AppleInsider › Forums › Mac Hardware › Current Mac Hardware › to Mac Pro or not to Mac Pro
New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:

to Mac Pro or not to Mac Pro

post #1 of 10
3/31/12 at 3:16am
Thread Starter 
Hello folks,

I've been a really loyal Mac user for the last 20 years of my life. I'm an audio/visual artist. I do a ton of work using Logic Pro, AfterEffects, FCP and Photoshop. About 4 years ago I signed with a foreign record label and had to learn how to perform to go on tour. Because of that I just had two laptops that I used for my work and never bought a new Mac Pro (my previous computer was a dual 2gig G5.

I've settled down for a couple of years, and as much as I do respect the MacBook Pro for it's laptop abilities, both my 2009 and 2008 laptops are a bit long in the tooth and I have never been happy with the fact that they only have a single firewire in (and a relatively weak one at that - external drives always seem to be ejecting themselves when there's more than 3 daisy-chained at once.)

I'm thinking it's time to purchase a new tower.

Looking at the prices I felt like I got punched in the gut. Mac Pros are soooooo expensive. I just read a thread about somebody being recommended to purchase a top of the line 27" iMac. But several things concern me about that. 1) connectivity - there is still only one firewire in. That's a real problem, imo. 2) ease of upgrade - the only way to access the insides is to have it sent to repair, so there will be no upgrades.

To be completely honest, I would consider purchasing a PC if os 10.6 could be installed and run smoothly on it. I'm not very technical with computers though so have no idea if it's even within the realm of the possible.

Can anyone offer some advice?
Reply
Reply
post #2 of 10
3/31/12 at 6:44am
Quote:
Originally Posted by vincentagniello View Post

But several things concern me about that. 1) connectivity - there is still only one firewire in.

FireWire is dead, anyway. Thunderbolt will be your connectivity in the future.

Quote:
2) ease of upgrade - the only way to access the insides is to have it sent to repair, so there will be no upgrades.

No, you can swap RAM easily and the hard drive.

Note that I didn't give any descriptors to the ease with which you can get to that hard drive.

Quote:
To be completely honest, I would consider purchasing a PC if os 10.6 could be installed and run smoothly on it.

That's so many different types of illegal (not to mention unnecessary) that it's not worth talking about.

Quote:
Can anyone offer some advice?

Either wait for a final word on the future of the Mac Pro line or grab a 27" iMac when Ivy Bridge comes out and never look back.
Tallest Skil & Relic
"…AI is a private forum…" "Well, in that case, it's naked time…"
Reply
Tallest Skil & Relic
"…AI is a private forum…" "Well, in that case, it's naked time…"
Reply
post #3 of 10
3/31/12 at 9:45am
Quote:
Originally Posted by vincentagniello View Post

I've settled down for a couple of years, and as much as I do respect the MacBook Pro for it's laptop abilities, both my 2009 and 2008 laptops are a bit long in the tooth and I have never been happy with the fact that they only have a single firewire in (and a relatively weak one at that - external drives always seem to be ejecting themselves when there's more than 3 daisy-chained at once.)

I'm thinking it's time to purchase a new tower.

The new Ivy Bridge motherboards support USB 3 so I expect the next MBP will replace ethernet and FW800 with it. This being the case, you should wait until the end of April for the new MBP as the quad-i7 performance will rival any entry tower and you'd simply replace your drives with inexpensive USB 3 models with a port each. Personally, I hope they use 4x USB 3 and 2x Thunderbolt on the 15" models.

Don't buy a tower before June. The Mac Pro hasn't been updated for well over 1.5 years so if an update is coming, it's coming within a matter of a couple of months.
Reply
Reply
post #4 of 10
3/31/12 at 1:55pm
  • hmm
  • Keylogger
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tallest Skil View Post

FireWire is dead, anyway. Thunderbolt will be your connectivity in the future.

I suspect that you're right in that much of what it will handle will be where firewire left off, in the sense of a moderate but significantly better than usb kind of solution.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Marvin View Post

The new Ivy Bridge motherboards support USB 3 so I expect the next MBP will replace ethernet and FW800 with it. This being the case, you should wait until the end of April for the new MBP as the quad-i7 performance will rival any entry tower and you'd simply replace your drives with inexpensive USB 3 models with a port each. Personally, I hope they use 4x USB 3 and 2x Thunderbolt on the 15" models.

