Mac Pro V Mac Pro Server Specs

[jgbr]

Question:

Should a mac pro server have less speed and more grunt, whereas a workstation have more speed and less grunt?

Thoughts and feelings on it

( I have to deploy some osx servers but a master workstation does a huge amount of work, so trying to spend the cash best)

 

[Pressure]

What exactly are you asking?

 

[seb-opp]

Should a mac pro server have less speed and more grunt, whereas a workstation have more speed and less grunt?

Define 'grunt'

 

[jgbr]

Well it would be intresting to see what others say but

Grunt in perhaps , Dual CPU, lower speed

against

One CPU higher Speed

 

[Vylen]

Well it would be intresting to see what others say but

Grunt in perhaps , Dual CPU, lower speed

against

One CPU higher Speed

Just look into the debates about whether to get the 6-core 3.33Ghz Mac Pro or the 8-core 2.4Ghz Mac Pro.

There's been enough of people saying what they think

 

[Pressure]

If we are talking cores contra speed, then it all boils down to what software you will be using.

For the server though, definitely go with more cores as it will be able to handle consecutive connections without trouble.

 

[JollyJoeJoe]

Question:

Should a mac pro server have less speed and more grunt, whereas a workstation have more speed and less grunt?

Thoughts and feelings on it

( I have to deploy some osx servers but a master workstation does a huge amount of work, so trying to spend the cash best)

It's best to have both more grunt and speed for either

Otherwise it depends on the applications you use, if your apps take full advantage of multi-core/parallel processing than you would gain more from
dual procs at lower speed than one at high. For servers it's always high i/o, multiple requests and threads, so the more cores and RAM the merrier.

 

[jgbr]

So low spec - as many cores for server

for workstation high core speeds

 

[linuxcooldude]

You also need to look at what environment & how many people are going to access that server.

Small businesses don't need much, obviously larger companies need more. You can see this with the Mac Mini which they sell as a server or the Mac Pro for high usage needs.

I would think large companies need more ram and cores then speed alone.

 

[DustinT]

It really, really depends on what your platform and application is. NO ONE can give you good advise without knowing those two things. You probably want a consultant to help you design this properly if you aren't an expert.

 

[goMac]

Why wouldn't you use the same metrics you use for any other software?

How much CPU does the stuff you're serving require? How much disk space? How fast of disk?

I'm not sure why using a machine as a server makes some special case. Figure out what your server software needs.

 

[jonnymo5]

Totally depends on what software you want to run and expected number of users. Also does it have to be OSX?

Mac Pro isn't an ideal full time server since you are spending money on video card, Bluetooth, I/O ports,airport, etc.

 

[goMac]

Totally depends on what software you want to run and expected number of users. Also does it have to be OSX?

Mac Pro isn't an ideal full time server since you are spending money on video card, Bluetooth, I/O ports,airport, etc.

I don't really agree with this. The costs for Bluetooth an Airport are insignificant, and if you're a small shop, you'll want a GPU in your server (just not a high end one.)

And less I/O ports for a server? Servers should have plenty of I/O ports, especially when you need to do diagnostics. Yeah, maybe the Mac Pro comes with a few too many USB ports, but that's not the worst problem to have.

No more rack mount is kind of a killjoy, but not every shop uses racks anyway.