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Thinking of returning imac 27" for MP quad 2.8

frocco

frocco

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jan 27, 2009
498
43
Long story, I returned my 27" cinema display because the stand was broke. Apple tech talked me out of the MP 2.8 for an imac i7 2.93 27"

I feel this imac is not as fast as the MP, I constantly hear the hard drive working and see beach balls. I have until tomorrow to return it.

I do not want to spend the extra 1k for the 27" monitor and figure the cost would be about 500 more with a 23" pc monitor.

Now the question is, should I return it, would the MP 2.8 with a cheaper monitor give me a longer life and return value upon sale?

Help me to decide.

Thanks
 
What do you use your computer for? Without knowing more, if I were you I'd use that extra $500 and get an ssd for your iMac. That would solve your slow HD problem and would result in a faster machine than a HDD-based MP in most cases.
 
web development, finance and gaming like Black Ops.

I also stream netflix.
 
I have the MP 2.8. Bought a refurbished model and saved money direct from apple. I love it. Much faster than an iMac. It can hold 4 internal hard drives, easy to upgrade RAM. Get the 2.8ghz. They want you to buy an iMac because they make more money in the long run. The PowerMacs run almost forever and you can upgrade the processors in them.
 
It's been about 15 minutes now, and I can still hear the HD working. This seems to have started after I put windows 7 on. I dod have windows 7 on my previous MP 2.8 and had no problems.

I know the MP will not be a spped demon compared to the i7, but it did run better and about 10 degrees cooler.
 
jmille44 said:
I have the MP 2.8. Bought a refurbished model and saved money direct from apple. I love it. Much faster than an iMac. It can hold 4 internal hard drives, easy to upgrade RAM. Get the 2.8ghz. They want you to buy an iMac because they make more money in the long run. The PowerMacs run almost forever and you can upgrade the processors in them.
Click to expand...

What monitor did you get?
 
Although it seems as if you already made your choice, I'd still suggest keeping the iMac and putting a decent SSD in it.

The machine itself is equally fast than the base Mac Pro, so if you buy a Pro and don't update its hard drives, you will basically have the same issues you're experiencing now. The machines are pretty much exactly the same, so unless you need the upgradability of the Pro, keep the iMac.

Put in a SSD in the iMac and you're good to go. A mechanical disk in the machines we've got today is like driving a Porsche with winter tires. It just doesn't make sense.
Every once in a while I boot my Pro from an mechanical disk and it is just ridiculous how slow the whole machine gets. I couldn't possibly work with that.

In addition to that, I'd rather keep the 27" display than going for a small 23".
 
frocco said:
Long story, I returned my 27" cinema display because the stand was broke. Apple tech talked me out of the MP 2.8 for an imac i7 2.93 27"

I feel this imac is not as fast as the MP, I constantly hear the hard drive working and see beach balls. I have until tomorrow to return it.

I do not want to spend the extra 1k for the 27" monitor and figure the cost would be about 500 more with a 23" pc monitor.

Now the question is, should I return it, would the MP 2.8 with a cheaper monitor give me a longer life and return value upon sale?

Help me to decide.

Thanks
Click to expand...

I ordered an i7 but never took delivery (Fedx). Subsequently ordered a Quad MP and think it's an excellent choice if you want/need expandability beyond what the imac offers.

I also purchased a 24" ACD (refurb store) and am pleased with it.

Tell us a bit more about how you will be using the computer.

The beachball issue with your i7 might be a bad install of Win7 or some other problem. Overall, the i7 should have about the same computer "power" as a base Quad MP.

cheers
JohnG
 
I had the iMac first. I quickly found out the hdd is trapped inside. I also found out the fw800 port is really slow in comparison to an esata jack. So what was happening was I was filling the 1tb inside hdd about every 8 days. Well I was adding about 600gb of data every 8 days. Along with my permanent info of about 250gb. This meant I had to off load the inside hdd too often. I have a 2009 model a 27 inch with a 2 core 3.06 cpu . Since the info was going to be constant i did not feel like offloading 10 hours of data every 8 days. I don't need a lot of cpu speed i need hdd managment.

So I sprung for a macpro and a small nas system. the mac pro does the bulk of my recording i have 7tb inside it and a 13.5 tb 8 bay unit ontop of it. I use a low cost dell ultrasharp a 24 inch model. if i need the iMac's better picture I transfer the file to the small nas system and then view the video on the iMac. right now dell has the 21.5 inch ultrasharp on sale it has a clearer picture then mine as it is 21.5 inches with a dot pitch of 23.7





http://accessories.us.dell.com/sna/productdetail.aspx?c=us&l=en&s=dhs&cs=19&sku=320-9271

http://configure.us.dell.com/dellst...d=197378&acd=10466193-1225267-u0t0f0fp0c0s558

here are some codes on the two above

http://slickdeals.net/forums/showthread.php?t=2546655
 
I own a 2008 MacPro that suites me fine for my Photography and CS5 usage. I have the machine filled with drives and ESATA externals. I also need to run windows 7 which it handles very well. I recently set up a friends iMac (top of the line 27inch) as a digital darkroom. I was very impressed with the unit but I did notice the computer runs very hot. I know for my usages especially running windows I would over heat the computer in no time. I think the imacs are wonderful but there is also a reason the macpros are called MacPRO's.
That my $.02
 
I switched to a Mac pro because I was concerned about heat o my old iMac. It's a joy to work on, so accessible and easy to upgrade. If you are a gamer, you might want a new video card in a year or two.

Mine is five years old and it seems it would still outlive the late 2009 iMac.

+1 vote for the Mac pro.
 
My only concern is can I live with a cheaper monitor until I can afford the 27" cinema display.
 
Just to add some inputs, I've been using both an iMac and a Mac Pro for many years and I tend to lean towards the Mac Pro. The iMac is a good machine but the issues I had for most models is the discoloration that appears on the corners of the screen and I am not too comfortable with the glossy display. And replacing the LCD specially after AppleCare has expired is too expensive. I design graphics so these are critical. There's a thread in this forum found in the iMac section about discoloration issues. With the Mac Pro I need the expandability of the HDs and being able to choose a non-glossy monitor.
 
+1 MacPro

I've had both and the MP just kicks aces.
More hard drive spaces, upgradable graphics cards, quieter, cooler, and RAID capable.
 
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPod; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_2_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8C148 Safari/6533.18.5)

I ended up getting the Mac Pro 2.8
Still looking for an inexpensive ips monitor
 
frocco said:
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPod; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_2_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8C148 Safari/6533.18.5)

I ended up getting the Mac Pro 2.8
Still looking for an inexpensive ips monitor
Click to expand...

Big congrats, that's a very sound move!

JohnG
 
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