IMac or Mac Pro for iPhoto albums and home movie editing?

I have a Mac Pro OS X 10.6.8 with iPhoto 7.1.5. This system is now obsolete for ordering iPhoto albums. I need to upgrade to iPhoto 9.5.1 to buy a Mac produced photo album. To upgrade iPhoto I need to buy a new Mac as my 2004 Mac Pro with 2008 Snow Leopard can't be upgraded. I will use the new Mac for email, web surfing, iPhoto, and weekend video editing. I use Final Cut Express on my current Mac Pro. I will also need to transfer videos and about 20,000 photos from my current Mac to a new one.
So, here's the question: For my needs (listed above) which is better,
(1) iMac 27" or (2) new Mac Pro? Then, with the one chosen, how should it be configured to do my basic video editing? I have 100 hours of family video on Hi8 and VCR tapes and will edit these on Final Cut and burn them to DVD's. (I understand both iMac or Mac Pro now require an external DVD set-up.) So, which computer and how should it be configured. Looking to pay between $2500-$3500. Thanks for your help!

What video formats are you talking about? DV, HDV, etc?
Mac Pro is a better solution, regardless. Here's why: Simply upgrading an iMac HD is not enough. You do not want to capture your video to the boot drive. It's too much to ask the drive to manage the OS, your editing software, AND your media. This scenario might work - but is certainly prone to dropping frames. Ideally, you want one drive for OS + editing software & a separate drive to capture media to.
Now, since you can only have a single HD in the iMac, you're demoted to using external capture drives. So let's say you get yourself a FW800 drive for capture and then hook up your camera/deck to an available FW400 port. You'd think you're safe - and again, you may be. But the problem now is that the iMac has ONE and only ONE FireWire bus. So in theory these 2 devices: HD & Camera are battling for the same bandwidth. So you've still got a bottleneck happening.
So DV only would probably work. But it may have issues that the expandability of the Mac Pro can conquer. Hope this helps.

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Imac vs mac pro for FCP?

Hello folks,
Well, my G5 apparently needs a new logic board. I could cry, or be happy at the excuse to get a new computer... I chose the latter!
Bottom line, what is the consensus regarding imac vs mac pro.
I will be using FCP a lot, that's what I do for a living. However, I rarely run other applications at the same time. Occassionally LiveType or Photoshop, but that's about it. No Motion, no After Effects, etc.
I feel that an imac will suffice nicely and that the mac pro is overkill in both cost and amount of computer. It's like getting an Indy car and driving 40 MPH!
Thoughts? Thank you.
Eric P

hmmm, interesting. Of course the mac pro would be better, no doubt. But for my purposes I still wonder if it's worth the cost.
As for Kevan D's inquirey for more info, yes I work with FCP for a living, at least 50% of my work week maybe more is editing. However, silly little ol' weddings have become the vast majority of my work and they will continue to be for at least a few more years I believe. In that time I do not see HD being a factor in my area. So for the forseeable future I expect to be working soley with SD. That bit of info may change some of your minds to thinking that an imac will suffice.
I admit, that's my hope because I would have to take out a loan for the mac pro, and again, I'm just not certain it's worth it for my purposes. On the other hand, I didn't ask the question so that I could hear what I "wanted", I do want honest opinions from other professionals like yourselves. If the experience is that an imac just isn't worth it then so be it.
As far as expandability (is that anything like drinkability??), I understand that, but again for my purposes I suspect that by the time I need to expand to HD or to using the full benefits of a mac pro, a new computer (and equipment) will be in the order anyway. Does that make sense?
Thanks again,
Eric

Imac verses mac pro - for Adobe Creative suite

Reguesting input: Which is better for operating Adobe Creative Suite 6.0 on a professional level, imac or Mac pro?

The raw compute power of today's iMac is more that the reasonably-priced Mac Pro models. But that is not the complete story.
The Mac Pro has:
• replaceable graphics cards and additional PCIe slots
• Error-Correcting Code memory, large memory sizes are attainable and will not be a headache.
• Four internal drive bays as opposed to one internal laptop bay. (except, the Fusion drive option in the iMac is fast and large-capacity)

