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Buy now, or wait?

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hypergruv

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Sep 16, 2008
1
0
Currently thinking of getting a Mac Pro, after a couple months of contemplating whether or not to go with the MBP or Mac Pro. It looks as if Apple is rolling out updates all over the place right now, so I'm wondering if I should buy now, or wait it out a couple of months or so?

I'm not into video editing, photo editing, rendering/animation - the only thing I would be using it for would be a replacement to a 5yr old Windows box, playing WoW, and using Ableton/Reason.

Thoughts?

- THX:cool:
 
Please search the forum before posting, there is already a lot of threads on this topic.
Thanks.
 
hypergruv said:
Currently thinking of getting a Mac Pro, after a couple months of contemplating whether or not to go with the MBP or Mac Pro. It looks as if Apple is rolling out updates all over the place right now, so I'm wondering if I should buy now, or wait it out a couple of months or so?

I'm not into video editing, photo editing, rendering/animation - the only thing I would be using it for would be a replacement to a 5yr old Windows box, playing WoW, and using Ableton/Reason.

Thoughts?

- THX:cool:
Click to expand...

you're buying a Mac Pro for that? What a ridiculous waste of money. Why not just buy the low end iMac, that would run all your apps just fine.
 
Per our Macrumors Buyer's Guide, I suggest waiting.. These systems are ripe for updates, though not many rumors on this subject.

For the price of this system and your intended use, it is a bit of overkill. With that said, and what you are asking it to do, I don't think that it will require state of the art power and components. You should look into a Refurbisned model from Apple with full support / warranty for quite a bit less than brand spanking new!


Just my .02

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tuffluffjimmy said:
you're buying a Mac Pro for that? What a ridiculous waste of money. Why not just buy the low end iMac, that would run all your apps just fine.
Click to expand...

Could not disagree more. If you are seriously interested in running music apps, buy the most powerful thing you can afford. Music apps are more demanding than any video app or photoshop, because to perform or record you need things working in real time. Yes, it's a pain to wait on rendering in fcp or ps, but you can still get the job done. Not so if you're trying to tweak dials on a moving piece of music. It *might* be overkil if you stick with the basic packages, but if you add virtual insts, plugs on every channel, a few conv reverbs, etc, processor demands will grow quickly.
 
bnsmmr said:
Could not disagree more. If you are seriously interested in running music apps, buy the most powerful thing you can afford. Music apps are more demanding than any video app or photoshop, because to perform or record you need things working in real time. Yes, it's a pain to wait on rendering in fcp or ps, but you can still get the job done. Not so if you're trying to tweak dials on a moving piece of music. It *might* be overkil if you stick with the basic packages, but if you add virtual insts, plugs on every channel, a few conv reverbs, etc, processor demands will grow quickly.
Click to expand...

Judging by the extremely low system requirements for the app I'd say I can make an easier case that you're wrong. If you just threw in four gigs of RAM (way more than you really need) then you'd be able to run that app with zero hiccups. and that's just running on the low end iMac.
 
Is January a good guess or is there information about release for new Macpros
 
nanofrog said:
Yes, though shipping may be slightly delayed. :)
Click to expand...

That is what I am worrying. We may have to wait for more than four months, get the machines and then discover that there are some problems. How likely do you think the new MacPros will have only minor issues that can be fixed via software updates?
 
I personally disallow u to install that WoW Geekcrap next to Ableton Live on the same machine. Please delete either WoW or go the geekmoron way and delete Ableton Live.

Thx.
 
WoW runs on anything, it's kind of funny when people use fancy hardware to play it.

My advice would be to find a game that's fun. :p
 
hypergruv said:
Currently thinking of getting a Mac Pro, after a couple months of contemplating whether or not to go with the MBP or Mac Pro. It looks as if Apple is rolling out updates all over the place right now, so I'm wondering if I should buy now, or wait it out a couple of months or so?

I'm not into video editing, photo editing, rendering/animation - the only thing I would be using it for would be a replacement to a 5yr old Windows box, playing WoW, and using Ableton/Reason.

Thoughts?

- THX:cool:
Click to expand...

You might want to consider buying a used or refurb quad core (first generation or current) Mac Pro as you will likely have more than enough power to run the applications you want and will get better value for your money. You shouldn't have much trouble ending up with a 2.66GHz quadcore Mac Pro with an ATI 3870HD, 4GB or more of memory and more than enough storage and backup space for $2,000. You're looking at well over $3,000 for a comparable fully retail purchased 8 core.
 
hajime said:
That is what I am worrying. We may have to wait for more than four months, get the machines and then discover that there are some problems. How likely do you think the new MacPros will have only minor issues that can be fixed via software updates?
Click to expand...
Keep in mind, this isn't going to be the same as switching from the PPC platform to the Intel platform. ;)
So I don't think it would be too bad. Most issues would likely be of the type that require updates to firmware and/or drivers. :)
 
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