Looking to buy a Mac Pro by end of year...What do you think?

Posted:
in General Discussion edited January 2014
I'm thinking of buying a Mac Pro by the end of the year for my work and personal use. I work from home as a video editor and use Final Cut Pro. The iMac I got from my boss no longer is doing it's job as well as I need it to and my boss isn't showing any signs of upgrading me, so time to take it into my hands and get myself one for work and personal use. This will be the first major Apple purchase as I've always built my machines, so it's a big step for me. What do you think of the Mac Pro? I'm not getting the 8 core one, just the quad core, as I'm trying to save some money. Here are my requirements for the system.



Quad Core Processor

8gb RAM

1tb Hard Drive - Upgrade more later if needed.

Solid State Drive - At a later time when price drops.

At least 4 Nvidia GT120 Graphic Cards - We all know quad monitors is a huge multitasking boost, my boss has 12 lol.



Programs I'll be running daily:



Final Cut Pro

Adobe Photoshop

Adobe Illustrator

File Maker Pro

And the basic music, browsers, etc that everyone uses. Firefox FTW!



Here's the Mac Pro I customized on the Apple site that I am looking to buy. Note, it'll be a few months, but I need to start saving for it now. I figure about $200ish put back a month with some help from my family and boss. My grandfather has said he'll pitch in $800 towards it, grandparents (mom's side) are pitching in another $500. That leaves about $2300 I need to come up with. I'm thinking maybe 200-300 saved each month to afford this by christmas time.



One 2.66ghz Quad-Core Intel Xeon

4x2gb 1066mhz DDR3 ECC SDRAM - 8gb total

1tb 7200rpm SATA 3gb/s Hard Drive /- One for now, possibly upgrade to one Solid State Drive in the future when prices drop a bit and more 1tb drives in the future as well./

Nvidia GeForce GT120 512mb Graphics Card - /One for now, can upgrade at a later time, though wanting to get 4 of them for a quad monitor setup and increased productivity./

One 18x SuperDrive CD/DVD

Apple Mighty Mouse

Apple Keyboard with Numeric Keypad

AppleCare Protection Plan for Mac Pro



Grand Total - $3,098.00

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 12
    futurepastnowfuturepastnow Posts: 1,772member
    You only need two graphics cards for quad monitors.
  • Reply 2 of 12
    taurontauron Posts: 911member
    That is what you would need if you were building a Windows PC. But this is a mac. All you need for all that video editing is a mac mini:



    http://www.apple.com/macmini/



    The reason you needed such a beast before is because Windows hogs 99.9% of resources to get rid of viruses, repair the registry and generate heat to work out the fans and make people believe the computer "is really cranking!"



    But with a Mac all that nonsense is gone. A mac mini will to the job fine.
  • Reply 3 of 12
    wplj42wplj42 Posts: 439member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Tauron View Post


    That is what you would need if you were building a Windows PC. But this is a mac. All you need for all that video editing is a mac mini:



    http://www.apple.com/macmini/



    The reason you needed such a beast before is because Windows hogs 99.9% of resources to get rid of viruses, repair the registry and generate heat to work out the fans and make people believe the computer "is really cranking!"



    But with a Mac all that nonsense is gone. A mac mini will to the job fine.



    I have reported your posts, as you are NOTHING but a trouble maker. This post is completely insane!!! Compared to the Pro, the mini is a toy. NOWHERE in the original post is there a reference to Windows. Get a grip ... JackAss!
  • Reply 4 of 12
    taurontauron Posts: 911member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by WPLJ42 View Post


    I have reported your posts, as you are NOTHING but a trouble maker. This post is completely insane!!! Compared to the Pro, the mini is a toy. NOWHERE in the original post is there a reference to Windows. Get a grip ... JackAss!



    I am reporting your reports!!! I was trying to help but if you don't like my opinion then go get the Mac Pro for all I care!
  • Reply 5 of 12
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Tauron View Post


    That is what you would need if you were building a Windows PC. But this is a mac. All you need for all that video editing is a mac mini:



    http://www.apple.com/macmini/



    The reason you needed such a beast before is because Windows hogs 99.9% of resources to get rid of viruses, repair the registry and generate heat to work out the fans and make people believe the computer "is really cranking!"



    But with a Mac all that nonsense is gone. A mac mini will to the job fine.