IMac vs Mac Pro for Graphic Design Studio

We are upgrading the macs in our in-house graphics department (3 mac users) and wanted to see if anyone had advice on weather to choose a high end iMac or the new 2014 Mac Pro. To help here is what we do on our macs (currently 20inch iMacs).
Photoshop - Photo retouching, Editing, Compositing sometimes many layers
InDesign - Layout from posters to banners to 100 pg books.
Dreamweaver - Internal and external websites design and maintenance
Illustrator - graphics simple and complicated (large and small illustrator files)
Flash - Some animation
(Video Editing) Final Cut - Conversion from Windows Media Files and editing of short videos
We often have many of these programs open at once in addition to MS Office (outlook word power point).
For a maxed out iMac 27 to a mid range mac Pro there is roughly $2000 difference or so (once you buy the monitor you need for the Mac Pro). Do you think the applications we use above would greatly benefit from the MacPro vs the iMac? We don’t really do any 3D work or rendering. But we do want the computers to last several years and need them to be very reliable. I have to submit proposal and any advice would be helpful!
Thanks,
J

I wish there was a sticky for this as "iMac vs nMP" is common daily question and very much the same basic specs and needs.
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5772339?tstart=0
As in past, 6 (or maybe 8) cores, base memory so you can save and upgrade from 3rd party.
Monitors vary too much in cost range, and you can do better outside Apple, but are one time cost.
A Mac Pro only needs to be replaced half as often, can be upgraded (cpu, RAM, flash SSD storage, even GPU). Hard to other than Apple stopping support in 5-6 years or software by then catching up or putting more demands on computers.
An iMac is not going to run as cool and quiet and because of its shape has to be allowed to run hotter it seems. You can stress and pound on those Xeon systems all day max it out and it is quiet beast.
See what a graphic and tech professional has in recommendations:
www.macperformanceguide.com
Also, www.barefeats.com has done some app testing and FCP-X is one place where the dual GPU pays off.
the "nMP" is actually called "Late 2013" but I agree, other than a few 10s of t housands sold would better easier to be called an Early 2014 (there could be a Late 2014 as well).
Reliable = Mac Pro - mine is going to be 8 yrs old and is better today than it ever was only if I found the need to run Mountain Lion or above or App Store's newest version of say iPhoto is that an issue (security updates though would be nice to see).

From iMac to Mac Pro for the good of my Pro Tools 10...

hey guys,
here's the deal : it seems I'm at a turning point with my iMac (27", 3.1 Ghz i5, 4GB memory, 1TB hard drive, lion, PT10) and I'm thinking of buying a mac pro. Problem is, I'm not sure which model is best for my needs. I do postproduction work for television and I often have to work with pretty heavy projects.
My pro tools 10 keeps giving me the same 2 errors --
1- DAE can't get audio from the drive(s) fast enough. Your drive may be too slow, or fragmented, or a firewire drive could be having trouble due to the extra firewire bandwidth or cpu load. (-9073)
2- A CPU overload error occurred. If this happens often, try increasing the "H/W Buffer Size" in the Playback Engine Dialog, or removing some plug-ins. (-6101)
I might add, my Playback Engine's maxed out and I'm barely running any plugins (some 5 or 6 EQ3s, maybe 1 or 2 L2 and a Dorrough).
I have a MOTU Audio Express which is plugged in firewire and I'm running an external drive with my SFX on it, which is also plugged in firewire. The iMac having only one firewire plug (downsizing from the earlier iMac, for some obscure reason), I have a firewire hub.
I get the first error whenever I get too deep into a project and I start having a lot of SFX and I'm looking to add more and I get the second error whenever I try to run Dolby Media Meter.
I'm pretty aware I'm overrunning my iMac, so I'm willing to pay big bucks to get a computer that's best fitted to my needs and which I'll be able to upgrade every once in a while. Now, I'm just wondering what I actually need in a computer.
It's either the 3.2 GHz quad-core intel xeon, 6GB memory, 1TB HD or the two 2.4GHz 6-core intel zeon, 12GB memory, 1TB HD. I gotta say the second one seems kind of a lot... but I don't want to spend so much money and get a tiny upgrade from where I'm at right now.
So please! All of you mac wizards and other knowledgeable folks, HELP!

An i7 3.9GHz would do if you had 32GB RAM, an SSD boot drive, and 2TB hdd.
The sweet spot today on Mac Pro is $1800 4-core special and DIY to W3690 or W3680 6-core 3.33 or higher with 32-48GB RAM. And lots of SSDs and disk drives.
http://store.apple.com/us/browse/home/specialdeals/mac/mac_pro
Refurbished 27-inch iMac 3.4GHz quad-core Intel Core i7
http://store.apple.com/us/browse/home/specialdeals/mac/imac/27
The Mac Pro line is at a - not ready to ship the new 2013 6,1 model / not ready with 10.9 that it will need / and current configuration is really 2010 3 yrs old (but also how well they hold up and mature).
You do not want to give up GHz for more cores. MHz still rules. Only reason would be if you planned to replace the processors for the fastest expensive (use to be, though changing) 4 or 6-core 3.4GHz for total of 8 or 12-cores, but never the 2.4GHz, no way.
The 2009 4,1 used is cheaper and can be found for $1000 and upgraded to 6-core and everything else (dual core upgrades are harder and not good to plan for.
And http://www.barefeats.com has done some tests on iMac and Mac Pro.
Graphics on Mac Pro, RAM and PCIe and SSD, hdd are easy upgrades.
This site has some great tips
http://www.macperformanceguide.com

