Purple Puppy Posted January 31, 2008 Share Posted January 31, 2008 I'm going to buy a Mac in the summer, and I can't decide whether I should buy an awesome 8-core Mac Pro or a way more portable Macbook Pro. Next year I'll be going to university and I'll probably need a laptop. However, the Macbook Pro is very expensive and doesn't boast powerful specs either. I'm hoping that soon they will update the Macbook Pro and give it faster hardware. They say that having a laptop is essential in university life, as it can facilitate note-taking, doing homework, etc. Furthermore, I can do stuff on my computer anywhere, and take advantage of the wireless internet in the campus. However, I do quite a bit of 3D modeling and rendering work, and multicores benefit that especially (the rendering speed is directly proportional to the number of cores. That means that an 8-core Mac Pro, with 4 times as many cores and quite a bit more clock speed, will render more than 4 times as fast as my current computer.) Furthermore, the Mac Pro is one of the few Macs that aren't overpriced (except the RAM). Hackintosh isn't an option. I already have a hackintosh (see sig), and I've already wasted enough time downloading torrents and getting stuff to work. And Autodesk Maya won't work on my hackintosh because it was pirated and I didn't crack it properly, and now I have no time to reinstall the OS on it to try to get Maya to work again. I may have up to $5000 to spend (although this figure may drop). $5000 will buy me: Mac Pro with 8 core 2.8GHz Xeons, 10GB of 800MHz DDR2 ECC RAM (2GB preinstalled and 8GB from 3rd party retailer OWC), Geforce 8800GT, 2 x 500GB hard drives, and a 3rd party 30" monitor (the Apple Cinema Display retails at $1799 whereas 3rd party ones retail for $400 less). Quite a whopping system! Meanwhile, it will also buy me Macbook Pro 15.4" (I'm not getting the 17" because it doesn't have much better specs, is more expensive, and defeats the purpose of portability) with Core 2 Duo 2.6GHz, 4GB of DDR2 667MHz RAM, Geforce 8600m GT, 200GB 7200RPM hard drive, and about $1200 left over for getting a mouse for the Macbook Pro and upgrading my current desktop's RAM and monitor (maybe a 23" to replace my current 19"). Alternatively, I could buy a Mac Pro with 8 core 2.8GHz Xeons, 4GB of RAM, Geforce 8800GT, 500GB harddrive, and a 20" monitor for around $3700 and then buy a standard white 2.2GHz Macbook for $1300. I did not take taxes into account because I might get a bit of discount as a student, which would hopefully cancel out the tax. Please advise me on what to buy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thespottedelf Posted January 31, 2008 Share Posted January 31, 2008 i'd go with the mac pro and macbook. That seems like the best thing of you. Or on a weekend you could reinstall os x on your hackintosh, but you said you didn't want to do that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Synaesthesia Posted January 31, 2008 Share Posted January 31, 2008 I agree. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
clv101 Posted January 31, 2008 Share Posted January 31, 2008 Mac Pro and cheapest MacBook - or even a really cheap Dell laptop or something. It's it's just the mobile Internet, note taking etc then get the cheapest laptop you can find and put Linux on it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
articquad Posted January 31, 2008 Share Posted January 31, 2008 I agree with the guy above me. But I'd recommend sticking with a mac instead of a windows laptop. Just max out the RAM on your own, we all know Apple's RAM prices are insane. Plus, you can sync them with .mac if you wish, and screen sharing if you've forgotten a paper on one. Having the same OS on both computers is always a good idea. Especially if you're depending on both to work together. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thespottedelf Posted January 31, 2008 Share Posted January 31, 2008 was just thinking.... what about like an olpc or asus eee pc and the freaking awesome mac pro. or if your really good with your thumbs a ipod touch. And then you can just use google docs for everything Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Purple Puppy Posted January 31, 2008 Author Share Posted January 31, 2008 I agree with the guy above me. But I'd recommend sticking with a mac instead of a windows laptop. Just max out the RAM on your own, we all know Apple's RAM prices are insane. Plus, you can sync them with .mac if you wish, and screen sharing if you've forgotten a paper on one. Having the same OS on both computers is always a good idea. Especially if you're depending on both to work together. I can't really max out the RAM on a Macbook on my own because it only has 2 RAM slots and both of them are filled with 512MB chips preinstalled. If I buy more RAM on my own then I'll have to take out the preinstalled RAM which is a waste. However, I will look into buying a Macbook and a Mac Pro. Maybe I can just buy a Mac Pro and then buy another cheap Windows laptop, because my dad already has a Macbook (2.2GHz C2D, 1.5GB RAM, bought a week ago) and I can exchange laptops with him. So now the calculation becomes: $900 for a cheap windows laptop, and around $3730 for a Mac Pro with 8 core 2.8GHz Xeons, 2GB preinstalled RAM + 8GB 3rd party RAM (10GB total), Geforce 8800GT, 500GB hard drive, and then around $370 left over for a 24" monitor. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rschultz101 Posted January 31, 2008 Share Posted January 31, 2008 university life , laptop -> king! portability is key, 3D modeling is maybe 15% of time, and 98% of time, is modeling not rendering, would recommend, a macbook pro, with the nvidia card, you can do the modeling, add a LCD monitor for home, and it covers most. for rendering, use xgrid rendering farm at university, also use dad's laptop, imac etc, over night. basically, 99% of the time I think, you won't have time to actually use your mac pro 8 core machine,.... and with a macbook pro, you can get together with more experienced guys, and learn a lot, also, the first year, you might not have yet that much to render,.... at the TU in Berlin, the hardcore guys would hang out, in the computer room, and use 30+ for xgrid , some places had 1000+ on xgrid,... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thespottedelf Posted January 31, 2008 Share Posted January 31, 2008 wow your dad must really love you if he'd do that... also you need to research stuff about the 3rd party mac pro ram, cause i've heard about problems cause teh 3rd party heat sinks are very good. