Q: Choosing iMac or MacPro
Looking for input and help in this decision process. Considering an iMac over a MacPro that I currently have for space and portability convenience and want to ask folks here in the Mac Edit community for their "opinions" and/or "experience" with similar applications, work, or use. I have retired and want to reduce the amount of work that I do plus clean up my work space from excessive cables and the like.
Either system I edit with FCPX, Lightroom, and Photoshop CS5 and use (will use) thunderbolt external RAID 0 Array having two internal drives, external thunderbolt mini hard drives, and an external BluRay/DVD/CD burner. I will not edit 3D. I will edit 1 camera 4K video eventually, but not much. Most of my work will be no rush BUT having said that when I'm working I DON'T LIKE COLOR WHEEL WAITS or mini lock ups. I'll eventually have thunderbolt single SSD's and hopefully sometime in 2016 thunderbolt RAID 0 with dual SSD's.
Below are my current and proposed specifications with the CURRENT MacPro being a Late 2013 "just above entry level" and the proposed iMac that is a Late 2015 and the very top of the iMacs.
CURRENT MacPro - PROPOSED SPEC'D iMac
MODEL: 6,1 Late 2013 - Late 2015 (newest)
PROCESSOR: 3.7GHz Quad Core Xeon E5 - 4.0GHz i7 Skylake (burst to 4.3GHZ
VIDEO: Firepro D300 2GB x 2 - Radeon R9 M395X 4 GB GDDR5 VRAM
MEMORY: 16GB 1867 MHz DDR3 ECC- 32GB 1867MHz DDR3 ECC
SSD: 256GB - 256GB
FORMER ANNUAL VIDEO WORK: 50-100 TV programs @ 3 camera HD; ~ 15 Weddings @ 3 camera HD; ~ 20 events; 20-30 commercials @ 1 camera HD; 20-30 other productions mostly @ 1 camera HD.
FORMER ANNUAL PHOTO WORK: ~ 10 commercials; ~ 8-10 weddings; ~ 3-5 events, ~ 3-5 birthdays/anniversies
PROPOSED CURRENT VIDEO: < 12 TV programs @ 1-3 camera HD; 2-5 Weddings @ 2 or 3 camera; 2-5 events @ 1-2 cameras HD; ~ 30 commercials @ 1 camera HD; 10-12 other @ 1 camera
Thanks to all who respond and if electing to make the iMac purchase, I will sell the MacPro and one year old Thunderbolt display.
Mac Pro, OS X El Capitan (10.11.2), 3.7 GHz, 16 Gb, Duo FirePro D300, FCPX
Posted on Dec 23, 2015 4:06 PM
Wanted to respond after receiving the USB3 and Disk Speed Testing it and found that the so called 480-525 MB/s SSD only delivered 312-331 MB/s which is about 25% faster but STILL not the double speed (500 MB/s) that I'm looking for.
Called an expert at B&H and spoke for around an hour or so, ran some more tests, and discussed equipment and configuration and learned that the bottleneck in HDD's or SSD's is the bus highway. Thunderbolt will handle the speed, no problem at all. The issue is the number of highways as each highway is limited to about 100-150 MB/s, with 120-140 MB/s being the average. Thus, a faster drive won't do a lot to help the matter but the number of drives involved. That is, double the number of drives and basically one can double their throughput speed.
I have also learned that I can plug in another drive box by daisy chain with the two drive unit I have now, and then reformat the new unit and old unit as a single RAID 0 and double the current speed I have now.
Thus, my only question is IF I want to have all four drives in one handy box or have to deal with two boxes. The difference is 337 for the enclosure and $48 a piece for the drives (6GB/sd, 1TB, 7200rpm) = $529 or purchase another box like I have now $399 a savings of 130 bux although a pain to have to deal with IMO. Supposedly, I will get in the neighborhood of 600 MB/s.
Thanks to all who have helped in this matter and since two of ya have pointed me in the direction of my source problem, I'll shoot the credits accordingly. Thanks again. :-)
Posted on Dec 30, 2015 2:03 PM