    I'm not computer stupid. I've built at least 10 or more windows machines, all ranging from POS 2gb of RAM, 2ghz cpus to my main baby 8gb RAM, E8400 OC'd @ 4.2ghz, GTX260 x2. I know what I'm doing with Windows PCs. Mac PCs are different.



    The mac mini is a joke honestly. I'm not trying to bash anyone, but to me, the only Mac that I can jusifty spending the cash on is the Mac Pro. Hell, a fully upgraded iMac 24" costs just as much as a stock Mac Pro. And it's locked in until you buy a new iMac. With the stock Mac Pro, you can easily upgrade it yourself, so it lasts a lot longer.



    Quote:
    Originally Posted by WPLJ42 View Post


    I have reported your posts, as you are NOTHING but a trouble maker. This post is completely insane!!! Compared to the Pro, the mini is a toy. NOWHERE in the original post is there a reference to Windows. Get a grip ... JackAss!



    Thank you.



    Again, I know Windows PCs, it's Mac PCs I don't know. And PCs are any kind of computer, so don't be calling PCs vs. Macs anymore. Their both PCs. The ONLY Mac I see worth the money is the Pro.
  • Reply 6 of 12
    futurepastnowfuturepastnow Posts: 1,772member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by BryceEason View Post


    I'm not computer stupid. I've built at least 10 or more windows machines, all ranging from POS 2gb of RAM, 2ghz cpus to my main baby 8gb RAM, E8400 OC'd @ 4.2ghz, GTX260 x2. I know what I'm doing with Windows PCs. Mac PCs are different.



    The mac mini is a joke honestly. I'm not trying to bash anyone, but to me, the only Mac that I can jusifty spending the cash on is the Mac Pro. Hell, a fully upgraded iMac 24" costs just as much as a stock Mac Pro. And it's locked in until you buy a new iMac. With the stock Mac Pro, you can easily upgrade it yourself, so it lasts a lot longer.

    _____



    Again, I know Windows PCs, it's Mac PCs I don't know. And PCs are any kind of computer, so don't be calling PCs vs. Macs anymore. Their both PCs. The ONLY Mac I see worth the money is the Pro.



    The Mac mini is small, silent, and low power. It might not be adequate to your needs, but it certainly fills a niche, and as the cheapest Mac, I suspect Apple sells a lot of them.



    If the Mac Pro fits your requirements and you've got the money, I'm not sure what there is to discuss. Either buy it or don't. No other computer Apple currently sells comes close to it in power.



    If you want to save money, keep an eye on the refurb store. Refurbished prices are generally about 15% less than new (education discount is about the same if you can swing it).
  • Reply 7 of 12
    taurontauron Posts: 911member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by BryceEason View Post


    I'm not computer stupid. I've built at least 10 or more windows machines, all ranging from POS 2gb of RAM, 2ghz cpus to my main baby 8gb RAM, E8400 OC'd @ 4.2ghz, GTX260 x2. I know what I'm doing with Windows PCs. Mac PCs are different.



    The mac mini is a joke honestly. I'm not trying to bash anyone, but to me, the only Mac that I can jusifty spending the cash on is the Mac Pro. Hell, a fully upgraded iMac 24" costs just as much as a stock Mac Pro. And it's locked in until you buy a new iMac. With the stock Mac Pro, you can easily upgrade it yourself, so it lasts a lot longer.







    Thank you.



    Again, I know Windows PCs, it's Mac PCs I don't know. And PCs are any kind of computer, so don't be calling PCs vs. Macs anymore. Their both PCs. The ONLY Mac I see worth the money is the Pro.



    Well, as you said yourself you don't know anything about Macs. Please read my other posts explaining this issue and detailing the reasons why Macs are actually cheap, not expensive as most joes believe.
  • Reply 8 of 12
    taurontauron Posts: 911member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by FuturePastNow View Post


    The Mac mini is small, silent, and low power. It might not be adequate to your needs, but it certainly fills a niche, and as the cheapest Mac, I suspect Apple sells a lot of them.



    If the Mac Pro fits your requirements and you've got the money, I'm not sure what there is to discuss. Either buy it or don't. No other computer Apple currently sells comes close to it in power.



    If you want to save money, keep an eye on the refurb store. Refurbished prices are generally about 15% less than new (education discount is about the same if you can swing it).



