would it be smart to wait for next years mac pro? ( did not wait, thanks everyone)

[malch]

Thank you for this info.
So it seems that SATA 3 is likely with the next SB release (USB 3 and Lightpeak not so likely), and it also seems that the new SB chipset architecture will give it all sorts of other advantages as well.
You lost me with the references to PCIe "lanes" (sounds like I'll be needing my GPS), but the gist of it, it seems to me—again to refer back to the question that started this thread—is that the SB release might in fact be more than just a bit of a speed bump. It might, in fact, really be worth waiting for (if you can wait, etc., etc.).
Regards, malch

 

[CaoCao]

considering that the Mac Pro update wont be earlier than Q4 2011 Light Peak has a good chance to be in

 

[davelanger]

Yes. But if your main reason is gaming, you should switch to PC and build a rig based on the games you like.

It's only causal gaming like Wow, and other MMOs, i wont play games like COD or Crysis. I was looking into building a pc rig but changed my mind.

 

[ovrlrd]

It's only causal gaming like Wow, and other MMOs, i wont play games like COD or Crysis. I was looking into building a pc rig but changed my mind.

You sure that an iMac isn't a better investment for you? Unless you are doing some heavy work and need the expansion slots for hard drives and stuff the extra money might not be worth it?

 

[davelanger]

You sure that an iMac isn't a better investment for you? Unless you are doing some heavy work and need the expansion slots for hard drives and stuff the extra money might not be worth it?

I want to be able to upgrade the graphics card (now) and in the future.
Plus there are too many issues with the imacs, id rather pay a little more then deal with all those issues with the yellowing, dust behind the glass, not being able to upgrade. I dont like the all in one.

 

[ovrlrd]

I want to be able to upgrade the graphics card (now) and in the future.
Plus there are too many issues with the imacs, id rather pay a little more then deal with all those issues with the yellowing, dust behind the glass, not being able to upgrade. I dont like the all in one.

Well, I agree with the graphics card thing, it was one of the motivators for me. I actually sold my GTX 285 recently for almost the entire value I bought it for. I am going to buy the 5870 when it is made available, and take a minimal loss on the whole thing. The upgrade isn't a huge boost, but considering I can probably turn around and do the same thing next year, although probably at a bigger loss (the 5870 is already 9-months old tech), it's worth it. Plus I need MDP for my upcoming 27" LED display purchase.

As for the screen issues, those have been resolved for sometime now with the iMac, I know people with them and they have no issues, and people haven't been complaining about it so I am sure Apple has tightened their quality control. As I said I am going to buy a 27" Apple LED display so I am not worried about it at all.

To me the biggest selling point of the Mac Pro is the expansion slots. I love having four hard drive slots and two optical bays. I have lots of storage and can easily upgrade to more. I hate dealing with external drives, and like you said the whole "all in one" thing is just not for me.

You should consider the current Mac Pro though unless you absolutely need SATA 3.0, the performance difference for games will be incredibly slim with Sandbridge. Games rely heavily on GPU performance, not I/O or CPU. Plus nobody knows if it will be out next year anyway. If you have the money now, and it's something you need, I don't see the reason to wait personally.

 

[THX1139]

Wait if you can because Westmere as it's implemented in the current Mac Pro is at the end of the line. If you buy Westmere now, you won't be able to upgrade your processors to SB later. The pin count is going to change. Of course you could sell and buy new... but don't plan on swapping out the processors.

A lot of new technologies are coming out as well, but who really believes that Apple will adopt them?

 

[sboerup]

sata 3.0 alone will make waiting worthwhile.

Why? Unless he's running drives that each require 300+mbps then it makes NO sense to wait for SATA3. Most current 7200rpm drives will never reach the bandwidth bottleneck of SATA2, heck, not even the fastest SSDs have yet (close).

 

[NickCG]

Well if I want it more for gaming than anything else, wouldnt faster be better?

If it's a work/gaming Hybrid, then sure. I needed a new Apple for work, and a new PC for gaming. Instead of getting two machines, I just threw all my cash into the Mac Pro.
The current mac pro is pretty darn awesome, By far the best yet for gaming. Because they added some great graphic cards for a change, rather than those 120's from the last model - which were only good for hooking up extra displays. 😛

If you get a current Mac Pro, and gaming is in mind, upgrade to he 5870. It's a wicked gaming card.

And in a few years when the 5870 is bottle-necking my gaming, I'll just buy a PC gaming card, which will boot fine in windows. To clarify, a few years down the line, it's the graphics card which will bottle neck your fps in games before your CPU / RAM, providing you have 8-12GB or RAM or more.


Also, you'll get better fps, and smoother gaming bootcamping into Windows 7. After all, that is the native OS the games were coded for. I get 30% better fps in windows than I do in OS X on the misses '10 iMac, for example. Better graphic drivers are one of the main reasons.

 

[Deepshade]

At this rate you're not going to get your current MacPro delivery UNTIL next year!

 

[glassbathroom]

I'm waiting for the computer company that will come after Apple.

 

[GlynJones]

Another option is to get a used 1,1 off ebay and beef it up with extra memory and a better graphics card. This would tide you over for a couple of years.

This is what I did. Was underwhelmed by the latest refresh so bought a used 1,1 added another 4 gig of memory again from ebay to 8 gig and just waiting out to see more proof of the 5770 & 5870 in the 1,1. Total cost approx half the price of a new machine and will still hold its value when I pass it on in a couple of years time.

 

[tomscott1988]

Another option is to get a used 1,1 off ebay and beef it up with extra memory and a better graphics card. This would tide you over for a couple of years.

