What did YOU buy your Mac Pro for? [Archive]

Salacion

Aug 28, 2010, 10:41 PM

Hi guys.

I was just wondering what made all of you buy your Mac Pro, and what you use it for?

I myself bought my Mac Pro so I could have the fastest Farmville farm! :D

I have two friends that bought Mac Pros.

One bought it for graphic design, web design and photography. The second bought it for film editing, for a big Indie project of his.

englishman

Aug 29, 2010, 07:08 AM

Home/office including sw and web development.

2contagious

Aug 29, 2010, 07:14 AM

About to buy Hexacore for graphic design, photography, web design, film editing, animating and general use.

kellen

Aug 29, 2010, 07:49 AM

I bought it for light photo stuff, ripping DVDs to a library and gaming. Wanted the expansion and storage.

galstaph

Aug 29, 2010, 08:13 AM

solitaire of course:D

j/k architectural/graphic design and rendering

dockingbay94

Aug 29, 2010, 08:23 AM

recording/mixing

mism

Aug 29, 2010, 09:00 AM

Cinema 4D, Maxwell, FCP, Photoshop and Illustrator.

Although if you were to look at my usage since it arriving a week ago the answer would be 'to play Crysis'.

Tophersky

Aug 29, 2010, 09:00 AM

When I finally bit the bullet and dumped PC's/Windows, I wanted to get the best machine I can get, and the Mac Pro was the obvious choice. I did not want an iMac, as I dont care for the all in one gimmick. I wanted the expandability that a desktop tower allows. Not to mention, look at it! The Mac Pro is a work of art!

sochet

Aug 29, 2010, 09:00 AM

My new '10 is primarily a mix/mastering machine for my studio. I'm also using it for gaming too.

Gloor

Aug 29, 2010, 09:37 AM

Maya, Zbrush, Premiere, Photoshop and games

odinsride

Aug 29, 2010, 09:42 AM

Wanted to replace my PC desktop with something that could run OSX and play games well. I also wanted a nice desktop setup for Aperture instead of doing all my photo processing on a MBP. I also plan to start ramping up on app development for OSX/iPhone.

alphaod

Aug 29, 2010, 10:23 AM

Porn watching.

Gloor

Aug 29, 2010, 10:28 AM

Porn watching.

ROFL

although I have to say that when I got this 30" ACD I did test porn on it and its like a whole new level. Showed it to a friend and he said : "its time to buy bigger screen " :))))))))))))))

elmancho

Aug 29, 2010, 10:31 AM

sochet

Aug 29, 2010, 01:21 PM

ROFL

although I have to say that when I got this 30" ACD I did test porn on it and its like a whole new level. Showed it to a friend and he said : "its time to buy bigger screen " :))))))))))))))

I just got a new screen too, first thing I thought was dual screen porn! Although my girlfriend wasn't as excited at the prospect as I was. :/

SuperJudge

Aug 29, 2010, 01:55 PM

Virtualization workstation and driving gigantic screens.

Ryan P

Aug 29, 2010, 01:57 PM

I'm having some health issues that having stalled some of my more ambitious life plans...I was looking for something to keep me occupied that I could hopefully benefit from later.

I'm a fairly recent Mac convert as I got into it first writing iPhone apps and then with photography, and lately with a little bit of videography with my 5D II. I have a really beefy Macbook Pro, so thought about just building a custom PC, but then remembered how frustrated I used to get doing that and decided to just buy a Mac Pro and slowly upgrade it. I don't need any added stress right now!

So will be a mix of programming, gaming, photography, videography, web surfing, benchmarking, bootcampin...and just plain goofing around.

snberk103

Aug 29, 2010, 02:22 PM

Home based photography business, photo editing, creating biggish fine-art photo montages - on a 2008 octocore.

About to take delivery of new digital camera that shoots files that are more than 4x bigger than my current wee little beastie, so will be adding storage. Lots and Lots of storage.

studiox

Aug 29, 2010, 03:16 PM

Porn watching.

Dam you where quicker!

