Should I buy a iMac or Mac Pro

Hi all
I am looking to buy a new Mac.
My main purpose will be for developing apps both for Mac ios and running Parallels Desktop to use windows.
I first thought to buy the Mac Pro as it everything I am looking for. If I buy a Mac Pro then I would also have to buy the 27' Thunderbolt Display. When I did my research on the Thunderbolt display I almost got a heart attack when I saw the price.
So then I went and checked the iMac to see it specs and was let down when I saw it only has an i5. Though the price would be much lighter on my pocket.
So now I am torn between buying the iMac or the Mac Pro.
Any advice would be appreciated.
Sincerely
The one who can't choose

Craig952101 wrote:
If I buy a Mac Pro then I would also have to buy the 27' Thunderbolt Display. When I did my research on the Thunderbolt display I almost got a heart attack when I saw the price.
No, that's not correct. There is absolutely no reason you have to buy the Thunderbolt Display if you buy a Mac Pro. You can choose from many monitors.
The Mac Pro connects to monitors through any of its Thunderbolt ports. But you must realize that on a Mac, every Thunderbolt port is the same as the Mini DisplayPort industry standard video connection. You can therefore buy any DisplayPort monitor on the market and plug it in.
For example, I bought a nice NEC monitor and I can plug it into the Thunderbolt port on my Mac Pro or MacBook Pro, using a $5 Mini DisplayPort to Mini DisplayPort cable.
But there are other questions about your post. lllaass has a good question: How do you plan to use your Mac? Because a Mac Pro is too much computer for most users. It's for high end users. You said you had a heart attack at the price of the Apple Thunderbolt Display. But the Thunderbolt Display is only a mid-range price for a professional monitor. Many professional monitors cost between $1000-2000. If you are having a heart attack over the Thunderbolt display price, why aren't you having one over the Mac Pro price?
Following that, if you are worried about the i5 in an iMac, why not just customize the iMac order to get an i7 instead? It's an option for all iMacs except the cheapest one, and it would be much less expensive than a Mac Pro plus any good monitor.

Similar Messages

  • Should I buy an iMac or MacBook Pro?

    I can afford both the iMac or the MacBook Pro. Either way I'll buy AppleCare. I'll be using it to browse the web,working on Office and playing some Steam games(Left 4 Dead 2,Portal 2,Counter Strike GO). I don't care about the optical drive. Which one should I buy?

    Well if you already own an Air then but the iMac. That is if you don't mind always being tied to a desk to play those games.
    Then use the Air for surfing and the like from anywhere in your home/office.
    niquinho1234 wrote:
    I already own a MacBook Air.

  • Should I buy 24" imac or macbook pro

    Hello,
    With all the problems I am reading about the 24" imac, should I get a macbook pro instead?
    Is the imac that much faster for window games?
    Thanks
    Frank

    Firstly you must consider that there are substantial differences between a Desktop and a Laptop computer that have to be considered.
    Secondly I would not and have not personally chosen an Apple computer on the strength of how and what quality I could get for playing Windows Games. I bought my iMac for my real intended use as a tool for my hobby of photography.
    Yes you can play windows games albeit through an installation of Windows xp on your Apple computer but you have to know what you are doing as you may need additional driver software for the type of graphics card used in the Mac to run in the other environment i.e. Windows.
    If you want only really want to play windows games then really you should buy a windows based computer and save the hassel of trying to build one inside an Apple computer.

  • 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.

  • 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

  • Buying a 1st Gen Mac Pro nVidia GeForce 8800 GT 512MB from Applemacanix...

    _*Hi to All:_*
    _First of all thanks for taking the time to read my post._
    I am going to buy a 1st Gen Mac Pro nVidia GeForce 8800 GT 512MB Video Card from ebay to applemacanix, it looks like they give good service and I wont recive a bad product but I wannt to know from mac user what they think about this ebay user? I put the link [here|http://cgi.ebay.com/1st-Gen-Mac-Pro-nVidia-GeForce-8800-GT-512MB-Video-Ca rdW0QQitemZ270514929671QQcategoryZ3762QQcmdZViewItemQQ_trksidZp4340.m263QQ_trkparm sZalgo=DLSL%2BSIC&its=I%2BC&itu=UCI%2BIA%2BUA%2BFICS%2BUFI%2BDDSIC&otn=20&po=&ps =63&clkid=8899382923051298334#ht_5840wt1167]
    Second I wannted to know what you think about the card? Has it worked ok for you? Any strange issue I should be aware?
    Thanks in advance
    Message was edited by: Chocorito

    Applemecanix are the Microsoft of card flashers.
    There are at least 5 other flashers on Ebay who will sell you the EXACT same card, with the EXACT same ROM flashed on it for around $100 less.
    For that matter, a little time on MacRumours and you could figure out how to make one yourself for $200 less.
    However, if you have money to burn, by all means give it to them.

