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why does apple push the imac over the pro?

W

welling1

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jan 11, 2008
16
0
Brooklyn
Quick question. I'm almost certain I'm going to buy the Mac Pro. However, I've spoken to several employees of the apple store (at various times) and they always push me towards the imac 2.8.

I'm going to be using the Mac Pro for professional web and print work and might get into aftereffects later on. I know that for now the mac pro might be overkill, but after a year or so, won't it still be fairly strong in not being immediately out of date in relation to the imacs? The imac seems like a good computer and all, but very dead-end. Does apple encourage it's employees to push the imac, knowing full well that an upgrade will need to be made earlier? It just seems odd.....
 
I bet it's because you'd need to buy a new iMac after 2-3 years and a MP will last 4+ easily. They probably get more sales that way.

No, but really I think it's because they assume that anyone who would ask that question probably doesn't really need the Mac Pro. Not that that is a correct assumption.
 
iMac is more machine then 95% of the world needs. thats the facts . A iMac can smoke dual and quad G5s in a nice little package. Im starting to wonder why Apple even bothers with the pro Towers considering all the power thats in iMac. Im very happy with mine.
 
There's more to consider than CPU power with the iMac

You say you're doing print work. So you'll need a decent monitor. Makes sense to hook it up to a Mac Pro. You won't want to use the iMacs glossy screen.

And if you do get into After Effects then you will really appreciate having up to 4 HDs and 32GB ram
 
Dont Hurt Me said:
iMac is more machine then 95% of the world needs. thats the facts . A iMac can smoke dual and quad G5s in a nice little package. Im starting to wonder why Apple even bothers with the pro Towers considering all the power thats in iMac. Im very happy with mine.
Click to expand...

I'm still divided between the imac and pro. The pro does seem to have a lot of unneeded power and I know an imac would serve me fine, but I'm looking down the road and want something that's going to last for awhile. Augh! And I need to decide today!
 
oceanzen said:
There's more to consider than CPU power with the iMac

You say you're doing print work. So you'll need a decent monitor. Makes sense to hook it up to a Mac Pro. You won't want to use the iMacs glossy screen.

And if you do get into After Effects then you will really appreciate having up to 4 HDs and 32GB ram
Click to expand...

good points, esp the screen. I really want to get into Maya more as well, and that application on an imac seems a little shaky to me.
 
welling1 said:
I'm still divided between the imac and pro. The pro does seem to have a lot of unneeded power and I know an imac would serve me fine, but I'm looking down the road and want something that's going to last for awhile. Augh! And I need to decide today!
Click to expand...

In 2-3 years you'll want a new Apple anyway. Face it. Save your bucks and get the iMac.
 
iMacs won't have 8 cores for a while.

If you want fast rendering times and future-proof-ness get the Mac Pro

Forget the iMac it's not designed for creative pros (obviously it can be used, just saying the target market is home users, whereas the Mac Pro is designed specifically for Print work, video, design etc)
 
welling1 said:
I'm still divided between the imac and pro. The pro does seem to have a lot of unneeded power and I know an imac would serve me fine, but I'm looking down the road and want something that's going to last for awhile. Augh! And I need to decide today!
Click to expand...

A Mac Pro will last you MUCH longer. It is 10x more upgradeable. Plus, personally, I don't like the glossy screen. So much glare! Do you already have a monitor? If so, definitely buy a Pro because it's very close in price w/o monitor. While it may be overkill today, it won't seem that way in 3 years when it's running at the speed of the average computer. And it really won't seem that way when you decide to replace it at 5 or 6 years.
 
zdobson said:
A Mac Pro will last you MUCH longer. It is 10x more upgradeable. Plus, personally, I don't like the glossy screen. So much glare! Do you already have a monitor? If so, definitely buy a Pro because it's very close in price w/o monitor. While it may be overkill today, it won't seem that way in 3 years when it's running at the speed of the average computer. And it really won't seem that way when you decide to replace it at 5 or 6 years.
Click to expand...

good point-- I do already have a screen, a formac, smaller than I like (i'd probably buy a bigger one a little after I buy the pro and have some more $$ on hand) and I'm trying to find out now if my current screen will work with the pro.
 
