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so I've decided to go with Mac Pro...

J

jian

macrumors regular
Original poster
Dec 5, 2008
221
2
San Francisco
so I've decided to go with a brand new Mac Pro, screw the iMacs :cool:
Since I applied for the financing credit card yesterday and got approved for 1300 dollars, my budget can be a little bit higher, but still..I don't spend too much money on a computer...
AFAIK, I have to make the purchase within 30days in order to get the 12months 0% interest financing, I prolly won't be able to wait for a new update, so I will just go ahead and purchase a new Mac Pro next week as soon as I'm done with relocating.
But still...I'm having a concern, is the Base Model Mac Pro really outdated? is it still consider one of those..fast computers that people would WOW at?(I know most people here are Mac Pro owners and are actually using a crazy 12core Mac Pros...) or it's just one of those midrange overpriced computer? I know there should be an update before the end of the year, but if I make the purchase now, is the computer itself still really worth the money?
My plan now is to get a Mac Pro base model with student discount, and then upgrade the RAM from 4G to 12G-16G(will the difference between 12G and 16G significant?) and upgrade a 256G SSD at the end of year.....
any comments? suggestions? and ideas?
Thanks.
 
jian said:
I don't spend too much money on a computer.
Click to expand...

So why of earth are you borrowing to buy the most expensive hardware, when you can get good results from a Mac Mini?

What are you running on this Mac Pro?

What display do you have or want to get?
 
808? said:
So why of earth are you borrowing to buy the most expensive hardware, when you can get good results from a Mac Mini?

What are you running on this Mac Pro?

What display do you have or want to get?
Click to expand...

Because I edit films and stuff with Final Cut and I'm trying to learn blender.
Mac Mini won't do any good, and I don't even think a Mac Mini would be that much faster than my early 2008 Macbook Pro if you count the GPU.

I currently use a 40inch HDTV as my monitor, it might seem huge sometimes but it's a beast when you edit films LOL!
 
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Definitely check the returbs. If you can grab some extra cores, that will definitely benefit you... Manually upgrading the quad to a hex should be considered as well.
 
The hardware in the current Mac Pro was released 2009, except for the CPU which was released like a month or two into 2010. It's basically soon 3 year old hardware. And Apple charges as much as they did day one.

You could literally go out and purchase the desktop version of the same hardware (which is faster, btw) for about 25% of the Mac Pro price. And make a hackintosh out of it.

basically what I'm saying is, either wait until new macpros are released, or go hackintosh. even if you are not interested in the new mac pro, 2nd hand prices on 2010 version will decrease alot.
 
I think I have to agree with Cindori (not the first time).

If you're on a budget AND need lots of cores, then PC is the way to go.
It is just my opinion, but a MP is not worth it for the single processor model. I love them for the Dual Processor. I'd take the iMac over a SP MP.

Blender works on PC and Mac. Actually some of the shortcuts & hotkeys work better on a PC.

If you need final cut pro, then go for the Hackintosh. There are lots of guides and forums to help. Once you get everything working, disable automatic update and be happy with what you have.
 
The quad core 27 inch iMacs will be faster and cheaper than the base quad core 2.8ghz Mac Pro, plus you get a free 27" display with it.
 
blunti said:
if one can live with glossy screen, sure...
Click to expand...

And the risk of the screen going yellow or burning in over time. I had two cheap Soyo monitors that had very nice Benq panels, but died early because the things produced so much heat. The LCD panel wore out prematurely, with burn-in marks that are consistent with what I've read of iMacs as well (2009+). On the iMac area of MR here, people have reported the same problem. The iMacs are overall nice, but heating IS a problem. Maybe running smcFanControl at 4000RPM might help...

ALWAYS get AppleCare. Sometimes stuff happens.
 
peabo said:
The quad core 27 inch iMacs will be faster and cheaper than the base quad core 2.8ghz Mac Pro, plus you get a free 27" display with it.
Click to expand...

you see, million ppl have told me imac is faster and million ppl have told me that compare to the upgrade ability, the speed difference is not much of a big deal.
and from a previous post i learned that imac's gpu aren't really faster than the ones on Mac Pro because it's really a laptop chip...
so iMac is a no-no to me.(or maybe 60% no no...)
and I hate hackintosh, I tried to hack my HP Pavilion to a hackintosh before I had this Macbook Pro, it will only work when I put the HD into this weird BIOS mode which disables every component on the motherboard including USB, Ethernet, GPU, Audio, and more.... I'm sure the hackintosh todaoy are much more advanced than what it was 4 years ago, but still....
 
As for the Hackintosh route. I built a hackintosh, that spec'ed out the same as a quadcore 2.8 8gig. I used hardware right off the OSX project. It wasn't that hard to get up and running, BUT it crashed constantly and seemed to have nothing but hardware problems (If it was in AHCI mode the optical drive performed flakily, the hard drives, would behave weird, bios would lose the boot order and suddenly I would have to spend a day or two getting it to boot correctly, plenty of kernel panics if you did ever try and update, until the fix was found (some updates you are going to want to do), it would never sleep correctly, etc.