Everyone knows flash suxxx on OSX - Now finally i can watch [insert your favorite porn tube site] movies without all my 16 cores goes full throttle.

studiox

Aug 29, 2010, 03:17 PM

alphaod

Aug 29, 2010, 03:21 PM

Dam you where quicker!

Quicker is not always better ;)

kevink2

Aug 29, 2010, 04:59 PM

I wanted to buy a nice desktop for home usage (with some virtualization), and the ability to run OS X. At the time, the iMac's didn't support more than 4GB of RAM, so I decided that the MP (2008 8 core) would have plenty of headroom.

If it was today, I probably would have bought a quad core iMac, but that is now :) I don't use it as heavily as some people here.

dknightd

Aug 29, 2010, 05:46 PM

iTunes. My G5 was getting long in the tooth. Maybe one day apple will multitask iTunes (maybe even make it 64 bit). I also do a bunch of other stuff with it while listening to music. Adobe software, MS office, ssh, vnc, pay the bills type stuff. I got the fastest 4 core I could since most of what I do is still single processor (except iVolume which flies on this machine :) I rarely have to wait for this machine to finish, it is cutting in to my beer drinking time - which makes me even more productive ;)

goMac

Aug 29, 2010, 06:42 PM

I bought mine to heat my apartment.

keewe

Aug 29, 2010, 06:43 PM

3d rendering, HD film editing and post production.

Mackilroy

Aug 29, 2010, 08:30 PM

ProEngineer and Inventor, with a bit of CATIA thrown in, along with gaming, watching TV shows, and listening to music.

eponym

Aug 29, 2010, 08:37 PM

Design (web + print), development and lots of virtualization with a bit of gaming thrown in for good measure.

sochet

Aug 29, 2010, 08:47 PM

I bought mine to heat my apartment.

LOL :D

chrono1081

Aug 29, 2010, 09:03 PM

I bought mine to heat my apartment.

LOL!

Mine does that too! Especially if Maya is pooping out a render.

I actually bought mine for expandability (I lied, I never played farmville :P) and speed.

I use, on a daily basis:

- Maya (omg renders are sooo fast!)
- ZBrush (this runs so fast too!!! HD modeling is awesome)
- Corel Painter (No more turning off brush ghosting!)
- Unity 3D (always runs well but still decently faster then on my lappy)
- XCode
- Aperture (WOW this runs much faster then on my laptop)
- Logic (I don't delve too deep into this one but so I don't notice a speed difference but I'm sure I would if I did more with it. My needs are basic with this guy)
-Photoshop

I've had it since monday but haven't got to really start setting it up until wed, then I got my wisdom teeth pulled thurs so I was out most of thurs, and by this morning (sunday) I finally got all of my programs reinstalled, all of my ram/hard drives installed, all of my backups finished (those take a looong time) and now the only thing missing are dual 27 inchers. Once those are available my setup will be complete :D

This thing is fast. I've ripped my few movies that I have left that haven't been destroyed and ripping is so fast and encoding is ridiculously fast (using handbrake) and I don't even have the 64 bit version. (I can't find it and 64 bit vlc :( )

Anyway I absolutely love the thing and recommend it to anyone.

Well, enough playing around. I have a TON of 3d work to get done now that its up and running :D (Well, I shouldn't say work, I'm a student so a ton of hobby to get done :P )

Mackilroy

Aug 29, 2010, 10:24 PM

This thing is fast. I've ripped my few movies that I have left that haven't been destroyed and ripping is so fast and encoding is ridiculously fast (using handbrake) and I don't even have the 64 bit version. (I can't find it and 64 bit vlc :( )
You might want to check here (http://nightlies.videolan.org/) for a 64-bit version of VLC. Here (http://handbrake.fr/downloads.php) you can find the 64-bit version of Handbrake.

iondot

Aug 29, 2010, 10:33 PM

Photo Editing and HD video editing.

jjahshik32

Aug 29, 2010, 10:35 PM

I bought mine to heat my apartment.

LOL. It does indeed a great job. :D

cnstoll

Aug 29, 2010, 11:17 PM

So I'm the only one that bought it for Starcraft 2?

No but really, I'll probably install that first and marvel at how fast it runs.

