I have not been keeping up with what Apple has been doing of recent with their Mac Pros but am curious if changes are expected to happen anytime soon (or if changes have been made to them as of recent). I just want to make sure i am not dropping $3,000 on a computer that me be "out of date" tomorrow. Any insight appreciated.
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Buying New Mac Pro?
- Thread starter shan50
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They received a pretty major update recently, with DDR3 memory, new GPUs, better processors ("Nehalem"), so don't expect anything until WWDC, where it is expected that OS X Snow Leopard will be demoed and maybe Steve will return.
I wouldn't buy a Mac Pro. You could build your own box with i7 for $1000 and it'll perform just as well or get a dell studio with i7 for a lot cheaper. Unless you need software like final cut studio, building would be a better and cheaper route
Because i7 is the same thing as a Nehalem processor.Go compare the prices of a Dell, HP, etc. workstation with the price of a Mac Pro. The Pro is very well priced for what it is - in many cases cheaper than you could get a "PC".
And it has OSX!
Yes, you could build something with similar on-paper performance, but the Mac Pro is about more than simply speed. It uses server-grade parts (which an off-the-shelf i7 is not). A MP will be far more robust than a $1000 system you built yourself.
if you need it now, BUY IT. they've just been updated.
Building one is also an option if you don't mind doing research into the parts and putting it together by yourself Software updates can be a minor annoyance but you do save a bit of $$
If you don't feel like building one or need to buy a mac pro now...you could wait for stevie
Building one is also an option if you don't mind doing research into the parts and putting it together by yourself
Software updates can be a minor annoyance but you do save a bit of $$If you don't feel like building one or need to buy a mac pro now...you could wait for stevie
Go compare the prices of a Dell, HP, etc. workstation with the price of a Mac Pro. The Pro is very well priced for what it is - in many cases cheaper than you could get a "PC".
And it has OSX!
Yes, you could build something with similar on-paper performance, but the Mac Pro is about more than simply speed. It uses server-grade parts (which an off-the-shelf i7 is not). A MP will be far more robust than a $1000 system you built yourself.
i7 IS Nehalem: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nehalem_(microarchitecture)
The desktop i7s would fall under the desktop bloomfield category. And correct me if I'm wrong, but the server i7s (xeons) cpus don't really offer anything over their desktop counterparts besides ECC, which really isn't a big deal at all. They are literally the same thing besides ecc. There is literally no performance gain.
And no, a mac pro with a nehalem xeon wouldn't be any more robust than an i7 you could build yourself. I have a 920 overclocked to 3.8gz and with my ram at 1600mhz at 7-7-7-20, and it'll outperform any mac pro when it comes down to brute speed. It won't be "far more robust" Quite the contrary, actually.
A consumer-grade i7 you buy off the shelf is not the same as the Mac Pro Nehalem processor.
As for performance: yes, you can build something equally fast for less money. That was never my point.
You can a Honda Civic as fast as a Mercedes AMG. But at the end of the day, you're still driving a Civic, andthe Merc is still a better vehicle. Speed is not everything.
Robust != fast. The processors in the Pro are server grade, and designed to deal with constant, high-load work. A consumer-grade processor is not. I'll bet even money the Pro lasts longer than the consumer products without failing.
Again, yes, you can build or buy something faster for less money. But you cannot buy a better system for much less. Take a look at similar offerings from other manufacturers like Dell or HP. They're in the same price range as the Pro - they are not $1000.
A consumer-grade i7 you buy off the shelf is not the same as the Mac Pro Nehalem processor.
As for performance: yes, you can build something equally fast for less money. That was never my point.
You can a Honda Civic as fast as a Mercedes AMG. But at the end of the day, you're still driving a Civic, andthe Merc is still a better vehicle. Speed is not everything.
Robust != fast. The processors in the Pro are server grade, and designed to deal with constant, high-load work. A consumer-grade processor is not. I'll bet even money the Pro lasts longer than the consumer products without failing.
Again, yes, you can build or buy something faster for less money. But you cannot buy a better system for much less. Take a look at similar offerings from other manufacturers like Dell or HP. They're in the same price range as the Pro - they are not $1000.
First of all, they don't compare computers to cars. That's also not taking into consideration that japanese cars generally have better reliability than their german counterparts but I will not get into that.
Yes, intel claims they are "server grade," but that's all marketing. They just charge a huge premium on their server cpus just like they do for their extreme processors because of a couple silly features.
There is literally NO difference between the desktop i7s and xeons besides support for ecc. And what's this whole "consumer grade processors are cannot deal with a constant high-load?" Excuse me, but the desktop bloomfields are considered intel's high performance desktop chips and will do anything just as well as the xeons for any period of time. They will last just as long as any xeon chip. People have overclocked their i7s to over 4ghz and do a TON of stress testing @ 100% computer load with prime95 for 2 or even 3 days straight, and with proper cooling, the desktop i7s handled it with no sweat. And what do you think most pc enthusiasts are doing when they're not using their computer? They're folding. This whole Xeon processors are somehow more robust is very silly, and don't listen to what intel says. Take real world performance over the crap intel spews out.
In essence, xeon, for the most part, is all marketing with a huge markup, just like intel's extreme processors. Also, if you really wanted, you could build your own nehalem xeon system yourself, but it wouldn't be much cheaper than a mac pro anyway. they really do not offer bang for your buck.