What do you use your Mac Pro for...

[VirtualRain]

I thought it might be interesting to collect some insights into owner demographics on this board...

Use this template if you don't mind...

Machine:
Location:
Purchased by:
Revenue:
Workload #1:
Workload #2:

Use these responses unless you have something better/different...

Machine:
- Pre 2008 MP
- 2008 Octo MP
- 2009 Octo MP
- 2009 Quad MP

Location:
- Residence (house, dorm, etc.)
- Home office (work from home)
- Office (place of work)

Purchased by:
- Me
- Gift
- Place of work

Revenue:
- No revenue (this machine is used for hobby stuff only)
- No revenue yet (this machine will hopefully start generating me revenue)
- Part-time revenue (some of the cycles go towards generating revenue)
- Full-time revenue (this machine is exclusively used for revenue generating activities)

Primary Workload: (please select just two and rank them in order!)
- Gaming
- Software/web development
- Graphic arts or photo work
- Video work
- Music/Audio
- Scientific/mathematical modelling
- 3d Rendering

It's assumed everyone will also use it for web/email/iTunes.


Here's my situation:

Machine: 2009 Quad MP
Location: Residence (house, dorm, etc.)
Purchased by: Me
Revenue: No revenue yet (this machine will hopefully start generating me revenue)
Workload #1: Video work
Workload #2: Software/web development

[fireshot91]

I use my G5 Power Mac for:

internet browsing
iTunes
iChat
....crap like that.


I still want a Mac Pro....for it's speed :).

[Chad H]

There you go. My machine specs are in my signature.:)

Machine:
- 2009 Quad MP

Location:
- Home

Purchased by:
- Me

Revenue:
- No revenue (this machine is used for hobby stuff only)

Primary Workload: (please select just two and rank them in order!)
- Gaming
- Software/web development
- Video work
- Music/Audio

[Boneoh]

Machine: 2009 Octa MP
Location: Home office, I work from home!
Purchased by: Me, out of business $$$
Revenue: Full-time Revenue, off hours fun when I get a break
Workload #1: Software and Web development
Workload #2: Scientific/Mathematical modeling (development)

When (if) I get spare time, I want to do more photography, video, and audio fun stuff. Work eats up 60 hrs a week average. The MP has definitely improved my productivity, some of my common workflows have gone from 10 minutes to about 2, compared to my old MBP. :D

[bearcatrp]

Machine: Mac Pro 2008 2.8 ghz
Location: Minnesota
Purchased by: Myself
Revenue: Zero
Workload #1: Video editing
Workload #2: Watching movies/ stream to apple tv

My other mac pro crunches data for world community grid 24/7.

[rwdds]

Machine: MP '09 2.26 Octo HD9870
Location: Philly
Purchased by: Me
Revenue: Enough to have lots of toys! I'm a dentist
Workload #1: 3D Cone Beam CT scan volumetric modeling and analysis
Workload #2: Vertical market database/utility development, marketing
Playload:Music, guitar, photo imaging, web development, etc.

[CaptainChunk]

Machine: 2008 Mac Pro 2.8GHz 8-core
Location: My Home Office (I work from home)
Purchased by: Me
Revenue: Full-time revenue
Workload #1: Video work
Workload #2: Graphic arts/photo work

[Topper]

.
Machine: 2008 Octo 3.0GHz MP
Location: Residence
Purchased by: Me
Revenue: Retired, no revenue
Workload #1: Image editing
Workload #2: Video editing
Workload #3: X-Plane
.

[jjahshik32]

Want: 2.93GHz 8 core Nehalem Mac Pro, 32GB RAM, SSD drive as boot and rest filled with 2tb hdds connected to 2x 24" LED ACD.

Usage: 1080P PR0N!!!!!

[jessica.]

