Mac Pro, for who?

[entatlrg]

Who buys / needs the performance of the Mac Pro. I realize professionals use them for video editing, graphics, auto cad etc and that needs a lot of resources and there's a certain market for the Pro of course ...

For someone like me who's doing light to medium load video/photo editing, using concept design/drawing software would a Pro benefit me or would a iMac be just as good? From a user experience, performance standpoint would I see noticeable differences in performance with the 2.4 quad Mac Pro as I would with the 2.4 iMac.

Price isn't a concern, but I don't want to waste money either. Should would be a nice set up with a 24" ACD

 

[rgarjr]

I think the MP's are mainly used in the workplace, like companies.

 

[jodelli]

For light to medium editing the iMac will do fine, but if you want to future proof against biggerism get the Pro because expansion capabilties are there.

 

[Sun Baked]

If you also have a buttload of media or burn a lot of media, the Mac Pro is a rather big help.

For those that burn, using standard tray loading drives instead of the slot loading problematic superdives is a plus.

For those with a lot of data, the ease of plugging in bare drives is a plus. No messing with opening a FW case to install that next drive.

If you have a lot of paying projects, simply adding the cost of a new drive in with the project will save time and negate the worry about resorting to lots of DVDs to store the data (and find again) if they come back.

 

[Markleshark]

They are for whoever wants and can afford one.

I have one, the most taxing thing it does it run Football Manager 2009, do I care? Nope. I love it, and I know it's going to be relatively top of the line for a couple of years at least and all that power is there should I need it.

Main reason though is all the crap I have stored, all the drive bays have 1TB drives in, no wires to external drives, no extra plug sockets. It's great for all that.

 

[Eastend]

I use my Mac pro for cleaning audio files, I use the Final Cut software Soundtrack Pro for this along with Soundsoap and iZotope RX, they all love to eat up CPU power and memory. I use an Old 2.16 GHz iMac for everything else. The Mac Pro is about twice as fast in using these audio programs over the iMac. But, for iMovie, light Illustrator and light Photoshop work there is almost no difference between the two machines. Be aware that the new low end Mac Pro has a Geekbench score that is double that of the top end iMac. But, in using everyday Applications there will not be much of a difference between the two machines.