IMac vs mac pro for photoshop cs 6

I am considering upgrading my computer because I am working with very large photoshop files (panoramas). Would you suggest a new iMac or the new mac pro tower? I have an NEC calibrated screen already, and an older intel-based macbook pro (13").

Well,
I use a late 2009, 27 inch screen iMac and consistently work with files that are 1-2 GBs in size.
My iMac is only a 3.06 Ghz i3 Core2Duo with 16 GBs of RAM and my files save quicker than an hour.
My Mac can save these size files anywhere between 8-15 Minutes!
Are these PSD files the working layered files or finished Flattned versions?
My working, layered PSD files are large format images that are 1-2 GBs in size and about 300-500 MBs flattened.
Tthe working file launches for me in about 3-5 minutes.
Maybe there is a problem with your MBP's hard drive? Is it too full? Do you use external drives as a scratch drive?
Do you store your finished projects onto an external drive?
iMacs have the faster 7200 RPM drives versus MBP's 5400 RPM notebook drives.
This can have an affect on write/saving speed and times.
Photoshop really needs, at least, a decent speed CPU, lots of RAM and extra, external hard drives for working scratch disc space.

IMac or Mac Pro for video editing?

Should I invest in a Mac Pro or an IMAC for my video editing needs?
I am using Final Cut Pro x (latest version) on my late 2009 model MacBook Pro (with upgrades)
the rendering is obviously slow and lags.
wondering if I should wait for the new Mac Pro (black cylinder) late 2013
Or will a IMAC top of the line (i7 chip, 16-32 ram 1tb HD) due???
Any advice ??

2-3 days a week.
4-5 hrs a day.
Future plans: 4-5 days
5-8 hrs a day
Budget $2,599-3,000

From iMac to Mac Pro for video work.. suggestions please!

Hello all! Soon I'll be upgrading from my 2.66 GHz quad core iMac with 4gb of RAM to a new Mac Pro. The idea is to increase my productivity with applications such as After Effects & Final Cut Pro by hopefully decreasing time spent rendering/buffering/burning. The iMac has been working really well all this time, but a bit faster would be better!
I have about $4,000 to work with for a new machine. I welcome your thoughts on the best bang for my buck, be that a new/refurbished from Apple or used from eBay. Thanks everyone!

The Hatter has provided his insights as well as some excellent links.
The performance of the 2009 and later models is nearly twice that of the previous models with the same specs due to architectural changes including Hyper Threading.
All the Xeon Macs are keeping their value very well, and that means there are very few real deals on eBay.

External storage for early 08 mac pro for video storage and editing

Early 08 Mac Pro mod 3.1, 2x Intel 2.8 Quad Core Processors. Bus speed 1.6 Ghz. 10 GB DDR2 FB-Dimm 800 MHz. USB2, Firewire 400, 800. ATI Radeon HD 2600 PCIe 256 mbVRAM. Currently running OS 10.6.8.
I use machine for photo and video storage and editing. I tried using 2x 3TB and 2x1TB HDD internally ( 8 TB total). All are Seagate Barracuda SATA 7200. Experienced constant spinning wheel and lockup requiring manual shutdown. I had upgraded to Lion and to Maverick. Did not help so I did a clean install of primary with Snow Leopard and did not install past 10.6.8. Works now if I don’t exceed 3.5 TB internally. I also discovered that my Disk Permissions experienced voluminous corruption that could not be repaired if I installed Java for Mac OS 10.6 Update 17 as suggested each time I check for software updates.
I need to be able to have a total of about six TBs available in my system for storage and editing of video via Imovie. I don’t know the maximum of HDD storage that can be used in the four internal bays without causing lockup and corruption. If 3.5 TB is about the max, then I would like to have some ability to have external storage via firewire 800 if that would facility fast enough transfer for either video edition and or playback. I don’t know if thunderbolt can be installed via PCI card. I could add a SATA PCI card. However, I assume that would cause the same problem as experienced with 8 TBs installed internally in the four bays.
I would appreciate any suggestions.