Machine: MP Octo 2.8
Location: My office
Purchased by: Mastercard
Revenue: I have a day job.
Workload #1: Photo editing
Workload #2: Digital painting

[Genghis Khan]

Machine: 2008 Octo MP
Location: Home
Purchased by: Me
Revenue: No revenue (this machine is used for hobby stuff only)
Workload #1: 3d Rendering
Workload #2: Video work

- only a bit of iMovie to create presentation videos for my animations, but i'm of thinking letting my film school mate use it for FCS. He gets to upgrade from an MBP, and I get FCS :D

(I don't use this machine for Safari/iTunes/Mail...but my sisters do :P )

[theMaccer]

Usage: 1080P PR0N!!!!!

VERY NICE!:D:D

[emt377]

2008 Octo MP
Bought it as a business expense
I use it for software development

Don't play games much, but have been itching to check out WoW...

[sehnsucht77]

Early MBP 2008.
-Academic research work and data number crunching.
-primary function is for professional biotech use; revenue earned considering it is my primary profession.

G5 and G4:
-G5 is for revenue earning work in audio and video.
-G4 is for acadamic research work/ data number crunching

Proggies used:
-Final Cut Pro, Digidesign PT HD 8
-National Instruments Labview and Mathlab for data acquisition and data analysis.

[grue]

Machine: 8x3.0 / 12GB of RAM / 4.15TB
Location: Melbourne, Australia
Purchased by: Company, given to me as tax writeoff so I can work from home when I don't feel like coming in or want to work odd hours.
Revenue: Generated by work
Workload #1: Film editing
Workload #2: Gaming ( :D )

[Gymnut]

Machine: '09 Octo 2.66
Location: Home
Purchased: Me
Revenue: No Revenue; Current student so that means I work for free.
Workload: Picture and sound editor. FCP, Avid MC, and Pro Tools 8LE

[VirtualRain]

So far, only 2 out of 15 respondants actually use their machine to make money.

Who else has a Mac Pro?

[Topper]

So far, only 2 out of 15 respondants actually use their machine to make money.

I'm unselfish. I bought the Mac Pro so that Apple would make money. :p
.

[Loa]

Machine: 2009 Quad MP
Location: Home
Purchased by: Me
Revenue: Part-time revenue
Workload #1: Graphic arts or photo work
Workload #2: Gaming

[eawmp1]

Usage: 1080P PR0N!!!!!

Horny dyslexics UNITE! :D

[Genghis Khan]

So far, only 2 out of 15 respondants actually use their machine to make money.

i'd imagine that most people who use their Mac Pro for serious work wouldn't come on these forums ;)

[badlydrawn]

Machine: Pre 2008 MP
Location: Home office (work from home)
Purchased by: Me
Revenue: Part-time revenue
Workload #1: 3d Rendering
Workload #2: Graphic arts or photo work/Video

And some gaming on the weekends.

[SolidGun]

Machine: 2009 Quad MP
Location: Residence
Purchased by: Me
Revenue: No revenue
Workload #1: Gaming
Workload #2: Processing files

I just needed a quiet unit with lots of power.

[iGary]

Machine: MP Octo 2.8
Location: Home Office
Purchased by: Home Business
Revenue: I have a day job/part time VR Tours.
Workload #1: QTVR Rendering
Workload #2: Digital Photography

[VirtualRain]

i'd imagine that most people who use their Mac Pro for serious work wouldn't come on these forums ;)

I agree... this thread will likely prove your theory true, which was also my hypothesis.

I think this is an important consideration when reading subjective threads on this forum... that is, most vocal participants on here (including yours truly) are not part of the target market for the Mac Pro.

[jessica.]

So far, only 2 out of 15 respondants actually use their machine to make money.

Who else has a Mac Pro?

What I've done with my MP has made up for the cost of it. I don't know how you're really one to decide whether the machines are working for people. It's a slick way of judging how people spend their money. ;)

[VirtualRain]

What I've done with my MP has made up for the cost of it. I don't know how you're really one to decide whether the machines are working for people. It's a slick way of judging how people spend their money. ;)

I'm not passing judgement... just summarizing the results of this admittedly poor survey. :)

[Tesselator]

Yeah, but we might be misunderstanding??? When someone answers: "Video Editing" or "Web Dev." Is that for money? I would guess that it is. Or are you assuming only "Revenue"?

