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Mac Pro buying advice

G

Gallegos7788

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jan 8, 2009
2
0
I'm set on getting a 3.2 GHz, 8-core Intel Xeon-based Mac Pro.

1) It is my understanding that this is Apples best desktop computer-is this true?

2) In the buyers guide section of this site, it recommends not to buy because an update is available soon. It also says it was updated Jan 8th?

3) I would really appreciate anybody's advice on to buy or not to buy. And why. Thank you.
 
Gallegos7788 said:
1) It is my understanding that this is Apples best desktop computer-is this true?
Click to expand...

Currently, yes that Mac Pro is the most powerful Apple computer.

Gallegos7788 said:
2) In the buyers guide section of this site, it recommends not to buy because an update is available soon. It also says it was updated Jan 8th?
Click to expand...

That is because it was updated on January 8th of last year.

Gallegos7788 said:
3) I would really appreciate anybody's advice on to buy or not to buy. And why.
Click to expand...

I would not buy now, wait a month or two to see if Apple finally comes out with a new Mac Pro. Although if you absolutely need to buy it now, then buy it now as it is still a very powerful computer.
 
I wouldn't buy a 3.2GHz system now. First of all the processor upgrade is only worth it to a few people. All they do is save you time on processor intensive tasks (14% at most). It's not going to do anything else. My guess is if you haven't bought a Mac Pro already and are asking such a question you don't need the upgrade.

Second of all the base 2.66GHz Mac Pros that should be due between April and June will out perform the current 3.2GHz system and cost a lot less ($3,000 vs $4,400).

If you absolutely must have a Mac Pro now it would be cheaper to buy a refurb or used 2.8Ghz system and sell it when the new ones come out than buy a 3.2GHz (you'd probably lose $500 at most on the sale).
 
How about compatibility? Is it worth waiting for the new Mac Pro? People always say don't buy the first model when it comes out.
 
Tallest Skil said:
And those people are paranoid morons. Incompatibility? It's APPLE. It will work with whatever you're using.
Click to expand...

Rev. B, always !
Better performance, way cheaper upgrades, bugs resolved.
Incompatibility? Apple's entering a new era, pal.

Love the guinea pigs, though. ;)
 
Horst said:
Rev. B, always !
Better performance, way cheaper upgrades, bugs resolved.
Incompatibility? Apple's entering a new era, pal.

Love the guinea pigs, though. ;)
Click to expand...

It's not like there were major issues with the introduction of the 5100 series or the move to 5400 series Workstation parts. Sure it's worth waiting a few weeks, maybe a month when the things first hit the shelves, but after that waiting for rev B is pointless as with the Mac Pro they will move to a new chipset, processors, memory and video cards anyway.
 
Umbongo said:
It's not like there were major issues with the introduction of the 5100 series or the move to 5400 series Workstation parts. Sure it's worth waiting a few weeks, maybe a month when the things first hit the shelves, but after that waiting for rev B is pointless as with the Mac Pro they will move to a new chipset, processors, memory and video cards anyway.
Click to expand...

+1.

Oh, and, by the way... It's the Mac Pro. Your vaunted rev. B will come 518 days after rev. A.
 
Horst said:
Rev. B, always !
Better performance, way cheaper upgrades, bugs resolved.
Incompatibility? Apple's entering a new era, pal.

Love the guinea pigs, though. ;)
Click to expand...

Rev A products are usually just fine, I've had a Rev A MacBook Pro (had problems but Apple replaced it and gave me a newer version), Rev A MacBook Air (Perfect, no problems whatsoever), Rev A iPhone (Perfect, had no issues), and a Rev A iMac (Perfect, no issues). A 3 out of 4 (With the only imperfect one replaced with a new computer) success ratio is far better than Rev B always. Every product, no matter the Rev, is going to have some problems, it is unavoidable.
 
The current Mac Pro is the second revision Mac Pro anyway. The soon to come one will be the third Mac Pro.
 
Umbongo said:
It's not like there were major issues with the introduction of the 5100 series or the move to 5400 series Workstation parts. Sure it's worth waiting a few weeks, maybe a month when the things first hit the shelves, but after that waiting for rev B is pointless as with the Mac Pro they will move to a new chipset, processors, memory and video cards anyway.
Click to expand...

Good points, but we are looking at the introduction of a new OS as well, which might or might not be necessary to fully benefit from the Nehalem architecture.

The problem, as always, is that Apple doesn't provide one with a roadmap, and one never knows how foreseeable technological developments will apply to Macs.

Hence, after the new MP will be introduced in the next few months, RAM, GPU and other upgrades might or might not be available at reasonable prices .

Leopard might or might not be fit to fully support the alleged performance gains, same with the major applications.

Slow Leopard, due some time this year, and supposed to be a big step toward optimal hardware performance, is not likely to be bug free or fully compatible with said applications for many months.

So the first Nehalem MPs will probably be faster than the current model , by whatever margin, but a solid, reliable, universally usable 'new' MacPro, running a sound 10.6 with fully compatible software and hardware to actually utilize its potential will not be around until 2010, all in my humble opinion.
 
Horst said:
So the first Nehalem MPs will probably be faster than the current model , by whatever margin, but a solid, reliable, universally usable 'new' MacPro, running a sound 10.6 with fully compatible software and hardware to actually utilize its potential will not be around until 2010, all in my humble opinion.
Click to expand...

Or June 2009 when Snow Leopard is released.
 
Tallest Skil said:
Or June 2009 when Snow Leopard is released.
Click to expand...