olderguy1 wrote:
Do you mean 2x2TB and 2x3TB for a total internal capacity of 10TBs? Are you running Snow Leopard or something else? Actually, I took it to an authorized repair facility who ran checks and said nothing is wrong with the hardware.
Yes, I've got a total of to TB and I'm running Snow Leopard. If your hardware checks out, that pretty much makes it a software problem,,, reinstall the OS?
Does the High Point Technologies SATA3 PCIe connect to eternal drive enclosures or does it somehow connect to drives in some of your four internal bays?
Highpoint makes several RocketRAID 2700 series SATA3 controllers for Mac with external mini-SAS connectors, probably the cleanest/least expensive external hook-up. They also offer a combo internal/external board that (for marketing reasons) is listed as not working for internals with Mac Pro. I believe that this is due to pressure from Apple (who apparently does some business with High Point Tech) but to the best of my knowledge it will. Technically, the "not supported" statement is true since all the internal bays are tied to the motherboard SATA 2 controller, but this can be remedied with a special cable. HOWEVER... the boards are not bootable, so your system disk needs to be on the motherboard controller.
In truth, I bought one of their 8-port "internal only" boards designated for PC only and flashed it so the Mac Pro sees it as a 2722 board, so I have 8 internal ports. I'm not recommending you do the same unless you're pretty geeky, but the 2721 would give you half-and-half or the 2722 would give you 8 external with no mods to the board.

Mac Pro for motion graphics and animation

Dear all, after 2+ years of dreaming about getting a mac pro, i have finally come to the stage where i can't not have one. This is a big step for me and probably the biggest purchase i have made in my life yet, so therefore i really want to get everything right.
I would like to know if anybody can recommend me what spec mac i should get, ie in terms of graphics cards, processor and displays. I need to be powerful yet i would like to try and save as much money as possible.
I will be using it predominantely for design, animation and motion graphics and using programs such as :
Creative Suite
After Effects
Cinema 4D
Final Cut Pro
your help is much appreciated
thanks

Hi Vector,
The folks at Barefeat must have asked this same question before, because they raced five Mac Pros out of all three families. The results are about what you might expect: the biggest speed advantage comes from having 8 cores as opposed to 4. After that, the advantage of 3.2GHz cores over 3.0GHz, or 3.0GHz over 2.8GHz is far less pronounced.
It's hard to recommend exactly the "right" system for your needs, but going by the above results, the best cost-to-performance ratio will be found with the baseline 2.8GHz 8-core Mac Pro. Cut back to 4-cores and you lose a fair bit of power; scale up to 3.0GHz and you gain relatively little by comparison.
For your video card, you can probably suffer with the entry-level Radeon 2600 XT. The GeForce 8800 GT is more of a gaming card, and the Quadro FX 5600 card isn't something you want to break the bank on unless grabbing a Quadro is the whole reason you're buying a Mac Pro. Displays aren't my speciality, so I'll defer to the experts. That link is to the final page presenting the victors in a long article, which may be worth a full read if you're interested.
Finally, cram as much memory into it as you can. You can (almost) never have too much memory. 4GB should probably be your bare minimum for video-intensive work.
Hope that helps. As long as you go 8-core, you're nearly immune to over/under-estimating your requirements. If you find you need more power, chances are you'll get it by tossing in some more memory. If you find that you've got too much, then you'll at least be future-proofed for longer.

Mac Pro: dual vs quad and other ?

Looking to upgrade my computer for my small business to a more robust machine. I run 3 screens at all times and generally keep 4-8 tabs open on my web browser for various sites that I input order info into. One of the tabs has Google Voice open for phone calls. I have a huge multi-thousand line Excel Spreadsheet open at all times for accessing client information. Also I keep Mail, Skype and Reminders open all the time. I copy and paste items all day long from one application to the other. Everything is backed up to the cloud and I run a 3TB external drive just in case for Time Machine.
I'm seeing the color wheel of death on my current machine that I've decided my wife needs since her's is even worse.
I'd like to go with a Mac Pro for my business (not the new one coming in Dec. 2013) but a slightly older new/used version tower.
I'd like 16GB RAM minimum.
My issue is I don't understand the difference Graphics Cards or the difference in the processor speeds and Dual vs Quad vs 6 and 8 Core.
Any assistance in guiding me in the right direction would be greatly appreciated.

