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My MacPro '08 vs Mac Pro '10 vs New iMac question ?

U

umbilical

macrumors 65816
Original poster
May 3, 2008
1,329
362
FL, USA
hi, I have a mac pro '08, just 2gb ram, 2x2.8 see here please:



and I think sell and buy a '10 version, so this is MORE Faster than my 08? see please:



or is almost the same? in speed! is a waste of money? no worth buy a new one, is almost the same speed?

and what about any of 2 new 27 imacs? are more faster than my macpro 08?



my question is but maybe I want reemplace my macpro but JUST if other basic models of mac pro '10 and imac 27 are more FASTER! if not I keep my macpro and put more ram.

any help, thanks! ;)
 
What's your usage? If your current machine is fast enough, then there is no reason to upgrade. Besides, you should first upgrade your current machine with more RAM and maybe an SSD.
 
I think if you've been running happily with 2GB RAM for the last two years you prob don't need a Mac Pro...
 
Hellhammer said:
What's your usage? If your current machine is fast enough, then there is no reason to upgrade. Besides, you should first upgrade your current machine with more RAM and maybe an SSD.
Click to expand...

my usage Im web designer, code, itunes, firefox... nathing hard like video edit etc...

a attractive thing to change for me is the monitor 27 of the imac! is great huge and maybe works better than my dell for photo edition... but is more fast my macpro 08, and no attractive thing about the 27 imac is that just can have 1 HD internal... but well a external hd are a solution for that...

what do you think! thanks guys!
 
umbilical said:
my usage Im web designer, code, itunes, firefox... nathing hard like video edit etc...

a attractive thing to change for me is the monitor 27 of the imac! is great huge and maybe works better than my dell for photo edition... but is more fast my macpro 08, and no attractive thing about the 27 imac is that just can have 1 HD internal... but well a external hd are a solution for that...

what do you think! thanks guys!
Click to expand...

Might I suggest the Apple LED Cinema Display?

That way, you retain your ability to upgrade the internals, and get something with the same screen as the iMac, for less!
 
The kind of work you undertake does not require a huge amount of power, but if you are multitasking then your processors in this situation definitely are not your bottleneck. You will see no difference in speed by upgrading, infact on paper you have much more processing power with your 2008 8 core. You should buy some more ram to help multitasking, 2gbs is so small for the amount of processing power the processors in your machine can move data quicker than 2gb/s.

When i first received my 2008 the 2gbs of ram was a huge bottleneck so i added 2x4gb sticks to have 10gbs now it runs extremely quickly. Also an ssd would help speed up processes. But if you are talking about upgrading your machine the base 2.8 doesnt offer anything you dont already have except a better graphics card, 4 less cores and 3gbs of ram puts you in the same boat.

You will get a good price for your machine but you will still have to find 500-1000 to pay for the newer machine and then the 300 for ram, when you could spend 300 on some ram and 100 on an ssd and have a machine which is benches alot faster than the newer one. My mac pro 2x2.8 benches at 12800 which destroys the 2010 base machine benches at 8384. Its funny with the base configuration you have the 2008 mac pro benches at 8968 so its faster anyway and with a few upgrade like mine they can run alot faster! i advise you do that.

Obviously real world tests are different and the newer models has turbo boost and better memory configuration, but to me its definitely not worth upgrading over. When apple actually bring out something worthwhile spending an extra £3500 then il consider it. The new machines to me are a pretty lame upgrade unless you are going to buy a 6 or 12 core. I say just stick until there is something worth spending money on. It is an easy decision to say no if you own a 2008 or 2009 model unless you need the power for extreme tasks (3d modeling etc) which i know people do but for 95% its a big no.

Hope this helps :apple:
 
Don't upgrade, you don't need it.
Buy ram and you will be fine for few more years.
 
The new iMacs give you the core i5 or i7 processors, they have a lot of advantages but your not really going to see that a lot over 2 Xeons! You can even buy the Radeon 5870 to run in your current Mac Pro if you want.

Have a look at these tests:

http://www.barefeats.com/wst10g6.html
http://www.barefeats.com/wst10g2.html
http://www.barefeats.com/wst10.html

Your 2008 8 core beats the 2010 quad core in all tests and is pretty much the same or better then the iMac core i7. As said unless you are going to spend money on another 8 core or the preferred 6 or 12 core your not going to gain much.
Get some RAM as people have said and an SSD or two. And you can even get the newer Radeon graphics card if you want but I don't think it will help you?

Oh and buy the Apple 27" monitor if you want the iMacs screen.
 