The Mac Pro is definitely a niche product.
Very few consumers have an actual need for dual-quad XEON processors, massive ECC RAM capacity, and massive internal I/O.
If you actually needed a system like this, you would not be considering the iMac at all.

Wanting the Mac Pro is a different story; you need no justification whatsoever if this is the case.
Just buy it if you can truly afford it; you won't regret it.
 
I agree especially with the sentiment that most don't need more than the iMac has to offer. Software hasn't quite needed to catch up with the hardware, and all modern Mac hardware does consumer grade tasks well. If this is a business expense, you'll want to seriously consider whether or not the MP will give you a reasonable edge on the return for the very good points mentioned regarding monitors, etc. Also consider a refurb or used MP to save more money and not sacrifice a ton of performance.
 
They probably make more money from iMacs as they are selling you a display as well. Or perhaps the sales people aren't that great.
 
The iMac makes more money for them, so they push for that.

The Mac Pro is built for professionals that make their living using a Mac.

I wouldn't call it a niche product, considering this is the machine that packs the most power and people make their $$ with it.
 
Most salesman do not listen to what you tell them but but want to sell you what they think is the best. If you think you need a Mac Pro go to the store and say you want a Mac Pro and ask what machine fits your needs. If he tries to sell you an iMa tell him again you want a Pro.
 
FF_productions said:
The iMac makes more money for them, so they push for that.

The Mac Pro is built for professionals that make their living using a Mac.

I wouldn't call it a niche product, considering this is the machine that packs the most power and people make their $$ with it.
Click to expand...
I believe the Mac Pro makes much more money for Apple then the iMac does. Apple is practically giving away the upgrade to the X7900 as well on the iMac.

I could make a rather length list and guess on the differences in the margins. Apple sure as heck isn't paying ~$800 per 2.8 GHz quad.
 
Eidorian said:
I believe the Mac Pro makes much more money for Apple then the iMac does. Apple is practically giving away the upgrade to the X7900 as well on the iMac.

I could make a rather length list and guess on the differences in the margins. Apple sure as heck isn't paying ~$800 per 2.8 GHz quad.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I would think Apple are perhaps getting the biggest discount on any Xeon for any vendor because of the quantity they will be buying in. The real advantage of having a very tight product line. Though maybe Dell and HP have more popular choices amongst their server and workstation lines and are able to get similar pricing on certain processors due to volume.
 
irishgrizzly said:
I agree with all these. It's better to sell an you an iMac as they know it's a safe bet. They might know the machines, but if they don't use pro apps it's hard for them to advice on with machine is best to use with them.
Click to expand...

that is exactly what happened to me at an apple store. i began firing off questions involving the mac pro's setup and pro apps and soon found myself talking to a wall!
 
I'm in a similar position. After saving up for a macbook pro, (which I have since had free from my insurance company to replace my damaged powerbook), I am looking at replacing my Windoze PC with a Mac too.

I'll be honest and say although I have pro applications (such as Final cut studio 5.1 and I have Logic Studio on its way), I don't use them that much but when I do use them, I use them for a week none stop.

I love the sleekness of the iMac's and especially like the size of the 24" iMac's (although when I looked at one in the Apple store, I got a severe headache because they had the brightness wacked up full).

But...I love the possibilities that come with owning a Mac Pro, the ease of upgrading, the option of having 2 optical drives and 4 hard drives all inside one box, and the possibility of increasing the ram far higher than the iMac and possibly even upgrading the CPU (which you can't do in an iMac as the CPU's are soldered to the logic boards).

This in addition to the fact that here in the UK, the Single 2.8GHz Quad Mac Pro in actually around £30 CHEAPER than the 2.8GHz iMac.

One question I have though, does the iMac use laptop RAM or desktop RAM?
 
iMac is exactly what Steve Jobs always wanted the Mac to be, a CLOSED SYSTEM. Hardware set in stone, non upgradeable, a black box.
 
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