    Look, I agree completely. If you have the money go and buy a Mac Pro. But I would try the mini first if I were you. You lose nothing. Buy it, try it, and if it really is underpowered like you say just exchange it for the Pro. However, I think you would be surprised about what the mini can do since you are coming from the PC world.
  • Reply 9 of 12
    wplj42wplj42 Posts: 439member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Tauron View Post


    Look, I agree completely. If you have the money go and buy a Mac Pro. But I would try the mini first if I were you. You lose nothing. Buy it, try it, and if it really is underpowered like you say just exchange it for the Pro. However, I think you would be surprised about what the mini can do since you are coming from the PC world.



    It is clear in the original post, an iMac is not getting the job done. So why go backwards and get a mini. Bryce ... Sounds like you know what you are doing. Would you consider a more affordable (used) G5 with a dual processor? I suspect the switch to Intel only with Snow Leopard will make even more PPC machines available. Check out: http://www.powermax.com/
  • Reply 10 of 12
    I've got a iMac that my boss had given me for work and right now I get random freeze ups when doing anything in FCP. I'll try and skip through commericals to get to the actual show and 9 times out of 10 I get a lock up with the wheel of death for a few minutes. It's just annoying I can't go full speed through it all.



    I ran the idea by my boss and he's a little interested. Be nice if he'd pitch something in to get it since after all, it is going to be used for work as well. He said let's talk about it, so I don't know what that means.



    I'll still miss messing with hardware if I make the move though. My non-apple machine is my baby. I poured my heart and soul into it and took about 5 months to save up for a buy each part over that course. I've put everything into it. I spent about $1600 in it and now it's like worth maybe $600.



    And I know Macs aren't expensive, they're made really for the professional world, correct? At least the Mac Pro is. Am I wrong? The average user, yes would be ok with a Mac Mini or even a iMac. I'm not the average user. Also, the only Mac I see that is worth the money, in my opinion is the Pro. You're not locked into hardware like you are with the iMac or Mini. Correct me if I'm wrong, but there's no easy way to break it open to upgrade parts, right? At least with the Mac Pro, you could start out small and upgrade it as you need to. And I could do that myself and not cut my arm or leg off to have Apple upgrade it lol.
  • Reply 11 of 12
    MarvinMarvin Posts: 15,310moderator
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by WPLJ42 View Post


    It is clear in the original post, an iMac is not getting the job done. So why go backwards and get a mini. Bryce ... Sounds like you know what you are doing. Would you consider a more affordable (used) G5 with a dual processor?



    A dual G5 is slower than a Mini and an iMac. The quad-G5 would be better though.



    Quote:
    Originally Posted by BryceEason


    I've got a iMac that my boss had given me for work and right now I get random freeze ups when doing anything in FCP. I'll try and skip through commericals to get to the actual show and 9 times out of 10 I get a lock up with the wheel of death for a few minutes. It's just annoying I can't go full speed through it all.



    It sounds like it might not be hardware related. If you have a fast enough scratch disk, enough Ram and your video formats match your clip settings, there shouldn't be any lockups. Video editing isn't that computer intensive.



    After Effects, Motion, Shake etc are intensive programs because they render a lot of changes between frames. Most of the time, FCP won't be doing much more than decoding video.



    That is not to say the Mac Pro is a bad idea because you need a lot of CPU power during exports/imports and rendering transitions. I think the quad-core setup in the first post would be fine.



    If you need to save money, keep checking the refurb section of Apple's store for Mac Pros. I think they had a quad core Xeon under $2000 at one point and you can get AppleCare on it.
  • Reply 12 of 12
    wplj42wplj42 Posts: 439member
    Thanks Marvin. I suspected the G5 had to be slower, but couldn't help but wonder if Bryce couldn't get under the hood and speed things up. Didn't know there was a Quad G5. I am a novice, so none of this applies to me. Just a chance to voice an opinion. It is unfortunate that Bryce could walk into an Apple Store only to find one computer to fill his desires. This is were many argue that Apple is leaving a rather large area blank between the mini and the Pro. The iMac only fills the needs of a select group. I am regretting the purchase of my 20 inch. I won't do it again. While I could be happy with a mini, I have to agree that finding the initial funds for a Pro, really is the best bang for the buck. I suspect the mini is actually used just as much by geeks who turn them into low cost servers, as consumers who wish to use their own monitor. Apple seems to be applying more focus to the ever-growing notebook market. All things considered, it is no wonder some people are willing to stay with Windows. Hardware is just as important as the OS and software inside. Apple is way too low, in my opinion, in hardware choices. Just watch, someone is going to call me a troll. Not true, just verbose.
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