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

Be Honest....

S

Sabbathack

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Sep 7, 2008
14
0
Ok, I'm making the switch from PC.... (Hold the applause...)
I'm coming from a 1.8Ghz 1GB ram... 128mb GeForce GFX card. I like to play games, video edit(Adobe Premiere) and lots of multi-track recording. I can't play any newer games, my system is too slow now. Video editing is slow and choppy, and rendering takes hours for simple 4-5 minutes music videos...

I'm looking at getting a Mac Pro (1) Quad-core 2.8 with 2GB ram and the 8800GT GFX card.

That being said... HERE's my question.

What will I NOT like about the Mac Pro? I know its pricey for the toy that I'll being using it for. I'm SURE the iMac can handle what I want, I just fear not being able to upgrade. Also, if it breaks down, I can't swap components on the iMac where as on the Mac Pro I can....

Thanks for any advice...

Sab
 
The fact that its likely to be revised in january 09 hence you wont be getting Nehalem (Core i7) if you buy now and that you cant do SLI/Crossfire modes. Otherwise...happy days
 
You are looking to spend a lot of money on a system that won´t really shine in gaming. Whatever GPU will be available at start, 6 months later will appear mediocre. You can buy a very potent PC for around 1200-1500 USD including 8GB of RAM, an overclocked Quad and so forth. Ultimately, if you don´t need 8 Cores or anything specific from OS X you are much better of buying a PC with Vista 64. Even if you do need boatloads of cpu power, I´d go for desktop i7.
Boards with the x58 chipset have support for 24 GBs of DDR3 Ram.
 
ceres said:
You are looking to spend a lot of money on a system that won´t really shine in gaming. Whatever GPU will be available at start, 6 months later will appear mediocre. You can buy a very potent PC for around 1200-1500 USD including 8GB of RAM, an overclocked Quad and so forth. Ultimately, if you don´t need 8 Cores or anything specific from OS X you are much better of buying a PC with Vista 64. Even if you do need boatloads of cpu power, I´d go for desktop i7.
Boards with the x58 chipset have support for 24 GBs of DDR3 Ram.
Click to expand...

I definitely don't need 2 quad-cores... I was thinking of just getting the single quad-core... and why is it anytime I mention gaming in my post, people seem to over look my other needs. Gaming, while lots of fun, plays only a small part of what I do on my computer.

If Apple made a lower end tower case, I would look into it, I just can't see being stuck without a computer if one component fails with an iMac.
 
Sabbathack said:
Ok, I'm making the switch from PC.... (Hold the applause...)
I'm coming from a 1.8Ghz 1GB ram... 128mb GeForce GFX card. I like to play games, video edit(Adobe Premiere) and lots of multi-track recording. I can't play any newer games, my system is too slow now. Video editing is slow and choppy, and rendering takes hours for simple 4-5 minutes music videos...

I'm looking at getting a Mac Pro (1) Quad-core 2.8 with 2GB ram and the 8800GT GFX card.

That being said... HERE's my question.

What will I NOT like about the Mac Pro? I know its pricey for the toy that I'll being using it for. I'm SURE the iMac can handle what I want, I just fear not being able to upgrade. Also, if it breaks down, I can't swap components on the iMac where as on the Mac Pro I can....

Thanks for any advice...

Sab
Click to expand...

Pros:
1. It's a Mac.
2. Run both Mac and Windows natively on one system.
3. Do everything quickly....
4. Access to FinalCutPro Suite for professional video editing but be prepared.
5. Install and work with insane amounts of RAM, upto 32Gb!
6. Never need to worry about Viruses, Trojans and Spyware again.
7. Can't change the Mobo and CPU willingly.


Cons:
Migrating from a PC to a Mac might seem like a good idea but it won't be cheap.

1. It's not a PC - You might find it's more different than you first though..

2. Any applications you was running on the PC will have to be repurchased or resourced since you'll need Intel Mac versions (unless you plan to use Bootcamp in which case you might aswell keep with a real PC).

3. Hardware upgrades are available for the Mac but it'll really depends on what accessories/peripherals you'd like to upgrade since most PC cards won't run on the Mac-side due to a combination of drivers and firmware compatibility. (if you run Bootcamp, all cards will work but they'll be ignored by MacOSX)

4. Minor thing, No Blu-ray movie support yet.

5. For any real work 2GB RAM won't be enough.


Anything else I missed?
 
Sabbathack said:
I definitely don't need 2 quad-cores... I was thinking of just getting the single quad-core... and why is it anytime I mention gaming in my post, people seem to over look my other needs. Gaming, while lots of fun, plays only a small part of what I do on my computer.

If Apple made a lower end tower case, I would look into it, I just can't see being stuck without a computer if one component fails with an iMac.
Click to expand...

I'm not a fan of all-in-ones either, so I hear you. The Mac Pro is a BEAST. It's going to do everything you need it to very well, and you'll be able to play games adequately. If you aren't concerned with that much with gaming, go for the MP. It's an awesome computer.
 
i have just a macbook with 2gb ram. runs AMAZING! newly released fps games run on full hi res settings with no problems, windows and mac side
 
Sabbathack said:
I definitely don't need 2 quad-cores... I was thinking of just getting the single quad-core... and why is it anytime I mention gaming in my post, people seem to over look my other needs. Gaming, while lots of fun, plays only a small part of what I do on my computer.

If Apple made a lower end tower case, I would look into it, I just can't see being stuck without a computer if one component fails with an iMac.
Click to expand...

Don´t need 8 cores so why drop so much more on server hardware?
You are one of those guys that fall through the apple lineup roster.
Stay PC. A 4 core 2.8 GHz MP is nothing more than a entry level i7 PC desktop by the time it launches. You can put 24 Gigs in a PC desktop board these days.
 
