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cinnabun93

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jan 24, 2013
29
0
I am taking college courses online and my college requires a Mac and it will also be useful to be able to use every operating system legally. I was just wondering which I should get. I won't be moving around but I have a 27" 1080p monitor and plan to eventually get another monitor at 1440p for my birthday. I'm just debating which I should do.
 

Loa

macrumors 68000
May 5, 2003
1,723
74
Québec
Hello,

Very strange choice you're giving us, akin to: "Should I buy a hummer or a BMW convertible." My advice: read up on cores and see if you really need them all. I don't think you do.

Loa
 

Macsonic

macrumors 68000
Sep 6, 2009
1,706
97
@cinnabun93

It will depend on what kind of work will you be doing on your Mac. You can also consider a 6 core 3.33 Mac Pro as that might be enough for you. If you do video editing or 3d rendering the 12 core will be beneficial or if you intend to use this to a means to earn income.
 

BeeJee

macrumors 6502
Nov 27, 2011
369
2
Long Island/North Jersey
I am taking college courses online and my college requires a Mac and it will also be useful to be able to use every operating system legally. I was just wondering which I should get. I won't be moving around but I have a 27" 1080p monitor and plan to eventually get another monitor at 1440p for my birthday. I'm just debating which I should do.

Why not an iMac? If that's out of the question, definitely get the Retina. If you can get by with the Retina then you don't need a 12 core mac pro. Besides they're going to be refreshed later this year.
 

Yebubbleman

macrumors 603
May 20, 2010
5,751
2,337
Los Angeles, CA
I am taking college courses online and my college requires a Mac and it will also be useful to be able to use every operating system legally. I was just wondering which I should get. I won't be moving around but I have a 27" 1080p monitor and plan to eventually get another monitor at 1440p for my birthday. I'm just debating which I should do.

Neither. Maxed out non-retina 15". Use the remaining money you save by doing that (from buying a 12-core Mac Pro) and buy a refurbished Mid 2010 Quad-Core Mac Pro. Boom, you have two fairly modern, very powerful Macs that, as you said, can run all three OS platforms.
 

apolloa

Suspended
Oct 21, 2008
12,318
7,802
Time, because it rules EVERYTHING!
I am taking college courses online and my college requires a Mac and it will also be useful to be able to use every operating system legally. I was just wondering which I should get. I won't be moving around but I have a 27" 1080p monitor and plan to eventually get another monitor at 1440p for my birthday. I'm just debating which I should do.

Well, with a total redesign Mac Pro planned for this year, I would actually wait for the MacBook Pro retina refresh and then get one, the refresh can't be far off now. You'll most likely get a speed bump etc then.
The Apple pages state the retina MBP can support up to 2560 by 1600 on external displays so no worries with that.

But as everyone has said, you haven't stated what you will use the computer for bar multiple OS's, for which I think RAM is more important?
 

strwrsfrk

macrumors regular
Mar 1, 2011
245
15
Arlington, VA, USA
I am taking college courses online and my college requires a Mac and it will also be useful to be able to use every operating system legally. I was just wondering which I should get. I won't be moving around but I have a 27" 1080p monitor and plan to eventually get another monitor at 1440p for my birthday. I'm just debating which I should do.

It depends on your workload. If you just need to be able to boot into any operating system for general purposes, consider either a Mac Mini or Dell Workstation (refurbished on both counts). For about $350 you can get a Dell Precision T3500 online (I like the Precision line from personal experience) with a Quad-Core Nehalem Xeon and up to 24GB RAM. Install Windows XP, Vista, 7, 8, and any flavor of Linux you can think of with reckless abandon in a robust, upgradeable system and on the relative cheap.

