Mac Pro 2008 vs. Sun Ultra 40

[needlz]

Hi there,

This is more a hardware related questions, OS X doesn't play a big role:

I have the chance to buy a Sun Ultra 40 for about 600$ (2x2.4 Opteron, 8 GB RAM, 500GB SATA HDD, Raid Controller, 8800 GTS) or for 1600$ a MacPro (2008 model, 2x2.66 DualCore Xeon, 3GB RAM, 250GB HDD).

It'll be my private machine which I use for private software development (WPF/Silverlight) (so I'm not in an environment where even the time for compiling is money which can be saved ). Also I don't use it for playing games or similar.

I tend to buy the Sun, add a Intel X25 SSD and maybe upgrade the Graphics Card. With that I'd still be under 1000$ and would have a decent workstation for development. For my OS X/XCode needs, I'd still have my Macbook Pro ;-)

Am I missing something with the MacPro, where it has huge advantages over the Sun Workstation?

Thanks for any input!

 

[Transporteur]

Am I missing something with the MacPro, where it has huge advantages over the Sun Workstation?

Biggest advantage for me: OS X!
Second: Two more cores PLUS Intel Xeon which are absolutely superior to those crappy Opterons.

But I'm pretty sure that that's not a 2008 machine you're talking about.
2008 models hat 2.8GHz CPUs as entry level, either Quad or Octad.
And 1600$ for a Quad 2006/2007 system with that configuration is a pretty bad deal.

 

[lemonade-maker]

I have the same sun box and a 2009 mac dual quad. I loved the sun. I got the mac because I wanted to do virtualization on it. The sun box is a PITA for virtualization. I used XEN for quite a while on the sun. Now I do my stuff using vmware on the mac and use the sun as a db server. Best dev environment I have used. I was able to put a few Dell 2950s into the production env too. If you don't need to run multiple systems for dev, I'd get the sun. It's a great machine and it sounds like the price is good.

 

[gugucom]

Yep, 2,66 sounds like a MacPro1,1 quad from 2006. And the price is way too high. It should be more like 1000-1100$.

 

[needlz]

You guys are probably right, it has to be a 2006 model. The price is too high for that.. but it'll be hard to find something below that here in Switzerland.

Another option would be ordering via the USA, but the shipping costs are like 500$ with UPS Worldwide Saver.

I'll check out eBay Germany, UK and USA tomorrow and keep you updated. If I won't find anything for a reasonable price, I'll probably go with the Sun or maybe even buy a Desktop System. Of course I'd love to work with a decent Mac, but it all comes down to a cost-benefit problem.. Hah

 

[nanofrog]

You guys are probably right, it has to be a 2006 model. The price is too high for that.. but it'll be hard to find something below that here in Switzerland.

Another option would be ordering via the USA, but the shipping costs are like 500$ with UPS Worldwide Saver.

I'll check out eBay Germany, UK and USA tomorrow and keep you updated. If I won't find anything for a reasonable price, I'll probably go with the Sun or maybe even buy a Desktop System. Of course I'd love to work with a decent Mac, but it all comes down to a cost-benefit problem.. Hah

Can I presume you're willing to hack, given the budget limitations?

 

[needlz]

You mean something like this:
http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=187440&st=0&start=0
?
That's an option.. but I'm not quite sure how stable that is?

EDIT:
Ah well, I found a quite good answer here:
http://lifehacker.com/5351485/how-to-build-a-hackintosh-with-snow-leopard-start-to-finish :

I've been using one or another Hackintosh as my main computer for two years now, and while I've run into the occasional bump in the road, they've generally run extremely well. In fact, things just seem to keep on getting better and better, and the current build I'm running (the one I walked you through above) feels like the fastest, most stable build to date.

That's not to say that you won't experience an occasional kernel panic—you may very well. But I get crashes on my MacBook Pro, too, and I've never felt that my current Hack Pro has any more problems than any other proper Mac I've used on a regular basis. That may seem a bit crazy, but it's true.

As for upgrading—often, you'll be able to upgrade your Hack Pro without any problems. That said, it's something you normally need to check on beforehand, and you should take all of the upgrade precautions before giving it a go.

I'm planning on letting readers know how my Hack Pro handles various 10.6.x updates shortly after they happen, though, and if it requires a little extra work, I'll show you how to handle it.

 

[MatLane]

You guys are probably right, it has to be a 2006 model. The price is too high for that.. but it'll be hard to find something below that here in Switzerland.

Another option would be ordering via the USA, but the shipping costs are like 500$ with UPS Worldwide Saver.

I'll check out eBay Germany, UK and USA tomorrow and keep you updated. If I won't find anything for a reasonable price, I'll probably go with the Sun or maybe even buy a Desktop System. Of course I'd love to work with a decent Mac, but it all comes down to a cost-benefit problem.. Hah

 

[nanofrog]

You mean something like this:
http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=187440&st=0&start=0
?
That's an option.. but I'm not quite sure how stable that is?

EDIT:
Ah well, I found a quite good answer here:
http://lifehacker.com/5351485/how-to-build-a-hackintosh-with-snow-leopard-start-to-finish :

Err... YEP.

So, what's your answer? Yes or no?

Your answer will detemine if you have to get an Apple system, or open you up to other options, as the Sun won't run OS X without hacking.

I'm pressuming Yes ATM, but a firm answer would eliminate any doubt.

 

[needlz]

I guess I'll have to sleep about it - it's 02:26am over here I'll let you know how I decided until the end of the week. Thanks a lot for all the input!

Cheers