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Macpro or 24" iMac

^squirrel^

^squirrel^

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Apr 4, 2006
651
1
England
Dear all,

I'm looking for a bit of help with buying the correct machine for my needs.

I use the machine for a bit of gaming such as Flight Simulator, Counter Strike and battlefield 2. Most of the other time it will be iLife, email and general internet usage. I however will be using Mac the ripper and handbrake which will use a lot of processing power.

Will the iMac have enough juice to run these tasks at good rates?

The iMac im think off is

24" iMac
2.33 Intel Core 2 Duo
2GB DDR2 Memory
7600GT 256mb Nvidia Grapics Card
500GB Hard Drive

Or the Macpro

Standard config apart from...
X1900 GPU
2gb Memory
160gb drive ( have spare 160gb SATA drive at home )

I already have a 19" screen but i would upgrade to a 24" with the Macpro. So the total price would be around £2200 for the Macpro and £1500 for the iMac. I would like to use Front Row as well but from what i see it wont work on the Macpro as of yet. Do you think Front row will be available on the Macpro? I know FR is due to be released with 10.5 but how will the remote work with the Macpro with no IR?

Overall i would like to keep this machine for 3 years but will it meet the demands on gaming for the next 3 years? At least with the Macpro i could upgrade the GPU.

What machine do you think is best for me?

Thanks very much for your time.

Darren
 
Although the iMac is a fantastic machine for right now, its gaming ability in 3 years time could be limited. It looks as if it has a laptop PCIe graphics card slot so could be slightly upgradeable although laptop graphics cards are hard to come by, cost more and tend to be slightly limited in their power abilities.
The MacPro can more readily take faster and better graphics cards so two years down the line you should be able to relatively easily upgrade the graphics to brand new. The 1900xt will be able to drive games at a 24" screen's resolution for a bit longer than a 7600gt too.
If you're getting a 24" screen then I'm guessing it'd be a Dell, in which case you'll have more video inputs for tv etc. FrontRow *can* be used on non FrontRow enabled machines (although I believe Leopard will come with FrontRow as standard). If you get a bluetooth enabled Mac Pro then you can buy a 3rd party FrontRow bluetooth remote. Getting hold of FrontRow online is relatively straight forward too.
It sounds like you'd be happier with a MacPro since it'll be more readily upgradeable. If you can afford it, go for it, if you want to save the money go for the iMac.

Edit: Also remember to buy the RAM elsewhere, for around the same cost as upgrading a Mac Pro to 2GB you can get it up to 3GB by buying elsewhere.
 
In my opinion, the Mac Pro is overkill for what you want to do. The iMac will run the games you mentioned very well. With the money you save buying the iMac, you are halfway to a new computer 3 years down the line or whenever you decide to buy a new one. I don't buy computers with the intent on upgrading them, I buy them with the intent of replacing them in 3 years.
 
Hello Darren,

I'm in the same situation you are. I'm more than ready to kick Windows to the curb for my day to day needs but I do play the odd game (I am NOT a serious gamer) but I am a fairly serious Flight Simulator hobbiest.

After yesterday's iMac announcment I was very curious about the 24" model but the video card, to me, is a show stopper. It is too far behind the X1900XT and even the 7900GT in any benchmarking I have seen. I don't want to buy a machine and be almost immediately dissappointed by it's performance in FS, especially with FS X coming out soon.

I'm down to 3 choices now. Orginally I had been planning Mac Pro all the way but after reading many people here saying it is over kill and you could do better buying a "gaming" PC plus a cheaper Mac I came up with the following options:

1) Mac Pro with the X1900XT card. Upgrade RAM to 2GB after market.
2) A decent "gaming" PC and a stock 1.83GHz Mac Mini which I will upgrade to 2GB of RAM afterwards.
3) A decent "gaming" PC and a stock 2.0GHz MacBook which I will upgrade to 2GB of RAM afterwards.

Key specs of the gaming PC would be:
Core 2 Duo E6600
Asus P5WD2 MB
2 GB of RAM
7900GTX Video card

In terms of cost, option 2 is the cheapest option by $500 Canadian dollars under the Mac Pro which is about $100 less than option 3. Therefore in my mind buying two machines is not really all that much more cost effective than just buying a Mac Pro. I'm currently torn between option 1 and 3 as having the freedom of a laptop for my basic computing needs is attractive. In addition I plan on buying a 24" Dell monitor to replace my old ViewSonic PF790. Dell will have it on sale starting September 8th. This would complete my first PC upgrade in 3 years.

