Mac Pro or iMac

jrhalfo · May 9, 2007

Ok, so I've been a PC user forever, ever since my mom bought our first one back in like '92 that is. At least until about 4 or 5 months ago when I bought an old G4 off of ebay to see what the whole Mac thing is about after hearing for the last few years how much better they are than PC's for multimedia and graphics work, and I think I've officially changed into a "Mac person", partly because of how much cooler OSX is, and partly because of my frustrations with Vista. Anyway, I've decided to take the plunge and buy a brand new machine, but I'm not sure which to go with. I was planning on either a Mac Pro, the standard configuration except with the Radeon video card, or the 24" iMac, with 2 GB ram, 2.33 GHZ, the NVIDIA 7600 GT card and Final Cut preinstalled. The price comes out to about the same, but I'm also getting a display and Final Cut with the iMac, so I'm not sure which is the better deal. How much faster would the standard Mac Pro be? I do lots of animation work and I use Photoshop and Flash more than anything. I guess my question is, which is better for these programs. I want a professional machine, but I also don't want to spend an arm and a leg on it either. Anyone have any suggestion?

fiveightandten · May 9, 2007

The Mac Pro is a more powerful machine. How much? Honestly, i'm not familiar enough with its performance to say. But just to add, the mac Pro is also more expandable and more upgradeable. It also comes with a faster optical drive.

-Nick

jrhalfo · May 9, 2007

Yeah I think I might be leaning more towards the Pro

egandolfi · May 9, 2007

To be honest, I think you should go with the iMac. The Mac Pro is really nice (I have one and a MacBook Pro) but I don't think with what you want to do, the second processor is going to do much for you. If you were getting into some serious Music recording or something like that, I would say do it. For Example the most popular audio software, ProTools allows you to actually assign processors to dedicate to its functions. I don't believe Adobe products do that. Remember, the iMac with have a Core 2 Duo which has 2 cores which is almost as good as 2 processors in one box.

fiveightandten above is right, the Mac Pro is upgrade friendly (easily I might add. it's beautiful on the inside) it just really depends on your preference. I personally don't think you'll see any performance increase on the Mac Pro with what you want to do. Good Luck and Welcome to mac-Forums! It's a great place!

narf1899 · May 9, 2007

the mac pro would definitley be a better investment in the long run, because of its upgradability...theres enough ram slots in there to keep u goin for the next 8 years! as for the display thing, u can find a nice dell monitor for under $200...

RawfodoG · May 9, 2007

My vote is with the iMac. The 24" screen is beautiful, and it comes with final cut! I think the iMac will be plenty powerful for you.

jrhalfo · May 9, 2007

Haha, this isn't helping much, every other post says the opposite from the last. Ok, so the iMac would come with Final Cut, but would it work on the iMac well, cause I do plan on doing lots of video editing if I get it. I guess what it comes down to is that I don't want just an entry level computer, I want something powerful and I've always just gotten the impression that the iMacs are more for your everyday home user, and Mac Pro are the professional workstations. Arg, decisions, decisions! :Grimmace:

egandolfi · May 9, 2007

The iMac 24" will be plenty powerful enough for video editing, but if your going to be jammed up with the lack of upgrade ability then go with the Mac Pro.

Ninjab3ar · May 9, 2007

jrhalfo said:
Haha, this isn't helping much, every other post says the opposite from the last. Ok, so the iMac would come with Final Cut, but would it work on the iMac well, cause I do plan on doing lots of video editing if I get it. I guess what it comes down to is that I don't want just an entry level computer, I want something powerful and I've always just gotten the impression that the iMacs are more for your everyday home user, and Mac Pro are the professional workstations. Arg, decisions, decisions!

I suggest that you go for the Mac Pro IF AND ONLY IF you are going to use it in a professional enviroment. If its only going to be for hobbies etc, I reccomend that you get the iMac, because you will end up with more bang for your buck.

musicforme · May 9, 2007

While I don't own a Mac Pro (yet), plan to by end of summer I thought I'd share my decision process in going for the Pro.

1) I want a machine that can grow with me over time. Like others have said, you can add a ton of ram to it and have room for additional hard drives in it. I've built my own PCs since the early 90s and expandability is a big deal for me.

2) I want a machine that can easily handle the editing of HD video. I don't own a HD cam yet, but as my two month old daughter gets older I suspect it will only be a couple of years before I own a HD video camera.

3) I work in the IT profession and need the ability to do testing of various operating systems. I like the idea of having the processing power available where I can run multiple virtual machines and have decent performance with them.

4) I want a machine that will have enough processing power to last me for the next 4 to 5 years. While the iMac is a decent machine, I foresee it possibly needing a replacement after three years.

5) I want to have the flexibility to choose my own display.

That's all I could think of off the top of my head.

ibookclamman300 · May 9, 2007

mac pro is the most advanced consumer line desktop available. imac is a mid to upper level machine in terms of power. On a scale of 1-10 for performance and power an imac at capped config is an 8, mac pro is a 12. It just depends on what you want it for

jrhalfo · May 9, 2007

you're all making good points, but i think i'd probably do best to get the pro, even if i don't need all the power, i'll at least have it in case i do

SIDTURBO · May 11, 2007

Hi, Whatever you do the main difference will be geting the latest version of Photoshop (CS3) because it's optimised for the new Intel Macs. The difference in the software is greater than the hardware. Beleive me I just upgraded my CS2 to CS3 on my 24" Imac core due 2.33 with 2meg ram.
Before that Photoshop ran like a snail... O:)