Don't buy a tower before June. The Mac Pro hasn't been updated for well over 1.5 years so if an update is coming, it's coming within a matter of a couple of months.

They do, but I haven't seen any evidence of drivers showing up with Mountain Lion yet. In the OP's case I think you're right on the laptop. The only point in an entry tower right now would be if you actually require some feature not available through the MBP that was referenced.
Reply
Reply
post #5 of 10
3/31/12 at 3:47pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by vincentagniello View Post

Hello folks,

I've been a really loyal Mac user for the last 20 years of my life. I'm an audio/visual artist. I do a ton of work using Logic Pro, AfterEffects, FCP and Photoshop. About 4 years ago I signed with a foreign record label and had to learn how to perform to go on tour. Because of that I just had two laptops that I used for my work and never bought a new Mac Pro (my previous computer was a dual 2gig G5.

I've settled down for a couple of years, and as much as I do respect the MacBook Pro for it's laptop abilities, both my 2009 and 2008 laptops are a bit long in the tooth and I have never been happy with the fact that they only have a single firewire in (and a relatively weak one at that - external drives always seem to be ejecting themselves when there's more than 3 daisy-chained at once.)

I'm thinking it's time to purchase a new tower.

Looking at the prices I felt like I got punched in the gut. Mac Pros are soooooo expensive. I just read a thread about somebody being recommended to purchase a top of the line 27" iMac. But several things concern me about that. 1) connectivity - there is still only one firewire in. That's a real problem, imo. 2) ease of upgrade - the only way to access the insides is to have it sent to repair, so there will be no upgrades.

To be completely honest, I would consider purchasing a PC if os 10.6 could be installed and run smoothly on it. I'm not very technical with computers though so have no idea if it's even within the realm of the possible.

Can anyone offer some advice?

I am a photographer. I do freelance press and art/portrait work.

When I did my shopping, I went with the 27inch iMac. Upgrading it is EASY. I threw 12gb of RAM in it and have been rocking it with adobe photoshop for about six months. I LOVE this thing!!!

I would reccomend the iMac. Just don't upgrade ur ram from apple. Go to OWC and put it in yourself. the iMac comes with a few thunderbolt ports. So you are set for the next gen, main stream connections.

I breeze through my photos and video editing is lightning quick.
Mac Pros are great. But unless your working for national geographic or Hollywood, it's overkill.
Reply
Reply
post #6 of 10
4/1/12 at 7:08am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by SWS View Post

I am a photographer. I do freelance press and art/portrait work.

When I did my shopping, I went with the 27inch iMac. Upgrading it is EASY. I threw 12gb of RAM in it and have been rocking it with adobe photoshop for about six months. I LOVE this thing!!!

I would reccomend the iMac. Just don't upgrade ur ram from apple. Go to OWC and put it in yourself. the iMac comes with a few thunderbolt ports. So you are set for the next gen, main stream connections.

I breeze through my photos and video editing is lightning quick.
Mac Pros are great. But unless your working for national geographic or Hollywood, it's overkill.

Hey folks, thanks so much for the great advice.

OK, and I truly don't mean this as a snarky comeback, but I have 8 years of work that's very important to me on about 35 500 gb and 1 tb drives. These drives do not have thunderbolt, most are made by Glyph. This is the main reason why having only one firewire in is ridiculous for me. I bought a professional grade firewire hub. Drives still end up dropping from the chain. I'm not sure if maybe it's the MBP... This is why I hesitate buying an iMac.

I'm really happy to hear that it's easy to access memory though, and it does make me reconsider a bit.

But, I do sometimes do really heavy graphics work. AfterEffects projects can get quite heavy. Also, right now I'm working on a song with 112 separate recordings of a voice. Is the iMac still appropriate?

