Toggle sidebar Toggle sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Ditch the Mac Pro?

M

Mundy

macrumors regular
Original poster
I was given about 3k last year to purchase a Mac Pro for an upcoming project. That project is well underway, and it's becoming apparent that the Mac Pro is more than sufficient for my needs. While I use Photoshop CS3 quite a bit, I rarely work with images larger than 200 megabytes. I also user Aperture 1.5 a lot and tinker with Cinema 4D R10 in my spare time. Aside from that, I spend most of my time on the computer writing in Mellel or Ulysses.

I'm seriously thinking about selling the Mac Pro and using the money to get a MacBook Pro instead. The thing that's holding me back is that I've never owned a portable without also owning a desktop machine. "Laptop" computers have never had a stellar reputation for reliability, and I'm wondering if I'd be making a mistake by using one has my workhorse. There is the potential that I will also be doing some video editing in the near future. I guess what I'm trying to say is that while I don't necessarily need a 4-core monster, I do need a machine that can handle maximum CPU load for a few hours at a time. And since I'm primarily a writer, the portability will be extremely useful.

What would you do? If you had a Mac Pro that you thought you could get $3500-$3800 out of and go portable, would you do it? Furthermore, has anyone else here "ditched the desktop," even for heavy-duty work?
 
Well, it depends on the specs of your mac pro and what exactly that model is going for used. If I could stand to make quite a bit of money making the swap, then yeah, I probably would. If it was even close to an even trade, though, then it's definitely not worth it (the MBP is a nice machine, but the Mac Pro is definitely more powerful).
 
I think I can get about $3500-$3800 for the machine. It has 4 GB of RAM with Radeon X1900XT and various 320 GB and 500 GB hard drives. It isn't a shabby machine by any means.
 
Well, it seems that you use or at least have a good amount of HD space. You may not feel the same way, but I know I would hate carrying external HD's around just to have some decent storage. I have just under 1TB in my Mac Pro and it is filling up quickly. Just something to think about. I don't think I could go from a Mac Pro to a Macbook Pro, I love the speed of the MP and i'm getting another 2 gigs tomorrow so itll be even faster
 
The only downside I can see is the fact that you won't have the storage space on the road. I do use a mbp as my main computer (at least I will by the end of the week, and I say goodbye to the iBook!). You can put the same RAM in that you're used to, so that is nice. I assume you'll keep your external monitor to use with the MBP at your desk (it's a must), but the portability is great. I would recommend one, for sure. Just buy a good external HD for use at your desk for your PS3 and Aperature projects, and leave the internal HD for your writing. Just keep in mind that the Core 2 dup chips aren't nearly as fast as the Xeon. Good luck!
 
Mundy said:
Furthermore, has anyone else here "ditched the desktop," even for heavy-duty work?
Click to expand...


Yes, bought a 17" 2.33 MBP with 2gbs of RAM to replace the dual 1.4 G4 tower, mainly for reasons of compactness, portability within my flat and near-silence. I use it mostly with an external monitor and couldn't be more pleased with the machine... I'll upgrade it to 3gbs of RAM when the price of 2gb modules comes down a bit here in the UK.

Using QuarkXpress and the Creative Suite for print work occasionally counts as heavy-duty, not quite as demanding as video perhaps, but still enough to get it a little heated at times. 😉
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back