Newbie intro: just bought a refurb '09 MP

[policyvote]

Hey, all!

I'm a longtime PC hobbyist, and professional database/ETL developer. I'm also a part-time musician and sports blogger. My wife's a hobbyist photographer, and has been using a 17" iMac G5 iSight for four years or so. In that time, she's really grown to love her Mac, and I've been impressed with the power and flexibility of OSX. I've also been a longtime admirer of the "cheese grater" design of the Mac Pro, and of the idea of an Intel-based Mac with full accessability, expandability, and capability has hooked me.

My wife and I talked it over, and decided replace her flailing iMac (dying hard drive) with an iPad and a Mac Pro.

I preordered the iPad on launch day, as I waited and waited and waited on the MP update . . . after the "MAYBE TUESDAY?" thing, and yesterday's "OMG AUSTRALIAN AD" snafu, I realized that watching the chimney and waiting for the white smoke was going to take longer than I had; the iMac is nearly kaput, and it's currently our only home computer.

So, I pulled the trigger on one of the refurbs:

http://store.apple.com/us/product/FB871LL/A?mco=MTEzMzA3MDk

One 2.66GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon "Nehalem" processor
3GB (3 x 1GB) of 1066MHz DDR3 ECC memory
640GB Serial ATA 3Gb/s 7200 rpm
18x SuperDrive (DVD±R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW)
NVIDIA GeForce GT 120 with 512MB GDDR3 memory

I'm thrilled to dig into this machine, do a lot more video and audio production for my blog and my band, and give my wife a platform for her dream device. Plus, I got a "used" price without all the hassles of eBay, software, etc.

Hope to be able to contribute to the forums!

Peace
Ty

 

[eawmp1]

The difference in the 2 machines will blow you away. Even if new MacPros are released, your machine will serve you well for years to come. Just for fun, when it arrives, open every iLife program, play music in iTunes, the sample movie in iMovie, and surf the web at the same time.

 

[VirtualRain]

Let the upgrades begin. The only downside to a Mac Pro is the constant strain it places on your bank account.

 

[iamcheerful]

Let the upgrades begin. The only downside to a Mac Pro is the constant strain it places on your bank account.

My perspectives differ a little. To be able to achieve "the only downside", it means one is able to sustain such a lifestyle. Thus, I'm very thankful of what I've been provided.

It keeps us going and working. Eventually, our next major upgrade - a new Mac Pro (i.e. if Apple is still catering to the professional market diligently).

p.s. @policyvote, congrats! I believe it'll be a delight to work/play with your new system. And as a PC hobbyist, I'm sure you'll appreciate the expandability of the system. One more thing, I think you should replace the hdd in your iMac. That's still a fairly decent system apart from that failing hdd.

 

[JeromeOD]

completely - my mum is running one of those imacs and it's a beaut. Keep it going, it'll still be useful in 4 more years!

 

[policyvote]

The difference in the 2 machines will blow you away. Even if new MacPros are released, your machine will serve you well for years to come. Just for fun, when it arrives, open every iLife program, play music in iTunes, the sample movie in iMovie, and surf the web at the same time.

That's what I'm talking about. I'd rather go BIG, and have that power last, than buy a new computer every couple of years. About ten years ago I built a dual Athlon system with an inconceivable GIGABYTE of memory; that machine (with occasional video card/hard drive upgrades) served me well for about nine years.

I'm hoping my new Mac Pro will give a similar service life . . . judging by the number of folks still rocking multiway G5 systems in here, I suspect it will!

Peace
policy

 

[policyvote]

Let the upgrades begin. The only downside to a Mac Pro is the constant strain it places on your bank account.

My perspectives differ a little. To be able to achieve "the only downside", it means one is able to sustain such a lifestyle. Thus, I'm very thankful of what I've been provided.

It keeps us going and working. Eventually, our next major upgrade - a new Mac Pro (i.e. if Apple is still catering to the professional market diligently).

Yeah, I used to be a hardcore PC hardware guy, but as my college-age income went from "100% disposable" to "desperately needed to eat and stay housed", I dropped out of the arms race. However, I'm still a gearhead by nature! Now that I've established myself in my career, and I have real uses for all that silicon (besides QIIIA framerate), I'm excited to own a powerhouse again.

p.s. @policyvote, congrats! I believe it'll be a delight to work/play with your new system. And as a PC hobbyist, I'm sure you'll appreciate the expandability of the system. One more thing, I think you should replace the hdd in your iMac. That's still a fairly decent system apart from that failing hdd.

Yeah, the thing that's held me back is that the system's eaten its own directory structure several times--and neither Apple's geniuses, nor the local Mac repair shop, nor anyone else can tell me why, for sure. Replacing the hard drive would have been the fourth time I spent a three-figure amount trying to repair a four-year-old, ~$1000 unit . . . seemed like throwing good money after bad.

That having been said, I don't think we'll be recycling it. Maybe it'll get a new hard drive this summer, and either keep it around as a kids' machine, or sell it off to someone who just needs an email checker.

Peace
policy

 

[iamcheerful]

...
Yeah, the thing that's held me back is that the system's eaten its own directory structure several times--and neither Apple's geniuses, nor the local Mac repair shop, nor anyone else can tell me why, for sure. Replacing the hard drive would have been the fourth time I spent a three-figure amount trying to repair a four-year-old, ~$1000 unit . . . seemed like throwing good money after bad.

That having been said, I don't think we'll be recycling it. Maybe it'll get a new hard drive this summer, and either keep it around as a kids' machine, or sell it off to someone who just needs an email checker.

Peace
policy

What about just booting off an external, ignoring the internal hdd. I know it doesn't seem to be addressing "system eaten its own directory structure" even after you replaced the hdd. Indeed sounds strange.

If it still doesn't work, you could convert the external hdd to a simple Time Machine hdd for your upcoming Mac Pro.

And I do agree, it isn't worth spending so much on the repairs. Typically, I will go with a simple way. For example, my old G4 iMac 800 Mhz, the internal hdd is kinda dead. I boot the iMac with an external and she chugs along fine enough. The main inconvenience is that an all-in-one mac becomes not so all-in-one as one has to move the external hdd with an additional power supply (for the hdd, i opted for a 3.5" external, 2.5" hdds are tad too slow).

 

[policyvote]

First post from the new machine!

. . . 8259 Geekbench, for the record.

Peace
policy

 

[policyvote]

What about just booting off an external, ignoring the internal hdd. I know it doesn't seem to be addressing "system eaten its own directory structure" even after you replaced the hdd. Indeed sounds strange.

"It's probably usage patterns," quoth the Genii. Other than saving lots and lots of pics of our kids in iPhoto, my wife used her iMac for nothing more than Web and email. Whatever the demon was/is, the dead HDD makes it moot.

If it still doesn't work, you could convert the external hdd to a simple Time Machine hdd for your upcoming Mac Pro.

Yeah, my wife got a .5TD drive from her folks for Christmas after the second time the directory structure ate itself. Been thinking about moving all the backups to the Mac Pro, reformatting that with 'boot' and 'storage' partitions, and then booting the iMac off the 'boot' and using the 'storage as a NAS-type-thing for both Macs.

Still, though, for now, my biggest concern is how fast I can indulge in all possible Mac vices simultaneously!

Peace
policy