Mac Pro

Posted:
in Current Mac Hardware edited January 2014
I am looking to take the leap and go totally Apple/Mac as I have migrated from an iPod touch 64 to iPhone 32 to iPad2 64 and have loved everything about them. While continualy upgrading windows desktops to more and more disapointments. I currently have a Dell XPS 8300 Intel i7 2600 3.4GHz 12G Ram 2T 7200 HD Radeon 1G 5700 HD running win7 64. and have had nothing but trouble with it - even worse than other lesser machines... I think my best bet for a machine to do what I want (I sometimes really push it - not always) would be a Mac Pro... although some other advice I have gotten was that an iMac would be better for me. I like the iMac but the only thing that worries me is I want to keep this machine a long time and it seems the iMac would be hard to upgrade whereas the Mac Pro looks like it would be rather simple. I have seen some pictures of the inside and it looks like a very functional work of art! Then there are the rumors that the Mac Pro and iMac are due to be upgraded very soon... but I can't wait a long time I need a machine I can work with yesterday... if you know what I mean.. Any help would be greatly apprecieated and if I am on the wrong forum for this advise please let me know... Thanks!
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 41
    tallest skiltallest skil Posts: 43,388member
    First, what do you do?
  • Reply 2 of 41
    hmurchisonhmurchison Posts: 12,419member
    High End iMac 27 with Thunderbolt is hard to look past IMO.





    At this point the Mac Pro is ideal for people in vertical markets like Audio or Video Production that actually have expensive boards that need to be installed or networking guys with Fibre Channel HBA to install.
  • Reply 3 of 41
    not1lostnot1lost Posts: 136member
    I do a lot of heavy research with some very powerful search engines that open hundreds of resources at the same time which heavily tax the system with many things running at the same time. some photo and video editing with photo shop. build websites and manage blogs. thanks!
  • Reply 4 of 41
    hmurchisonhmurchison Posts: 12,419member
    27" iMac Core i7



    16GB of RAM



    SSD option
  • Reply 5 of 41
    tallest skiltallest skil Posts: 43,388member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by hmurchison View Post


    27" iMac Core i7



    16GB of RAM



    SSD option



    Yep. If you want to wait for the Ivy Bridge refresh, go ahead, but this is basically all you'd need.
  • Reply 6 of 41
    not1lostnot1lost Posts: 136member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by hmurchison View Post


    27" iMac Core i7



    16GB of RAM



    SSD option



    The 27" iMac Core i7 looks great to me but again what about longevity? would this machine be one I could trust to keep up with all the tech for many years? I know it already has the thunderbolt tech. which is a leap forward. I also read where this machine is due for an upgrade soon also? I have had other tell me that the Mac Pro would be overkill... and really the only reason I was considering it was because of being able to upgrade it if need be...
  • Reply 7 of 41
    not1lostnot1lost Posts: 136member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Tallest Skil View Post


    Yep. If you want to wait for the Ivy Bridge refresh, go ahead, but this is basically all you'd need.



    How long do you think it will be before the new model comes out?
  • Reply 8 of 41
    tallest skiltallest skil Posts: 43,388member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by not1lost View Post


    How long do you think it will be before the new model comes out?



    Mmm? what, May? We don't know. There was just some sort of an announcement of chips being pushed back, and then another announcement of them not being pushed back?
  • Reply 9 of 41
    hmurchisonhmurchison Posts: 12,419member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Tallest Skil View Post


    Mmm? what, May? We don't know. There was just some sort of an announcement of chips being pushed back, and then another announcement of them not being pushed back?



    They keep referencing the mobile Ivy Bridge chips but the iMac no longer uses Mobile Intel processors so I'm wondering if we will still see an iMac refresh earlier.
  • Reply 10 of 41
    not1lostnot1lost Posts: 136member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by hmurchison View Post


    They keep referencing the mobile Ivy Bridge chips but the iMac no longer uses Mobile Intel processors so I'm wondering if we will still see an iMac refresh earlier.



    "Earlier" in like after the March 7th iPad3 anouncment. or maybe a couple months? It seems by what you all have shared with me I may be ok with the one available now. I just dont want to throw down that kind of cash and then need to buy another one in 3 years... or have to send it in for some expensive in house upgrade... and thank you all for all your help - I really need it!
  • Reply 11 of 41
    tallest skiltallest skil Posts: 43,388member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by not1lost View Post


    "Earlier" in like after the March 7th iPad3 announcement. or maybe a couple months?



    No way is anything but the iPad 3 coming out this month. And if it's coming out in April, we'll have to wait until May for anything else to come out.



    Quote:

    It seems by what you all have shared with me I may be ok with the one available now.



    Oh, sure!



    Quote:

    I just don't want to throw down that kind of cash and then need to buy another one in 3 years?



    You won't.
  • Reply 12 of 41
    not1lostnot1lost Posts: 136member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Tallest Skil View Post


    No way is anything but the iPad 3 coming out this month. And if it's coming out in April, we'll have to wait until May for anything else to come out.







    Oh, sure!







    You won't.



    Hey Thanks Y'all! I'm going to order it now! I CAN'T WAIT!!! :-D
  • Reply 13 of 41
    not1lostnot1lost Posts: 136member
    I know I will love that huge 27' monitor! I have two smaller ones now; maybe I can just use a split screen and do it all on one big one and gain a lot of desk space! :-)
  • Reply 14 of 41
    not1lostnot1lost Posts: 136member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by not1lost View Post


    Hey Thanks Y'all! I'm going to order it now! I CAN'T WAIT!!! :-D



    Well... I went over to Macrumors and clicked on iMac and it said "Dont Buy".... update coming soon... Now I dont know what to do....
  • Reply 15 of 41
    tallest skiltallest skil Posts: 43,388member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by not1lost View Post


    Well... I went over to Macrumors and clicked on iMac and it said "Dont Buy".... update coming soon... Now I dont know what to do....