After a few days of that I'll go back to what I'll mostly be using it for: Aperture, Photoshop, and Xcode.

kellen

Aug 30, 2010, 07:37 AM

I bought mine to heat my apartment.

So true. With dual monitors the office is the Toastiest room in the house.

ZeissmeisteR

Aug 30, 2010, 07:44 AM

High Definition video editing and VFX for my university degree. Photography and editing for my hobby.

hms84

Aug 30, 2010, 08:44 AM

TTarkas

Aug 30, 2010, 09:18 AM

Just pulled the trigger. 6 core 6 gigs of memory to start. 5870.

Will use for gaming, software dev for iphone/ipad if I ever get over my phobia of C based stuff.

Photoshop, maybe learn to take better photos.

englishman

Aug 30, 2010, 09:43 AM

Will use for ... software dev for iphone/ipad if I ever get over my phobia of C based stuff.

And Objective C at that! :(

seedster2

Aug 30, 2010, 10:14 AM

I bought mine to heat my apartment.

so true. Had to move mine from directly beneath my desk this summer

PS CS5, LR3 and VMs

RebootD

Aug 30, 2010, 10:48 AM

Home based graphic design business with a side of video editing and photography when the clients ask for them. (CS5 Master Suite).

Macinposh

Aug 30, 2010, 01:13 PM

I wanted to buy a configurable mac to last at least 10 years.
So I decided to buy 2006 Mac Pro.
Last year I upgraded to ATI 4870. Next move will be SSDs more RAMs and fans on the RAMs from max upgrades, did anyone tried them by the way?
Then ATI 5870.

I know one thing for sure. I have been using my Mac Pro for 4 years, but till now I did not release it's true power :)

10 years is a ambitious plan,even by Soviet union standards!
But as said,the 06 seems to have long legs,if you are working in print/music,so the the 6+ years probably wont be that far fetched.
Unless (who the hell am I kidding,WHEN) apple makes 10.7 64 bit only and handicaps purposefully the oldie.

Btw,why the heck ram fans? Havent heard anyone having issues with heating memory,even how loaded they are.

goMac

Aug 30, 2010, 01:37 PM

Alright, so more seriously...

I do visual effects work, OpenGL programming, multicore and GPU programming research, and a bit of gaming. Mac Pro is a pretty decent machine for that. Got mine with dual GPU's so I can do dual GPU programming work (both with OpenGL and CUDA/OpenCL).

Getting a 5870 though. Willing to sacrifice my CUDA work for a GPU that actually works. Besides, I have a 16 core machine with a Tesla available to me if I need it.

chrono1081

Aug 30, 2010, 09:42 PM

You might want to check here (http://nightlies.videolan.org/) for a 64-bit version of VLC. Here (http://handbrake.fr/downloads.php) you can find the 64-bit version of Handbrake.

Thank you so much!!! I don't know why I couldn't find the 64 bit VLC (found the handbrake but not the VLC).

Now I have to go find a movie to try this out on...(Avatar looks to be within my reach...)

abccba

Aug 30, 2010, 10:35 PM

I use mine to check my e-mails!

alphaod

Aug 31, 2010, 12:57 AM

Thank you so much!!! I don't know why I couldn't find the 64 bit VLC (found the handbrake but not the VLC).

Now I have to go find a movie to try this out on...(Avatar looks to be within my reach...)

I should warn you that some builds of VLC in 64-bit are very buggy.

Ravich

Aug 31, 2010, 01:06 AM

I ordered the 2.93 8 core that popped up in the refurb store a couple of hours ago for music production.

hms84

Aug 31, 2010, 07:36 AM

10 years is a ambitious plan,even by Soviet union standards!
But as said,the 06 seems to have long legs,if you are working in print/music,so the the 6+ years probably wont be that far fetched.
Unless (who the hell am I kidding,WHEN) apple makes 10.7 64 bit only and handicaps purposefully the oldie.

Btw,why the heck ram fans? Havent heard anyone having issues with heating memory,even how loaded they are.

