planning to buy my mac pro this week or am i being stupid

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hello everyone,

i'm new to the forum and i'm hoping if some of you fine people could help me out a bit with some of my questions.

as the title mentioned i'm planning to buy a mac pro 8 core/2,26 ghz cpu. i was about to place my order but then i read an article that said the mac pro is getting an update one of these days.

does anyone know if this is going to be just a mather of days, weeks or probably months?

i'm still a student and been washing allot of dishes in the local restaurant to buy this machine, i guess it would be a hard pill to swallow if i'd bought the mac pro just to find out a couple of days later there's twice the power in the same price category. you guys think its going to be "a major" update ?

since i'm new to mac...anny idea if the mac pro update will stay in the same price category, of course i understand that nobody really knows for sure, but taking previous updates in consideration, was it all in the same price category or was there a significant price difference?

would you say its not a smart move to buy the mac pro now? thing is i really need the machine and i'm afraid that the updated mac is going to be to expensive. And for all i know its still going to take months and i really need a new machine.

reason why i'm going for the mac pro is because its going to be mainly used for video montage and music recording.

thank you in advance for helping me get some awnsers.

have a good one
 
T

todd51

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According to this article, there should be updates coming very soon. However, if you really need this computer in the near future just go ahead and get it. The current Mac Pro is a beast too.

No one will ever truly know when updates will come out. But I think it might be safe to assume an update will come in the next couple of months or so. Usually the price of the system doesn't go up, just the specs of the machine.

Also, if your short on cash, I highly recommend getting a Refurbished machine from the online Apple Store. You can save around $200 on some machines and they are in perfect working order. I just purchased mine and wouldn't be able to tell it apart from a brand new machine except for the box it came in.
 
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Yeah there are all kinds of hints at somewhere around June is the next refresh but there is never any hard facts. Ipad is released so maybe the can focus on the Macs now.

Do note that the last refresh they upgraded the hardware AND dropped the price. Also any left over old hardware drops in price as well. So even if you are OK with the current hardware you will save money by waiting for the new release. Refurbished is a way to go if you are short on cash. Also since you are a student Apple does have student discounts.

Also check out these benchmarks
Primate Labs Blog : Mac Benchmarks
Since you are looking at a macpro - you can actually upgrade it yourself. I like the 2.93Ghz 16 core benchmark.
 

cwa107


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I think it all comes down to a really simple question:

Do you need the machine now or can you afford to wait?

If the former, just buy it. I promise it will continue to function for its intended purpose long after a newer model is introduced.

If the latter, then wait - it shouldn't be long as the Mac Pro hasn't been updated in quite some time.
 
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thnx for replying guys, i really appreciate it!

as to if i need the machine now...well my current computer is no longer working, at the moment I'm using a friends computer, so yeah the sooner the better. Just very hard to decide on what to do.

New machines maybe have blue-ray, read something about usb 3.0...new processors maybe more ram, in other words more bang for my buck, only thing is could be still 3 months from now before they release it.

wish Mac would be a bit more upfront on release dates in terms of customer service. because actually my gf had the thing , she bought a notebook just to find out one week later there was a new model (current model) released for the same price...that sux
 

cwa107


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thnx for replying guys, i really appreciate it!

as to if i need the machine now...well my current computer is no longer working, at the moment I'm using a friends computer, so yeah the sooner the better. Just very hard to decide on what to do.

New machines maybe have blue-ray,

Doubtful. Not unless something has happened with Apple licensing from Sony. If they did, it would be all over the news - especially after Steve Jobs' comment about Blu Ray licensing being "a big bag of hurt".

My personal opinion is that Blu Ray will be superseded well before you'll see it from Apple.

read something about usb 3.0...

Again, doubtful as Apple deals almost exclusively in Intel parts and they've delayed their USB 3.0 chipset until 2011.

new processors maybe more ram, in other words more bang for my buck, only thing is could be still 3 months from now before they release it.

Anyone's guess, really. Newer parts are always on the horizon. Technology never waits, if you do, you'll be waiting forever.

wish Mac would be a bit more upfront on release dates in terms of customer service. because actually my gf had the thing , she bought a notebook just to find out one week later there was a new model (current model) released for the same price...that sux

That's not Apple's MO, unfortunately. They are amongst the most secretive companies in the world, mostly because of their history.
 

pigoo3

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We can talk about rumored new Mac models or trends that suggest that a specific Mac model line is due for an update till we are blue in the face...but that's still not going to make it happen!

There are constantly constantly constantly rumors about new Macintosh models!

We will have new Macintosh models when they are released...and that's it!

If you need a computer...buy now. If you don't...then wait! Could be 6 days, 6 weeks, 6 months ...or longer.

