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thoughts on which Mac Pro I should get

robrose20

robrose20

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jun 5, 2007
275
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I am going to purchase a mac pro. I am looking for opinions on which one I should get. I will be using it mainly for home use, home movies, pictures, surfing the internet, word processing, powerpoint, etc. I want the expandibility of a mac pro and am not interested in the imac. I have a high end cannon camera and hd video camcorder.

I am thinking of either the basic 4-core 2.8 ghz option, or bumping it up to a 6-core westmere processor. I don't know if it is worth the extra $1200.00 for the processor upgrade.

Is there a big difference in performance? Or should I consider the basic 8-core option.

Thanks!
 
Kinda depends on your budget... Can you really justify spending $1200 to go hex core?

Also, nothing on that list would really need more than a dual core, so the quad should already be more than enough.
 
robrose20 said:
I am going to purchase a mac pro. I am looking for opinions on which one I should get. I will be using it mainly for home use, home movies, pictures, surfing the internet, word processing, powerpoint, etc. I want the expandibility of a mac pro and am not interested in the imac. I have a high end cannon camera and hd video camcorder.

I am thinking of either the basic 4-core 2.8 ghz option, or bumping it up to a 6-core westmere processor. I don't know if it is worth the extra $1200.00 for the processor upgrade.

Is there a big difference in performance? Or should I consider the basic 8-core option.

Thanks!
Click to expand...

Any of the Mac Pros certainly sound like overkill for what you want to do. A Mac Mini could do a respectable job for what your needs are. But if you must get a Mac Pro, do yourself a favor and just get the base model. Consider a refurb to save some money.

But seriously, unless you are a video editing, music engineer, or heavy graphics professional, a Mac Pro simply is way more power than you'll even even tap into.
 
I used to be an engineer so I like to "get under the hood" of my computers. I can also get an academic discount because I work for a university ... I will most likely go for the base model .... I want to try and keep things in the sub $3000.00 range......
 
Definitely pass on the CPU upgrades. You have pretty simple uses, so spending $2500 on a computer is a bit overkill. I would, however, upgrade the ram after you get it, as 3GB is pretty weak.

You may even want to consider buying a used or refurb model, as any of the Mac Pros will do what you want from it.
 
Seriously, $3000 is a bit insane for what you are thinking. I get that you want to get "under the hood." But buying a Mac Pro, when, as skiltrip said, you could get along GREAT on a Mac Mini.

If you really need to be able to be hands on with it, assemble a PC and create a hackintosh!

Plenty of time under the hood :rolleyes:
 
nastymrx said:
http://store.apple.com/us/product/FC183LL/A?mco=MTMyMTU4NDQ

Good choice:

"One 2.93GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon "Nehalem" processor
6GB (3x2GB) of 1066MHz DDR3 ECC memory
1TB Serial ATA 3Gb/s 7200 rpm
Two 18x SuperDrives (DVD±R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW)
ATI Radeon HD 4870 with 512MB GDDR5 memory"
Click to expand...

I'd rather buy the base 2010 model.
Why?
- Comes with a better graphics card (not necessarily faster, but less power consumption, only one required power lead, three monitor outputs)
- Built in BT and WiFi
- Larger hard drive
- Possibility to upgrade to a hex core in the future
- Cheaper

For that price, the unit you listed really isn't interesting. The speed increase you get from the 2.93GHz processor is negligible.
And $250 for an additional 3GB of RAM and the 133MHz faster CPU isn't worth it considering the disadvantages of this machine compared to the 2010.

So my advice is, base 2010 model, 8 or 12GB of RAM (really cheap these days) and an 120GB SSD for boot. All that is well under $3000 and should last a view years given the current requirements.
 
What is the max speed procesor you can put in the base model?? Can I use a third party monitor?
 
Get the base model and add on when/if you need it.

You can use any monitor that you can physically attach to it =) You aren't required to get an Apple brand monitor BUT if you are getting Apple Care then you might consider it because Apple Care on the Mac pro includes coverage for 1 monitor purchased at the same time as the MP.
 
buy the 2.8 2010 with the ed discount or a refurb


http://store.apple.com/us/product/FC560LL/A?mco=MTkyMTM1OTY


about 2200. I purchased a 2.8 2010 with a 5870 gpu cost was 2479 with discount. 12gb ram can be purchased for around 140


http://www.superbiiz.com/detail.php...333-12GB-3x-4GB-ECC-Triple-Channel-Memory-Kit


you would be at 2600 there are some nice ssds

for 250.
http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Other World Computing/SSDMX120/


that has you at 2850 with an ssd and a 1tb hdd. 150 under budget. wait bit and then add on of these 2 cpus

the fastest in the world prototype below:

http://cgi.ebay.com/Intel-Xeon-W369...41?pt=CPUs&hash=item1e60c62c21#ht_3235wt_1019

the second fastest:

http://cgi.ebay.com/INTEL-BX80613W3...4250?pt=CPUs&hash=item1e60dab2da#ht_984wt_785
 
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