Mac Pro (mid 2010) buying advice

bornaudiobornaudio
Posted:
in Genius Bar edited January 2014


Hello,


(been lurking on this site for years, but first post)


 


I was looking for some buying tips, I have the possibility to buy a Mac Pro (mid 2010) for around 700 euros.


At the moment I have a Macbook Pro 15" early 2011 (quad core 2.3 Ghz i7 / 8GB ram ).


 


The main use of my macbook is music production, but lately I'm doing more and more video editing/rendering


Besides the fact that the HDD is constantly full, I feel like software like after effects CS5 are really sluggish..


 


I think I would call myself a "prosumer",


Do you guys think a Mac Pro is a wise decision? Or am I already spoiled with my macbook & I should just


buy external HDD's


 


If I would buy the Mac Pro I was planning to put more ram into it (currently it has 3GB).


What do you guys guess would at to the overall cost?


 


The specs are as followed:


Westmere Quad core 2.8


3GB ram


ATI Radeon HD 5770 1GB


1GB 7200RPM HDD


http://www.appleserialnumberinfo.com/Desktop/index.php (Serial: CK12000WHF7)


 


I should also mention I'm planning to move more into the rendering 3D modelling


field in the future. Maya, Real Flow


 


 


Really curious to your opinions!


 


Thanks,


David

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 4
    tallest skiltallest skil Posts: 43,388member

    Quote:

    Do you guys think a Mac Pro is a wise decision?


     


    Not right now, it's not. Unless you ABSOLUTELY have to have one. Then don't hesitate.


     


    And with your future plans, I'd say buy when your plans necessitate.




    And to be clear, that site's buyer's guide is a joke. Way more so than MacRumors', but even they're not the best.

  • Reply 2 of 4
    bornaudiobornaudio Posts: 2member
    I get what you mean.
    You're probably implying the updated xeons and possibly impending hardware updates.

    But a new Mac pro would probably cost me 2000-3000+ euros which I just can't justify at the moment (or the coming years! at the moment,
    The mb pro burned a hole in my pocket but I needed/ still need the portability)

    So maybe I should add some parameters,
    Is this mid 2010 Mac pro still a workable home workstation for video & 3D for that price? ( which is way more doable for me ).
    And, is it a good partner to my current MacBook pro! ( or will the notebook blow it out of the water? And are external HDDs more useful? I have no idea.. )


    Thanks for the reply!
    & PS: that website was just for the spec information, wasn't looking at the price estimation ^^'
    Do you think it's worth 700? Kind of ignorant in that field too.
  • Reply 3 of 4
    tallest skiltallest skil Posts: 43,388member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by bornaudio View Post

    Is this mid 2010 Mac pro still a workable home workstation for video & 3D for that price? ( which is way more doable for me ).

    And, is it a good partner to my current MacBook pro! ( or will the notebook blow it out of the water? And are external HDDs more useful? I have no idea.. )

    Thanks for the reply!

    & PS: that website was just for the spec information, wasn't looking at the price estimation ^^'

    Do you think it's worth 700? Kind of ignorant in that field too.


     


    A Westmere Mac Pro for ~$1400?



    Make sure it's in full working order and all, but to me that seems like a pretty good deal. The same thing goes for… ah…


     


    There's no 2.8 Westmere. There's a 2.8 Nehalem, but no Westmere… That's quite odd, given this site reports it as such (though I've no knowledge of the integrity of that site). 




    Doesn't Apple's site have a Serial Number checker? Check there first.

  • Reply 4 of 4
    MarvinMarvin Posts: 15,322moderator
    bornaudio wrote: »
    I was looking for some buying tips, I have the possibility to buy a Mac Pro (mid 2010) for around 700 euros.

    That's the latest Mac Pro currently selling at 2490 euros:

    http://store.apple.com/ie/browse/home/shop_mac/family/mac_pro

    It hasn't been updated in nearly 2 years. People will be getting rid of them now in anticipation of an update on June 11th. That's a good price for that machine.
    bornaudio wrote: »
    At the moment I have a Macbook Pro 15" early 2011 (quad core 2.3 Ghz i7 / 8GB ram ).

    The main use of my macbook is music production, but lately I'm doing more and more video editing/rendering
    Besides the fact that the HDD is constantly full, I feel like software like after effects CS5 are really sluggish..

    I think I would call myself a "prosumer",
    Do you guys think a Mac Pro is a wise decision? Or am I already spoiled with my macbook & I should just
    buy external HDD's

    Your 2011 MBP is faster than that Mac Pro:

    http://www.barefeats.com/mba11_04.html
    http://www.barefeats.com/wst10.html

    Cinebench is a 3D render test and your MBP scores 5.4 whereas the 2010 MP scores 5.1. The Mac Pro GPU is about 50% faster (6750M vs 5770):

    http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/high_end_gpus.html

    I'd say check if you are running out of RAM and if so, upgrade to 16GB:

    http://www.crucial.com/eu/store/mpartspecs.aspx?mtbpoid=383F8D59A5CA7304

    Also consider using a solid state drive along with external storage for big files:

    http://www.amazon.co.uk/Crucial-CT256M4SSD2BAA-256GB-inch-bracket/dp/B005V19A0O/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1337517186&sr=8-2
    http://www.amazon.co.uk/Samsung-2-5inch-Notebook-Accessory-Norton/dp/B005OK6VLS/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1337517219&sr=8-2

    I don't think buying a 2010 quad-core Mac Pro will do you any good. It's a good price and you might even be able to sell it for more than that but I'd say upgrade your laptop first to eliminate any bottlenecks.
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