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Single Processor Mac Pro?

A

animationerd

macrumors newbie
Original poster
I'm a long time Mac user currently looking to make the switch at home. At first I was looking at the iMacs and eagerly awaiting the latest update. I was considering the top of the line iMac and then I realized that the price was pretty close to the base model Mac Pro with one processor. I have a nice monitor and a few SATA hard drives laying around so it makes a lot of sense.

I will mostly be using the system for character animation in Maya, some Mental Ray rendering, video editing (mostly compiling TIFF sequences), and Photoshop.

My question is: How much of a difference is there in processor performance between the high end iMac, the single processor Pro, and the 2 processor Pro?

the single processor Pro is about as much as I can spend, but would I be dumb for getting it?
 
Eidorian said:
The refurbished single 2.8 GHz quad Mac Pro shows up on Apple's refurb store for US$1,999. 😀
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animationed, QUAD core not SINGLE core, dosent matter if its just a single CPU its got 4 cores

so yeah it would be quite a bit faster, plus its got a faster video card, and can have a LOT more storage
 
The quad 2.8 Mac Pro is loads faster than a dual 3.06 iMac. Quad will beat dual hands down. For what you'd be doing, it would probably suit you well, and it would last a fair bit longer than an iMac. With the hard drives you say you have laying around, as well as with what you would be doing, I would say go for the lowest Mac Pro (refurbs are cheaper too).
 
Well the mac pro will be faster because its a Xeon processor vs. Intel Core 2 Duo. The reason they are the same price is because the Mac Pro you have to buy a seperate monitor. Even though you said thats the most you could spend it would be totally worth it to do two 2.8ghz(eight core).😎
 
Deferring Purchase?

BigD58 said:
Even though you said thats the most you could spend it would be totally worth it to do two 2.8ghz(eight core).😎
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I know nothing about the Mac Pro but out of curiosity, would it be easy enough / feasible to add another processor in a year or two to the Mac Pro if the OP felt he needed more power later on? Or would no one be selling them by then? Do Apple even offer an option to upgrade to 8 cores later on if you decide not to go with it at first or would you have to go to another retailer?
 
Neutral Gamer said:
I know nothing about the Mac Pro but out of curiosity, would it be easy enough / feasible to add another processor in a year or two to the Mac Pro if the OP felt he needed more power later on? Or would no one be selling them by then? Do Apple even offer an option to upgrade to 8 cores later on if you decide not to go with it at first or would you have to go to another retailer?
Click to expand...
I'd like to know that as well…
 
Neutral Gamer said:
I know nothing about the Mac Pro but out of curiosity, would it be easy enough / feasible to add another processor in a year or two to the Mac Pro if the OP felt he needed more power later on? Or would no one be selling them by then? Do Apple even offer an option to upgrade to 8 cores later on if you decide not to go with it at first or would you have to go to another retailer?
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same here
 
Still waiting ...

Well, it's been nearly three days and myself and no doubt the two ^^ posters above me 🙂)) are still waiting to know whether it's possible to upgrade to two processors, if you decide to later on, after buying a single processor Mac Pro.

There's got to be some Mac Pro owners out there who know the answer to this? Or maybe a Mod should move this thread to the Mac Pro forum to increase our chances of getting an answer! 😀
 
Not sure if this would help, but the last generation of the Mac Pro did let you switch out processors (4-Cores to 8-Cores). It voids the warranty and I wouldn' t recommend it until 3 years down the road when Applecare has expired.
 
FF_productions said:
Not sure if this would help, but the last generation of the Mac Pro did let you switch out processors (4-Cores to 8-Cores). It voids the warranty and I wouldn' t recommend it until 3 years down the road when Applecare has expired.
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Anything that gets me closer to an answer is helpful and much appreciated mate! 🙂

That's interesting what you said about voiding the warranty, do you know if you could've just gone into an Apple Store and got them to upgrade it for you? Waiting for AppleCare to expire after 3 years just seems to long.
 
Neutral Gamer said:
I know nothing about the Mac Pro but out of curiosity, would it be easy enough / feasible to add another processor in a year or two to the Mac Pro if the OP felt he needed more power later on? Or would no one be selling them by then? Do Apple even offer an option to upgrade to 8 cores later on if you decide not to go with it at first or would you have to go to another retailer?
Click to expand...

I've put a lot of research into this topic and it is physically possible, as there is a free socket on the quad, but the issue here is that while most parts are readily available, it is insanely difficult to find a Mac Pro heat sink for the xeon. I have found two sources for a heat sink for one; however, the sites are not too trustworthy (from what I can see).
 
They also have refurb dual 2.8s for $100 more than a new single 2.8 at $2,399, so if you end up wanting to get a dual 2.8 Mac Pro instead of a single 2.8 Mac Pro you could buy one of those.
 
iToaster said:
I've put a lot of research into this topic and it is physically possible, as there is a free socket on the quad, but the issue here is that while most parts are readily available, it is insanely difficult to find a Mac Pro heat sink for the xeon. I have found two sources for a heat sink for one; however, the sites are not too trustworthy (from what I can see).
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That's annoying that it's just the heatsink that's holding you back. How much are these *untrustworthy* sites selling them for? If it's not too much then it may be worth a punt! Did you ask if Apple themselves could upgrade it for you?

11800506 said:
They also have refurb dual 2.8s for $100 more than a new single 2.8 at $2,399, so if you end up wanting to get a dual 2.8 Mac Pro instead of a single 2.8 Mac Pro you could buy one of those.
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You make a fair point actually. I've just checked the Apple site here in the UK and you can get a new quad core Mac Pro for £1429 and a refurbished octo core model for £1499 - just £70 more! It's just that psychological aspect of owning a *refurbished* model that may be the problem, you know what I mean? 😉
 
Neutral Gamer said:
That's annoying that it's just the heatsink that's holding you back. How much are these *untrustworthy* sites selling them for? If it's not too much then it may be worth a punt! Did you ask if Apple themselves could upgrade it for you?
Click to expand...

Apple won't upgrade it for you to my understanding, but the site is applepalace.com, just search for 076-1233, it's about $100... I'm too lazy to convert to pounds for you, but to my understanding it would be about 50 perhaps.
 
Neutral Gamer said:
That's annoying that it's just the heatsink that's holding you back. How much are these *untrustworthy* sites selling them for? If it's not too much then it may be worth a punt! Did you ask if Apple themselves could upgrade it for you?



You make a fair point actually. I've just checked the Apple site here in the UK and you can get a new quad core Mac Pro for £1429 and a refurbished octo core model for £1499 - just £70 more! It's just that psychological aspect of owning a *refurbished* model that may be the problem, you know what I mean? 😉
Click to expand...

My refurbed Mac mini arrived like new. I would never have known it wasn't new if I didn't buy it myself (other than the box it came in was clearly different than a brand new box--it was a refurb type box--different.)
 
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