Macbook Pro or Mac Pro for presentation computer

[EunSoo]

Hi, I am researching how much it would cost to replace the 1st gen Mac Pro that is in use right now. It is a dedicated computer to run ProPresenter (Think PowerPoint but a lot fancier. Like for conferences, concerts, churches and the like). You may ask, why do we need an upgrade from a just a 5-year-old high-end machine and why I chose only apple devices. For the former, I will respond saying that the Mac Pro that we have currently is crashing and freezing consistently, especially when I try to play video. There is as much as a 10-second delay from the time I click the video and it displays on the screens and animations and such are choppy. Events that require a lot of high-res graphics and videos often crash the program frequently. To the latter, I will respond saying that ProPresenter is best better on osx or whatever it's called and that our ecosystem is already optimized for mac. So please don't go down that route. Alright, so a little more information on what is going on:

• It needs to run a 5760x1080 off a single HDMI (3x1080p projectors stitched together by a Matrox triple head box thing) with the ability to upgrade to 5760x2160 (3x2 setup of 1080p projectors). If needed to we could upgrade the computer again.
• 2 1920x1080 screens of HDMIs (not stitched together)
• Preferably a Gigabit ethernet port because all the files that this thing will be displaying are going to be on 2 servers

The answer that came to my head first, and probably yours was to get the Mac Pro bc it is a proper desktop and has most of what we want. But then again its 3k at its cheapest configuration and I have seen some youtubers switch from Mac Pros to the newest Macbook pros because the latest Mac Pro is outdated and performs worse I guess than the latest MacBook Pro. Of course, we don't need the horsepower to edit 4k video but we do handle a lot of 5760x1080 video and do mess with the color of our video backgrounds to match certain color schemes. So what do you think we need, budget isn't much of an issue (of course we want to keep it as low as possible but do not want to compromise our audience's experience. Thanks!

[The Sloth]

Mac pro might get a refresh so wait. if you want a powerful MacBook make a Hackintosh. 

[EunSoo]

2 minutes ago, nerdslayer1 said:

macpro might get a refresh so wait. if you want a powerful MacBook make a Hackintosh. 

Ok, I'll wait for that. I asked about Hackintoshes a while back for a build that I was making for someone else and I received a lot of feedback that it can be unreliable. Something that cannot be risked here, since it's for a regular presenting use and I'm not always going to be there to fix it.

[The Sloth]

1 minute ago, SCGazelle said:

Ok, I'll wait for that. I asked about Hackintoshes a while back for a build that I was making for someone else and I received a lot of feedback that it can be unreliable. Something that cannot be risked here, since it's for a regular presenting use and I'm not always going to be there to fix it.

 

wait a while then the current mac pro is a waste of money. 

[SCHISCHKA]

tim cook needs a mac pro shoved up his arse for not updating that product line. i dont know why they are even listed on apple.com they are so old.

have you thought about turning your projectors into smart tvs?

[EunSoo]

13 minutes ago, rrubberr said:

Yeah, the current mac pro gets treaded on by my seven year old machines. Stay away for a bit.

 

18 minutes ago, nerdslayer1 said:

wait a while then the current mac pro is a waste of money. 

So Macbook pro is a no go? The 1st gen Mac pro that is in use rn is even worse than the current one by quite a bit so unless apple releases a new mac pro soon, I need to make a decision

[EunSoo]

On 1/17/2017 at 7:42 PM, SCHISCHKA said:

tim cook needs a mac pro shoved up his arse for not updating that product line. i dont know why they are even listed on apple.com they are so old.

have you thought about turning your projectors into smart tvs?

 

Not much of an option. The screen size for each projector is probably at least 100" (I don't have very good eye judgment so I could be completely wrong). And they are all right next to each other. For reference, this is what they look like

[Pendragon]

10 minutes ago, SCGazelle said:

So Macbook pro is a no go? The 1st gen Mac pro that is in use rn is even worse than the current one by quite a bit so unless apple releases a new mac pro soon, I need to make a decision

 

well. Apple just fucked you LOL. if you have to get a Macbook Pro, get one. If it's for work, I guess that unavoidable. But do not get the Mac Pro. That thing is way too fucking old. Now the real issue you gonna have to adapters galore. No idea whether a USB c to hdmi 3x works? 

[EunSoo]

1 minute ago, Pendragon said:

well. Apple just fucked you LOL. if you have to get a Macbook Pro, get one. If it's for work, I guess that unavoidable. But do not get the Mac Pro. That thing is way too fucking old. Now the real issue you gonna have to adapters galore. No idea whether a USB c to hdmi 3x works? 

 

They are all thunderbolt so it'll work. and the last port can be for USBs. But it's not very elegant and I fear it might lead to disaster using dongles for everything. I'll give apple until this summer's wwdc event to announce a new mac pro.

[Pendragon]

14 minutes ago, SCGazelle said:

But it's not very elegant and I fear it might lead to disaster using dongles for everything

Yea this is my main issue as well. yes theoretically it should work, but there's so many things that can go wrong running dongles into dongles. 

[Dackzy]

12 hours ago, Pendragon said:

Yea this is my main issue as well. yes theoretically it should work, but there's so many things that can go wrong running dongles into dongles. 

you mean like the new macbook pro only working perfectly with TB3 2nd gen dongles?