This is what I did. Was underwhelmed by the latest refresh so bought a used 1,1 added another 4 gig of memory again from ebay to 8 gig and just waiting out to see more proof of the 5770 & 5870 in the 1,1. Total cost approx half the price of a new machine and will still hold its value when I pass it on in a couple of years time.

I think this is the wrong choice, especially with all the rumors of the 2006 being dropped in 10.7 if you want a second hand mac pro go with the 2008, best value of the pros so far! 2 years old, mine is only slightly slower than the 6 core. Also supports all of the new graphics cards, with 8 cores of 2.8 goodness! otherwise i would say get yourself a nice refurb 2009! there isnt really a significant difference unless you look at the 12 core. You could get a nice 2.6 quad core thatl keep you going until you the next ones come out, and youl save abit of money! also get a 3 year warranty!

I wouldn't be looking to upgrade my 2008 for a another 2 years at least. But even if i was looking to upgrade i dont think i would, i just dont think there is a sweet spot, they are (compared to previous gen mac pros) not very good value for money! The 6 core is a sweet spot, but not at its price range! 3k! obserd! with the and 2008 going for £1799 i would loose 2 cores. i wouldn't want to downgrade to a quad core for more money either the 2.8 quad being £1999 £200 more than my 2008 and it isnt faster. tech is suppost to get better and generally price stays the same... not at the moment.

 

[davelanger]

Thanks to everyone that actually gave useful answers.

 

[sash]

would it be smart to wait for next years mac pro with all the upgrades.

But then comes an issue of the following upgrade, which will be even better, and the next one etc.

On the other hand, look at this latest upgrade: not that spectacular. Who gives you any certainty that this next upgrade will be a supergreat one?

I was one of these waiting for the updated MP 2010, bought it, and to be honest, I probably had to buy one much earlier.

But, as already said, if you really think you don't need a new machine right now, why even bother? — wait...

sash

 

[chaosbunny]

If you really want to wait, you'll gonna wait a long time. I doubt the next Mac Pro will be seen before early 2012. For now, the current Mac Pro provides relatively good value for money, given it has just been updated. One year from now it will again be lagging seriously behind even consumer desktop pcs - and I believe Apple once again will leave it at that stage for several months.

 

[iRobertM]

Thanks to everyone that actually gave useful answers.

Don't get mad a folks for making light of the question. These "Should I do X" threads are just a sign that you can't make a decision for yourself. Evaluate your current situation, do some research on the next release and see if that is worth waiting for, then make your choice. Its that simple.

 

[Transporteur]

Most current 7200rpm drives will never reach the bandwidth bottleneck of SATA2, heck, not even the fastest SSDs have yet (close).

Mechanical drives certainly don't reach the 270MB/s maximum throughput of SATA2, SSDs however do!

All Sandforce devices can saturate this value, the C300 already requires SATA3 with its maximum throughput of 330MB/s.

SATA2 is already too slow for SSDs and will become a bottleneck of todays systems pretty soon, so there is definitely a requirement for a faster controller and this is where I personally see the problem with SATA3.
It has a potential transfer rate of 580MB/s. The first SATA3 SSD already reaches 330MB/s, others will definitely saturate the SATA3 bus pretty soon.

I don't see SATA3 lasting for long with the current SSD development.

 

[CaoCao]

Mechanical drives certainly don't reach the 270MB/s maximum throughput of SATA2, SSDs however do!

All Sandforce devices can saturate this value, the C300 already requires SATA3 with its maximum throughput of 330MB/s.

SATA2 is already too slow for SSDs and will become a bottleneck of todays systems pretty soon, so there is definitely a requirement for a faster controller and this is where I personally see the problem with SATA3.
It has a potential transfer rate of 580MB/s. The first SATA3 SSD already reaches 330MB/s, others will definitely saturate the SATA3 bus pretty soon.

I don't see SATA3 lasting for long with the current SSD development.

I guess Light Peak with 10Gb/s will be need, I presume that 1.25 Gigabytes per second can't be saturated easily in the next couple of years, and those SSDs will be truly a wonder to behold in both performance and price

 

[davelanger]

Thanks for the advice everyone. I decided to buy it now, instead of waiting a year or more. The more I read about the whole sandy bridge in pros it seemed like it would not be until Q4 2011 or Q1 2012 and that is not worth the wait esp since I am still on 10.4.11. I went with the quadcore with 8 gigs of ram and the 5870 card.

It looks like I should have it by the 17th. Hopefully they will build it and ship it out faster.

 

[Chaosg5]

Thanks for the advice everyone. I decided to buy it now, instead of waiting a year or more. The more I read about the whole sandy bridge in pros it seemed like it would not be until Q4 2011 or Q1 2012 and that is not worth the wait esp since I am still on 10.4.11. I went with the quadcore with 8 gigs of ram and the 5870 card.

Then you will have the same as I do and personally having only had iMacs before I must say It's an amazing machine 🙂

When talking about games I run WoW with everything on max going between 25fps (in places like Dalaran) to normally holding at my set limit 60fps most of the time. Processor wise there's nothing to it, WoW uses 5% ish of the processor normally, pushing to 30% when encoding ingame recordings according to iStat Pro.

In fact I've not yet played a game that gives the processor much to do. (I doubt any of the released mac games really can)

 

[MuzickLover13]

When do new MBP typically come out for apple?

Like iphones are in January, iPods are in September...etc...

 

[ovrlrd]

When do new MBP typically come out for apple?

Like iphones are in January, iPods are in September...etc...

This might be helpful to you: MacRumors Buyer's Guide

 

[MuzickLover13]

This might be helpful to you: MacRumors Buyer's Guide

That's pretty awesome!!!!!!

 

[chrono1081]

Congrats OP! You will love it I'm sure. I adore mine and still can't believe how amazing it is. My Maya renders are sooooo fast.