[Macworld]

Post your comments for Why go Pro when iMac goes faster? here

[DPG4450Guy]

Great write-up, Rob.

[Curlypaws]

As a Mac Pro owner (of a similar 3-year old vintage), I'm also very much tempted by the i7 iMac. I wish it had a Blu-ray drive, but then the Mac Pro doesn't have that either. The other thing I'd like to see would be a SATA connector for additional storage. You are pretty much restricted to FW800 if you want speed. Still, for the money it is a tremendous machine.

[SimpleBeep]

This is compelling stuff. It makes you wonder why Apple didn't simultaneously include the i7 processor in the Mac Pro.

[Fpryor]

The iMac lacks one thing that professional image-editors need and that is a professional-quality monitor. In terms a photographer or graphic designer would accept, means a monitor that is calibrate-able and capable of displaying neutral color. The over-bright, over-saturated color produced by the current crop of LED screens does not appear to be tamable.

fp

[Photonerd]

The short answer is the Mac Pro has bigger "data pipes" that creative and high end 3D apps can take advantage of, not to mention dual CPU capability and expandability. Also they typically have better resale value than any other type of Mac, for the same reasons. That and they're built like tanks.

As for the i7, it's a *lesser* version of the same chip found in the Mac Pros. You can think of Xeon chips as being like i9, if you want to put it in that context. The Mac Pros have had more powerful processors from the start.

Xeon > i7 > i5

[booishboos]

SimpleBeep, on 21 November 2009 - 09:31 AM, said:

This is compelling stuff. It makes you wonder why Apple didn't simultaneously include the i7 processor in the Mac Pro.

I thought the Mac Pro did have Core i7, but I don't know. Anyway, the Mac Pro will likely be upgraded along with the MacBook Pro around March.

[Photonerd]

Fpryor is also correct: the LCD on iMacs is not comparable in terms of color gamut and accuracy, to higher end screens that you can pair up with a Mac Pro. I too think the Mac Pro *could* use a boost at least every six months to keep up with Intel's latest but it's not a cost-effective proposition for Apple.

[booishboos]

Fpryor, on 21 November 2009 - 10:08 AM, said:

The iMac lacks one thing that professional image-editors need and that is a professional-quality monitor. In terms a photographer or graphic designer would accept, means a monitor that is calibrate-able and capable of displaying neutral color. The over-bright, over-saturated color produced by the current crop of LED screens does not appear to be tamable.

fp

True, but adding a monitor to the iMac will cost no more than adding one to a Mac Pro.

[Photonerd]

Quote

True, but adding a monitor to the iMac will cost no more than adding one to a Mac Pro.

Adding a monitor to an iMac setup makes absolutely no sense from a physical, where-do-you-place-it perspective. Nobody does that other than maybe having a little side monitor for extra panel storage with Adobe apps, etc. The main screen will always be the iMac screen because of it's physical layout.


And again to reiterate (in case people read the thread)

Mac Pro XEON chip > i7 > i5. Xeon chips are the highest performance chips Intel makes.

This post has been edited by Photonerd: 21 November 2009 - 10:18 AM

[CWellslake]

Good article. I also have a three year old Mac Pro, which was definitely overkill when I bought it. However, due to the machine's expandability, I'm expecting to hold on to it for a long time, which will hopefully make it more cost effective in the long run.

[Simon42]

Because you'll want to replace the sucky notebook video card when it will be fried or will have fried the inside of your iMac. These things run dangerously hot (and I didn't even put my hand on a 28-incher with all the go-fast bits) and will come back for repair even faster than the first iMacs that are now pouring in where I work...

[kirkmc]

I downgraded from a Mac Pro (the very first model, bought in 2006) to a Mac mini early this year. I chose the Mac mini since I had a standalone monitor. It's fast enough for just about everything I do; and for the rest, I just wait a bit.

[GadgetDon]

What many would love to see from Apple is a Mac Semi-Pro. Mini-tower. Upgradeable video card, a couple extra PCI-e slots for things like multiple Ethernet carts, the ability to have two hard disks with RAID-1 protection.