UltraNEO* said:
Pros:

6. Never need to worry about Viruses, Trojans and Spyware again


Anything else I missed?
Click to expand...

That´s simply incorrect. Malware comes in so many sophisticated and different flavors. Somebody who is prepared to drop top $$$ on a system shouldn´t be swayed by Apple marketing. On the Windows site a response time of >3hrs by sec. soft vendors results in clamoring. Now take a look at how long Apple needed to fix critical (according to them) security flaws in Safari 3.2.
7 months. There are benefits in OS X but not where you make them out to be.
 
And yet the Mac has nearly zero problems with malware, while Windows has numerous issues and always has. So his point still stands.
 
UltraNEO* said:
Pros:
2. Run both Mac and Windows natively on one system.


Cons:

2. Any applications you was running on the PC will have to be repurchased or resourced since you'll need Intel Mac versions (unless you plan to use Bootcamp in which case you might aswell keep with a real PC).
Click to expand...

So... is being able to run OS X and Windows a Pro or Con? When you boot to Windows, you are running it as a PC. I would look at it more like you get two machines in one with the added expense of two OSes.
 
I personally can't see any reason to get a macpro, if you wanted to edit in final cut sure, but you're one of those adobe people (cough) :apple:

Buy a PC... Gigabyte i7 mainboard, intel 20 chip, 6gb of good ddr3 ram, ATI HD 4870 video card, Raptor 300 GB HD, Samsung 1TB HD, corsair HX 650 PSU, Lian Li case.... if you want anymore details pm me
 
ekwipt said:
I personally can't see any reason to get a macpro, if you wanted to edit in final cut sure, but you're one of those adobe people (cough) :apple:

Buy a PC... Gigabyte i7 mainboard, intel 20 chip, 6gb of good ddr3 ram, ATI HD 4870 video card, Raptor 300 GB HD, Samsung 1TB HD, corsair HX 650 PSU, Lian Li case.... if you want anymore details pm me
Click to expand...

Are you trying to sell him into some business of yours or something?

Why did you buy a Mac instead of a PC? Let me guess..... Because of the Mac OS X?

Every one of us here could be using PC for much cheaper than what we paid for our Macs but we don't care because we know that we are getting a great operating system.

Though I would not recommend getting a Mac Pro now (because of possible updates), it's not like it will be immediately outdated 6 months down the road when nVidia releases some new magical GPU and as he stated above, he not a super hardcore gamer.

As for those "adobe" people, There's a reason why the majority of the design community use Macs....
 
I'll have to agree that if you're looking for a gaming machine, the mac pro probably isn't the best or wisest choice. You said it yourself it's pricey. And pricey is fine if it's the best your money can buy for the tasks you want it to do. Gaming? Nada.
 
ekwipt said:
I personally can't see any reason to get a macpro, if you wanted to edit in final cut sure, but you're one of those adobe people (cough) :apple:

Buy a PC... Gigabyte i7 mainboard, intel 20 chip, 6gb of good ddr3 ram, ATI HD 4870 video card, Raptor 300 GB HD, Samsung 1TB HD, corsair HX 650 PSU, Lian Li case.... if you want anymore details pm me
Click to expand...

I've been pricing building another PC... Your specs are close to what I had in mind, I just can't figure out how you are going to power that system with an under powered 650w power supply. :) I was looking at a 1000w or 1200w
 
You're not going to like:

*It won't sound like it's blasting off from all the fans
*No neat red/blue LED's in the case
*No Plexiglass window to look inside
*No Intel, Made for Windows, NVidia/ATI, 'Specs' stickers etc
*No clutter of cables inside

Wait wait... maybe you will like that it doesn't have all those neat PC things. If you're not a hardcore gamer than the MP is fine, it's more than fine. The 8800GT is a terrific card for games.

Video editing is much friendlier on a Mac, to me. Final Cut Express is $200 and the MP will render very fast, and the RAM is easy to upgrade and get into 8-10-12GB with not much cost. 4 Internal bays is plenty. You seem to like to play around in heavier computing tasks and probably make some money at some of it, so the MP is a great resource for you.

Waiting a few more months might be worth your while or it might not. I just bought a refurb 8core 2.8 end of September and I'm soooo pleased with it. I know the upcoming Nehalem will be a big speed boost and it might be worth it for video encoding. For me it's not as big a deal. Hope this helps.
 
My son has plays cod4 on my mac pro with the 8800GT and it looks great. I think with the 8800Gt its better than average for gaming. Later on if you want, you can always get a better card for gaming in windows under bootcamp
The mac pro is made for heavy use, every day all day. You can edit till your hearts content with out it breaking much of a sweat. It will definitely be much faster and more efficient then your current setup.
The only issue you might have. Is having to repurchase some of the software you already have.

Have you given any thought to getting a refurbished mac pro. Apple has some great deals.
 
daneoni said:
The fact that its likely to be revised in january 09 hence you wont be getting Nehalem (Core i7) if you buy now and that you cant do SLI/Crossfire modes. Otherwise...happy days
Click to expand...

I also concur and say it's good to wait just a little bit longer.
 
the Quad 2.8 (single) w. 8800 will be perfect.

I have the 8core model with the 8800 (mainly for OSX( and for Windows I have used a 4870, 9800GT and they were all very powerful for playing games and using windows for hte apps i need.

i switched over from building systems myself, because it offered flexibility in performance, ease of hardware use and great selection of OS options.

I use both OS just as equally and i think the MP was the better choice with regards to price and performance, compared to building a PC.
As they tend to have less resale value for parts and limited to certain things too.

for me the macpro was an easy choice to utilize for web design, video editing, encoding, audio production and some small gaming.
 
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