[SolidGun]

Yeah, but we might be misunderstanding??? When someone answers: "Video Editing" or "Web Dev." Is that for money? I would guess that it is. Or are you assuming only "Revenue"?

Porn is a legitimate industry.....uh....I mean....what was the question again senator?

[jessica.]

Porn is a legitimate industry.....uh....I mean....what was the question again senator?

Actually it is. I went to high school with a guy who was 2 grades behind me. He started making websites and now brings home checks with quite a few zeros every month.

[VirtualRain]

Yeah, but we might be misunderstanding??? When someone answers: "Video Editing" or "Web Dev." Is that for money? I would guess that it is. Or are you assuming only "Revenue"?

I'm not sure what you are asking but I would hope this was sufficiently clear to most people... and a clear indication of who's generating revenue from their Mac Pro and who isn't.

Revenue:
- No revenue (this machine is used for hobby stuff only)
- No revenue yet (this machine will hopefully start generating me revenue)
- Part-time revenue (some of the cycles go towards generating revenue)
- Full-time revenue (this machine is exclusively used for revenue generating activities)

At any rate, it's interesting.

[stonyc]

Machine:
- 2009 Octo MP (2.66)

Location:
- Home

Purchased by:
- Me (actually, hasn't been purchased yet... waiting for my ADC membership to be verified)

Revenue:
- No revenue (this machine won't be used for hobby stuff only)

Primary Workload: (please select just two and rank them in order!)
- Scientific/mathematical modelling
- Gaming

[Shake 'n' Bake]

If I can get the money together by next year I'll get a 2.93 GHz octocore with 12 GB RAM from OWC and four 1 TB HDDs in RAID 10 to make a near-feature-length animated movie.

Machine:

733 MHz DA G4.

Location:

My basement.

Purchased by:

My teacher. I got it for free :).

Revenue:

None.

Primary Workload:

Serving the house with our iTunes library
Light PS work

[lemonade-maker]

There you go. My machine specs are in my signature.

Machine:
- 2009 Quad MP

Location:
- Work/Home

Purchased by:
- Self owned business

Revenue:
- more than 250K

Primary Workload:
- Software Engineering

[lemonade-maker]

Actually it is. I went to high school with a guy who was 2 grades behind me. He started making websites and now brings home checks with quite a few zeros every month.

That's me!!!!!

[sehnsucht77]

I'm not sure what you are asking but I would hope this was sufficiently clear to most people... and a clear indication of who's generating revenue from their Mac Pro and who isn't.

Revenue:
- No revenue (this machine is used for hobby stuff only)
- No revenue yet (this machine will hopefully start generating me revenue)
- Part-time revenue (some of the cycles go towards generating revenue)
- Full-time revenue (this machine is exclusively used for revenue generating activities)

At any rate, it's interesting.

-in that case, part-time revenue for video and audio editing and full-time revenue for number crunching, both different purposes but revenue earning channels.

[Tesselator]

VR, That's what I meant:

-in that case, part-time revenue for video and audio editing and full-time revenue for number crunching, both different purposes but revenue earning channels.

For me:
Machine: 2006 MP Octad (and many other Wintel / *nix workstations)
Location: SOHO
Purchased by: Money
Revenue: Of course.
Workload #1~1000: Anything anyone will pay for: Music, Art, Technical Writing, Software Design, Hardware Design, Video, Animation, etc..
Workload #1001~: Anything fun or interesting: MR Posting, (Historical, Religious, Economical, Commerce-ial) Research & Analysis, Music, Art, Video, Animation, etc..

[rich2k4]

i'm going to get a mac pro in september and only primarily use it for internet, listening to music, and chatting. Why? because i can, and i like knowing that i have a powerful computer that will last me a long time, and still be really fast.

