Should I switch from Mac Mini to used Mac Pro

[romfeo]

I own a Mac Mini Mid 2011 (i5, 8gb ram, 500 HDD) and I usually work on development with xCode, Photoshop Editing, and light music and video editing with Logic Pro and Final Cut.

Would I get better performance if a get a used Mac Pro with the following specs?

APPLE MAC PRO (3,1) model 2008
2 x Intel Xeon 2.8GHZ quad core
Hdd 1 x 240gb ssd & 1x 2tb sata
ram 24GB 667MHZ
Graphics 8800GT

 

[pigoo3]

- Your Mac-Mini has 2-cores…and has cpu benchmark score of around 5323.
- The Mac Pro you mentioned has 8-cores…and has a cpu benchmark score of 11214.

So I would say that a score of 11,214 is better than 5,323!

Plus the Mac Pro has 24gig of ram compared to the 8gig of ram of the Mac-Mini. More ram is generally better for this sort of thing.

The video card can also play a part (depending what you are doing)…but getting comparable video card scores (Mac Mini scores vs. the 8800GT)…are more difficult to find.

I would say that if your budget permits…the Mac Pro 3,1 you mentioned would be better.

- Nick

 

[romfeo]

- Your Mac-Mini has 2-cores…and has cpu benchmark score of around 5323.
- The Mac Pro you mentioned has 8-cores…and has a cpu benchmark score of 11214.

So I would say that a score of 11,214 is better than 5,323!

Plus the Mac Pro has 24gig of ram compared to the 8gig of ram of the Mac-Mini. More ram is generally better for this set of thing.

I would say that if your budget permits…the Mac Pro 3,1 you mentioned would be better.

- Nick

Thank you for your well documented answer. And this Mac pro would be able to run Yosemite, right?

 

[pigoo3]

On the other hand. If all of these tasks are on the "light-side"…a Mac Pro may be over-kill.

- Nick

 

[romfeo]

On the other hand. If all of these tasks are on the "light-side"…a Mac Pro may be over-kill.

- Nick

That would be a pleasant problem to have.

 

[pigoo3]

Thank you for your well documented answer. And this Mac pro would be able to run Yosemite, right?

I'm guessing that you know that Yosemite is still not officially released yet. But the "word on the street" is…that models that can run Mavericks can run Yosemite.

Rumors are that at the Apple event to be held on October 16th (next week)…Apple will be officially releasing Yosemite. And of course then we will know the official system requirements for running Yosemite. So maybe if you can wait another week or so…we will know 100% for sure.

Assuming the rumors are correct.

- Nick

 

[pigoo3]

That would be a pleasant problem to have.

Yes it would. As long as purchasing the Mac Pro doesn't exceed your budget!

I mentioned the "over-kill" part…just in case your budget was tight…and if purchasing the Mac Pro might put a strain on things if you really didn't necessarily need it.

One other thing to be 100% sure of is…make sure the software you are using is multi-core capable. In other words…make sure the apps will take advantage of all 8 cores of a Mac Pro. Otherwise…some of your apps may only use 2 cores (not all eight).

If your apps only use 2 cores…then your Mac-Mini is faster than the Mac Pro (2 cores vs. 2 cores). If you do the math (roughly speaking) taking each computers cpu benchmark score & dividing by the number of cores:

- Mac Mini: 5323/2 cores = 2661.5/core
- Mac Pro: 11214/8 cores = 1401.75/core

So as you can see…on a 2 core vs. 2 core basis…the Mac-Mini's cpu performance is better. The main reason why the older Mac Pro is faster overall…is due to the 8 cores.

- Nick

 

[romfeo]

Yes it would. As long as purchasing the Mac Pro doesn't exceed your budget!

I mentioned the "over-kill" part…just in case your budget was tight…and if purchasing the Mac Pro might put a strain on things if you really didn't necessarily need it.

One other thing to be 100% sure of is…make sure the software you are using is multi-core capable. In other words…make sure the apps will take advantage of all 8 cores of a Mac Pro. Otherwise…some of your apps may only use 2 cores (not all eight).

If your apps only use 2 cores…then your Mac-Mini is faster than the Mac Pro (2 cores vs. 2 cores). If you do the math (roughly speaking) taking each computers cpu benchmark score & dividing by the number of cores:

- Mac Mini: 5323/2 cores = 2661.5/core
- Mac Pro: 11214/8 cores = 1401.75/core

So as you can see…on a 2 core vs. 2 core basis…the Mac-Mini's cpu performance is better. The main reason why the older Mac Pro is faster overall…is due to the 8 cores.

- Nick

Once more thank you so much for the time you took to give in depth answers! I owe you a beer...

 

[harryb2448]

And for your needs a much better card than the 8800 may be required, such as an ATI Radeon 5700/6700 series.


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