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Purchasing a Mac Pro :$

P

Polofiesta

macrumors member
Original poster
Apr 18, 2011
51
0
Hey guys, so instead of getting a Macbook pro I decided to sav up the extra buck and get a Mac pro. Now these are things I am going to be doing on this mac:
1. Rendering HD videos.
2. Final Cut Pro
3. Adobe Premier Pro
4. 3D Game programming
5. Website programming
6. Photoshop
7. And a little minecraft here and there :)

Now I was wondering if this setup is enough to sustain what I will be doing.
One 2.8GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon “Nehalem”
8GB (4x2GB) RAM
1TB 7200-rpm Serial ATA 3Gb/s hard drive
Two ATI Radeon HD 5770 1GB

Also if I ever need to upgrade:
RAM
CPU
Graphics card
Will I be able to and how easy is it?
Thank you very much!
 
That will work. But really it is not a good buy right now at all. Some of the consumer Mac's are faster as the Mac Pro line is in a chip drought right now.
You will be paying so much more for 1.5 year old parts than if you bought this last year. Price to performance is very bad on the base Mac Pro's. If you need to buy the only real choices to get any value out of is at least 6-core or 12-core models. But even then the price of the parts have dropped in half since their introduction and Apple is not a company that slashes prices with the part price drop. They'll just enjoy the profit.

Or upgrade to the 3.2 Hex and add 3x4GB kit of memory. Keep the base 5770 GPU. Not really needing the 5870.
 
Polofiesta said:
Hey guys, so instead of getting a Macbook pro I decided to sav up the extra buck and get a Mac pro. Now these are things I am going to be doing on this mac:
1. Rendering HD videos.
2. Final Cut Pro
3. Adobe Premier Pro
4. 3D Game programming
5. Website programming
6. Photoshop
7. And a little minecraft here and there :)

Now I was wondering if this setup is enough to sustain what I will be doing.
One 2.8GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon “Nehalem”
8GB (4x2GB) RAM
1TB 7200-rpm Serial ATA 3Gb/s hard drive
Two ATI Radeon HD 5770 1GB

Also if I ever need to upgrade:
RAM
CPU
Graphics card
Will I be able to and how easy is it?
Thank you very much!
Click to expand...

ram is easy on the quad 2.8 4 sticks of 8gb for about 400 worth while $

cpu is easy on the quad 2.8 a hex 3.33 for about 600 worth while $

gpu is easy on the quad 2.8 a better gpu for about 400 the 5870 is pricey

cpu upgrade links below:

how to do it;
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1122551/

the right cpu with warranty and a real seller

http://cgi.ebay.com/NEW-Intel-Xeon-...57?pt=CPUs&hash=item2312528b49#ht_3265wt_1250

ram link;

https://www.superbiiz.com/detail.php?name=D3-13R8GH1

oh and a quad cpu link

http://store.apple.com/us/product/FC560LL/A?mco=MTkyMTM1OTY

the ram link is a very good price hard to beat it.

the cpu link is a good price and a very good seller


the quad pro link is a good price one year warranty but this price can be beaten.

sometimes amazon has it for 2k as open box.
 
Last edited:
philipma1957 said:
how to do it;
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1122551/

the right cpu with warranty and a real seller

http://cgi.ebay.com/NEW-Intel-Xeon-...57?pt=CPUs&hash=item2312528b49#ht_3265wt_1250

ram link;

https://www.superbiiz.com/detail.php?name=D3-13R8GH1

oh and a quad cpu link

http://store.apple.com/us/product/FC560LL/A?mco=MTkyMTM1OTY

the ram link is a very good price hard to beat it.

the cpu link is a good price and a very good seller
Click to expand...

Great RAM and CPU find. I just ordered OWC RAM for $140 more, less a trade in so it's not as bad as it sounds.
 
Well I am going to get a OWC SSD as my boot drive and the 1TB from apple will be for media files. So what should I do? Should I wait for a newer mac pro to come out since you say that the parts are overprices and older technology?
 
Polofiesta said:
Well I am going to get a OWC SSD as my boot drive and the 1TB from apple will be for media files. So what should I do? Should I wait for a newer mac pro to come out since you say that the parts are overprices and older technology?
Click to expand...

do not waste your money on a 1.5 year old comp. just wait a bit more for the new MP's to come out.

unless you can justify spending 3k on the base model and a cpu from ebay. not counting the memory since its something you can use in another machine down the road...

plus if you start messing with cpu upgrades, you can say bye bye to apple care...
 
How badly do you need the computer right now? At this point it would be in your interest to wait for the next refresh and buy one right away. They will probably get new chip architecture, thunderbolt, maybe even a new stock vid card.

If you don't, then get the base model and do the upgrades listed previously.
 
Well the refurbished will save me alot of money as I could just upgrade the ram and will have the same machine that I was going for but I am in no rush to get this computer. It is a big purchase so I am thinking this through. And for the new Mac Pro's when do you estimate they will arrive. Because I found an article that said it will be coming early August so it must be coming soon right? And also will the Mac Pro's stay the same prices as all the other computers?
 
Hello,

Great find on the ram. Do you know if this 8GB chip suffers from the same issue as other 8GB chips? (i.e. does it need to be alone of its kind in the slots?)

Thanks

Loa

P.S. it's a shame they charge 50$ shipping to Canada...
 
Polofiesta said:
Well the refurbished will save me alot of money as I could just upgrade the ram and will have the same machine that I was going for but I am in no rush to get this computer. It is a big purchase so I am thinking this through. And for the new Mac Pro's when do you estimate they will arrive. Because I found an article that said it will be coming early August so it must be coming soon right? And also will the Mac Pro's stay the same prices as all the other computers?
Click to expand...

Look for the upcoming Xeon processors. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_future_Intel_microprocessors

Figure new pros will be around that time.

Prices tend to stay about the same.
 
the new server processors are supposed to come out the end of the year. that means no new Mac Pro probably until January or February 2012. can you wait four months?

if not, just buy now. an 8-core is a better deal if you can afford it, otherwise just upgrade to the 6-core yourself.

Crucial 4GB DDR3-1333 is less than $30 per stick. no ECC, but you don't need it anyway.
 
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