  • Connecting an imac and mac pro help

    Hi,
    I'm looking to buy an 8 core Mac Pro and an iMac 27", what I'd like to do is connect them so I can use the iMac for the display and also join the processors and ram to run as one computer. I will be using this computer for Logic Pro and Ableton.
    Is this at all possible?
    Thanks Jeff

    The early 27" iMac could be connected to a Mac Pro's Mini DisplayPort for use as an external display
    <http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3924#>
    but the iMac's processor and RAM would not be available for any computing.
    The current 27" iMac uses Thunderbolt, so will not work with a Mac Pro.
    <http://support.apple.com/kb/TS3775>

  • HT201380 keep having scrolling problems with Maverick on both iMac and Mac Pro despite downloading mail software update

    Have scrolling problems with Maverick despite downloading mail update on both IMAC and Mac Pro
    Have to reboot and it helps for awhile then stalls again

    The Mac OS X 10.4.7 Update introduced connection issues as a result of (according to the documentation) "Mail now supports connecting to mail servers through a SOCKS proxy". This probably has nothing to do with your problem, but it'd be worth going to System Preferences > Network and making sure the SOCKS Proxy is not enabled in the network configuration used to connect to the Internet.
    Also, it looks like the crashes you're talking about are actually freezes, i.e. Mail becomes unresponsive rather than quitting unexpectedly. In Mail, open Window > Activity Viewer, and see whether Mail displays there what it's doing when it freezes. Actually, you may be able to avoid having to force quit Mail by canceling whatever it's doing (by clicking on the red stop icon of the activity).
    Reinstalling Mail will probably accomplish nothing, but it might be worth reinstalling the Combo Update for the type of machine and the version of Mac OS X you're using (which you would have to do anyway if you wanted to reinstall Mail):
    Mac OS X 10.4.7 Combo Update for Intel
    Take a look at the following articles for guidelines on how to properly install system updates:
    Troubleshooting installation and software updates
    Installing software updates
    Basically, you should verify/repair the startup disk before installing the update, and no applications should be running while installing it.

  • 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)

  • Relative Noise Output of Intel iMac and Mac Pro

    I run a computer based recording studio. I have been using a Powerbook for the last two or so years and I am thinking of upgrading to an iMac or Mac Pro.
    However, noise is a sensitive issue for me. I have enjoyed near silence with the Powerbook, which enables me to hear into every aspect of my sound. I would like to continue enjoying that experience with an iMac or Mac Pro and wondered whether you could tell me how quiet these machines are? And whether there are any stats on the noise output of the Mac range?
    Regards,
    Stuart

    I'm sure there were some noise figures published once for the G5 and MacPro but I've had a quick look and can't find them on the Apple site anymore.
    In my experience the G5 is actually quite quiet compared with say a PC Workstation - that is until the Fans ramp up during heavy processing at which point it does get quite noisy. I expect the MacPro is similar in this respect.
    Hope that helps a bit.
    Rik

  • 2 iMac & 1 Mac Pro render a job of Maya

    Hi all!
    I have a LAN with 3 machines: 2 iMac 2GHz - 2GRam and MacPro 2.4GHz - 2GRam. And I'm use QMaster2 to render a small project Maya( This project, if batch render with 1 machine just take 1min).
    My setting:
    first iMac have been setting with: Services and cluster controller.
    second iMac and MacPro have been setiing with: Services only.
    So, I'm rendered. It is successful.
    But i have some problems.
    1. How to distribute batch. It seem not distributes in my job.
    2. Time to render is very slowly. something wrong??????
    3. Just MacPro submit a job to cluster, second iMac didn't add job in QMaster. Why that ???
    please help me !!!!!!!!!!
    Thank.
    Thanh.