So you are saying Snow will be rock-solid from the start, and all the important apps will be working flawlessly ?

Don't get me wrong, I'd love to see that happen, just not holding my breath.
 
Ughhh

For me too this is a real pickle... I want a mac pro (for logic pro 8 + Protools 8 only) but this debate has hardly any concrete answers.

For example, if they come out in 2-3 months, that is a completely different scenario for me than if they come out in june at the earliest. It's awful being so much in the dark like this. Right here on this thread, one says april-june at the earliest, another says in 2-3 months. This is not a negligible difference for me! 2-3 months I can *barely* wait if it's *TRUELY* worth the wait, but 6 is definitely pushing it... sigh, looks like I came into this market at exactly the wrong time, as nobody seems to know anything about this, and even fewer it seems care. I can't even find decent specs on what the current mac pros are capable of in terms of audio, as apple's own site only pits it against a G5, and even then, it's only 2x faster, which to me does not seem like a large improvement in so many years... this is very frustrating!
 
cybeross said:
For me too this is a real pickle... I want a mac pro (for logic pro 8 + Protools 8 only) but this debate has hardly any concrete answers.

For example, if they come out in 2-3 months, that is a completely different scenario for me than if they come out in june at the earliest. It's awful being so much in the dark like this. Right here on this thread, one says april-june at the earliest, another says in 2-3 months. This is not a negligible difference for me! 2-3 months I can *barely* wait if it's *TRUELY* worth the wait, but 6 is definitely pushing it... sigh, looks like I came into this market at exactly the wrong time, as nobody seems to know anything about this, and even fewer it seems care. I can't even find decent specs on what the current mac pros are capable of in terms of audio, as apple's own site only pits it against a G5, and even then, it's only 2x faster, which to me does not seem like a large improvement in so many years... this is very frustrating!
Click to expand...

Post a thread in the Mac Pro forum saying what you'd like to use it for and what hardware you are currently running if you are doing so and you will hopefully get some answers from people doing the same thing.

The base Mac Pro with some more memory (from a 3rd party) and better hard drives should be more than enough for most applications, people are doing what you're talking about on weaker machines. For most people it is about getting the most out of a $3,000-$4,000 investment rather than needing the performance.

As for release dates here is the information there is:
  • Intel said they would start producing the processors the Mac Pro will use in January.
  • The register reported that numerous sources were expecting the processors on the 8th of February, but many now believe Intel will push the date as far as they can while maintaining promises to ship Q1. This probably means March 29th as that is the last Sunday of Q1.
  • The last two Mac Pros shipped 6 and 8 weeks after processor releases.

The above indicates a mid to late May release of new Mac Pros, but you have to assume extra shipping time if you intend for extra components or customizing it.
 
Gallegos7788 said:
I'm set on getting a 3.2 GHz, 8-core Intel Xeon-based Mac Pro.

1) It is my understanding that this is Apples best desktop computer-is this true?

2) In the buyers guide section of this site, it recommends not to buy because an update is available soon. It also says it was updated Jan 8th?

3) I would really appreciate anybody's advice on to buy or not to buy. And why. Thank you.
Click to expand...

Simple and to the point - if you need a MAC PRO now then get one. No matter what you buy, something later will come out and you will want that too.

I have a Mac Pro quad 2.66 with 4x1tb drives and 9 gigs of RAM. 3 of the drives are system raided for a striped volume. This works well for what I do along with that antiquated ATA 1900 512 RAM. I do mostly Lightroom and Photoshop CS4.

IF* I had to get a new MAC PRO (of course I want one) I wouldn't jump on the fasted rated processors. Things to consider -

How much diff between the 2.8 and 3.2? 5 percent 10 percent on the types of apps you use? Is it worth the extra money? In my estimate, probably not.

As others mentioned the drives and RAM are going to be real winners for you if carefully bought. As well perhaps hardware raid internal or external.

If I were in your shoes, I would be hitting up Logic Pro related forums and ask there what is sufficient vs good vs excellent on hardware set ups. Chances are if you got the 2.8 with at least 8 gigs of RAM and some good drives hardware raided, you would be working faster than a 3.2 machine vanilla.

Just my two cents

- Phrehdd
 
Gallegos7788 said:
I'm set on getting a 3.2 GHz, 8-core Intel Xeon-based Mac Pro.

1) It is my understanding that this is Apples best desktop computer-is this true?
Click to expand...

Yes. It's a workstation targeted at professionals which eat barrels of rendering power for breakfast. But please don't just use it for listening to mp3s or reading your emails cause its using large amounts of electricity.
 
I would wait... and yes generally the Mac Pro is the most powerful computer Apple has to offer. I mean, which other PC vendor has 2 quad cores of 3.2GHz workstation/server grade processors from Intel's most expensive CPU lineup? Not to mention four hard drive bays, 8 memory slots, and 4 PCI express slots (I think, it's been awhile since I looked at Mac Pros).
 
cybeross said:
I can't even find decent specs on what the current mac pros are capable of in terms of audio, as apple's own site only pits it against a G5, and even then, it's only 2x faster, which to me does not seem like a large improvement in so many years... this is very frustrating!
Click to expand...

The current mac pros are MORE than powerful for any music project you can throw at it. I've had a 2.8 8 core MP with 8 GB RAM and SCSI drives work flawlessly with Apogee converters - recording a 256 track orchestral session - no glitch, nothing.

I'm sure it can handle even more if it had maxed out RAM - there are so many people here who think they have to wait for the latest computers, because apparently the current ones aren't powerful enough.

If you need one, buy it. I never see a point to the whole waiting game.
 
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