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Favorite Mac Pro feature

C

cowm007

macrumors regular
Original poster
I've been playing with my new Octo-Mac and I love everything about it. It's as fast/stable/enjoyable as everyone told me it would be. However, there's one thing that almost no one mentioned before I got it and it's that it runs silent. Like "can't tell if it's on" silent.

It caught me by surprise when I left it ripping DVDs at night and when I woke up there was no fan going crazy like my old computer. I thought it might've crashed or something, but that's just how it runs.

That alone is worth the "Mac price premium" everyone talks about.
 
I like how it looks. I have a dark room and barely any natural light source so I can't really tell but when I went to BestBuy today, the Mac Pro was in a well lit location and it was splendor.
 
As a very-long-time Mac user, it has to be the expandability. The insides are so nice and so user-friendly. The drive-bay-chassis design? Wonderful. And the memory risers are quite nice.

Stuart

And, if it falls asleep, it reboots itself for you as penance!
 
Probably the ease of expanding it: installing more memory, hard drives, and graphics cards doesn't take more than five minutes max.
 
I have to say i like the quiteness as well cause my computer is so loud especially doing "strenuous" activities
 
all the things mentioned above...But BUT, one thing that stands out is it has a Apple Logo on the side.

Actually, the list is ease of use, time machine, quiet, drive bay ease, OS X, style, true plug and play, did I mention QUIET...ssssshhhh!

Why did I take so long to return to Mac.
 
Exactly how long is it since y'all had a decent non-Pro desktop? The directly comparable Dell Precision is a noise-bucket for sure, but then it is more resilient and stable than the Pro. All of my gaming / general-purpose desktops emit nary more noise than the Pro. And some, including the new general-purpose machine I've had delivered recently based around a QX9650 with two 8800GT's - are quieter than the Pro.
 
My favorite thing is being able to have a separate monitor again after years with iMacs.

I didn't actually mind the built-in screen until they changed to glossy.
 
My mac pro's best feature is by far the speed.

Compared to anything from my workstation Dell Optiplex, Apple Powerbook HD or even my stately G5 (now sold)... it truly feels like 4 times the power.

I can only giggle imagining what it will perform like with a faster main HD or more than stock RAM.

$
 
Sesshi said:
The directly comparable Dell Precision is a noise-bucket for sure, but then it is more resilient and stable than the Pro.
Click to expand...

How do you know?

The 2006 Mac Pros don't seem to lack stability and resilience
and the 2008 Mac Pros only have a couple of issues which, I
shouldn't doubt, will be addressed very soon by Apple. This
is the hardware and firmware I'm talking about, by the way.
 
The ability to multitask like mad. Evenso I know I wasn't taxing the system like many of the people on here do on a regular basis, but one night I had the following running:

Handbrake ripping/encoding a dvd
Transmission with about 5 torrents active
iTunes playing music
Camino open with several tabs
Two instances of World of Warcraft

Not a slowdown at all. 😀 I shudder to think about how that would have brought my 1.86Ghz C2D pc to it's knees...
 
Favorite would be speed. I'm getting projects done in record time (which means I actually have time to do things for myself! Whoo-hoo!). The low noise level would be a close second, as I never hear it ramping up when I'm doing FCP work. Only noise it makes is when it accesses the CD/DVD drive (which sounds like a vacuum cleaner in comparison).

Least favorite feature is the severe shortage of Firewire ports. Given how many external devices (drives, camera inputs, FireBox) I need it's pretty lame how many came with it (and the PCI card option has issues)
 
Infrared said:
How do you know?

The 2006 Mac Pros don't seem to lack stability and resilience
and the 2008 Mac Pros only have a couple of issues which, I
shouldn't doubt, will be addressed very soon by Apple. This
is the hardware and firmware I'm talking about, by the way.
Click to expand...

Because I use them (as well as the HP xw's) in my business?
 
cowm007 said:
I've been playing with my new Octo-Mac and I love everything about it. It's as fast/stable/enjoyable as everyone told me it would be. However, there's one thing that almost no one mentioned before I got it and it's that it runs silent. Like "can't tell if it's on" silent.

It caught me by surprise when I left it ripping DVDs at night and when I woke up there was no fan going crazy like my old computer. I thought it might've crashed or something, but that's just how it runs.

That alone is worth the "Mac price premium" everyone talks about.
Click to expand...

I am just curious as to how quiet your machine is, when it's on you don't hear the fans humming?
 
OMGWTFBBQ said:
I am just curious as to how quiet your machine is, when it's on you don't hear the fans humming?
Click to expand...

My MacBook's fan is louder than the than my Mac Pro. The desktop's fans are spinning at 500-600rpm right now while encoding with Visual Hub and using Garage Band. Temps are are around 47º C. It's lovely.
 
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