Mac Pro questions...

[xboxmanners]

I'm thinking of stepping in to the mac crowd with a low budget, and can't decide between a new mac mini, or a dated mac pro... The mini I'm looking at is a dual core i5, and the mac pro is the original with two dual core xeon 5150 (i think) running @ 2.66 Ghz. The mac pro is slightly cheaper, but I'm stumped on what to buy... Thanks in advance -xboxmanners

[911^NEmeSis]

First question is are you sure you want to get a Mac? Surely there are cheaper Windows based alternatives. Just saying!

[hehehehhehehehe]

hackintosh?

[tk421]

Definitely recommend going for a hackintosh.  Right now, Apple is still using LGA 1366 CPUs and motherboards and Radeon HD 5000 series cards!  That's crazy!  Go to tonymacx86.com and go that route.

[balint0808]

It is not worth buying a new mac, buying an old outdated one would be an even sillyer idea. Go for an iMac, if you need the shiny OS and don't want to lose all your hair trying to get a stable Hackintosh build to get running. Then again, you can always chose components that have been tested to work with iOS.

[melchiorvester]

hackintosh!

[SkyArmy]

What is your budget because you can basically take any pc build and make it so it fits into your budget. And anyways bro linus said it himself ... macs are for hamsters.

[hehehehhehehehe]

What is your budget because you can basically take any pc build and make it so it fits into your budget. And anyways bro linus said it himself ... macs are for hamsters.

Hipsters* :P

[WoodenMarker]

Hipsters* :P

hamsters*

[hehehehhehehehe]

hamsters*

It really doesn't sound like hamsters!! 

[Scott66]

If you are doing work requiring massive amounts of ram the Mac Pro is the way to go but it requires ECC MEMORY. And it does not have USB 3 or thunderbolt that the mini has.

Pros are nice as they can be configured with expansion cards. Mini's with the thunderbolt can use external devices but they are more expensive and require external power.

As mentioned above, Hackintoshes are more popular now as Apple has gone over to intel but there is always a possibility a software change will make these systems lose some functionality or no longer work. That is a loss if you have significant investment in osx software.

[Glenwing]

A $1200 PC you can build will easily outperform a $2500 Mac Pro.  The Mac Pro is very outdated although it will finally be refreshed in a few months (or this month, I think).  Even then, I expect a $1500-1600 custom PC will still match it.  If you like the Apple operating system you can just build a Hackintosh.  Though I'm definitely not recommending any illegal activities  :rolleyes:

[SkyArmy]

A $1200 PC you can build will easily outperform a $2500 Mac Pro.  The Mac Pro is very outdated although it will finally be refreshed in a few months (or this month, I think).  Even then, I expect a $1500-1600 custom PC will still match it.  If you like the Apple operating system you can just build a Hackintosh.  Though I'm definitely not recommending any illegal activities  :rolleyes:

Making a hackintosh is not really illegal as long as you buy the os form apple. (they really only care if you just give them your money) Anyways its kinda like the whole jailbreaking issue its illegal but you own the device...

[Glenwing]

Making a hackintosh is not really illegal as long as you buy the os form apple. (they really only care if you just give them your money) Anyways its kinda like the whole jailbreaking issue its illegal but you own the device...

 

Yes, it is.  You cannot use the OS legally if you don't agree to its end user license agreement (you don't own the OS, essentially when you "buy" it you are renting it for life).  The EULA states you cannot use it on a non-Apple device.  So if you make a Hackintosh you are voiding your license and it essentially becomes the same thing as pirating (using the software without a license).

[CaptiveCloud]

I'd advice against getting a mac, as said before a cheaper PC can outperform a more expensive mac, and if you really want OSX there is the option of a Hackintosh, though i have no personal experience with that.

[SMURG]

Definitely recommend going for a hackintosh.  Right now, Apple is still using LGA 1366 CPUs and motherboards and Radeon HD 5000 series cards!  That's crazy!  Go to tonymacx86.com and go that route.

