Mac Pro (mid 2010) advice

[BornAudio]

Hello,

I was looking for some buying tips

I have the possibility to buy a Mac Pro (mid 2010) for around 700 euros.
At the moment I have a Macbook Pro 15" early 2011 (quad core 2.3 Ghz i7 / 8GB ram ).

The main use of my macbook is music production, but lately I'm doing more and more video editing/rendering

Besides the fact that the HDD is constantly full, I feel like software like after effects CS5 are really sluggish..

I think I would call myself a "prosumer",
Do you guys think a Mac Pro is a wise decision? Or am I already spoiled with my macbook & I should just buy external HDD's

If I would buy the Mac Pro I was planning to put more ram into it (currently it has 3GB). What do you guys guess would at to the overall cost?

The specs are as followed:
Westmere Quad core 2.8
3GB ram
ATI Radeon HD 5770 1GB
1GB 7200RPM HDD
http://www.appleserialnumberinfo.com/Desktop/index.php (Serial: CK12000WHF7)

I should also mention I'm planning to move more into the rendering 3D modelling field in the future. Maya, Real Flow


Really curious to your opinions!

Thanks,
David

 

[MacForScience]

I would not buy the MacPro for the following reasons:
1.) the Mac Pros future is uncertain as far as its continuation
2.) if you need a desktop for Maya and Real Flow at the prosumer level you are better off with a Core i7 iMac
3.) if you just need more cores then Mac Minis are your friend
4.) if you need expansion for PCIe cards you are better off with: http://www.magma.com/thunderbolt.asp
5.) if you need more drive space get your self a RAID (Thunderbolt or FW800)

Cheers

 

[Velin]

Agree.

Mac Pros are really great machines. Well built, solid, will last for many, many years.

Problem is, we Mac Pro owners are just waiting for the announcement Apple is killing off the line. It's been a long time since the Mac Pro was updated, and the line is starting to show its age.

With the release of the i7 Intel CPUs and the 2011 socket, along with the latest graphics cards and PCIe 3.0, unfortunately PCs are really starting to pull ahead in terms of true desktop performance and hardware. It's pathetic, really, that $2500+ Mac Pros don't even have USB 3.0, which you can find on the cheapest PC motherboard. Firewire is dead.

So unless Apple gets serious about the Mac Pro line and gives it the major overhaul it needs, Mac Pro is finished. Even on these forums you can see people starting to talk about building much faster and easily upgradeable PCs for half the price of a Mac Pro, because the line is being ignored.

 

[dhro1]

700 euros = buy it

You'll be using it in the here and now so if a new model doesn't come out that won't affect you. 700 euros is lower end mac mini money, and for that you get an extremely expandable computer. You can upgrade the RAM, GPU, CPU, add internal hdd add esata (cheaply). It is far less constrained than an iMac and a lot cheaper at that price. Plug in any monitor you want (up to 3) etc etc. Thunderbolt has potential but is very expensive at the moment.

The current starting price for the Mac Pro is a concern as the other posters state. But at 700 euros that doesn't affect you.

So you can put a six core cpu in it, upgrade to a GTX570, add esata, add 32gb ram add cheaper internal HDD/SSDs, add pcie ssds. etc etc. It is also designed to be left on constantly, will be built to a really high standard and on't run hot.

 

[alq]

@BornAudio

If you don't buy it, pass it to me. I'll buy it.

EDIT: I'm serious on that.