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cowm007

macrumors regular
Original poster
Feb 2, 2005
195
0
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.
 

pprior

macrumors 65816
Aug 1, 2007
1,448
9
My favorite by far is the easily upgradable graphics card.

OH WAIT....... NOT!
 

bilbo--baggins

macrumors 6502a
Jan 6, 2006
766
109
UK
Jokes aside, my favorite feature is definitely how quiet it is.

OK, jokes aside, not sure there is any one feature that stands out on it's own, but so far compared to my G5 it's the low noise, extra USB ports, or the 4 hard drive bays, fast video encodes.
 

supercooled

macrumors 6502a
Sep 6, 2007
737
1
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.
 

sturob

macrumors regular
Nov 20, 2005
110
0
Houston, TX
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!
 

Soop53

macrumors regular
Jan 20, 2008
146
0
Ohio
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.
 

Sesshi

macrumors G3
Jun 3, 2006
8,113
1
One Nation Under Gordon
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.
 

aLoC

macrumors 6502a
Nov 10, 2006
726
0
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.
 

revisionA

macrumors 6502
May 27, 2005
283
0
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.

$
 

Infrared

macrumors 68000
Mar 28, 2007
1,714
64
The directly comparable Dell Precision is a noise-bucket for sure, but then it is more resilient and stable than the Pro.

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.
 

siorai

macrumors 6502
Sep 14, 2007
321
2
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. :D I shudder to think about how that would have brought my 1.86Ghz C2D pc to it's knees...
 

treehorn

macrumors 6502
Aug 21, 2007
467
0
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)
 

Sesshi

macrumors G3
Jun 3, 2006
8,113
1
One Nation Under Gordon
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.

Because I use them (as well as the HP xw's) in my business?
 

OMGWTFBBQ

macrumors member
Oct 5, 2007
86
14
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 am just curious as to how quiet your machine is, when it's on you don't hear the fans humming?
 

cowm007

macrumors regular
Original poster
Feb 2, 2005
195
0
I am just curious as to how quiet your machine is, when it's on you don't hear the fans humming?

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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