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Apple Computing Products:
macOS - Desktop Hardware
1st gen Mac Pro or new iMac?
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<blockquote data-quote="pigoo3" data-source="post: 890852" data-attributes="member: 56379"><p>You said that the refurbished 2.93 iMac & the used Mac Pro at roughly the same price at 1300 pounds.</p><p></p><p>Here in the US a refurbished iMac 2.93 24" monitor is selling for $1549 at the Apple Store, and here in the US a 1st generation Mac Pro will sell on e-Bay for about $1500.</p><p></p><p>So what I'm basically is...using US pricing as a reference...the 1300 pound pricing for either the iMac or Mac Pro you're looking at seems to be fair...because they are similarly priced...just like here in the US.</p><p></p><p>As far as Pro's & Cons...a logical way of looking at it...but I think that you're making it too complicated.</p><p></p><p>I would mostly focus on the fact that the iMac has 2 cores (although faster at 2.93ghz than the 2.66ghz of the Mac Pro)...versus 4 cores for the Mac Pro.</p><p></p><p>With Snow Leopard coming out...and using software that is optimized for multiple cores...4 cores will really fly.</p><p></p><p>Other plus's for the Mac Pro:</p><p></p><p>- internal hard drive expansion (internal hard drives are less expensive than external hard drives)</p><p>- Mac Pro can hold up to 32 gig of ram...the iMac can only hold 8 gig.</p><p>- Mac Pro has 8 ram slots, iMac has only two. </p><p></p><p>If you wanted to upgrade to 8 gigs of ram...the iMac would need 2 x 4gig sticks, costing $659.97. For the Mac Pro, 8 x 1gig sticks would cost $269.99!* US pricing of course.</p><p></p><p>- And obviously the graphics card in the Mac Pro can be changed...the iMac cannot.</p><p>- finally...to the best of my knowledge...there is no processor upgrade path for the Mac Pro. Doesn't mean there may not be in the future. Of course, the iMac CPU cannot be upgraded either.</p><p></p><p>Here is also a MacWorld article with benchmarks (link below). It includes a 2.66 quad core Mac Pro, a 3.06ghz iMac (no 2.93), and other newer Mac's. The iMac actually does pretty well in most tests.</p><p></p><p><a href="http://www.macworld.com/article/139507/2009/03/macpro2009.html" target="_blank">Quad-Core and Eight-Core Mac Pros (2009 editions) Review | Desktop | Macworld</a></p><p></p><p>Personally, I would still lean towards the Mac Pro with 4 cores, rather than the 2 core iMac.</p><p></p><p>Hope this helps,</p><p></p><p>- Nick</p><p></p><p>*Ram prices from <a href="http://www.macsales.com" target="_blank">Find the latest Performance Upgrades, Firewire and USB Hard Drives, SATA, Memory, Laptop Battery, and more at OWC</a></p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="pigoo3, post: 890852, member: 56379"] You said that the refurbished 2.93 iMac & the used Mac Pro at roughly the same price at 1300 pounds. Here in the US a refurbished iMac 2.93 24" monitor is selling for $1549 at the Apple Store, and here in the US a 1st generation Mac Pro will sell on e-Bay for about $1500. So what I'm basically is...using US pricing as a reference...the 1300 pound pricing for either the iMac or Mac Pro you're looking at seems to be fair...because they are similarly priced...just like here in the US. As far as Pro's & Cons...a logical way of looking at it...but I think that you're making it too complicated. I would mostly focus on the fact that the iMac has 2 cores (although faster at 2.93ghz than the 2.66ghz of the Mac Pro)...versus 4 cores for the Mac Pro. With Snow Leopard coming out...and using software that is optimized for multiple cores...4 cores will really fly. Other plus's for the Mac Pro: - internal hard drive expansion (internal hard drives are less expensive than external hard drives) - Mac Pro can hold up to 32 gig of ram...the iMac can only hold 8 gig. - Mac Pro has 8 ram slots, iMac has only two. If you wanted to upgrade to 8 gigs of ram...the iMac would need 2 x 4gig sticks, costing $659.97. For the Mac Pro, 8 x 1gig sticks would cost $269.99!* US pricing of course. - And obviously the graphics card in the Mac Pro can be changed...the iMac cannot. - finally...to the best of my knowledge...there is no processor upgrade path for the Mac Pro. Doesn't mean there may not be in the future. Of course, the iMac CPU cannot be upgraded either. Here is also a MacWorld article with benchmarks (link below). It includes a 2.66 quad core Mac Pro, a 3.06ghz iMac (no 2.93), and other newer Mac's. The iMac actually does pretty well in most tests. [url=http://www.macworld.com/article/139507/2009/03/macpro2009.html]Quad-Core and Eight-Core Mac Pros (2009 editions) Review | Desktop | Macworld[/url] Personally, I would still lean towards the Mac Pro with 4 cores, rather than the 2 core iMac. Hope this helps, - Nick *Ram prices from [url=http://www.macsales.com]Find the latest Performance Upgrades, Firewire and USB Hard Drives, SATA, Memory, Laptop Battery, and more at OWC[/url] [/QUOTE]
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