I have been playing around with FCPX and other video editing programs on my laptop macbook pro osx 10.6.8, 4mb ram. It is very slow now and I am looking to get a faster desktop to edit my videos.
I found a used 2006 mac pro A1186 dual xeon 2.66 ghz, 6mb ram. Would this be better or would I get a better performcance out of the new mac minis?
thanks
MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.6.8)
Since I haven't received a response on this, here is the quick reply I received from the macforums on the same topic:
newest mac mini will be a lot more powerful. its geekbench score is between 11367 and 12807 and the mac pro A1186 has 5190 and 5873. Mini seems to be a lot better option. If you want to hav ea mac pro though get the 2010 or newer models.
With the 2013 Mac Pro about to be released, you should not pay money for a used Mac Pro older than the 2009 model, in my opinion.
A 2009 model will set you back US$800 to 1500 or more.
When Rendering, compute-power and RAM size rule.
In all other cases, I/O speed is a strong determiner of overall throughput. Having a separate Boot Drive, a separate Source Drive, and a separate Destination Drive makes Video Editing go quite a bit faster.
You need to work with a budget.
a mac mini can if you are me, set you back $1600 (and I expect to see a new model with 4th generation Core i7)
the iMac 2013, you can spend from $1200-$3000.
The Mac Pro you list won't run anything past 10.7.5 but should be cheap $300. You can upgrade to 8-core for $100. 16GB RAM for $100.
Disk drives would almost be the same no matter what, but you will be looking at external and USB3 or Thunderbolt in some cases.
The 2009 are or were good value, everyone is buying up used and refurbished of that and 2010 now.
Turning one into a 6-core 3.33 is popular, 32-48GB RAM and adding PCIe SATA and extra SSDs.
The 2013 Mac Pro is expensive and then you add monitor, and of course you have to include the cost of external drive cases and controllers. Plan for one and you might want to drop $5 grand on a full setup.
If you editing pays it will pay for itself or should or you aren't a candidate for the newest Mac Pro and the mini or 2009 would be better as Grant points out.
What you don't mention is if yours is a 2010 MacBook Pro? 4GB RAM is low. Head to www.macsales.com and see if yours can take 8GB or more, and look into putting a 500GB SSD inside to beef it up, then look for ExpressCard and add eSATA or USB3 (or both?) for faster disk I/O externally. Go with the "one upgrade a month" installment plan.
IF your system has a half way decent video and processor for doing what you want of course.
There may be some benchmarks on www.Barefeats.com on the programs and your Mac, definitely for FCP-X though.
Apple Refurbished Mac Pro list. They go fast. The 4-core 3.2GHz may be more t han you want to spend.
http://store.apple.com/us/product/FD770LL/A/refurbished-mac-pro-32ghz-quad-core- intel-xeon-2012
Thank you all for the info. I am looking at the new mac mini 2.3g quad i7 with 8gb ram (around $900). with used mac pros in the market, which one would I configure/buy to be in the same vicinity?
In other words, can I build an older mac pro spending the similar dollars and have the same performance?
Mini is overdue for Haswell.
Same? or 'good enough?"
I added $100 for higher clocked and I suggest getting 16GB when you buy it unless OWC has RAM upgrade, in which case get it with base RAM.
You will need some USB3 and Thunderbolt storage. I suggest you get 256 or 500GB SSD rather than Fusion and darn well avoid the stock drive.
Hi
Your usage is not correct!
The mac pro A1186 has ben 5190 Points on the scale pro cpu.
The mac pro A1186 has more then 41520 in multicore modus.
The oldest 8core macpro is faster then all mac minis!
Regards
Hi
Your usage is not correct!
The mac pro A1186 has ben 5190 Points on the scale pro cpu.
The mac pro A1186 has more then 41520 in multicore modus.
The oldest 8core macpro is faster then all mac minis!
Regards
Mac Pro A1186 vs new mac mini
