Have you ever had regrets about purchasing a Mac Pro?

[JodyK]

I am in between as I just sold my 8 core but NO regrets ... Very powerful!

 

[Eithanius]

I just wanted to add my 2 cents. I was an owner of a 2009 Mac Pro, 6GB ram, raptor drive, GTX285 etc etc loaded. It was only the quad since I am only 20 years old and its all I could afford. I have a 23" cinema display and a MBP as well, and now and iPad to match my iPhone. I loved all the Apple experience and how it all worked together.

Also, the mac pro's resale value is huge. I just sold my 09 Mac Pro for 2700 dollars and built a new PC for 1900 that matches and exceeds my Mac Pro. I know people always say, "I could build that mac pro in PC land for 800 or less" but not with quality. The mac pro is a piece of artwork, engineering, and overall great user experience. My 1900 dollar PC has faster CPU, same RAM with faster clock rate, better GPU, a 128GB sata 3 SSD and all. I even spent 300 dollars on heat sinks, fans, controllers, etc to make it quiet and quality system. It is quieter, cooler, and faster than my Mac Pro. Windows 7 isn't so bad after all. I don't regret selling my Mac Pro, but I am happy with my new PC. I will miss apple care phone support to help me through struggles and the great warranty they provide. It's really a tough choice, but for me, I chose to go back to PC for my main desktop and use a cinema display and another NEC IPS panel monitor to ensure a great experience. I couldn't be happier.

I will be somewhat in your position once I sell off my Mac Pro, but in a third-world country where I live in, huge resale value means no resale value at all. I've got a 2009 MP 2.66GHz 8-core to start with, plenty of RAM and AppleCare. Unfortunately no one, not even production houses can afford to buy my MP even though I've listed the selling price below the 8-core base model.

If I can manage to let this go, I'll be building my own PC and getting myself a 15" MacBook Pro. But worse case scenarios if I'm gonna keep my MP - I will be in a dilemma of whether I should build a PC for my GPU work on Windows to complement my MP, or get a MacBook and work on my GPU stuff on Windows bootcamped on my MP.

 

[nepfotos]

I bought my 2.8 octo mac pro refurbished in Fall 2008 and I still love it, still powerful and I like to have the room for 4 HDs which i upgraded over the time. I don't do any video processing, only photos (aperture 3) and I would get it again. Next upgrade will be the graphic card - but I don't know if I should wait (new cards coming with new mac pros) or just get the 4870?

 

[Eithanius]

I bought my 2.8 octo mac pro refurbished in Fall 2008 and I still love it, still powerful and I like to have the room for 4 HDs which i upgraded over the time. I don't do any video processing, only photos (aperture 3) and I would get it again. Next upgrade will be the graphic card - but I don't know if I should wait (new cards coming with new mac pros) or just get the 4870?

I would suggest you to wait for the new mac pro with new cards... if they don't favor you, only then you contemplate on getting either a 4870 from apple or flashing pc-based ones...

 

[Winni]

Anyone ever purchase a Mac Pro and regret it? Why?

I understand the general consensus is don't buy a mac pro if you don't use it for work/income, but I would especially love to hear from the more casual Mac Pro users experience of their purchase.

Thanks

Please hold off on the 'dont be stupid buying a mac pro if you don't use it for work'.

I bought a Mac Pro 1,1 and regretted it rather quickly. The machine was too noisy for my ears and Apple's support for their so-called Pro hardware is suboptimal, to say the least.

I know that the Mac Pros are supposedly rather quiet for a workstation. But the thing for me is that my new 27" i5 iMac has more horsepower than that Mac Pro 1,1 had and at the same time it is barely audible. That's the kind of machine that I want, and if Apple can make a computer quiet that squeezed into a display, then they shouldn't have a problem to make their workstation cases noiseless.

The worst thing about the Mac Pro 1,1 was that it was sold as a 64-Bit workstation, but Snow Leopard cannot even run in 64-Bit kernel mode on that machine. That machine was half in its Apple Care life cycle when Snow Leopard was released and Apple doesn't even support its own Pro hardware properly? That pissed me off extremely and I was very close to not buy another Apple computer again.

What also annoyed me that Apple does not officially support 64-Bit Windows on said Mac Pro 1,1 -- although 64-Bit Windows Vista and Windows 7 run perfectly well on that machine, INCLUDING the Boot Camp drivers (you just have to go a folder deeper on the Snow Leopard DVD and launch the 64-Bit setup program there).

64-Bit Ubuntu Linux also runs at incredible speed on that machine.