[Cynicalone]

Machine: 2009 MP Octo 2.93Ghz
Location: Home Office (Right Now in my condo soon to be in my house)
Purchased By: Me
Revenue: Full Time
Primary Workload #1: Video work
Primary Workload #2: Photo Editing

[gotzero]

Machine: 2008 MP Octo
Location: Home "Office" next door to my real office with far more serious hardware.
Purchased By: Me
Revenue: Very Part Time
Primary Workload #1: Statistics/Modeling (School/Work)
Primary Workload #2: Audio (Hobby)
Primary Workload #3: So I can run a proper amount of monitors

I think that regardless of the results of this "survey", you cannot make a proper conclusion. The same people that you think are not on this forum are probably using hardware in another league from the Mac Pro, or at least clusters. Unless you walk around on raised floors, you are likely not dealing with a high-performance computing environment...

I bought a Mac Pro for my personal workstation because at the time I felt it was comparable to competing workstations for my needs. I absolutely do not use it to make money all day, but I would consider myself smack in the middle of the target market in that I consider several things otherwise missing in the Mac line to be necessary.

[treo360]

Machine: 2008 MP Octo
Location: home.
Purchased By: Me
Revenue: none, yet
Primary Workload #1: Student, Animatiomentor.com
Primary Workload #2: HD media server to Ps3/360
Primary Workload #3: Seti/Milkyway@home

[wheezy]

Machine: 2008 2.8x8
Location: Home Office
Purchased by: Me
Revenue: Full Time
Workload #1: Photography
Workload #2: Web Development

Never really realized it, but this is a full time machine sans weekends, and even then I'm still usually doing a few hours of work on it. It's been an awesome investment for work, handles everything I do with ease and 4GB more of RAM arrives this week for a little bit more of a buffer.

[lannister80]

Machine: Early 2008 8x2.8GHz MP, 8GB RAM, 2TB Storage, Flashed 4870
Location: My "Den"
Purchased by: Me
Revenue: 0, used as our family's main desktop machine, not a home office
Workload #1: Video encoding/decoding, compression/decompression
Workload #2: BOINC
Workload #3: Gaming (Mac and Windows)
Workload #4: Being super-fast at everything else!

I'm a Computer Science guy who's used Macs his whole life. I suffered on a PM MDD G4 1x1.25GHz until March 2009 when I got this bad boy on eBay (less than a year old, with 2+ years of AppleCare on it)

[IronFixXxeR]

Machine: 2009 2.93 GHz Quad MP
Location: Home
Purchased by: Myself on the Juniper Visa card
Revenue: No revenue (this machine is used for hobby stuff only)
Primary Workload 1: BOINC (SETI@Home)
Primary Workload 2: Graphic arts

[Akula971]

Machine: 2008 Octo MP
Location: Home
Purchased by: Me
Revenue: Generating 12 hours per day (Full Time!)
Workload #1: Printed Circuit Board CAD/ Gerber file editing
Workload #2: Graphics
Workload #3: Windows Games/Music/Web

I run my company off this machine

[bittergourd]

Awesome, another AMer. :)

Machine: 2008 MP Octo
Location: home.
Purchased By: Me
Revenue: none, yet
Primary Workload #1: Student, Animatiomentor.com
Primary Workload #2: HD media server to Ps3/360
Primary Workload #3: Seti/Milkyway@home

[kellen]

Machine: 2008 MP 2.8, 12GB ram, 3.3TB
Location: Home
Purchased by: Me, with $$
Revenue: - No revenue yet (this machine will hopefully start generating me revenue). Nothing that requires a mac pro, but I got it EOL. Got a couple and sold them for $$$ so this machine was less than 1000.
Workload #1: Nothing special
Workload #2:

[pprior]

2008 Octo MP
Residence
Purchased by Me
Revenue: Part-time revenue
Primary Workload:
1) Graphic arts or photo work
2) Gaming

[Eithanius]

Machine: 2009 2.66 GHz Octad MP
Location: Home
Purchased by: Replacement for 2007 Octad MP in turn purchased by me
Revenue: No revenue (at least not for the time being)
Primary Workload 1: BOINC (Einstein@Home)
Primary Workload 2: Audio/video work

[designgeek]

i'm going to get a mac pro in september and only primarily use it for internet, listening to music, and chatting. Why? because i can, and i like knowing that i have a powerful computer that will last me a long time, and still be really fast.