I'm waiting now to see if Apple is going to upgrade the CPUs in the MacBooks next week.
 
Interetsing points made....

I have thought about buying a standard 24" iMac with 2gb ram and building or upgrading my current pc. But then i dont like the fact i've got 2 machines when the Macpro could do both.

I too will be playing Flight Sim X and i think the 7600GT would handle it ok, but the Macpro would make a much better job of it!

Maybe i'll go with the Macpro and treat myself at Xmas to a 24" Dell screen.

I will be buying an Xbox or PS3 and i sure most of my gaming will be done on that. If that is the case then i suppose the iMac would be the better option?

Really confused....... :confused:
 
^squirrel^ said:
Interetsing points made....

I have thought about buying a standard 24" iMac with 2gb ram and building or upgrading my current pc. But then i dont like the fact i've got 2 machines when the Macpro could do both.

I too will be playing Flight Sim X and i think the 7600GT would handle it ok, but the Macpro would make a much better job of it!

Maybe i'll go with the Macpro and treat myself at Xmas to a 24" Dell screen.

I will be buying an Xbox or PS3 and i sure most of my gaming will be done on that. If that is the case then i suppose the iMac would be the better option?

Really confused....... :confused:
Click to expand...

Yes, tough choices indeed. There does not seem to be one option that really jumps out at you. Perhaps Apple needs a desktop PC between the iMac and MacPro, or more video card options on the iMac.

If you plan on doing most of your gaming on a console then I wouldn't buy the Mac Pro and would go for the iMac or perhaps consider a MacBook depending on your needs. If you are a big FS person then your options remain the same IMO.
 
Spanky Deluxe said:
If you get a bluetooth enabled Mac Pro then you can buy a 3rd party FrontRow bluetooth remote. Getting hold of FrontRow online is relatively straight forward too.
Click to expand...

Didn't know they sold Bluetooth Front Row remotes????? Have you got a link?
 
I have another suggestion. Some people around MR have been discussing the resale value of the Xeon chips in the Mac Pros as being around $700.

Why don't you purchase the Mac Pro, take out one of the chips on its riser, then with the money you'd make selling it on eBay or whatever, you'd get a long way towards the cost of a new monitor.

You won't benefit massively from a quad-core machine, but the Mac Pro seems to be what you want otherwise. Everyone's a winner, baby.
 
Dunepilot said:
I have another suggestion. Some people around MR have been discussing the resale value of the Xeon chips in the Mac Pros as being around $700.

Why don't you purchase the Mac Pro, take out one of the chips on its riser, then with the money you'd make selling it on eBay or whatever, you'd get a long way towards the cost of a new monitor.

You won't benefit massively from a quad-core machine, but the Mac Pro seems to be what you want otherwise. Everyone's a winner, baby.
Click to expand...

No i would just keepp both CPU's running. I couldnt de-face it like that :D

As i said, i probably wont do much gaming on the machine so i'm thinking maybe iMac would do the trick. I'll more likely be able to sell the imac on as a whole in 2 -3 years time than i would being able to sell parts from the Macpro (GPU or CPU's)
 
The 24" iMac that you are considering should have plenty of horsepower for your stated needs. That said, it sounds like you would be happier with a Mac Pro. :)
 
dmw007 said:
The 24" iMac that you are considering should have plenty of horsepower for your stated needs. That said, it sounds like you would be happier with a Mac Pro. :)
Click to expand...

Another option is to buy the Macpro and wait until there is a new revision of the Apple Cinema Display and then go for a 23 or 24 inch screen?

I think this would be the more logical deal.....but then that is going to cost me around £2200 rather than the £1500 for the imac.
 
The money will be well worth it for the Mac Pro. I splurged for the mac pro even though my usage is very much like yours. The advantage of the two extra cores comes from multitasking. First, i used Handbrake the other day and it blew my mind how fast it was on this machine. But more than that, while it was ripping away, I was using the machine normally. On my old machine, a G4, handbrake took forever and good luck if I wanted to do anything else.

So, in simple terms 2 cores is enough, but you can't go wrong with 4.
 
