Mac Pro

Ed Miliband said:

Can someone help me decide if I should buy a nMP or if a MacBook (connected to TBD) is enough.

Or maybe a new Mac Mini but this probably won't be much more powerful than my MB.

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It all depends on what you're looking to do with the machine. What is the nature of your work?

Ed Miliband said:

I am a moderate user.

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Define moderate user.

You still haven't said what it is you do or what/how you use your computer, only what you don't use it for and don't want to do with it. That's not real helpful.

iMac = Moderate user

Mac Pro = Professional or Pro-summer user

How about also defining a price range?

I'm a big fan of the Mac mini line. Especially the server models.

Ed Miliband said:

I am a moderate user. I an not video or sound editor or wish to use the Mac Pro to play games however my work does sometimes cause my current machines to heat up. The thing that interests me in the nMP over an iMac or other setup is the reports of people working their nMP moderately hard (that would be classed as heavy use for other machines) and the fans not starting but maybe in newer lines of other products this would also be the case?

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Here's my quick take on a system buyer's guide wizard...

1. Is portability important?
- If yes, then stop here and buy a Macbook, if not, goto 2
2. Do you have a good display already?
- If not, then stop here and buy an iMac, if yes, goto 3
3. Do the apps you run benefit from GPU acceleration, or more than 4 cores?
- If not, then stop here and buy a Mac Mini, if yes, goto 4
4. Do you really want to spend more than $3K on a new computer?
- If yes, then stop here and buy a Mac Pro, else buy a Mac Mini anyway.

FYI, I own a Mac Pro (2013 6-core) and a Mac Mini (2012 i7 Quad) and both are incredibly capable machines (if you update the Mini with an SSD and more RAM). But you really need to have a business need or a lot of disposable money to burn on a computer, if you go the Mac Pro route. I mean a lot of people can probably put up with a bit of fan noise to save $2K.

Stick with a Mac Mini unless you work with 4K videos etc IMHO.

Ed Miliband said:

Can someone help me decide if I should buy a nMP or if a MacBook (connected to TBD) is enough.

Or maybe a new Mac Mini but this probably won't be much more powerful than my MB.

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Buy both, shouldn't be a problem for the leader of the labour party. seeing as you earn 132,000 pounds a year.

I consider myself a pro-sumer. I'm a software engineer by trade, I like to run VM's and such. I also am into photography, music, some video.

I went with a nMP. I have to say, it's a fantastic machine, it's quiet, super-fast, it just sits there and works for me.

But I also have a Retina MBP, and to be honest, it has enough power to do the work that I do.

The nMP really is overkill... particularly if you aren't even sure you'll need it. I thought I did, and it's just so fast I can barely touch it's power, particularly the GPU's.

I'm not unhappy with my purchase in any way, this machine will last me a long time. But I'd consider carefully before spending that much money again on a machine.

Hello thread starter what is this please:  17" Retina MacBook Pro - 2.5Ghz 6 core, 32GB RAM, 2TB SSD, D700.

Did you mean new MacPro?