I've been dying to get one and this is the only reason I can come up with. I've been scouring this forum looking for possible uses beyond picture, video and audio editing. I will probably get one for school though, something in the computer science field. Once I have it I'll use it for homework, hobby stuff (ie: encoding a movie in much less than an hour, I have a huge library in .avi for some reason) and the usual email/macrumors/iTunes. I won't be making any revenue though.

[Ploki]

Machine: 2008 octo
Location: home "office" (project studio)
Purchased by: me
Revenue: part-time revenue
Workload #1: music/audio
Workload #2: graphic arts (just for fun though)

[Genghis Khan]

Machine: G4 PowerMac
Location: Home
Purchased by: Me
Revenue: Full-Time
Workload #1: Collating blackmail material.
Workload #2: Emailing blackmail material.

invaluable machine.

[ventro]

I use mine to read the macrumors forums, that's it.

[UltraNEO*]

System 1 :
Machine:　　2008 3.2 Octo
Location:　　Home office (work from home)
Purchased by: me (paid for itself after two projects)
Revenue:　　FT revenue (on 24/7, except when i'm away)
Workload #1:　　audio/video processing
Workload #2:　　graphic design

System 2 + System 3 :
Machine:　　2008 2.8 Octo (headless)
Location:　　Home office (work from home)
Purchased by: me
Revenue:　　FT revenue (on 24/7, except when i'm away)
Workload #1:　　audio/video processing
Workload #2:　　file server/storage/printer spooler

[Ploki]

how do you distribute cpu to the 1st system?

[daceymathers]

The current model of Mac Pro features Intel Xeon processors based on the Nehalem microarchitecture/Westmere microarchitecture. There are options of up to 12 processing cores, up to four optional 2TB hard disk drives/512GB solid state drives and ATI Radeon HD 5770/5870 graphics.

Machine:
two Quad core Intel E5620 Xeon processors @2.4 GHz

Location: Residence

Purchased by: Me

Primary Workload: Software/web development

[Fotog]

Machine: 2006 MP Quad w/flashed 4870
Location: home office
Purchased By: me
Revenue: yes
Primary usage: photo editing (i.e. work)
Secondary usage: 2nd computer
Tertiary usage: gaming (win)

[FluJunkie]

Machine: 2010 Quad Core
Location: Home Office
Purchased by: Me
Revenue: Part-Time
Primary Uses:
Scientific computing/mathematical models
Games
General Productivity

[JeepGuy]

Machine: 2010 Hex
Location: Work
Purchased by: Company
Revenue: full-time revenue
Workload #1: Architectural (Revit MEP)
Workload #2: 3D modeling
Workload #3: Acoustical Analysis and Speaker modeling.

Machine: 2010 Quad
Location: Home Office
Purchased by: Me
Revenue: part-time revenue
Workload #1: Architecture (Revit MEP)
Workload #2: 3D modeling
Workload #3: Photography

[initialsBB]

Machine: 2010 hex 3.33
Location: home
Purchased by: me
Revenue: some, but it's really for self training (freelance video editor)
Workload #1: After Effects / Photoshop / FCP / Avid
Workload #2: Aperture for my hobby... 6*3.33 GHz + 16 GB RAM really changed my life.

[roblin]

Machine: 2008 8x2.8ghz
Location: home(my office)
Purchased by: me
Revenue: online gambling(NLTH)
Workload #1: postgresql, tons of windows with HUD layers
Workload #2: starcraft, games, chess(houdini)