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

Mac Pro 1,1 vs. 13" MacBook Pro: Performance pros and cons

C

carreragt7

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jun 15, 2010
128
3
I currently have a 13" 2.26ghz Intel Core 2 Duo MacBook Pro with 8gb DDR3 RAM and a 1TB hard drive. I have always wanted a Mac Pro for at home, but as a college student can't justify (or afford, lol) to own the newest Mac Pros, or even last years models as they hold their value too well...

So my questions are these:

1) Would a Mac Pro 1,1 with quad core 2.66ghz Intel Xeon (Woodcrest) be a decent machine to start with? It has 4gb DDR2 RAM, 2 250gb HDs, and Nvidia 7300 GT.

2) How would this compare to my laptop in terms of performance? I already get the pros and cons of portability, etc. Just performance I'm not so sure about as I'm not really a desktop person usually.

3) Would the above spec'd Mac Pro be worth $850, just the unit itself w/o any extras? I already have a 23" Cinema Display and wireless keyboard/mouse, so all I need to purchase is the computer itself anyway.

Anyone with some insight would be greatly appreciated, as I really can't seem to find any comparisons between the two different machines.

Obviously in a perfect world I'd own both of the top ends of both lines, but financially I can only justify having one or the other and I'd probably be selling my MBP 13" to help cover the cost of the Mac Pro.

I would end up getting a cheaper regular macbook for portability between classes, or a new Air if I found a good enough price down the road.

Thanks in advance for any help! Please go easy on me for the noob questions, I'm not too knowledgeable with desktops.
 
JMO, but an early MP just doesn't seem like a BIG enough difference (from what you have) to justify the cost/hassle of taking on another piece of big HW.

If you want more computer performance a better bang/buck upgrade would be to sell you current MBP and upgrade to an i5. I'd bet your out-of-pocket cost would be less than purchasing an old used MP and I bet a current gen i5 would beat that MP for most apps.

good luck with whatever you decide to do.
JohnG
 
johnnymg said:
JMO, but an early MP just doesn't seem like a BIG enough difference (from what you have) to justify the cost/hassle of taking on another piece of big HW.

If you want more computer performance a better bang/buck upgrade would be to sell you current MBP and upgrade to an i5. I'd bet your out-of-pocket cost would be less than purchasing an old used MP and I bet a current gen i5 would beat that MP for most apps.

good luck with whatever you decide to do.
JohnG
Click to expand...

Good point. I actually did have a 15" i5 MBP, and the top model 17" previous gen right before that. I just got tired of the larger form factor for traveling with.

Ideally I want to have a decently powerful Mac Pro for at home and an 11" Air for school. It would be nice to cut down on size and weight of my backpack, it weighs like 40 lbs with all the junk I carry regularly.

Looks like I might just hold out and save up a little bit longer until I find a decent 08/09 Pro since it seems like they actually have models that do better than some of the 2010 models according to the benchmarks. I'm not a super power user anyway, heaviest software I use is CS5.

Thanks for the input everyone! Going to have to put some more thought into everything :)
 
nerdo said:
Get a nice iMac and sell al the old stuff, the new macs are very nice. The Mac Pro 1,1 is a tired old beast.
Click to expand...

The new iMacs are very nice, but I want a more upgrade-friendly machine. I've set up multiple units of the 27" iMac at work (computer tech for my university, still newish to Macs). While their screens are amazing and they are beautiful, the only desktop that is going to pull me away from a laptop being my main machine is the Mac Pro. :)
 
If you can swing it, go for a hackintosh. Cheaper than even the original Mac Pro, faster, and more flexible. Not as reliable, no, but definitely a good option.
 
Read about the limitations on the older mac pros, this may persuade you not to buy one. Including the 32bit EFI, graphics cards, processors and ram, as well as it may not be supported in future operating systems.

850 sounds like a good deal to me. Stepping up to a 2008 model is going to be around 1500-1600 or a 2008 quad is around 1300-1400, both would be great prices in my opinion.

Since you have all the extras to make the MP work right away without extra cost I would say do it if you want to, but just make sure you read about the constraints of the 2006.

The 2008 2.8 quad single processor would be a good system if you could find it. The board has another socket for a processor, so later down the road you could put in another 2.8 CPU with heatsink to make it an octo.
 
Well, figured I'd update the thread letting you all know what I ended up doing.

I found a great deal on a sealed new 2.93ghz 8-Core Early 09 model and went with it. Now I will be selling off my 13" Pro and eventually getting the 11" Air for traveling back and forth from school.

I also picked up a used 24" Cinema Display locally for a great deal that I will be using with it.

I am hoping the whole setup will be awesome, as based on it's specs everything should be awesome! :D
 
carreragt7 said:
Well, figured I'd update the thread letting you all know what I ended up doing.

I found a great deal on a sealed new 2.93ghz 8-Core Early 09 model and went with it. Now I will be selling off my 13" Pro and eventually getting the 11" Air for traveling back and forth from school.

I also picked up a used 24" Cinema Display locally for a great deal that I will be using with it.

I am hoping the whole setup will be awesome, as based on it's specs everything should be awesome! :D
Click to expand...

Wow, thats a change from the start. What did the octo cost?
 
kellen said:
Wow, thats a change from the start. What did the octo cost?
Click to expand...

Well, it was a good deal. :) Figured instead of chancing an older model failing on me and not having the best specs I'd stretch my finances a bit.

It is still under warranty until August, so I have the ability to extend it with AppleCare.
 
Last edited:
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