Schroedinger said:
The money will be well worth it for the Mac Pro. I splurged for the mac pro even though my usage is very much like yours. The advantage of the two extra cores comes from multitasking. First, i used Handbrake the other day and it blew my mind how fast it was on this machine. But more than that, while it was ripping away, I was using the machine normally. On my old machine, a G4, handbrake took forever and good luck if I wanted to do anything else.

So, in simple terms 2 cores is enough, but you can't go wrong with 4.
Click to expand...

Made mind up..................

Going to wait until end of Oct and i'll buy a Macpro and a 23" display. Do you think now is a good time to buy a 23" display as i've heard there might be a new one soon?
 
I don't think you really NEED a MacPro, but it is the best machine money can buy right now.

Just remember that Mac Pro qualified FB ECC RAM is running
$250.00 per GB at the moment.
 
I wouldn't normally do this but maybe you should consider getting the Dell 24" screen (especialyl if they're coming on sale again soon) simply because you said you would be buying an Xbox or a PS3. The Dell would have the inputs you need while an ACD or an iMac wouldn't (unless you wanted to use a video card and limit the resolution you could play games at).
Also I really think Flight Sim X will run significantly better on a Mac Pro than the iMac. Not as much because of the graphics card but because Microsoft Flight Simulator eats processor time for breakfast. When the last version came out I found my frame rate to be severely processor dependant. I could run it at any resolution I wanted and get the same kind of frame rate (this was on a Pentium M laptop, I could run it at 1900x1200 with nearly the same framerate as at 1024x768).
Flight Sim X will probably be the same, it'll probably have more dynamic objects, other planes etc going on, its meant to have a highly complex weather system etc etc. If its optimised for multiple cores (which it will be) then it will *love* the Mac Pro.
 
Spanky Deluxe said:
I wouldn't normally do this but maybe you should consider getting the Dell 24" screen (especialyl if they're coming on sale again soon) simply because you said you would be buying an Xbox or a PS3. The Dell would have the inputs you need while an ACD or an iMac wouldn't (unless you wanted to use a video card and limit the resolution you could play games at).
Also I really think Flight Sim X will run significantly better on a Mac Pro than the iMac. Not as much because of the graphics card but because Microsoft Flight Simulator eats processor time for breakfast. When the last version came out I found my frame rate to be severely processor dependant. I could run it at any resolution I wanted and get the same kind of frame rate (this was on a Pentium M laptop, I could run it at 1900x1200 with nearly the same framerate as at 1024x768).
Flight Sim X will probably be the same, it'll probably have more dynamic objects, other planes etc going on, its meant to have a highly complex weather system etc etc. If its optimised for multiple cores (which it will be) then it will *love* the Mac Pro.
Click to expand...


Valid point regarding FS! I remember when i first got it i had to upgrade my whole machine! (PC days........ahhhhhhhh)

I do have a HDTV screen that the PS3 or 360 will be connected to and also the Mac will be in a different room.

I just found out that the imac has an upgradable GPU.
 
get a Mac Pro, and get a display of your choice and go buy it. it'll do whatever you throw at it with ease. plain and simple.
 
Thanks very much alll for your input, you have been a great help. I must say you guys have been great with regards to the speedy responses and the amount of people that went out of their way to reply and help me.

I think i would be much hapier with the Macpro.

Thanks again all

Darren :D
 
^squirrel^ said:
Thanks very much alll for your input, you have been a great help. I must say you guys have been great with regards to the speedy responses and the amount of people that went out of their way to reply and help me.

I think i would be much hapier with the Macpro.

Thanks again all

Darren :D
Click to expand...


Glad that you have made up your mind squirrel, enjoy your Mac Pro when you get it. :)
 
miles01110 said:
And come back should you have problems with it! \Knock on wood.
Click to expand...

Cheers chaps, lets hope it's problem free. But i'm sure i'll be back to find out out i get Front Row to work on it.
 
a mac pro is massive overkill for what you want to do. but if you're going to keep it for 3 years and can afford it then why not?
 
Congratulations Darren on your choice! I'm also leaning that way after reading some of the feedback on the Mac Pro forum from those who have just received the first machines with the X1900XT in them.

Dell's sale on the WFP2407 has started today and should end on the 13th. $729 CDN or $719.10 US for the 24". Of course they will have another sale before Christmas.
 
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