013 model on ebay bu then I saw a 2010 model with these specs:

- Mid 2010 Mac Pro.
- Updated to high end CPU 2X3.46GHz 6-Core Intel Xeon
- 8X8gb total 64GB memory
- 960G SSD + 1TB HD
- AMD R9 280X 3GB graphics card with flash mac edition rom.
- USB3.0 card installed. It has 4 USB3.0 ports

Do you think this would work well for my needs compared to a less upgraded 2013 model?

My current machine is:
MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Mid 2015)
2.2 GHz Intel Core i7
16 GB 1600 MHz DDR3
Intel Iris Pro 1536 MB

Any help very much appreciated!

Thanks,

Tom

 

[casperes1996]

What's the price difference and how much does price matter in this comparison?

 

[twjroe]

The 2010 model is $2200 (australian) or the 2013 model is $2600 with these specs:

Apple Ex-Lease Mac Pro Late 2013 A1481

Quad Core Xeon E5 3.7Ghz

32GB RAM

512GB Flash Drive

Dual AMD Firepro D300 ( 2GB each)

Price matters but performance matters more

 

[h9826790]

For Photoshop, the nMP will win mainly because faster CPU, but the cMP should be still very fast, buy considering Photoshop is mainly user limiting for most simple input (how fast you can input the command), the difference should be tiny (especially the cMP has 96GB RAM and a large SSD which helps a lot in Photoshop.

For video editing, the editing part may be more or less the same on both machine if you do it properly (e.g. use proxy). But for export (encoding), very sure the cMP will be much faster because of the 12x 3.46GHz core. Also, for Premiere, you can choose to install a Nvidia graphic card onto the cMP which can further boost Premiere's performance.

Last but not least, cMP is more reliable than the nMP (especially D300 is a known problematic GPU).

 

[kohlson]

Something to consider is the 2010 cMP is no longer supported (hardware) by Apple. This may or may not mean much to you. It obviously has some advantages - more RAM, and ability to upgrade to even more; GPU upgradeability, easily upgrade internal disks for more storage. This may be just what you need...or not. It's still old technology, such as no TB, SATA-2, and slower memory. And it's a power pig. That said, still plenty capable for many things. If you're interested, you may want to see what it would take to build one out yourself, starting from a base dual-socket model. If you're so inclined it's a fun project, and you get what you need - perhaps for less.

 

[yuriapt22]

# Hi all,

My macbook pro 2015 is getting too slow for my needs and I'm looking at getting a mac pro. I mainly use it for photo and video editing (capture one, photoshop and premiere) with large 50mpx files.

I dont want to buy a new mac pro now because the new one will probably come out within a year so I'm thinking of getting one on ebay to last me until the new one comes out.

I was thinking of getting a 2013 model on ebay bu then I saw a 2010 model with these specs:

- Mid 2010 Mac Pro.
- Updated to high end CPU 2X3.46GHz 6-Core Intel Xeon
- 8X8gb total 64GB memory
- 960G SSD + 1TB HD
- AMD R9 280X 3GB graphics card with flash mac edition rom.
- USB3.0 card installed. It has 4 USB3.0 ports

Do you think this would work well for my needs compared to a less upgraded 2013 model?

My current machine is:
MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Mid 2015)
2.2 GHz Intel Core i7
16 GB 1600 MHz DDR3
Intel Iris Pro 1536 MB

Any help very much appreciated!

Thanks,

Tom

I would buy 2010 model.It has 2 CPU totally 12 cores with cash 12+12=24MB https://ark.intel.com/products/5257...r-X5690-12M-Cache-3_46-GHz-6_40-GTs-Intel-QPI and it's very important parameter that adds speed to encoding, decoding video and audio stream also audio, video bouncing.The 2013 model has only one CPU with 10mb cash and 4 cores https://ark.intel.com/products/75779/Intel-Xeon-Processor-E5-1620-v2-10M-Cache-3_70-GHz.The problem with SATA2 and SATA3 i think it's known there is no much difference between two of them and if you want really to speed up your HDD you should buy one more exactly 1TB HDD ( the speed of both HDD must be the same, preferably Spindle Speed 7200 rpm ) and combine with the installed one in RAID 0, it will look like one 2TB HDD and you'll get twice faster speed.In addition 2010 model has graphic with 3GB instead of 2, it has 64GB RAM instead of 32.What about the speed of RAM i think it should be fine with installed RAM on 2010 model.Good luck!

 

[twjroe]

Hey guys, thanks for all your advice, I ended up going for the 2013 version, mainly because I only plan on having it for a year or so until the new version comes out and therefore don't plan to upgrade parts. I think it will also be easier to sell, hopefully without too much loss. If it was more for the long run then I'd have gone for the 2010 and potentially upgraded some parts. All your advice greatly appreciated!

Cheers

 

[casperes1996]

You literally got that Mac Pro for half the cost of what I've found a used one for here in Denmark...