With the rest of the money, a base-model Retina MacBook Pro (refurbished!) is an excellent machine. Then again, so is a maxed-out MacBook Air. I have a rMBP for work and my personal laptop is an 11" MBA, and both are amazing for different reasons. But for college, no matter how immobile you project your schedule, you'll want a laptop at some point.
 

robbie12345

macrumors 6502
Nov 5, 2011
400
0
United States
Neither! But never ever buy a Mac Pro now. The 2010 Mac Pro is the same Mac Pro they are selling today. The 2010 was a 2009 with newer firmware, I would never pay top dollar for a 4 year old computer, and overpriced when it was released. The MPb retina is due for an update soon but still much better than the Mac pro
 

PowerPCMacMan

macrumors 6502a
Jul 17, 2012
800
0
PowerPC land
Where is the OP's justification for needing the 12-core? He makes no mention of video rendering, encoding, etc... all he mentions is he needs a Mac for his college coursework.

I say 6-core!!! Its the sweet spot and you can get a lot out of it.. if not, the 2.8 Quad Core and then get 6-core when you need it.


I would get the 12-core Mac Pro.


----------

Outdated and about to be replaced? I seriously hope this new "something wonderful" turns out to be a highly expandable Mac Pro as we know it, otherwise there will be a lot of disappointed souls out there.

I am willing to bet the case design is going to be shuttered and replaced with a new case and look.. Expect for limited expandability because Apple doesn't want us to expand and or upgrade.. I have a feeling, a BIG FEELING the 2013 Mac Pro is going to be a hybrid of the iMac and or Mac Mini... something like a Mac Mini Pro but not as small.. but don't expect 4-5 PCIe slots in it also.


rMBP. The Macpro is outdated and about to be replaced. Plus the rMBP fits nicely in a backpack and can be used anywhere.
 

monkeybagel

macrumors 65816
Jul 24, 2011
1,139
61
United States
I am willing to bet the case design is going to be shuttered and replaced with a new case and look.. Expect for limited expandability because Apple doesn't want us to expand and or upgrade.. I have a feeling, a BIG FEELING the 2013 Mac Pro is going to be a hybrid of the iMac and or Mac Mini... something like a Mac Mini Pro but not as small.. but don't expect 4-5 PCIe slots in it also.

Precisely the reason I bought mine now. The are removing expandability and many options with every "refresh." Instead of adding features, add one or two and drop one or two, and keep the same price.

I see them doing this with the Mac Pro considering the length of time between refreshes. If they do this again, I will get an HP or ThinkStation next when I need a new workstation, which I hope will be a while. The host OS is becoming less important as cores and virtualization performance increases. So far I am impressed with CentOS and Fedora 18. It would run nicely on an HP Z-Series dual socket or ThinkStation.
 

Macsonic

macrumors 68000
Sep 6, 2009
1,706
97
Originally Posted by PowerPCMacMan Outdated and about to be replaced? I seriously hope this new "something wonderful" turns out to be a highly expandable Mac Pro as we know it, otherwise there will be a lot of disappointed souls out there.

I am willing to bet the case design is going to be shuttered and replaced with a new case and look.. Expect for limited expandability because Apple doesn't want us to expand and or upgrade.. I have a feeling, a BIG FEELING the 2013 Mac Pro is going to be a hybrid of the iMac and or Mac Mini... something like a Mac Mini Pro but not as small.. but don't expect 4-5 PCIe slots in it also.

Good point PowerPCMan. I share the same sentiments with you that the 2013 Mac Pro may be more compact and less expandability. And if this will be the first generation of a Mac Pro revision, it would still be untested. Also considering the business direction Apple is headed- more compact design and it seems the quality of hardware materials being used are much better with the older Macs.
 

lucasfer899

macrumors 6502
Sep 23, 2012
432
2
London
The Mac Pro is extremely overprice IMHO. Build a hackintosh, this give much better value.

No, no, no, no NOO.

The Mac Pro is not overpriced. When it came out the price for what it offers was very good, and these days the mac pro is still one of the best workstations out there. A hackintosh workstation does not compete.
When someone wants a workstation they want something with support, and something of which is reliable. The hackintosh can compare, but doesnt shape up. Please do NOT turn this thread into a hackintosh vs mac thread, as that is not what OP is asking. Stick to the guidelines, look at what he was asking.
 

derbothaus

macrumors 601
Jul 17, 2010
4,093
30
Do you need portability? You have your answer. You can drown in minutia if you want but this is the only real follow up question. Sorry.
 
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