Switching from to PC Mac

Hi Guys,

i am looking into upgrading to a Mac. I am looking towards the Mac pro 2.8 Quad Core. I am new to Mac right now i am have a old G4 mac tower that i am playing with that has OSX 10.4 tiger which i got it for free. Okay I am looking into video editing for my church and also will be installing windows with bootcamp to play my favorite games like BF2 Bad company COD MW 2 and others. I was thinking of buying a gaming pc but the mac captured my eyes. Will it be better to get a Mac pro or an Imac. Please advice since this is the first time i am going to buy a mac. i am going to use it for video editing and also playing games.

dtechlogic said:

Will it be better to get a Mac pro or an Imac.

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A Mac Pro will certainly be more powerful than an iMac...but then a Mac Pro is MUCH more expensive as well.

If you do a lot of gaming...conventional wisdom is that a Windows computer would be a better choice for gaming.

- Nick

If you want the best gaming performance go for the Mac Pro. You can upgrade the graphics card and other components yourself. Those games will run on an iMac, just not as well as on the mac pro. If gaming performance is not very important to you, then get the iMac. Even the 21.5" iMacs can handle HD video editing.

I was thinking of the mac pro. since windows can be install on them now which i think will work normal like a windows based pc. I am leaving it as it is without changing anything and then in the future upgrade the video card to a faster video card. I also thinking of buying it from macmall. since they have at least of couple of dollars off then the apple store. I am here struggling if i should buy it now or wait till next year where i can finance half of the price and the other half pay it in cash. Anyways when will they do the next update on the mac pro.

dtechlogic said:

Anyways when will they do the next update on the mac pro.

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When you find out...let us know...cause Apple doesn't tell anyone!

The Mac Pro line was just updated about 2 weeks ago...so it's most likely going to be a long time until the next update.

- Nick

It will be years. The Mac Pro is an inconsequential product for Apple.

You should get a windows machine for gaming. It is silly to buy a Mac and run Windows all the time.

dtechlogic said:

Anyways when will they do the next update on the mac pro.

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I am not going to use it for Windows evey time only when I play games. I want start to learning to editing video on MAC

Jaxdialation said:

It will be years. The Mac Pro is an inconsequential product for Apple.

You should get a windows machine for gaming. It is silly to buy a Mac and run Windows all the time.

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It's funny when running parallels i feel disgusted using MS XP on my beautiful computer

So if I start using MAC I will start hating my clevo 9261 quad core Windows laptop

Well, maybe not, but let's just say it seems to be a distinct possibility looking at the many "I will NEVER go back!" testimonials on this very forum!

I'm not much of a gamer so naturally I dislike the idea of running Windows on a Mac, but it will certainly work well for that with either a Mac Pro or an iMac (obviously the Mac Pro would be better).

On the other hand, for video editing you are DEFINITELY making a smart move and Final Cut or either of the other two "premium" video editing suites will work great on either an iMac or a Mac Pro.

It seems like for your purposes, an iMac would end up doing just fine. Unless you're dealing with enormous video files for professional video production (High-Def TV, Movies, Short Films, etc.) I don't see the necessity to go for the (considerably) more expensive Mac Pro. The iMacs also do very well with gaming and have quite impressive specs (Intel Core i5, ATI Radeon HD 5750 at best!). Oh, and they have a screen built in - another cost you should consider unless you plan on using an old monitor.

HOWEVER, if you do prefer the ability to upgrade internal components, the iMac is not a very logical option. The Mac Pro is built to be opened up and reconfigured.

My best advice is to really consider your budget. Are you really willing to spend the extra dough on a Prosumer/Professional solution, or is it more horsepower than you'll ever use? Because from what I've read in your post, both models seem capable of delivering great results for what you need.

parallels 4 and 5 will run on any intel based mac. depending on the hardware specs required for those games, the iMac will do you just fine or even a macbook pro. Go with atleast 3-4gb ram (my suggestion) and 750gb ->1TB hdd.

Other then that, the 3.06ghz iMac is awesome and the 21.5" display is sweet too.


Cant go wrong either way, just dont want you to look back and think " *** did i pay almost $4k for a comp?" and regret it, i guess you wouldnt regret having a new mac, but just the price....


just my $.02

For me, Mac Pro is better choice, you can buy third-party disks and RAM (where it’s easy and intended) compare to iMac (because it’s difficult, unintended, and has so much potential to damage the screen or get dust in it that even I refuse to attempt it).

Price for performance will get you a cheap PC that performs faster. You'll be building it yourself of course and you won't have some of the amenities, but for gaming and video editing, raw computing power trumps pretty for myself 90% of the time.

That and I can't stand Final Cut. I'm going to look into trying out Premiere as people are saying with it's newest version you can edit H.264/MPEG-4 files without hickups. That's important to me though, maybe not to you.

I know this will warrant some refutation, but, if you are really serious about power- gaming, large video editing etc., and if you have the money for it- shoot for the Mac Pro- it now comes in 12-core configuration.

In all honesty however- you really should just stick with a quad core iMac or base Mac Pro- they will do you fine. But again- it is your budget to consider.