It's just Apple's own software and support for those machiens that completely suck.

And to all the folks who will now say that you don't need the 64-Bit kernel because it doesn't make that much of a difference: That's all marketing bla, and you know it. The point is not whether it makes that much of a technical difference (which it actually does as I can see in the performance difference on my 27" iMac), it is about the attitude and commitment of Apple in this case towards their so-called PROFESSIONAL hardware. Those machines are usually meant for a three to five years life cycle for high end uses, and if you don't support that product line properly then you shouldn't be surprised as a company when your products don't make it into the business/enterprise sector.

Another annoying thing about the Mac Pro line is their lack of graphics power. You'll get more graphics horse power in mid-priced consumer PC then you'll get for Apple's Pro series. And you'll never get the newest graphics cards in the first place, unless you run Windows on those machines.

The last nail in the coffin is Apple's rather ridiculous Apple Care Protection Plan. At Dell, I get same/next business day ON SITE warranty for less money. My new iMac had a defect Airport card when it arrived and last week I finally made the call and had Apple collect the computer for repair. That was eight days ago and the machine is still at Apple's service partner.

When you buy business support from Dell and give them a call, the technician will knock on your door the next day (at the latest) and fix the machine on site for you. That's way service for Apple's price tag is supposed to work.

It's the first time that I actually needed Apple Care, and I must say that this also completely disappoints me.

So, yes, I've regretted a couple of times that I have chosen Apple products. Apple's advantage is that they build beautiful machines and that there is a bunch of great software available for their platform that I prefer over the competition and that I have made a rather big investment in software for Mac OS X. That would make switching platforms a rather pricey endeavor, but it doesn't mean that I will continue sucking everything up from Apple.

 

[fullmanfullninj]

No I have not.

The only Mac Pro I currently own is from like 05...one of the PowerPC G5 "Mac Pros".

I'm running on like 1.5GB of RAM with dual 1.8GHz processors.

And I've gotta say, it's still kicking today. Aside from some noise, it does everything my lower-end computer does.
Intel C2D running at 2.66GHz, 1.5GB RAM.

The HDD on my PowerPC (It's not a mac pro LOL...that's how old it is...) is what makes most of the noise though. Must be a 5400rpm...but yeah.

It's served me well with FinalCut and Adobe CS3 suite. Has never let me down (sometimes even outperforms my PC).

No regrets!

(Sorry if this is a bad post...powerpc -> mac pro so i figured...)

 

[pastrychef]

I have absolutely no regrets about having purchased my Mac Pro. It has been my favorite computer of all time and I've been through a few. I believe I can squeeze a few more years out of it before feeling the need for more power. By then, the initial amount that I paid for it will not seem so great. Overall, I consider it one of the best purchases I've ever made.

 

[monokakata]

I bought a Mac Pro 1,1 and regretted it rather quickly. The machine was too noisy for my ears .

Winni, I'm curious about your Mac Pro's noise issues. As I said, mine spins up its fans on waking from sleep sometimes (I'd say one time out of twenty) and at long intervals I get that annoying vibration/rattle from the drive sleds.

When the drive sled noise stops, it stops for many months. I've only had two occurrences of it since late 2006.

I've only rarely pushed mine hard with rendering, and it didn't spin up its fans then.

So what kind of noise or noises does yours make?

Just curious. I'm in agreement with your other points, too.

 

[jjahshik32]

I've bought Mac Pros several times and had the following regrets:

1) I don't use all the power, even for work as a video editor
2) Takes up too much space and power, (swapped for an iMac upon this realization)
3) Spent $3k on a tower when I could have gotten an iMac 27" and a second display (which I did) and not noticed any real hit in performance.

But that's me.

I had the exact same experience as you. I've owned all the generation mac pro but always ended up selling it after 6-8 months of use. I always came to the conclusion of that the mac pro was far too powerful for my needs and secondly it wasted alot of energy compared to a notebook (macbook pro).

I'm on a i7 macbook pro atm and its more than powerful enough for me (I can probably even use a mac mini and be fine) but there is ALWAYS the lust for more power!

The cycle continues for me again as I'm wanting a new Mac Pro. I have a feeling once the new Mac Pros are released that I will go pick one up again..

 

[snouter]

Most of the iMacs to this point have not been a serious option, since they came with mobile parts - CPU and ram.

These latest iMacs with the quad cores are the first ones to offer desktop power, even though they are still somewhat compromised with the built in screen, built in video card and lower ram ceilings.