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I can't wait any longer

K

kmo19

macrumors member
Original poster
Jan 7, 2009
51
0
So the current date for the updated Mac Pro seems to be March - June. I have a 2004 G5 with Tiger and need a new machine ASAP for iPhone development, the new CS4 suite, etc. I was hoping for at least a mention of a release date at Macworld, but alas, we are kept in the dark.

So, if I were to buy a current Mac Pro such as:
- 2.8GHz Eight Core System
- 2GB (2x1GB) RAM
- 500GB SATA Hard Drive
- Dual 16x Dual-Layer SuperDrives
- nVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT 512MB Graphics
($3100)

What will I be able to upgrade when the new one comes out? The big thing is the processor, and that's the one thing that can't be upgraded right? Is it completely dumb to buy one right now? I'm pretty desperate...
 
Actually its not "dumb" to buy one now. Buy it if you need it. Computers will always get outdated sooner or later, its the same thing every year. Buy one now and it will be outdated in approx. 6 months, buy one in 6 months and it will be outdated one year later. If you always need to have the latest and greatest you need to buy a new Mac Pro every year.

FYI, I just got a 1st generation Mac Pro with two dual core Xeons at 2 GHz and 4 GB RAM for pre-press and a little audio / video encoding and I yet have to get all four cores to their maximum.

So if you buy one now with eight cores at 2.8 GHz - this computer will last you for at least 3 years if not longer.

Go ahead and buy one. Mac Pros are great machines.

PS: You should be able to upgrade all the hard drives, optical drives, memory without any problems. You could even upgrade the CPU but they are EXPENSIVE (talk about $1000 for ONE)
 
Don't buy the RAM from Apple, don't buy the HDD from Apple, don't even buy the second ODD from Apple.

Get it all third-party for less than the price Apple makes you pay to UPGRADE TO those specs.
 
kmo19 said:
So the current date for the updated Mac Pro seems to be March - June. I have a 2004 G5 with Tiger and need a new machine ASAP for iPhone development, the new CS4 suite, etc. I was hoping for at least a mention of a release date at Macworld, but alas, we are kept in the dark.

So, if I were to buy a current Mac Pro such as:
- 2.8GHz Eight Core System
- 2GB (2x1GB) RAM
- 500GB SATA Hard Drive
- Dual 16x Dual-Layer SuperDrives
- nVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT 512MB Graphics
($3100)

What will I be able to upgrade when the new one comes out? The big thing is the processor, and that's the one thing that can't be upgraded right? Is it completely dumb to buy one right now? I'm pretty desperate...
Click to expand...

Like I always say try expercom.com and do not base the price you see on the site as the up to date price, you have to log in and than look at prices which are usually 150 and up cheaper, they also ship from multiple warehouses. In my shopping around between them for the system and memory and than the HD from Newegg, I save a boat load of money.

You already purchased CS4 I take it?
 
Thanks for the suggestions.

I want internal hard drives. Which one on Newegg should I get? Should be at least 500GB. Also, if I get a machine with 4GB RAM and want to upgrade to 8 or more, which RAM do I buy?
 
Tallest Skil said:
Don't buy the RAM from Apple, don't buy the HDD from Apple, don't even buy the second ODD from Apple.

Get it all third-party for less than the price Apple makes you pay to UPGRADE TO those specs.
Click to expand...

Buy now if you need it. That's the general rule of thumb.

I also agree that you should get the base model and then go to the third party sellers for RAM and a second HDD. Apple hoses the consumer on those two aspects...
 
ok, so how about this:

Mac Pro 8-core 2.8GHz 2GB/320G/SuperDrive/ati2600XT/BT = $2799 (Expercom - I don't know the "real" price since you can't buy a Mac without being a previous customer or calling them I guess)

8GB 800MHz FB-DIMM RAM = $186 (OWC)
1.0TB Hitachi 7K1000 7200RPM Serial ATA HD = $100 (OWC)

Total = $3086 + $25 shipping
Hopefully no taxes on the Pro (shipping to CA)

Also, I want to run Vista on the 320G drive and OSX on the 1TB drive. Do I need anything else to do that? Is there any way to run Vista AND XP?
 
The Apple Store will charge you sales tax whether you buy online or in the store. I would suggest looking at macmall or smalldog and put that tax money into your memory and hard drive upgrades.
 
Tallest Skil said:
You DON'T get a machine with 4GB of RAM, you get it with the base 2GB and buy more RAM from OWC.
Click to expand...

FWIW, I agree with your comment / do not, reason why is its only 85 dollars more at the site I mentioned for the 4 gig. Than again we dont know where the OP is going to order from, so I agree if he's going to Apple to get the system at a local store.

Also my suggesting of the place to get it does NOT charge sales tax at least on the last two orders they didnt according to the invoice's
 
Seeing as new graphic cards are around the corner I would go with the standard model with the Radeon HD 2600 XT, ****** as it is and then upgrade to a newer card later.

iPhone development do really not need a faster graphic card anyway.