    That's not the most accurate.



    But yeah, just like we said, there's an update coming within a few months.
  • Reply 16 of 41
    not1lostnot1lost Posts: 136member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Tallest Skil View Post


    That's not the most accurate.



    But yeah, just like we said, there's an update coming within a few months.



    I dont know, but do you think I would see a big difference in the actual use of the machine with the ivy bridge? from what I am reading I dont think there is a significant increase in performance to justify an upgrade over the sandy bridge cpu? I was actually surprized by how little the numbers were in overall increase. at toms hardware where I got my numbers it was only .07 overall increase... that's not much. And they may even increase the cost of the iMac especially with the i7 upgrade... I can't really see enough reason to wait and besides like you said this is all speculation anyway and you all said this is already a fantastic machine with plenty of power and high end enough to not worry about ugrading any time soon. I think I'll go back to the Apple site and go ahead and order my new iMac!!! I'm getting excited again!!! Thanks again for helping out a Mac newbie like me
  • Reply 17 of 41
    IMO...

    You won't SEE a Significant difference in performance by waiting for something new. Certainly, it will be spec'ed a higher performance ... but they are such screamers currently, that you'd really have to push it to actually SEE a difference.



    As for iMac vs Mac Pro...

    The Pro is only marginally better performance these days (and are you even doing anything where you would NOTICE the difference?), but at a huge price premium. The iMac is a MUCH better deal (and even more so if you figure the cost of a big monitor into the 'Pro price.)



    I've got an old (6 years now), original C2D iMac that still runs like a champ... though Lion will be its last OS, MountainLion won't support it, supposedly.
  • Reply 18 of 41
    not1lostnot1lost Posts: 136member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by KingOfSomewhereHot View Post


    IMO...

    You won't SEE a Significant difference in performance by waiting for something new. Certainly, it will be spec'ed a higher performance ... but they are such screamers currently, that you'd really have to push it to actually SEE a difference.



    As for iMac vs Mac Pro...

    The Pro is only marginally better performance these days (and are you even doing anything where you would NOTICE the difference?), but at a huge price premium. The iMac is a MUCH better deal (and even more so if you figure the cost of a big monitor into the 'Pro price.)



    I've got an old (6 years now), original C2D iMac that still runs like a champ... though Lion will be its last OS, MountainLion won't support it, supposedly.



    6 Years! Wow! and that's not even the upgraded model they have now... I suppose that answers a lot of questions... Thanks!
  • Reply 19 of 41
    MarvinMarvin Posts: 15,309moderator
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by not1lost View Post


    I dont know, but do you think I would see a big difference in the actual use of the machine with the ivy bridge?



    The desktop models should run cooler with Ivy Bridge. The CPU in the highest iMac has a TDP of 95W. The Ivy Bridge lineup is listed in Intel's latest PDF (which seems to have been leaked prematurely):



    http://www.slideshare.net/M8Rex8b3j/...sorflipbookpdf



    The 22nm Core i7 has the same 3.4GHz clock speed but has a TDP of 77W.



    The iMacs are generally quiet even with the fans running but they still should run less with Ivy Bridge.



    Although there is room to keep the optical drive in the iMac, Apple has removed it from the Mini and the entry laptop. I fully expect them to do the same for the new MBP and there would be no reason to leave one in the iMac.



    These slot-loading drives cost $100 for Apple to put into the machines so that cost saving goes elsewhere when they are removed. You can see how much space the drive takes up over on the right in this picture, even in something as big as a 27" model:







    They can reconfigure all of the internal parts without that drive and get it to be more compact and I personally hope they make the hard drive slots accessible from the bottom so that you can easily add SSD storage.



    They could also choose to take the $100 saving from the optical and make the default config a 128GB SSD + 1TB HDD both of which could be made accessible from the base like the RAM.
  • Reply 20 of 41
    not1lostnot1lost Posts: 136member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Marvin View Post


    The desktop models should run cooler with Ivy Bridge. The CPU in the highest iMac has a TDP of 95W. The Ivy Bridge lineup is listed in Intel's latest PDF (which seems to have been leaked prematurely):



    http://www.slideshare.net/M8Rex8b3j/...sorflipbookpdf



    The 22nm Core i7 has the same 3.4GHz clock speed but has a TDP of 77W.



    The iMacs are generally quiet even with the fans running but they still should run less with Ivy Bridge.



    Although there is room to keep the optical drive in the iMac, Apple has removed it from the Mini and the entry laptop. I fully expect them to do the same for the new MBP and there would be no reason to leave one in the iMac.



    These slot-loading drives cost $100 for Apple to put into the machines so that cost saving goes elsewhere when they are removed. You can see how much space the drive takes up over on the right in this picture, even in something as big as a 27" model:







    They can reconfigure all of the internal parts without that drive and get it to be more compact and I personally hope they make the hard drive slots accessible from the bottom so that you can easily add SSD storage.



    They could also choose to take the $100 saving from the optical and make the default config a 128GB SSD + 1TB HDD both of which could be made accessible from the base like the RAM.



    Thanks this is very helpful. I dont suppose it would be too much to have an external drive sitting somewhere when you needed it. You could even upgrade it to a blue ray with that route. I'ts looking like Apple is really trying to push the pro's towards the iMac to me. And it just may well be the one I buy. Right now I'm waiting around a while to see what news may come out on the pro and the iMac...
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