Ofc Apple are still using LGA 1366, since now they've made a big fuss over Thunderbolt, they're totally scuppered when it comes to a refresh of the mac pro. Consider their options: LGA 2011 which is the natural successor to LGA 1366, has an additional memory lane with support for up to 64GB, a massive 40 PCIe lanes, USB 3.0, SATA III and even PCIe 3.0 support (at least, kinda. Let's assume they wait for Ivy-E :P). Point is, there's one crucial caveat with LGA 2011 - there's no integrated GPU, which means no Thunderbolt. Ever. How crap would it look for the flagship, top-tier product to be lacking the oh-so-fantastic Thunderbolt interface? The alternative ofc is socket 1155/1150, which would have the integrated GPU they need for Thunderbolt - but then there would be little reason to buy a mac pro over an imac or mac mini, since the performance gains would be miniscule (what with the imacs already having 3770/4770s in them. Moreover, a 4770 isn't really going to compete with the dual xeons in the current mac pro, so Apple would be releasing a product which was inferior to its predecessor...

 

Apple are in a right pickle with this if you ask me, which is why we see so many LGA 2011 Hackintoshes ^_^

[Glenwing]

Ofc Apple are still using LGA 1366, since now they've made a big fuss over Thunderbolt, they're totally scuppered when it comes to a refresh of the mac pro. Consider their options: LGA 2011 which is the natural successor to LGA 1366, has an additional memory lane with support for up to 64GB, a massive 40 PCIe lanes, USB 3.0, SATA III and even PCIe 3.0 support (at least, kinda. Let's assume they wait for Ivy-E :P). Point is, there's one crucial caveat with LGA 2011 - there's no integrated GPU, which means no Thunderbolt. Ever. How crap would it look for the flagship, top-tier product to be lacking the oh-so-fantastic Thunderbolt interface? The alternative ofc is socket 1155/1150, which would have the integrated GPU they need for Thunderbolt - but then there would be little reason to buy a mac pro over an imac or mac mini, since the performance gains would be miniscule (what with the imacs already having 3770/4770s in them. Moreover, a 4770 isn't really going to compete with the dual xeons in the current mac pro, so Apple would be releasing a product which was inferior to its predecessor...

 

Apple are in a right pickle with this if you ask me, which is why we see so many LGA 2011 Hackintoshes ^_^

 

Apple can always come up with solutions to that.  Laptops for example can use thunderbolt on the dedicated GPU, and so could ASUS's Zeus motherboard, because these all had embedded GPUs and so could be engineered specifically for them.  It can't be done with switchable graphics cards, no, but Thunderbolt on LGA 2011 can be done with dedicated graphics chips if you know exactly what chip it is and it's soldered in.  And believe me, Apple has no problem with making GPUs non-replaceable.

[SMURG]

Apple can always come up with solutions to that. Laptops for example can use thunderbolt on the dedicated GPU, and so could ASUS's Zeus motherboard, because these all had embedded GPUs and so could be engineered specifically for them. It can't be done with switchable graphics cards, no, but Thunderbolt on LGA 2011 can be done with dedicated graphics chips if you know exactly what chip it is and it's soldered in. And believe me, Apple has no problem with making GPUs non-replaceable.

I was under the impression that laptops with Thunderbolt were using the integrated CPU graphics, but that's somewhat irrelevant. I'd forgotten about that Zeus board though - something like that would be very Apple, although would require quite a significant outlay for such a custom board; maybe they don't think it'll sell? The Zeus never actually went on sale iirc, probably because it had no PCIe ports despite the 40 available lanes (minus whatever ASUS used for the GPU/Thunderbolt setup).

Stuff like that makes me wonder why we don't see PCIe devices which have both a GPU and Thunderbolt controller on them, since in that case "you know exactly what chip it is and it's soldered in" too...

[SMURG]

http://www.macworld.co.uk/mac/news/?newsid=3450668&pagtype=allchandate - that seems to suggest a setup similar to the ASUS ROG Zeus board; "will support thunderbolt" ... "no internal expansion". So basically, they're replacing the PCIe slots with a soldered GPU from which to run thunderbolt with a socket 2011 xeon.