6 more years to go :)

They really heat up, I am really thinking of getting to compare the performance. Max Upgrades have them.

ixoye25

Aug 31, 2010, 08:00 AM

Purchased Mac Pro 3.2 with 12 gigs of ram (transintl), 4 2TB HDDs and 5870 video card. Setup is for heavy photography use, light video editing, web design and storage.

Box is also specked for all of the random things I generally end up trying at least once!

J the Ninja

Aug 31, 2010, 10:07 AM

I got mine for 3D (still artwork and VFX/motion graphics) using Blender 2.5, and I might teach myself Terragen one of these days. And C4D and Mudbox are both on my purchase horizon. We'll see how far Blender will take me for it quits getting feasible. :) Also, FCP for the usual video editing stuff, and some Motion and DVD SP. I also seem to wind up doing audio post a lot of the time, since I (kinda-sorta-not-really) know how to do it, which is a rarity among college students, it would seem.

Kinda of a generalist-becuase-I'm-still-in-school here. :)

EDIT: DId I get through this whole post without mentioning Photoshop's RAM hungry ass?

NickCG

Aug 31, 2010, 10:29 AM

Design work, print and web. Video editing + a little sound work. And, after all that, a lot of Gaming.

So I'm the only one that bought it for Starcraft 2?

No but really, I'll probably install that first and marvel at how fast it runs.

You are not alone, my machine is primarily for work, but that shall also be the first thing I'll do too. ;)

I bought mine to heat my apartment.

Due to the hours I expect the machine to be on for (8~ hours a day of work, 4-5~ hours a day of gaming).. well, I expect similar results.

bedifferent

Aug 31, 2010, 10:50 AM

Porn ;)

Vylen

Aug 31, 2010, 10:55 AM

Got my Mac Pro to crack walnuts.... an ~18kg aluminium machine works wonders.

Oh and to make my friends feel inadequate about their machines too.

CaptainChunk

Aug 31, 2010, 06:27 PM

I bought mine to one-up the neighbor across the street. ;)

Primary uses for mine are video editing in FCP, video rendering/encoding and After Effects work. I rarely play games, but I keep a Windows installation on a dedicated drive for when I do.

maghemi

Aug 31, 2010, 08:15 PM

At the time, I bought mine because the iMac graphics options were so woefully inadequate.

If I were buying again now, it would be an iMac. But my 08 has got many years left in it yet.

Genghis Khan

Aug 31, 2010, 08:27 PM

Architectural 3D rendering/animation...one of the few things that can use all of the cores you can throw at it

chrono1081

Aug 31, 2010, 08:46 PM

DId I get through this whole post without mentioning Photoshop's RAM hungry ass?

It IS RAM hungry! When I have photoshop cs5, Maya 2011, and Unity 3D open and Im texturing I watch my 24 gigs of ram dwindle down like its nothing :'( Piggy programs!

Salavat23

Aug 31, 2010, 09:20 PM

To type up and submit this post.

eponym

Aug 31, 2010, 09:48 PM

I got mine to rub in the faces of my coworkers on their crappy Dell Precision workstations that keep breaking down. :D

jono_3

Sep 1, 2010, 12:10 AM

pro tools

kbolte

Sep 1, 2010, 08:20 AM

I bought it for: $2,499 less the eduction discount!

Mr_Ed

Sep 1, 2010, 08:43 AM

Web browsing.

j/k :D

Mostly photography hobby. Running Adobe Lightroom and other image editing stuff. Also like to do a bit of gaming now and then. I could probably get by with an iMac but I like the expandability of the Mac Pro.

glay78

Sep 1, 2010, 10:41 AM

I like Mac Pro bcos of the design and of course the expandability. Used it for Photoshop, FCP, Premier Pro, Aperture and ripping of CDs and DVDs. I game too on bootcamp win7 and gfx is impt to me. Only Mac Pro allows gfx upgrade.

bedifferent

Sep 1, 2010, 10:48 AM

I bought it for: $2,499 less the eduction discount!

A 2010 model? Wow, that's a good price. I bought my 2008 8-core when I worked at Apple PR (had a great discount, miss that) for a little less than that. I'll be keeping mine until next years model, I have a sense that the 2011 Mac Pro will have more significant updates :).