Santabean2000 said:
I think if you've been running happily with 2GB RAM for the last two years you prob don't need a Mac Pro...
Click to expand...

+1

I think that you wont probably see any big differences. I had a first generation Mac Pro and sold it for the latest base Mac Pro Model, but with 16GB RAM and I notice a speed increase in certain things (video encoding/decoding) of up tp 80%. For most common tasks though the speed increase is there but not really important.
 
thanks! for all comments, I decide keep it! and buy 8GB ram for get 10GB total, and yes well maybe think in the cinema display (a little expensive, but maybe better for photo edit... color sync etc... than my dell) I add too a 2gb third bay... I have 500gb 1st, and 1tb 2nd bay, also I remember order this mac with NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT graphic card and wireless card... at this time I have a great experience with this mac ;)

by the way the only BAD thing that I have with this, is that later of use 7 or 10 hours, I hear a sound, sounds like a fan problem, is a sound like gooooo and hideeee, go and hide... I dont know how explain like a fan that speed and hide... months ago I dont have that problem. I dont know what it is... but dont affect in anything...

thanks
 
Santabean2000 said:
I think if you've been running happily with 2GB RAM for the last two years you prob don't need a Mac Pro...
Click to expand...

I also agree.

With just 2GB of RAM, your RAM will max out so soon and everything will slow down no matter what processor you have. When your RAM fills up the data is written to your startup disk (or designated scratch disk if you set one up) wich is significantly slower than RAM. More speed does not mean a faster processor unless you have the RAM to support it.

I get through 2GB RAM in an hour using Safari and iTunes. I noticed a big difference when upgrading from 6GB to 12GB.
 
mjsmke said:
I also agree.

With just 2GB of RAM, your RAM will max out so soon and everything will slow down no matter what processor you have. When your RAM fills up the data is written to your startup disk (or designated scratch disk if you set one up) wich is significantly slower than RAM. More speed does not mean a faster processor unless you have the RAM to support it.

I get through 2GB RAM in an hour using Safari and iTunes. I noticed a big difference when upgrading from 6GB to 12GB.
Click to expand...

I would love to see your actual memory usage you either have 100 pages open at a time and/or playing multiple HD content at the same time. I have 10gb or ram in my pro never maxed it out, my macbook has 2gbs and i would say im a heavy itunes and safari user and never maxed it out with two low ram usage applications. i have 20 windows open in safari with intensive sites and its still only using 200mbs.
 
tomscott1988 said:
I would love to see your actual memory usage you either have 100 pages open at a time and/or playing multiple HD content at the same time. I have 10gb or ram in my pro never maxed it out, my macbook has 2gbs and i would say im a heavy itunes and safari user and never maxed it out with two low ram usage applications. i have 20 windows open in safari with intensive sites and its still only using 200mbs.
Click to expand...

Safari running for a few hours, only six tabs, RAM utilization: 601,5 MB (Real Mem in Activicty Monitor).
 
tomscott1988 said:
I would love to see your actual memory usage you either have 100 pages open at a time and/or playing multiple HD content at the same time. I have 10gb or ram in my pro never maxed it out, my macbook has 2gbs and i would say im a heavy itunes and safari user and never maxed it out with two low ram usage applications. i have 20 windows open in safari with intensive sites and its still only using 200mbs.
Click to expand...

I can support mjsmke's statement about the RAM usage with only 2GB.
My MBP has only 2GB and when I reboot and then start Adium, iTunes, iCal, Mail and Safari with 10 Tabs my RAM is 90% full and after like 10 minutes of surfing I already get page outs.
That's no heavy usage at all, just basic internet stuff which is what I use my book for but even that is too much for 2GB. I've got a SSD in there so I don't really care about page outs, but still, if you're really working with your computer, put in AT LEAST 4GB.
 
tomscott1988 said:
I would love to see your actual memory usage you either have 100 pages open at a time and/or playing multiple HD content at the same time. I have 10gb or ram in my pro never maxed it out, my macbook has 2gbs and i would say im a heavy itunes and safari user and never maxed it out with two low ram usage applications. i have 20 windows open in safari with intensive sites and its still only using 200mbs.
Click to expand...

I often watch movies online so dont know if this makes a difference. With Photoshop and Maya in use for a few hours too i normally use between 7-9 of my 12GB RAM.
 
Any good SSD for reemplace the Main HD? brands?

I have 1st bay 500gb and 2nd bay 1tb... so is possible reemplace the 500gb with SSD Hard Drive and install the Snow Leopard for more speed right?

thanks
 
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