The silver 65lb tower is no longer for sale new or refurbished from Apple.
With the 2103 Mac Pro about to be released, you should not spend money on a Mac Pro older than a 2009 model. If you need to add RAM to these models, they do not require pairs. Do not buy modules (for these models) smaller than 8GB per module. [Two 4GB costs more.]
For what you are doing, you need big RAM far more than you need really big compute power. The dual socket Mac Pros (for 8-core and 12-core models) cost more than twice as much, and are overkill for your use. [Natural use of the 8core or 12-core is for Ray Tracing or Scene Rendering.]
The cards that came with those models include the Apple-firmware 4870 (supports two displays), the 5770 or the 5870 (each supports three displays with the right adapters). Any of those will be fine. The NVIDIA GT120 (supports two displays) was also an option, but is not quite as powerful a card, but should work fine. If you need to run two GT120 cards, you need to run 10.8.5 or Mavericks.

I have 2 Macs - an iMac that holds my entire iPhoto library and a Mac Book Pro that I use to hold a subset of the main library - how can I transfer photos and their metadata from the main library of the iMac to my Mac Book?

I have 2 Macs - an iMac which holds my main iPhoto library and a Mac Book Pro which holds a subset of the library. How can I transfer photos and their metadata from the main library to the smaller 1 on the Mac Book Pro?

Link the two Macs together and use iPhoto Library Manager
Regards
TD

I am thinking of using a Mac pro for share trading. Can anyone share their experience and suggest specs for 30 -40 monitors etc

Hi
I am thinking of using a Mac Pro for share trading.
I am proposing to start small but want to be able to expand up to 30+ monitors.
It must be super quick.
Any help with hardware would be appreciated.
Software is secondary at this point , but open to advice.
I have an iphone and ipad so feel it will better intergrate usung Apple
regards
David

There is no desktop machine that I know of that will support 30+ monitors as is.
Fill the 3 or 4 PCIe slots of any logic board with three port graphics cards and you have the physical cap without additional hardware.
Software is secondary at this point
No, without software, how can you control more than the monitor limit of the OS?
How can you set up the monitors to display the various programs that you will wish to use simultaneously?
Software is a major consideration.
Matrox (and others) have solutions for additional monitors beyond the physical capabilities of generally offered graphics cards.
The caveat here, however, is support software is typically reserved for Windows and Linux systems.
Matrox has a single 8 display card:
http://www.matrox.com/graphics/en/products/graphics_cards/m_series/m9188pciex16/
Matrox has solutions specifically targeting the finance market:
http://www.matrox.com/graphics/en/solutions/trading_analyst/
Though the Mac Pro has more than adequate processing power, I think that you will find (through research) that building a solid machine capable of using several multi monitor cards is going to be what you will need to support more than 8-10 monitors with conventionally offered hardware.
Fun stuff:
http://www.digitaltigers.com/zenview.asp

How to restart base station from airport utility? I used to be able to do it remotely I currently use a Mac Pro 10.8.4 and have a time machine for wireless 6.3 (630.34). Sometimes I cannot connect to the internet and use network preferences to diagnose t

How to restart base station from airport utility? I used to be able to do it remotely
I currently use a Mac Pro 10.8.4 and have a time machine for wireless 6.3 (630.34). Sometimes I cannot connect to the internet and use network preferences to diagnose the issue. This results in being told to restart the wireless. The airport utility includes the drop down option of restarting but is not clickable so I can't choose it.
With my prior macbook and same time capsule, etc if i had problems connecting to the internet I would run network diagnostics to help out. This included clicking on the airport utility ---> base station --> restart. This worked most of the time.
Bottom line, is there something I am missing in not being able to restart the wi-fi remotely? ]
Thanks in advance

You are likely forgetting a step.
Open AirPort Utility
Click on the Time Capsule icon
Click Edit in the small window that appears
Now click the Base Station menu.....top of the screen....not the Base Station "tab" in the center of the screen
Click Restart

I bough a Mac Pro 2010 second hand and deleted all the files without backing up now is asking me for the Apple ID of the person who installed maverick,any ideas

I bough a Mac Pro 2010 second hand and deleted all the files without backing up now is asking me for the Apple ID of the person who installed maverick,any ideas

If the Mac's firmware was updated, you can try this Internet Recovery:
Hold down Command + Option + R during restart or bootup; hold until you see a spinning globe (takes up to 10 minutes). Once in the Utilities window, use Disk utility to wipe the drive, then return to the window and choose to reinstall OS X. If that works, the OS will be installed without being tied to an Apple ID.
FWIW, if the firmware was updated, you will not be able to use the Snow leopard disk to install - I just did several tests and it does not work. You can, however, possibly install the SL onto an external drive and then clone it to the internal or (if you have a clone), boot from that and clone it back - I just tested that as well.
If the firmware was not updated, then you can use the SL install disk.

IMac or Mac Pro for iPhoto albums and home movie editing?

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