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Purple Puppy Posted January 31, 2008 Author Share Posted January 31, 2008 university life , laptop -> king! portability is key, 3D modeling is maybe 15% of time, and 98% of time, is modeling not rendering, would recommend, a macbook pro, with the nvidia card, you can do the modeling, add a LCD monitor for home, and it covers most. for rendering, use xgrid rendering farm at university, also use dad's laptop, imac etc, over night. basically, 99% of the time I think, you won't have time to actually use your mac pro 8 core machine,.... and with a macbook pro, you can get together with more experienced guys, and learn a lot, also, the first year, you might not have yet that much to render,.... at the TU in Berlin, the hardcore guys would hang out, in the computer room, and use 30+ for xgrid , some places had 1000+ on xgrid,... You have a good point. However, I don't know if the university (University of British Columbia) I'm going to even has an xgrid rendering farm. It doesn't seem that supportive of Macs (so far all the computers I've seen there are Pentium 4s). Furthermore, I do most of my rendering as a hobby and not for school. Moreover, the Macbook Pro's hardware specs currently are very weak when compared to its price, which is very expensive. I hope Apple updates the Macbook Pro. Maybe I can buy a Macbook Pro for university etc and then use my current desktop (see sig) for any kind of graphics work. However, because my desktop only has 2 cores and 2GB of RAM, some rendering scenes take forever. Furthermore, it lags a lot even when navigating through viewports with a lot of stuff in them. The Macbook Pro doesn't seem to have much better specs than my desktop either, so it would probably lag just as much when navigating through viewports. The Mac Pro looks especially tempting as it has many cores and the 3rd party ram seems pretty cheap ($450 for 4 x 2GB). OWC seems to like advertising its Apple-certified heatsinks, which sound reliable enough. If I buy a Macbook and a Mac Pro and then transfer files between them efficiently enough, then maybe I can use the Mac Pro in the afternoon at home and the Macbook in the morning at university. However, if I just buy a Macbook Pro, then it would save me the hassle of transferring files back and forth all the time. If Apple updates the Macbook Pro, then it should be pretty fast and probably faster than my current desktop. So... again, I am torn between whether I should buy a Macbook and a Mac Pro or a Macbook Pro. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aggg45 Posted January 31, 2008 Share Posted January 31, 2008 asus eee pc's are quite good for note taking but are quite limited to just doing that (plus you must have small fingers or a very good typying accuracy to use one) to be honnest get a macpro and a cheap macbook/laptop you get the best of both worlds. Although I mostly use my lappy to play/surf/chat when I have a really boring lecture PS: make sure you stuff is insured Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rschultz101 Posted January 31, 2008 Share Posted January 31, 2008 suggestion: university macbook pro, 15.4" for portability, unless hard core 17",... home: 1- replace monitor 1440x900 does not cut it, 1680x1050 min, I got 1600x1200, keep your old lcd for pallets/menus, second monitor. 2- slow,...300gb seagate is you biggest bottle neck, files get large, swap gets large, and gazzillions of little tmp file,... 10k raptor, easy, since sata, -> ultra wide scsi 15k, 35gb drives are cheap, just need a decent controller, next, you can do, 2x15k in softraid, 4x15k no problem, 12x15k, need a new case,... -> or raptors in raid,... 3 - 4 - 8 - 16gb RAM, 4- replace core duo, with quad and OC gigabit switch, start putting dad's macbook, on xgrid, at least for testing. later on, with macbook pro 2.4ghz and quad 3ghz+, you should be set. for monitor, a 1920x1200 be a plus, still would want dual screen ,.... ultimate: 17" macbook pro 1920x1200 screen,.... macpro 8 core, dual hd screens, 4xraid, 16-32GB, ... access to a SGI ,.. .512 processors, 128TB memory,... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vbetts Posted January 31, 2008 Share Posted January 31, 2008 Macpro, sure you can't take a Macpro with you like you can a Macbook pro, but with the MacPRO you get more bonus'. Customization. This includes more than 1 harddrive, changable disk drive(If you ever wanted to or needed to), RAID card, WAY better graphics options, and cpu options. Limitations. On the Macpro, you can have up to 32gb of ddr2 ram at 800 mhz! Though I doubt someone would really need that much, that's just an example. I think like 4 or more harddrives which means more space, a lot more space. Lastly, even with the baseline Macpro you have more power than the Macbook pro. Quad core 2.8 ghz. You would never need to overclock that(Not that you would the macbook pro either.) But if you do need it for school, the Macbook pro because you can take it with you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thespottedelf Posted February 1, 2008 Share Posted February 1, 2008 i'm going to stick with the macbook and mac pro... (even if you got a first gen macbook since all you would be doing is taking notes and being a totally awesome mac user) And i'm sorry but filesharing is so easy on the mac that shouldn't be an issue. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cheese N' Pancakes Posted February 1, 2008 Share Posted February 1, 2008 MacPro the ability to upgrade it to 32GB of ram will enable you to keep it for a loooooong time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Purple Puppy Posted February 1, 2008 Author Share Posted February 1, 2008 i'm going to stick with the macbook and mac pro... (even if you got a first gen macbook since all you would be doing is taking notes and being a totally awesome mac user) And i'm sorry but filesharing is so easy on the mac that shouldn't be an issue. OK. I don't see what's there to be "sorry" about saying that the filesharing is so easy on macs that it shouldn't be an issue. In fact, I'm quite glad to hear that filesharing is easy. hmm So when I get my $5000, a Mac Pro and Macbook would probably be what I'll buy. Thanks everyone for your advice. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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