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Ok So now the MP prices are out... which is better iMac or Mac Pro?

anim8or

anim8or

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Aug 16, 2006
1,362
9
Scotland, UK
So now that the prices are out I am gonna ask the question that has been discussed without the price comparison again...

27" iMac, 2.93GHz i7, 8GB RAM, 2TB HDD + 256 SSD for £2700...

or

Quad Mac Pro 2.8GHz Nehalem, 8GB RAM, 1TB HDD for £2300...

Used mainly for After Effects for broadcast digital compositing and VFX, very little, if any 3D work, Graphic/Web design from time to time....

Which one shoud suit? Which one would you go for? Would anyone recommend going for anything else???
 
I have 2 23" ACDs... which i am happy with so no issues for monitors...

Also intend on keeping my current 06 Mac Pro for a few months at least after i have bought a new system, even to use as a mini render farm(!!)

Didn't find your Q in the other threads could you linky me please! :D
 
I would go for the Mac Pro (that is just my opinion) Primarily because it can be easily upgraded in the future.
 
stridemat said:
I would go for the Mac Pro (that is just my opinion) Primarily because it can be easily upgraded in the future.
Click to expand...

For the price of a Mac Pro plus a monitor, a consumer can buy an iMac and then three years later, buy another iMac. I wonder if that second iMac wouldn't outperform the current Mac Pro for most purposes.

So I think the Mac Pro is priced for the professional now. The power is at the point that only the Pros, the serious hobbiests and maybe the Gamers are going to use it. But the Gamers should just have a PC Gaming rig, there just isn't enough software on the Mac and you have to bootcamp anyway. The Pros will just push this cost off as a business expense anyway, so that saves them some money there.

The enthusiast using this as a home computer can't justify these prices.
 
i7 2.93 QC iMac vs. entry 2.8 QC MP

Reasons to buy an iMac: Solid performance that will come razor close to the QC MP and even beat it in some areas; roughly $600 less expensive when you consider the monitor (basing it on a Dell Ultrasharp 27"), faster RAM, though that won't add up to too much time savings.

Reasons not to buy an iMac: No access to internal HD -- when it dies, you have to take the entire machine to repair vs. just swapping out a new drive w/ a MP. Same for monitor; no user access to HD also means external drives stacking up; no way to upgrade video card if the need arises; limited connection ports and no PCI slots to add in new connectivity like USB3, or even old connectivity like eSATA.

If $ is a bigger issue than power, the outgoing MPs should be on fire sale pretty soon. Given the minimal difference b/t the '09 and '10 QCs it could be a great option depending on how sharply the price cuts are.
 
anim8or said:
So now that the prices are out I am gonna ask the question that has been discussed without the price comparison again...

27" iMac, 2.93GHz i7, 8GB RAM, 2TB HDD + 256 SSD for £2700...

or

Quad Mac Pro 2.8GHz Nehalem, 8GB RAM, 1TB HDD for £2300...

Used mainly for After Effects for broadcast digital compositing and VFX, very little, if any 3D work, Graphic/Web design from time to time....

Which one shoud suit? Which one would you go for? Would anyone recommend going for anything else???
Click to expand...


I would get a mac pro. I would get the quad with 3.2GHz cpu .

lowest ram and smallest hdd. adding ram and hdd's aftermarket is lower cost. I have my needs they are a pretty quick cpu that won't go out of date. I need lots and lots of hdds due to lots of movies and song. 10tb and counting. the iMac does not have a fast connection to outside gear I could write for weeks on how much that annoys me the a 3K usd machine can offload at only 80MB/sec via fw800. Not to mention if your internal drive goes bad on an iMac you are f'd. Buying apple care becomes a must with iMac.

I am getting a mac pro the 3.2Ghz 4 core is $2,839 usd with the better video card and a government worker discount. I can put in an aftermarket raid controller like this

http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Highpoint Technologies/RRAIDMAC/ cost is 229 usd

I own two of these

http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Other World Computing/MEQX2KIT0GB/

hooked up to my iMac at fw800 they are nice with my iMac

they will triple in speed once placed with my new mac pro. I have 8tb in one and 4tb in the other. to me buying the mac pro makes a lot more sense because I have lots of hdd info to more around. I may buy a refurb of the 2009 if it is low cost enough.
 
Yup, it will be YEARS before the MP is revised again :) So no need to upgrade, Apple will tell us when to do that.



ZeissmeisteR said:
As it will undoubtedly have a much greater lifespan than the iMac. Which means you wont have to shell out money again for a while.

Until you choose to upgrade of course.
Click to expand...
 
Chupa Chupa said:
i7 2.93 QC iMac vs. entry 2.8 QC MP

Reasons to buy an iMac: Solid performance that will come razor close to the QC MP and even beat it in some areas; roughly $600 less expensive when you consider the monitor (basing it on a Dell Ultrasharp 27"), faster RAM, though that won't add up to too much time savings.

Reasons not to buy an iMac: No access to internal HD -- when it dies, you have to take the entire machine to repair vs. just swapping out a new drive w/ a MP. Same for monitor; no user access to HD also means external drives stacking up; no way to upgrade video card if the need arises; limited connection ports and no PCI slots to add in new connectivity like USB3, or even old connectivity like eSATA.

If $ is a bigger issue than power, the outgoing MPs should be on fire sale pretty soon. Given the minimal difference b/t the '09 and '10 QCs it could be a great option depending on how sharply the price cuts are.
Click to expand...

Another thing to think about the Mac Pro, is that its more expensive at first seeing as it doesn't have its own monitor, but once you get that monitor, then you can keep it for future mac pros. You make that money back from the upgradeability because you don't have to pay for a new monitor whenever you want a much bigger hard drive or GPU update like you would with an iMac.
 
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