- Nick
 
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If your concern is getting the biggest - baddest - Mac Pro on the market - but are concerned about a possible refresh - another thing to consider is to get something cheap for now - like a Mac Mini to use to hold you over until a refresh. The mini should hold enough of its price that you can get most of your money out of it, and it shouldn't hurt your Mac Pro budget too much.

Just a thought :)
 
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My personal opinon is this: are you going to be buying a top of the line mac pro? Not likely (see: many, many thousands of dollars). Are you going to be doing professional-grade work? Maybe. Not sure if you're a pro or just a hobby editor. Do you need a computer, now? Yes.

The way I see it, you're not exactly needing an AVID machine, and you're not likely going to notice a huge, huge difference in processing power between the low to mid-range mac pros, and you do need something.

I would say to go ahead and buy one and don't look back. And who knows when they're going to be released. When I started researching for my mac, I was hearing refresh talk ("it'll be released this week," "any day now!") as far back as December, and still nothing. I wouldn't hold my breath until we get a formal announcement.
 
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If you need a computer...buy now. If you don't...then wait! Could be 6 days, 6 weeks, 6 months ...or longer.

- Nick
Don't say that because it'll come to the date for me to buy it, then i'll think it could come out tomorrow, then i'll wait another day then another, then i'll go out and buy it and the new stuff will come out the day later.
 
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Don't say that because it'll come to the date for me to buy it, then i'll think it could come out tomorrow, then i'll wait another day then another, then i'll go out and buy it and the new stuff will come out the day later.

That is the endless loop that some people who can't get passed the "fear of being outdated after purchase" - and this isn't a problem just with people who purchase Apple gear - it's very common for Windows based PC buyers as well.

Look at it this way - no matter what you buy, it's already out of date - even if you buy something that was released today - there is already something on the drawing board, or potentially in testing, that is better/faster/different then what you just purchased. Solve your needs problems now, not with "what could be" coming - thinking like that (what's coming next mentality) causes people to either never buy a computer or if they do, they end up always disappointed because something else new came out.
 
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I am looking at buying a Mac Pro later this year. Choice between an imac and MP. MP is more versatile for me. I love video editing as a hobby and just bought Final Cut express as my new switch over from Sony Vegas Pro. Considering Final Cut Studio. Only problem I have with the MP is the video cards. A Radeon HD4870 with 512MB RAM is not that impressive. My friend who is a film student at USC even said they are not that great when it comes to rendering HD / Blu Ray. So pull that out and get a workstation card or a GTX 285 that you can buy on the apple store site.

Solid machine for sure. I cant buy mine till October.
 
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i'm pretty much aware of the fact that when it comes to computers everything is pretty fast outdated.that being said I'm more annoyed with the fact that Mac doesn't give customers heads up on updates on expensive machines like a mac pro or at least some kind of price drop.

like mentioned before my gf bought the ibook and only few days later (believe it was 5 days) there was this new model out, they could of at least told us "look in a couple of days there's a new model so just hold on, at least inform the client. We did contact the store but they played the " we didn't knew there was going to be a new model". bullox.

if there is going to be an update, even in about 2 months i'd think its safe to say that the production of those machines is in full effect by now, well why not inform the customer that way nobody gets burned or disappointed in the end.
 
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Mainly due to the fact that it will hurt the bottom line.

Imagine being a company, especially a niche company like apple, and telling everybody that "even though you have all the cool devices that cost alot of money, we have better ones coming out next month." That's going to hurt your quarterly sales drastically, because everybody's going to wait to buy anything. It's better to spring the stuff on people.

BTW, apple offers a 30 day return policy. I specifically kept my macbook pro box for 30 days, just in case there was a refresh in that time period. If you buy the computer, and they refresh within 30 days, you can return it and get the new one.
 
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Mainly due to the fact that it will hurt the bottom line.

Imagine being a company, especially a niche company like apple, and telling everybody that "even though you have all the cool devices that cost alot of money, we have better ones coming out next month." That's going to hurt your quarterly sales drastically, because everybody's going to wait to buy anything. It's better to spring the stuff on people.

I do understand that it wouldn't be the most profitable move when it comes to telling the update release date to "every" Apple app, ipods...etc but common, for the top of the line high-end computers that costs around 3500$+ i find Apple's policy everything but customer friendly. As a customer it kind of feels like a rip off to be honest. oh well...

BTW, apple offers a 30 day return policy. I specifically kept my macbook pro box for 30 days, just in case there was a refresh in that time period. If you buy the computer, and they refresh within 30 days, you can return it and get the new one.

mmmm over here there's only a 14day return policy (Belgium):[
 
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i'm in the same dilemma , but i'll wait ...
i mean 2x6cores ..... it worth's it :p
hope it aint gonna be long
 

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