Considering Making the Jump from Vista Quad-core w/ 12GB RAM to Mac Pro

Hi guys,

I wanted to get some advice from this group about making the jump to a Mac. I'm so sick of the strange, intermittent problems I get with my PC!

Anyway, I noticed that it's been almost a year since the Mac Pro has had an update. I would like to make the jump to a Mac Pro, but I don't want to buy one now, if Apple is going to update them in a month or two. Does anyone know if there will be an update to the Mac Pro in the near future?

If I did make the jump now, what are my options when it comes to upgrading the system in the future? I assume I can upgrade the RAM, but what about the CPU? And can I do these upgrades myself?

I've built my own PCs for more than 10 years, so I'm comfortable doing this kind of stuff.

Lastly, considering my current system, would you guys recommend the Quad-core or the 8-core?

Thanks for any insight or advice!

i've had a quad-core mac pro (2x 2.66ghz dual-core woodcrest xeons) for almost 3 years and even today it's rare to see cpu usage above 20%. it really depends what you use your computer for. i mainly surf the web and watch videos/movies. most single users are not going to easily hit all 8 cores often.

can't really answer the tech questions since i've never opened my mac for anything. only update i've made is adding a portable hd. oh, i know that my mac pro came with 8 ram slots and 6 hd bays. if you get a single quad-core now, you'll have the space to add another quad-core down the road.

i think it's safe to guess that any multi-core xeon will have plenty of processing power for years (unless you're a server).

Yes, I do think the Mac Pros are going to (finally!!) get a major overhaul this year. At some point. Maybe around WWDC (which last year was in June, but it varies). Perhaps.

If I had to buy today, I'd consider the quad-core i7 iMac. It's more powerful and future-proofed at this particular moment.

But that will change at some point in the not-too-distant future. How it will change exactly is not yet known.

chas_m said:

Yes, I do think the Mac Pros are going to (finally!!) get a major overhaul this year. At some point. Maybe around WWDC (which last year was in June, but it varies). Perhaps.

If I had to buy today, I'd consider the quad-core i7 iMac. It's more powerful and future-proofed at this particular moment.

But that will change at some point in the not-too-distant future. How it will change exactly is not yet known.

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I second this opinion. The i7 iMacs are benchmarking far above the Mac Pros, and though you might have the urge to upgrade the Mac Pro, it really is quite difficult since there is much Mac-Specific hardware necessary. The iMac includes display (27"!!!) and everything else in it, and at the moment seems to be the (maybe not so obvious) choice instead of a Mac Pro.

The only reasons I would get the Mac Pro above the iMac:
-using it for work and can't sell your old monitor
-someone else is buying
-absolutely have to have the Xeon processor

The problem is that the base Dual Quad-Core starts at $3299 sans monitor, include a monitor on par with the iMac and you're looking at upwards of $4k, whereas the iMac i7 starts at 1999. Throw in some memory upgrades and it's a little more than half the price of a comparable Mac Pro.

That said, I'm not sure what they would do to upgrade the Mac Pro this year, other than introducing some more powerful processors.

Zigrivers said:

If I did make the jump now, what are my options when it comes to upgrading the system in the future? I assume I can upgrade the RAM, but what about the CPU? And can I do these upgrades myself?

Click to expand...

You can definitely upgrade or expand the ram, video card(s), hard drives, and a 2nd optical drive...but as far as the CPU...there really haven't been any "official" CPU upgrades for any Mac Pro models released so far (since 2006).

HTH,

- Nick

Upgrading the Mac Pro is a incredibly easy. No tools required. Make the switch you will not regret it.

As far as Mac Pro vs. iMac goes I, don't know much about the iMac and whether or not it is easy to upgrade yourself, ie. get inside the machine. I have been building custom PC's (for personal use) for about 10 years and once I got my Mac Pro about a year ago I have upgraded the Ram and Video adapter. Compared to working inside a PC case it is a dream.

The video I upgraded to is NVIDIA GeForce GT 120, it was a little tricky finding one made for the Mac Pro as, like I stated earlier, I was used to shopping newegg.

By the bye I must say it feels good to own a computer that will be relevant and supported 5 or more years from now.