This or That

[flipnotik]

Definitely might be beating a dead horse on this one, but I feel my situation is unique enough to ask the community their opinions.

I currently own a late 09 iMac, and a mid 08 Mac Pro. Both are in the tail ends of their time in my household and ready for some upgrading.

Most of the work done on these two machines are pre production compositions using Logic Pro, and Avid Pro Tools. The intensive mixing post production is what's pushing these two boxes to the limit.

So what I'm coming to you guys for is to ask for some advice, more so opinions on which you would upgrade first given what's on the market now. I can't afford to wait for the refresh on both lines before upgrading with many projects needed to be done for work.

So given my budget, the upgrades are:
27" i7, tb/ssd combo with r4 pegasus thunderbolt drive
or
3.3 6 core Mac Pro base (mainly for expandability)

What do you guys think?

 

[nostylluan]

mac pro is for 3d editing, no one buys that computer unless its used in the companys office

its not meant for personal use... and imacs should be updated in april if not may

look at the pro's video card and look at the imac, its really not worth buying a pro unless you are serious

 

[wrinkster22]

the iMac

 

[David085]

get the iMac

 

[flipnotik]

Thanks for such quick replies.

mac pro is for 3d editing, no one buys that computer unless its used in the companys office

its not meant for personal use... and imacs should be updated in april if not may

look at the pro's video card and look at the imac, its really not worth buying a pro unless you are serious

And as for this, video card isn't the selling point for me. I am doing professional mixes for audio. So if mixing down 60+ tracks with full channel strips filled with plugins on each track isnt serious then i don't know what is.

 

[Chupa Chupa]

mac pro is for 3d editing, no one buys that computer unless its used in the companys office

its not meant for personal use... and imacs should be updated in april if not may

look at the pro's video card and look at the imac, its really not worth buying a pro unless you are serious

ORLY? Then what's a MacPro doing in my computer room? I'm freaking out now figuring out how it got there.

Silly rabbit, MacPros are not just for people that work in an office or even use them for work. There are hobbyists and semi-pros out there that enjoy powerful, modular, and expandable computer systems. It's true.


To OP: I'd go for the iMac if you have to get a computer ASAP. The current MP is very crusty and not worth the money for the tech it offers. If you can hold out a couple more months though I think we'll have an all Ivy Bridge w/ TB line up in the MP and iMac lines.

 

[Muzz112]

You've said you want it to do post production and mixing, and your after expandability. If thats the case, the Mac Pro would be a better choice. The 6-core mac pro is a beast compared to the iMac. However I think you'd be best waiting for their refresh, as they have been in their current configuration for a number of years and upgraded CPU's are expected for the refresh.

 

[jsolares]

Definitely might be beating a dead horse on this one, but I feel my situation is unique enough to ask the community their opinions.

I currently own a late 09 iMac, and a mid 08 Mac Pro. Both are in the tail ends of their time in my household and ready for some upgrading.

Most of the work done on these two machines are pre production compositions using Logic Pro, and Avid Pro Tools. The intensive mixing post production is what's pushing these two boxes to the limit.

So what I'm coming to you guys for is to ask for some advice, more so opinions on which you would upgrade first given what's on the market now. I can't afford to wait for the refresh on both lines before upgrading with many projects needed to be done for work.

So given my budget, the upgrades are:
27" i7, tb/ssd combo with r4 pegasus thunderbolt drive
or
3.3 6 core Mac Pro base (mainly for expandability)

What do you guys think?

Have you considering upgrading your current Mac Pro? i've read some good stories with ppl installing 6cores on older Mac Pros.

I wouldn't update now, i'd wait for ivy bridge on the iMac side and sandy bridge-ep on the Mac Pro side, and both seem to be within a couple of months

 

[Shadow1psc]

You've said you want it to do post production and mixing, and your after expandability. If thats the case, the Mac Pro would be a better choice. The 6-core mac pro is a beast compared to the iMac. However I think you'd be best waiting for their refresh, as they have been in their current configuration for a number of years and upgraded CPU's are expected for the refresh.

This. Buying a Mac Pro now would just be you buying into another machine as old as the ones you're looking to get away from. Obviously the performance is better, but I think a current gen, if not upcoming refresh iMac will match them pretty easily. I assume you know your way around Logic/Pro Tools, and that you simply must have a number of VSTs really bogging down your post production, but an i7 is absolutely going to destroy what you have now. Throw in another 8gb of RAM if you're savvy, and I think you'll have something great. But, if you're going with the high end i7, again... it might be worth it to dredge through the next couple of months for a bigger top end and possible better SSD options.

 

[derbothaus]

Both Logic and Pro-Tools scale very well on the cores. The Mac Pro is roughly 30-40% more powerful than the iMac in these circumstances. The iMac gets really hot and cranks up little annoying fans. The Mac Pro cruises under 40ºC at all times. Never breaks a sweat. PCI is there for all type of upgrading. The Mac Pro's upgraded GPU (5870) is 2x as fast as the 6970m. External HDD's have all kinds of issues with sleeping on the bus which can really suck for sample streams on a project while you wait for them to spin back up. My 2 cents.