I built it for about a thousand dollars (without the monitor) than my current Mac Pro cost, but I decided to get a Mac Pro because factoring in all of the time I spent on the hackintosh I figured the savings just weren't worth it when the old hackintosh has another fit and I couldn't get it up and running for 36+ hours even though I had a clone of the boot drive.

I got the entry level machine knowing that I was paying a huge tax, but I am planning on manually upgrading to at least a Hex core, and perhaps a 12 core machine saving myself $600 - $1500 compared to what apple wants for those upgrades.

As for the iMacs. We have them in our photo labs, and the are not the best machines for doing photography. Video is ok on them and the do perform well in terms of speed, unless you are going to be rendering out large, photorealistic 3D models, or large chunks of effects heavy composited video. I personally can't stand the glossy screen nor do I trust it to be color accurate (we have a bitch of a time getting them profiled).

I guess I am saying that it is definitely cheaper to go hackintosh, and many times that will be a great route, but there are also costs involved in doing so in terms of the time spent. If you have the time and are on a tight budget (I don't recommend getting a loan for a computer) it is a good way to go, if time and consistency are important, maybe it outweighs the cost.
 
philipma1957 said:
Look at my thread on how to boost the 2010 base quad to a 3.33 hex


https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1122551/
Click to expand...

I read an article the other day, it says the Apple custom CPU doesn't have a metal cap, where as the Intel retail version has a metal cap which is about 2mm thicker, and there might be some trouble when installing the cooler

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pcmxa said:
As for the Hackintosh route. I built a hackintosh, that spec'ed out the same as a quadcore 2.8 8gig. I used hardware right off the OSX project. It wasn't that hard to get up and running, BUT it crashed constantly and seemed to have nothing but hardware problems (If it was in AHCI mode the optical drive performed flakily, the hard drives, would behave weird, bios would lose the boot order and suddenly I would have to spend a day or two getting it to boot correctly, plenty of kernel panics if you did ever try and update, until the fix was found (some updates you are going to want to do), it would never sleep correctly, etc.

I built it for about a thousand dollars (without the monitor) than my current Mac Pro cost, but I decided to get a Mac Pro because factoring in all of the time I spent on the hackintosh I figured the savings just weren't worth it when the old hackintosh has another fit and I couldn't get it up and running for 36+ hours even though I had a clone of the boot drive.

I got the entry level machine knowing that I was paying a huge tax, but I am planning on manually upgrading to at least a Hex core, and perhaps a 12 core machine saving myself $600 - $1500 compared to what apple wants for those upgrades.

As for the iMacs. We have them in our photo labs, and the are not the best machines for doing photography. Video is ok on them and the do perform well in terms of speed, unless you are going to be rendering out large, photorealistic 3D models, or large chunks of effects heavy composited video. I personally can't stand the glossy screen nor do I trust it to be color accurate (we have a bitch of a time getting them profiled).

I guess I am saying that it is definitely cheaper to go hackintosh, and many times that will be a great route, but there are also costs involved in doing so in terms of the time spent. If you have the time and are on a tight budget (I don't recommend getting a loan for a computer) it is a good way to go, if time and consistency are important, maybe it outweighs the cost.
Click to expand...

I've tried to edit videos on those giant 27inch iMac before, it's definitely faster than my 08MBP :) but it isn't as fast as I expect, compare to my experience on FCP on MP at Apple Store. Loan isn't an issue for me, I have a year to make 1000 to pay back, which I'm definitely sure I will make more...a lot more than that....LOL. Should I get a 8-core instead? it's only 900 more with student discount...
 
jian said:
I read an article the other day, it says the Apple custom CPU doesn't have a metal cap, where as the Intel retail version has a metal cap which is about 2mm thicker, and there might be some trouble when installing the cooler
Click to expand...


That was only the DP 2009 systems, the 2009 SP and all 2010 models come with a heat spreader.

Also don't buy a new Mac Pro now unless it's the 12 core, but your not getting that so it's a waste of money.

Options are:

1. Wait
2. Buy a 2009/2010.
3. Buy a 2009/2010 and upgrade it.
 
Jian, you and I are in the same boat, with similar requirements for a new workstation.

While I admire the imac, the glossy screen and the difficulty in upgrading memory, hard drives and GPU make it a no go for me.

FWIW, I'm going to try to remain patient and will likely hold out for the MP update. I could use a new machine now, but I'm convinced that if I jump on a 2010 model, the update will probably arrive the next day. :)

My bet is that the value proposition of the new Sandy Bridge Xeon will be persuasive, and if it isn't, the used 2010's will be selling for less than they are today. We'll see.
 
jian said:
I read an article the other day, it says the Apple custom CPU doesn't have a metal cap, where as the Intel retail version has a metal cap which is about 2mm thicker, and there might be some trouble when installing the cooler

----------

my thread has full details on doing a quad 2010 2.8 to a hex 3.33.

the article you read does not apply. I know diy is not for all people but this cpu upgrade is easy straight forward.
changes the 10000 geekbench score on the 2010 to 16000.
less than 30 minutes to do and can go back to stock in the same 30 minutes.
the cap-less cpus are not inside of the 2010 machines.
Click to expand...
 
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