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Mac Pro vs iMac
- Thread starter SuperMiguel
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It isn't though. It is around 40% faster.
Really isn't worth it IMO. Honestly, if someone is looking for a gaming setup but wants an iMac, build a gaming PC and buy an iMac. Cheaper than buying one Mac Pro, and will definitely be a faster gaming machine than a Mac Pro.
The last thing that the Mac is right now is a decent gaming platform; it will take a long time.
As for hard drives being difficult to upgrade, you can either take it to an Apple Service Provider or do it yourself. The reason that the new machines have Thunderbolt, however, is pretty much for this exact reason.
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Spending $6700 on a Mac Pro is ridiculous, especially when you can do all of those upgrades at a much cheaper cost as opposed to direct from Apple (even the W3680 CPU swap). Realistically you'll be looking at around $4000 give or take if you were to purchase a base 2.8 quad Mac Pro and doing the upgrades yourself.
You have to look at the benchmarks closer. in dx9 it is 40-60% faster. Most games are still dx9, 10. In dx10 the 5870 IS twice as fast in most cases. In dx11 things get closer as 5870 was 1st gen DX11 and the 40% gain over 6970m I agree with. Same with the 6870 vs. 5870. The 5870 beats the 6870 handily until you get into dx11 where the newer cards shine. For reference the 6970m is equal to desktop 6850. Same amount of shaders, etc.
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It could be pretty fast going if Apple would just open up PC card support. That's all it would take. Pick a card and slot it. Now it is a gaming PC. One hurdle. Nothing on a Mac Pro is cpu bound. The iMac is obviously different and would need a case re-design.
Perhaps, but I did an all-Apple pricing for both the Mac Pro and iMac to keep the comparison on equal terms and not having to guess at the value of time and skills of the purchaser. My point wasn't to say the Mac Pro is a bad value (it does have costly server-grade components, missing from the iMac) but that buying an iMac and adding storage with the seemingly expensive Thunderbolt port is price competitive.
The mac pro would be a silly purchase at this time since new Xeon processors are around the corner and the 2.8 Ghz chip is showing its age badly. Even the 2011 quad mini server with the i7 SB chip will be faster from a CPU point of view. Granted, it will not play Wow as well due to the intel graphics.
Not really. Takes a little time to move the LCD out of the way, but it's not too bad. I did it a year ago (swapped out my 320GB HDD for a 1TB HDD), and getting ready to now take out the optical drive and put in an SSD. It's not as bad as folks (who never opened one) make it out to be.
I would say go iMac first and then if years down the line you feel you NEED to upgrade then you have a shiny new monitor for your Mac Pro 
The drive replacement thing is a huge hassle, although the use of another computer as a server mitigates that to some extent. But if your internal is hosed and you have to boot from externals, you won't be happy. That, IMHO, is the achille's heel of iMacs.
It wasn't all that difficult to replace the drive in pre 2010 iMacs, but I understand it's gotten considerably worse.
Something to consider, although I sure like the form factor much better and don't find much need for "expandability" in Macs anymore.
Rob
It wasn't all that difficult to replace the drive in pre 2010 iMacs, but I understand it's gotten considerably worse.
Something to consider, although I sure like the form factor much better and don't find much need for "expandability" in Macs anymore.
Rob
On the 2011s I thought it made the fans go crazy if you change the 3.5" drive due to the way it obtains temperature data. I can recall complaints about this when the machine came out. I'm not sure about others but I hate how little things like a dead drive mean hauling your computer into the Apple store.
Many people have gone over that equation. I've read about some issues with that raid enclosure, and the Apple site has a number of complaints regarding DOA drives shipped with it. I'll be more interested if thunderbolt becomes an option on other enclosures where I can choose my own drives and purchase enough at a time to ensure I have quality drives and replacements with identical firmware. I agree with you on buying the imac with a large enough drive, but even the best drives can die, especially in such a tightly packed computer. Apple designs for thin and quiet on those machines, and I'm sure they try to keep them as cool as possible, but that is a really tiny space.
It had a weak point of entry for its price since the day it came out, and they've barely bumped it since then. It shouldn't surprise Apple if sales suck on that machine. Intel's delays haven't helped. It's like they've been trying to ease the people who aren't willing to pay in excess of $5k for a computer toward an imac. I'm waiting to see if the mac pros get an update and what it looks like.
I'd take a hit in form factor any day for one that could be easily fixed. These are still machines comprised of mostly generic parts with a few firmware tweaks, so components can die. I hate having a machine that needs to go to the shop if something minor fails. Being able to self service machines is a luxury we seem to be losing. It's probably a lot worse for people who don't live near an Apple store.
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