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+--- Thread: Best Value Mac Pro? (/showthread.php?tid=147126)
Best Value Mac Pro? - Mr645 - 01-11-2013
OK, thanks to everyone pointing me in the right direction. Now ask for a little more assistance.
I need to purchase a MAc for a Photoshop Workstation. Does not need to store anything, just be used for design work and processing RAW files.
I have a budget of about $1000 to work with. My first guess would be an 8 core 2.8 machine, but I see newer 4 core Mac Pros with slower processors costing more.
Where is the sweet spot in that range?
I currently have an early Mac Pro, a 4 core 2.66 machine and my new i7 Mac Mini at home is a good bit faster at most things.
What should I look for?
Jon
Re: Best Value Mac Pro? - C(-)ris - 01-11-2013
Your budget gets you nothing better than what you have.
Re: Best Value Mac Pro? - M A V I C - 01-11-2013
The one you build your own.
Re: Best Value Mac Pro? - decay - 01-11-2013
unless you luck into a rare deal where the seller is desperate or doesn't know the value of his/her Mac, or doesn't care.
any schools upgrading near you?
Re: Best Value Mac Pro? - mattkime - 01-11-2013
>>my new i7 Mac Mini at home is a good bit faster at most things.
looks like you found your new mac pro!
Re: Best Value Mac Pro? - decay - 01-11-2013
http://store.apple.com/us/product/FC936LL/A/refurbished-mac-mini-with-lion-server-20ghz-quad-core-intel-core-i7
Refurbished Mac mini with Lion Server 2.0GHz quad-core Intel Core i7
Originally released July 2011
4GB memory
Dual 500GB hard drives
Thunderbolt port with support for up to 2560-by-1600 resolution
HDMI port with support for up to 1920-by-1200 resolution
Intel HD Graphics 3000
$759
+ RAM upgrade and/or SSD boot drive.
Re: Best Value Mac Pro? - Mr645 - 01-11-2013
So the 2.8 8 core machine is not really going to be much faster then my 2.66x4 Mac Pro?
I was thinking about another Mini, a 2.6 i7 but most folks said the lack of a real video card was a deal breaker
Just to fill in some more details, this machine is for my studio. I currently use the Mac Pro and I'm adding two more designers, one on Windows (Having a machine built) and one on a Mac. The new designer will get my Mac Pro, early 4 core 2.66 and I wanted to order a new workstation for myself.
I recently bought a Mac Mini Server (2.3 i7 dual drives) for my home to replace my older Power Mac G5 dual 2.5 machine. I do use Photoshop at home, but not a main se for the machine
Re: Best Value Mac Pro? - Speedy - 01-11-2013
http://browser.primatelabs.com/mac-benchmarks
Re: Best Value Mac Pro? - Lew Zealand - 01-11-2013
Geekbench suggests the current 2.6 Mac Mini is about as fast the the previous gen 3.4 iMac, which is simply not the case. Amazingly enough, geekbench is actually a worse benchmark than XBench is.
Re: Best Value Mac Pro? - Mr645 - 01-11-2013
Thanks, great link. I spent an hour coming over barefeats.com for this type of information