Hi All, I'm hoping to get a few useful opinions or suggestions from those who are more familiar with the Mac lineup then I am. I'm looking at upgrading my current Mac setup.
At the moment I've got an iMac (one of the first Intel-versions). I keep it on pretty much 24/7 and use it to stream my iTunes library to the AppleTV. I have two external drives (1TB each) connected which I keep my ever growing library on. That's pretty much all it gets used for theses days.
My main workhorse is a 3 year old MacBook Pro which has been great but is showing signs of wear. It also needs a new battery and ideally more memory but instead of upgrading the parts, I think I would prefer to put the money towards a new system.
The MacBook spends 98% of the time on my desk connected to a monitor so instead of getting another MacBook I'm thinking of going back to a desktop so I can get rid of the old iMac & clutter on the desk and just have one machine. Then I can keep the MacBook for when I'm out and about. Think I'll also take the opportunity to finally get rid of my old PC and setup either boot camp or Parallels.
The choice I've got is (and what I'm struggling to decide on) is do I get an iMac or a Mac Pro. I've ruled out the Mac Pro Quad-Core for the moment due to the fact that the Quad-Core iMac appears to far better value for the money, very similar spec?
The Mac Pro 8-core is obviously a huge price-jump from the iMac and will be a big investment. It's just even though it's nice & shiney with a good spec & plenty of room for expansion - I'm not sure I'm ever going to make use of all those cores. The main applications I use are Photoshop, Aperture & Final Cut Express. The two main reasons why I'm leaning more towards a Mac Pro are; the upgradeability of a Pro & the 4 HDD bays.
I'm sure that a 27" iMac i7 will be plenty enough for what I need spec-wise and comes with a LED monitor and will cost nearly a grand less but means I'll have to continue using external drives and apart from adding memory, won't be able to upgrade it.
So anyway if you're still reading this, what I would like to know is; do you think I would notice a big difference performance-wise between an iMac i7 & a MacPro 8-core for what I would use it for? or I'm I being stupid for even thinking about getting a MacPro? And lastly, if you were me, what would you get?
Sorry for the long post...
At the moment I've got an iMac (one of the first Intel-versions). I keep it on pretty much 24/7 and use it to stream my iTunes library to the AppleTV. I have two external drives (1TB each) connected which I keep my ever growing library on. That's pretty much all it gets used for theses days.
My main workhorse is a 3 year old MacBook Pro which has been great but is showing signs of wear. It also needs a new battery and ideally more memory but instead of upgrading the parts, I think I would prefer to put the money towards a new system.
The MacBook spends 98% of the time on my desk connected to a monitor so instead of getting another MacBook I'm thinking of going back to a desktop so I can get rid of the old iMac & clutter on the desk and just have one machine. Then I can keep the MacBook for when I'm out and about. Think I'll also take the opportunity to finally get rid of my old PC and setup either boot camp or Parallels.
The choice I've got is (and what I'm struggling to decide on) is do I get an iMac or a Mac Pro. I've ruled out the Mac Pro Quad-Core for the moment due to the fact that the Quad-Core iMac appears to far better value for the money, very similar spec?
The Mac Pro 8-core is obviously a huge price-jump from the iMac and will be a big investment. It's just even though it's nice & shiney with a good spec & plenty of room for expansion - I'm not sure I'm ever going to make use of all those cores. The main applications I use are Photoshop, Aperture & Final Cut Express. The two main reasons why I'm leaning more towards a Mac Pro are; the upgradeability of a Pro & the 4 HDD bays.
I'm sure that a 27" iMac i7 will be plenty enough for what I need spec-wise and comes with a LED monitor and will cost nearly a grand less but means I'll have to continue using external drives and apart from adding memory, won't be able to upgrade it.
So anyway if you're still reading this, what I would like to know is; do you think I would notice a big difference performance-wise between an iMac i7 & a MacPro 8-core for what I would use it for? or I'm I being stupid for even thinking about getting a MacPro? And lastly, if you were me, what would you get?
Sorry for the long post...
