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Mac OS X forum: Mac Pro versus iMac

by: cnetmatt12345 October 9, 2009 8:48 AM PDT

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Mac Pro versus iMac

by cnetmatt12345 - 10/9/09 8:48 AM

guys....

It's been a long time but I'm back and need your expertise again. I need your opinion on whether to purchase a Mac Pro or an iMac.

Here's my deal and specs to assist you in assisting me:

I'm a professional photographer dealing with Photoshop and image editing on Lightroom. The camera files are pretty big..about 60-80 Mbs each. (uncompressed)
I also have another issue in that my external HDs are crashing. I have therefore decided to buy a new Mac.
I need a system that can make the image editing and retouching phase faster as currently, it takes a long time to edit and perform functions.

I have been working on a PowerBook G4, 1.5 ghz processor, 2 GB RAM, OSX 10.5.7 and a secondary monitor...crazy, I know.

Should I get the fastest biggest iMac or the Quad core Mac Pro?
Money is not the deciding factor in this instance, though I don't want to spend extra $ if it is not necessary.

I heard that Photoshop doesn't benefit from multiple processors, so if Lightroom doesn't either, would my $ be better spent on an iMac and more camera lenses?

I thank you in advance for your insight!!


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Get the iMac

by jeffrub1 - 10/9/09 12:01 PM

In Reply to: Mac Pro versus iMac by cnetmatt12345

I am not a pro photographer, but my brother is. He is head of the multimedia department at a large oil company in Dallas. He actually does a lot of video editing AND photo editing. He too had the same questions as you. He went with the 3.06GHz iMac and has never regretted it once. Of course when it comes to heavy video rendering, he'd probably like to have a quad core machine, but he gets by with his iMac.

I personally get by with a core2duo Hackintosh that I built. happy


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iMacs rock...

by jigmeg - 10/9/09 4:47 PM

In Reply to: Mac Pro versus iMac by cnetmatt12345

It's all true what Jeff said above. Our studio was going to go all MacPro until we added up the numbers. We had to do a rethink and tried two iMacs as a trial. The can take everything an A/V studio can throw at it with the obvious exceptions of add-on cards for 10-bit video processing, Protools HD, etc. But they work great for video & audio editing, graphic design, 3D creations, etc. They fall down when it comes to rendering large composites efficiently, but then we just ship off the rendering to a farm that has a macpro in the stable. Sounds like for your needs, the iMac would be aplenty. But as Jeff mentioned, Hackintoshes are fun projects (but not for the faint at heart) and they cost about the same as an iMac when all is said and done.


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OFF TOPIC A BIT: Cost of my Hackintosh

by jeffrub1 - 10/9/09 9:06 PM

In Reply to: iMacs rock... by jigmeg

Now, now, I actually chuckled a little when you said Hackintosh's cost about the same when all is said and done. To be truthful, (and I'm not trying to steer anyone towards building one,) my hackintosh was no where near the cost of a top o' the line iMac. I don't want to get off topic, but I'll go ahead and show my specs and you can weigh the costs. This is a Gigabyte EP45-UD3P mother board. I have a Radeon HD2600XT PCI-E. 4 gig of ram, Core2Duo @ 2.33 OC'd to 2.74. I Tri-boot into Vista Ultimate, Mac OSX 10.5.8 and Windows 7.

Perspective: 3.06GHz iMac with 1TB drive and 4 GB of Ram, (24" screen) = $2499.00

Mine: About $400.00 or so.
(So far I have been able to do EVERYTHING my brother's iMac can do.)

Now, back to the original subject. I'd go with the iMac and be assured of Apple's support. wink


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Ur right...

by jigmeg - 10/9/09 10:41 PM

In Reply to: OFF TOPIC A BIT: Cost of my Hackintosh by jeffrub1

oh crap ur right...we only paid about $1200 for our 20 inchers back in the day (2.4g) and then we upgraded the mem and HDD ourselves. I was almost going to do this earlier this year, now I am waiting for better components to be "certified":
Motherboard: Asus P5Q Deluxe
Processor: Core 2 Quad Q9550
Video: nVidia 8800GT 512 mb
Memory: 4GB RAM DDR2
Hard Drive: 1TB 7200 rpm
Power Supply 750/1000w
DVDRW Serial ATA
That's gotta cost close to 1000 with a super good monitor. I think that's the real cost here, you have to pay for a good lCD to match the quality of the iMacs...24" new Apple Cinema display? Ha!


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iMac or Mac Pro for audio recording?

by rrhoads82 - 9/19/10 1:36 PM

In Reply to: Ur right... by jigmeg

Hi there,

I am a recording artist that barely has any knowledge when it comes to computers. But I do want to setup a recording studio in my apartment and I have watched many of my fellow musicians with logics and garageband and the sounds are just incredible. Plus I do a little bit of vloggin on youtube and facebook.

My question is would the iMac be sufficient enough to run recording programs or should I just bite the bullet and get the mac pro?

Thanks a bunch

Mike


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The iMac certainly has the power

by mrmacfixit Moderator - 9/19/10 1:57 PM

In Reply to: iMac or Mac Pro for audio recording? by rrhoads82

to run the recording programs.

It's drawback would be that you would not be able to install any additional hardware, internally, if that was the direction that you found yourself going in.

You would be advised to do a lot of research into what software and additional equipment you would need to have a viable recording studio.

P


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