Mac Pro or Macbook

I was going to do a media PC upstairs that would play Bluray and some other media that I currently have. I found a mac pro 2.66 (previous generation) fairly cheap (around $1600) to use for this, but after the announcement yesterday...I am unsure.

With both units I would be using an external bluray burner for ease of use and portability. My concerns are:

Should I get a current generation Macbook?
Are there still issues with external Bluray drives?
Should I wait and see what they do with the Mac Mini?

I did consider using a mac mini for this, but I am not 100% sure it would have the power to handle 1080p without stuttering. If anyone is currently using a mini with Windows to playback BLuray movies, I would love to hear your input.

 

The mac pro and the macbook are going to be about the same price. I am not worrier about portability because I have another laptop. I am having a rough time trying to find anyone that has an external blueray drive. Which model do you have?

 

I ended up going with a early 2008 Mac Pro. It should have more then enough power to run everything. I had my old 2600 from my other Pro so I put both in it. I will run crossfire under windows to make sure it will have more then enough to do any HD content.

 

I did notice a very strange issue. When I boot the machine and it shows the Apple with the spinning circle in the middle of the screen, the screen is slanted annd distored. When I get into OSX, everything is perfectly fine. Does this have something to do with the EFI not being able to detect the TV correctly? It is a Hitatchi 50" Plasma at 1080P

 

Anyone have any ideas? I did try another video card to rule that out.

 

I am guessing it might be an interlaced format or something of that sort.