Once again, many thanks folks! Hope everyone's having a great weekend!
Reply
Reply
post #7 of 10
4/1/12 at 7:16am
Quote:
Originally Posted by vincentagniello View Post

OK, and I truly don't mean this as a snarky comeback, but I have 8 years of work that's very important to me on about 35 500 gb and 1 tb drives. These drives do not have thunderbolt, most are made by Glyph. This is the main reason why having only one firewire in is ridiculous for me.

Oh, not at all! We understand completely that everyone has stuff on old drives instead of Thunderbolt right now, and that you'll have to keep using that until you can afford (either by getting more money or the price finally comes down ) Thunderbolt replacements.

But FireWire's daisy-chainable, innit? It's certainly not the best solution, but it's a solution.

I can see three things happening with the Mac Pro: 1. It gets a spec bump, same case. Then you'd get four FireWire 800 to play with. 2. It gets a spec bump, different case. They might drop legacy ports in that case in favor of Thunderbolt. 3. It's discontinued (and you're stuck with other options).

As to the hub dropping drives, do you have a friend with a modern iMac on which you could try your hub? I'd say just go to an Apple Store with your hub and two drives, tell them what you're up to, and test it out there, but that might not be an optimal solution, even if it is the easiest.
Tallest Skil & Relic
"…AI is a private forum…" "Well, in that case, it's naked time…"
Reply
Tallest Skil & Relic
"…AI is a private forum…" "Well, in that case, it's naked time…"
Reply
post #8 of 10
4/1/12 at 7:26am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tallest Skil View Post

Oh, not at all! We understand completely that everyone has stuff on old drives instead of Thunderbolt right now, and that you'll have to keep using that until you can afford (either by getting more money or the price finally comes down ) Thunderbolt replacements.

But FireWire's daisy-chainable, innit? It's certainly not the best solution, but it's a solution.

I can see three things happening with the Mac Pro: 1. It gets a spec bump, same case. Then you'd get four FireWire 800 to play with. 2. It gets a spec bump, different case. They might drop legacy ports in that case in favor of Thunderbolt. 3. It's discontinued (and you're stuck with other options).

As to the hub dropping drives, do you have a friend with a modern iMac on which you could try your hub? I'd say just go to an Apple Store with your hub and two drives, tell them what you're up to, and test it out there, but that might not be an optimal solution, even if it is the easiest.

Yes, firewire are daisy chainable, but in my experience the more daisy chained the more possibility of drives dropping. Am I the only person who's had this experience with mbps? I have two, a 2008 model and a 2009 model and they both behave this way. I worry the iMac might be the same, and sadly I don't know anyone who has one. But they certainly are more affordable. I'm really really tempted!
Reply
Reply
post #9 of 10
4/1/12 at 11:33am
You really need to invest in a external Raid system. I recommend a Promise Pegasus, there a bit on the expensive side but well worth it. I have a friend who has a Lacie Big and swears by it. Daisy chaining is an OK solution for a bit but for the safety of your data not to mention performance I would make the investment in a Raid system.
When I looked up "Ninjas" in Thesaurus.com, it said "Ninja's can't be found" Well played Ninjas, well played.
Reply
When I looked up "Ninjas" in Thesaurus.com, it said "Ninja's can't be found" Well played Ninjas, well played.
Reply
post #10 of 10
4/1/12 at 12:46pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Relic View Post

You really need to invest in a external Raid system. I recommend a Promise Pegasus, there a bit on the expensive side but well worth it. I have a friend who has a Lacie Big and swears by it. Daisy chaining is an OK solution for a bit but for the safety of your data not to mention performance I would make the investment in a Raid system.

Major +1

Also, if the content is really important, it would be very wise to set up an off location backup. Places like SoftLayer offer cloud services for major data.

For instance, as a photographer, I only use 4gb class ten SD and CF cards. That way, when I get home, I can quickly and easily back up a whole card onto a DVD. Then I put all the media on a External hard drive and finally wrap up the backups with cloud storage.

Cloud based storage services are coming more main stream and the prices are getting cheaper.
Reply
Reply
New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:
  Return Home
  Back to Forum: Current Mac Hardware
AppleInsider › Forums › Mac Hardware › Current Mac Hardware › to Mac Pro or not to Mac Pro