Need help buying a mac

[Garfield]

I've been reading the forums and trying to gather information through the internet but I'm still left puzzled. I'm trying to figure out if an 27" i7 imac or a quad core 2.8 mac pro would suit me better.

I work as a freelance graphic designer and use my computer for work. I own a 15" 2.4 core 2 duo with 4gb ram, and it doesn't cut it anymore for the work I need to be doing. I frequently use photoshop, illustrator, indesign and lightroom. Sometimes I need to have two or more of them running on the same time.

When I have time I do like to play some games on the machine, games like starcraft 2 and diablo 3 when he comes out. So it would be good to have a nice machine that can handle that as well.

I do like the fact that I can upgrade the mac pro in a few years time. And I like the idea of having more than one hard drive, although I don't know if I would gain a lot from it.

I own a 22" Dell IPS monitor which I'm fairly happy with, so I could live without the 27" from the imac if I go with the mac pro.

So the question for you guys is.

1. Is the processor better in the quad mac pro than the imac ?
2. Is there a huge difference between the graphic cards on the imac and mac pro ? (I would probably take the HD 5870 for the mac pro)
3. Which one do you think will suit me better ?

 

[Hellhammer]

1. Performance wise, no, but it supports ECC although it shouldn't be a big deal for you. The CPU in Mac Pro is upgradable to 6-core down the road though

2. 5870 is about twice as fast, maybe even a bit more. The GPU won't be a huge deal in your work but in gaming it does have a huge effect. Some benches here

3. If you really want/need the upgradeability, the Mac Pro is a better choice. On the other hand, as you said "in few years", you could just sell the iMac then and get a new one. That would likely be faster than fully pumped 2010 SP Mac Pro.

Somehow I think an iMac would be sufficient for you. FireWire 800 is adequate for external storage and high-end iMac runs SC2 just fine. You should really use the upgradeability that Mac Pro offers so it would be worth it. If you don't, then at least I find it a bit useless to pay more for something that you don't use

 

[Garfield]

Thanks a lot! This really helps.