    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

  • I opened my account on the MacAir and have the new Mountain Lion showing i purchased. When I open my account on my other two machines it does not show. Any suggestions on why or how to fix? iMac and Mac Pro Thanks

    I opened my account on the MacAir and have the new Mountain Lion showing i purchased. When I open my account on my other two machines it does not show. Any suggestions on why or how to fix?
    iMac and Mac Pro
    Thanks

    SADLY  not as i downloaded an upgrad to my original PAGES/
    i have in the meantim had to open www.icloud. then from there import the file that i am working on and then check on ipad if it uploaded/ yes it did.
    but what a waste of time as it doesn not save any changes done automatically back in the cloud....
    i am now downloading the new LION and hope that it will fix the problem
    i cant find any other way. I was lead to believe that you wrote, it saved automatically, on to the cloud, you then opened anohter device in anotother country even, and the new file was there, waiting, in its latest version.......
    and the same magic was supposed to happen in reverse.
    It doesn't/
    if i have to open a browser, go to www.icloud....why on earth did they not just leave us an icon to drop it in in that case?
    I hope the new lion will help resolve the isssue/
    any other ideas> keep em coming...thank you so much.

  • What USB 3.0 card should I get for early 2009 Mac Pro so I can connect the Drobo 5D? They say get CalDigit or Sonnet. Anyone have preference or experience with reliability. Trying to find which is better.

    What USB 3.0 card should I get for early 2009 Mac Pro so I can connect the Drobo 5D? They say get CalDigit or Sonnet. Anyone have preference or experience with reliability with this. I am running Lion and Trying to find which is better as I know from experience not all cards are created equal. Thanks in advance for your help!

    yakov536 wrote:
    High Point RocketU Quad USB 3.0 for Mac is working great for me. Had an issue with CD/DVD Drive which was resolved with most current driver downloaded from the support site.
    Running Moutain Lion on Early 2009, mirroring two Seagate Go Flex 2TB USB 3.0 Drives. Installed in Slot 4.
    Using it primarily with VMWare Fusion for Virtual Drives. Windows, Unbuntu and other OS running really well.
    HPT Support was responsive and very helpfull using the WEB Portal under the product page.
    I have some comments and a suggestion:
    Have you tried your setup with a SD/CF combo card reader (like the Lexar or Kingston FCR-H63)? Does the card appear on the desktop when first plugged in?
    Did you need to fool around with any kind of power issues in installing this card in the x4 PCIe slot of the MacPro?
    Suggestion. Have you tried one of the fixed in this article to cure the BT issues in MacPro 3,1?
    Good luck.
    Henry

  • Should I buy the imac with expandable memory slot for future os upgrade size?

    Should I buy the imac with expandable 8gb memory slot for future os upgrade size?

    I Always try to have a little more RAM on my computers that I think I'll need when I purchase them. Either have more ram installed when you order the iMac or purchase one with open slots for upgrading.
    I Purchase my iMac 5K with only 8 GB RAM but it had two open slots. As soon as I received the iMac I purchased two 8 GB modules form Other World Computeing. That brought my RAM to 24 GB. I run multiple applications and the iMac runs smoothly.

Maybe you are looking for

  • Wifi printing after Mountain Lion upgrade, "printer not connected" error

    I have Canon MP610 printer.  Was getting error message "Looking for printer" or "Printer not connected" after upgrading to Mountain Lion 10.8.  Printing works fine when I directly plug in USB cord to MacBook Pro to print. However, on the wifi network

  • Captions/text in photo book layout

    I'm creating my first book and don't know how to add text boxes to my book? Do different layouts NOT have text/caption options? TIA! Jennifer

  • SAP-BO SSO and Row Level Security

    Hi, We can configure the SAP authentication and able to login InfoView via SAP user name and password. And also, we can import the roles from the SAP system. When we create a connection to BW cubes from designer, we want to use "Use Single Sign On wh

  • Tigger to invoke workflow

    Hello All, I need to create 2 simple workflows. when ever a new user is created in oracle applications then a notification shoud go to the sysadmin. So we can create a simple workflow.But my question how do we invoke the workflow process. Do we need

  • Epson 2.1 Drivers Available Through Software Update

    An Epson Printer Driver update, version 2.1, is now available via Software Update. http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3669 has been updated: a '+' designates the added models, and a '*' designates the updated models.