The best option would be to go for a refurbished model, if any is available.
 
Pressure said:
Seeing as new graphic cards are around the corner I would go with the standard model with the Radeon HD 2600 XT, ****** as it is and then upgrade to a newer card later.

iPhone development do really not need a faster graphic card anyway.

The best option would be to go for a refurbished model, if any is available.
Click to expand...

:rolleyes: Isn't the ATI 2870 the newest ? The one with the fan that stays on all the time, this is also noted in a lot of You Tube video's also.
 
michaelsviews said:
FWIW, I agree with your comment / do not, reason why is its only 85 dollars more at the site I mentioned for the 4 gig. Than again we dont know where the OP is going to order from, so I agree if he's going to Apple to get the system at a local store.
Click to expand...

I do not want to buy from Apple - I don't want to pay the $300 in sales tax.
 
tcphoto said:
The Apple Store will charge you sales tax whether you buy online or in the store. I would suggest looking at macmall or smalldog and put that tax money into your memory and hard drive upgrades.
Click to expand...

MacMall has good prices. Unfortunately they will charge sales tax as well.
 
kmo19 said:
ok, so how about this:


The memory also has to be ECC memory I believe which is super expensive.

8GB 800MHz FB-DIMM RAM = $186 (OWC)
1.0TB Hitachi 7K1000 7200RPM Serial ATA HD = $100 (OWC)

Total = $3086 + $25 shipping
Hopefully no taxes on the Pro (shipping to CA)

Also, I want to run Vista on the 320G drive and OSX on the 1TB drive. Do I need anything else to do that? Is there any way to run Vista AND XP?
Click to expand...

Mac Pro 8-core 2.8GHz 2GB/320G/SuperDrive/ati2600XT/BT = $$2,201.06 Expercom's price & The 4 Gig model is $2,286.17
Click to expand...

The memory also has to be ECC memory I believe which is super expensive.
 
kmo19 said:
Wow, that seems too good to be true. I'll have to give them a call.
Click to expand...

All you have to do is create an acct, than when you login it will show you the prices, and I believe your first order of a computer has to be done over the phone. Sorry I didnt mention it before.

One other thing, What are you going to use for a monitor? IHMO Samsung 2233SW, available in SAMS clubs for 198.00. Have one running on the MBP that I use for now. Although my MBP's screen is great also.
 

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As mentioned again and again above, don't buy the "upgrade" hard drives or memory from Apple. They're good parts, I'll give em' that, but for the cost it's a horrible sham.

I purchased my refurbished Mac Pro (two dual-core Xeons) earlier this year, and got it for a huge bargain! When it came time to upgrade, I spent $60 on 2GB RAM, another $60 on a 500GB HD, and I'm about to blow $100 on 4GB more RAM. :) For what I have now, I would've paid a ridiculous sum if I had gotten my upgrades from Apple.

So my best suggestions is to purchase the Mac Pro with the lowest amount of RAM, and with the smallest hard drive so that you can upgrade for cheap. :D
 
What about the new display adapters?

I'm in the same boat...I've been waiting to get a Mac Pro, but the iTunes 8 update has managed to crash my Windoze system. So I'm without my main system now...not sure I can wait much more than a month or so. My biggest workload is just editing home movies on AVCHD...and then the usual iLife and surfing, so I'm thinking a 4-core Pro would do fine. I'd like to get a 30" Cinema display, but would definitely like to wait for any updates to that line. However, the 24" LED display has the new adapter type. I'd hate to get a Mac Pro now and find that I can't connect the next generation of Cinema Displays. Any thoughts on that?
 
Tallest Skil said:
Buy whenever you want and don't buy displays from Apple?

Just get a H-IPS display that isn't LED backlit if no one makes a DVI-Mini DisplayPort adapter.
Click to expand...

In your remark of don't buy displays from Apple could you be specific as too why shouldn't we buy these displays. From reviews on Apples web site and there is allot of them, they seem to be a pretty good if not excellent. I for one do NOT have throw away funds, but I do not mind spending extra for something that is built better which it seems ACD's are.
 
pwn247 said:
As mentioned again and again above, don't buy the "upgrade" hard drives or memory from Apple. They're good parts, I'll give em' that, but for the cost it's a horrible sham.

I purchased my refurbished Mac Pro (two dual-core Xeons) earlier this year, and got it for a huge bargain! When it came time to upgrade, I spent $60 on 2GB RAM, another $60 on a 500GB HD, and I'm about to blow $100 on 4GB more RAM. :) For what I have now, I would've paid a ridiculous sum if I had gotten my upgrades from Apple.

So my best suggestions is to purchase the Mac Pro with the lowest amount of RAM, and with the smallest hard drive so that you can upgrade for cheap. :D
Click to expand...

Could you share where your getting all these fantastic prices from on Memory and HD's ?
 
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