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Considering selling my Mac Pro - Advice needed.

fluidedge

fluidedge

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Nov 1, 2007
1,365
16
Hi

I currently use a 2.8 Quad core Mac Pro but am finding myself using Windows XP more and more these days. I run Maya, CS3 and Digital Fusion on Windows at work and when i come home obviously i can't use fusion (Windows only) and Maya for Mac is just horrible in my opinion - It's much more stable on Windows for one quite important reason!

Now obviously i could keep the Mac Pro and just run Windows XP on it all the time but i'm thinking this is a bit of a waste of a good Mac and perhaps a dedicated windows machine might be a better option for me. Cheaper too, I can build a machine with better spec for about the same price as the current mac pro (i know the MP is well priced compared to other branded machines however)

This however leaves me with the problem of what to do with this machine. I don't like the idea of selling such an expensive item on eBay and besides i've thrown away the polystyrene packaging!

I could perhaps sell it to a friend but i don't want to make a decision i'll regret!

Help or advice!?
 
You could try and sell it here, post it for sale on the ad board at a local university or for local sale and pickup on Craigslist. I have had zero problems selling on ebay but if it's not your thing there are other options.
 
perhaps not.

Does anyone here use a Mac Pro primarily as a Windows machine rather than for Mac OS X. I'd like to keep the MP really as I use Final Cut (not a lot but when i do i need it constantly all day every day for a week or so)

If i was to keep the MP and use Windows XP 90% of the time I suppose i could install a much better graphics card and see the benefits in Maya, CS3, Fusion etc. What good cards are out at the moment? Is the 880GT still king?
 
I'd keep it:

You have already spent the money purchasing it so you aren't going to make a loss on it.

You know it works well so why bother building a PC?

You can switch between Windows and Mac for your professional work and your leisure.

Over all you have a very good combination, and as you said you can add a graphics card to benefit your work. I wouldn't limit yourself, you obviously bought the Mac Pro for the benefits of OSX and ultimately the power and expandability.
 
i can't remeber if i was considering selling up or not? How can you remember so well!!? My reasons will be different this time anyway ;)

still interested in hearing from anyone who uses XP as the main operating system for maya/CS3/Fusion/(Nuke)
 
I've recently acquired my 2.8ghz 8 Core and I have to tell you, the machine is absolutely AMAZING in XP Pro 64 Bit. My understanding is it flies just as fast in 64 bit Vista, but I can't stomach it. I sit in front of a Dell Precision 690 (which should be a comparable machine) at work each day and my MP is significantly faster. I have thrown a number of high end games such as FEAR, Quake 4 and Crysis and the MP does a stellar job. No, it does not get ultra-high benchmark #'s with the 8800 GT and it's setup memory wise as a high end gaming rig, but past a certain point the extra FPS are only worth bragging rights.

For the elegance of the hardware, the ability to run OS X and for the fact that Microsoft OS's run great on hardware that you would be hard pressed to buy pre packaged or build yourself from components for the cost of a Mac Pro, I would stay with it.
 
I just sold my 1st gen Mac Pro 2.66 GHz Quad machine on eBay.

Specs:

2GB RAM
7300GT Graphics Card
150GB Raptor Drive
8 Months Warranty left.

Got US$1800 + full shipping for it.

I thought that was a pretty decent return after 2 and a bit years.
 
kkapoor said:
I just sold my 1st gen Mac Pro 2.66 GHz Quad machine on eBay.

Specs:

2GB RAM
7300GT Graphics Card
150GB Raptor Drive
8 Months Warranty left.

Got US$1800 + full shipping for it.

I thought that was a pretty decent return after 2 and a bit years.
Click to expand...

That's just sick, especially considering that one can buy a brand new 2nd gen Mac Pro 2.8GHz Quad for $2,150. You did pretty well there! :cool:
 
Tom Sawyer said:
I've recently acquired my 2.8ghz 8 Core and I have to tell you, the machine is absolutely AMAZING in XP Pro 64 Bit. My understanding is it flies just as fast in 64 bit Vista, but I can't stomach it. I sit in front of a Dell Precision 690 (which should be a comparable machine) at work each day and my MP is significantly faster. I have thrown a number of high end games such as FEAR, Quake 4 and Crysis and the MP does a stellar job. No, it does not ultra-high benchmark #'s with the 8800 GT and it's setup memory wise as a high end gaming rig, but past a certain point the extra FPS are only worth bragging rights.

For the elegance of the hardware, the ability to run OS X and for the fact that Microsoft OS's run great on hardware that you would be hard pressed to buy pre packaged or build yourself from components for the cost of a Mac Pro, I would stay with it.
Click to expand...

That's a great point about keeping it to run XP 64 bit, esp b/c it sounds like he want's to sell his MP to have $ to build a pc. :D
 
fluidedge said:
i can't remeber if i was considering selling up or not? How can you remember so well!!? My reasons will be different this time anyway ;)

still interested in hearing from anyone who uses XP as the main operating system for maya/CS3/Fusion/(Nuke)
Click to expand...

Hope this helps in your decision, and this is a true real life example.

A fellow programmer friend of mine that I use to work with until the layoffs in State government started happening, switched to Apple/Mac. He went with the iMac 24 inch 3.0 refurb, now this guys been programming for well over 25 years, he said from the start he was hesitant but once he got his feet wet he was off and running , next move was writing an app for the iPhone "River Guide for Kayakers" I know he installed BootCamp and than windows xp but primarily uses the mac os and is currently writing a medical app for J&J out of MA. He did get the new macbook for portability but is very happy with the iMac and the MacOS. We also use VMware on a test system at work for the different web apps written so that they can be tested in multiple different enviroments .

Hope this helps you. :)
 
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