So you’ve seen the unboxing. I’ve been using the machine beauty for almost a month now, so it’s time for the extended review.
The Mac Pro: Codename “Lotus” — Dual Quad Core, 5 GB RAM, Stock 250 GB hard drive + 3 Seagate 320 GB 7200.10’s
2x Dell 2407 FWP’s (24″ Monitors)
Logitech Z2300 (Speakers)
Logitech DiNovo Edge (Keyboard)
Apple Mighty Mouse (and MX610)
Sennheiser HD595’s (and Headroom Bithead amplifier) [Headphones]
My Macbook Pro was really at its limits, and I don’t think I could’ve gotten the Mac Pro at a better time. Well, except maybe like a year ago. nSeriously though, it might have been a good idea to wait till October for leopard and possible upgrades, but I needed the power soon and fast.
It annoys me when people think that web deign doesn’t need any power, unlike video editing or 3D graphics or something really intense. For one, Photoshop and myself are a deadly combo. The Hosting Factory design was over 1000 layers before I had to flatten it and continue working over (back on the Macbook). So while this might be slightly overkill, I do use most of it.
This was one of the big reasons for getting a Mac Pro — ability to use more monitors.
A big issue while coding is screen real estate. While there were technically two displays earlier (the notebook and one 24″), they were really not that useful for coding. The small laptop screen is a good place to keep Adium windows and small things while you’re reading or doing something, but I think web design and coding benefits the most from being able to rapidly go back and forth from different programs and files. Being able to have 4 or 5 files, a browser window, Photoshop and Transmit, all at the same time—and actually be able to use them— is a HUGE productivity boost.
With the Mac Pro, I was able to get another 24” monitor (I had one earlier). They’re identical, but since one was a year old it’s a bit faded and weaker. Their colors don’t look identical either (I’ve calibrated them both with the OS X tool but I can still tell the difference) but it’s close enough. But that wasn’t something I had anticipated…
So if you ever plan to get dual monitors, it’d be a good idea to get them at the same time so they can age together.
The Mac Pro can power up to the 30” displays, but those are pretty pricy and I wouldn’t want to spend that much on displays till the new LED technology comes out and matures. Then these displays will be dirt cheap, and those will be much better (in terms of brightness, viewing angle, color rendition…).
A common question is how the Dell 2407’s compare to the Apple Cinema Displays. I’m not a fan of Dell, but these displays are definitely great. In the past it was a no-brainer, since they were also considerably cheaper than the ACD’s, but now it’s a bit closer. Still, the Dell does have many more features, another inch and slightly better specs. The Apple, of course, looks nicer with it’s aluminum enclosure. Pretty aluminum vs 5 inputs (DVI of course, + VGA [I have my PC hooked up too], HDMI, S-Video (used to use these for my Wii)) and a bunch of card readers (SD, CF, MMC) and USB ports.
One issue with my Macbook Pro was that at the end I had about 50 MB free, and not much stuff that I could delete. External drives didn’t really work either, because I’d always find myself missing the stuff I wanted to use.
So I made it a point to have plenty and fast hard drive storage on this machine. I kept the stock drive, because it’s not bad and came with it. Then I added on 3 320 GB drives that I bought from Newegg. I think they were around 80 dollars at the time, so it was a pretty good deal.
I’m still not sure whether the drives have a bug/incompatability with the Mac Pro that results in slow write speeds. I’d read about it but I’d also read that it had been fixed for some firmwares, so oh well. It runs fine so it’s too late to worry about that.
I had considered some type of RAID arrays, but in the end I just opted for intelligent partitioning. The idea was to A) have efficient read/writes where applications and data can be accessed in parallel, made to maximize performance for a few common scenarios. For example, opening and saving a large PSD. The projects are stored on one drive, with applications on another and OS X on another. Also B) I’d never run out of hard drive space again… (At this point I was really tired of messages like “Your OS X drive is out of space” or “iTunes is unable to save playlist. Please check disk space.”)
So far it’s working great, and the partitioning scheme appeals to my obsessiveness (as compared to using a bunch of folders).
Disk 1: OS X & Windows core files
Disk 2:Applications, Documents (text stuff), Media (videos, music) [applications aren’t that big and the other things aren’t very disk-performance intensive]
Disk 3:Projects, Photos [the idea is that I probably won’t be editing photos and working on projects intensively at the same time, but both are opened by applications]
Disk 4:Archives & storage [this one is just backups of the projects, and a storage drive for things like installers, to quickly copy files back and forth from any other drive]
As points of interaction with the user, quality peripherals and accessories make a huge difference in the experience. I had bought the Logitech DiNovo a month or two ago, in anticipation for the Mac. Though I’d tested out the standard Apple wireless keyboard, the DiNovo rocks. The thing about keyboard (and many other things) is that you can get used to almost anything and then it becomes good. But this really is a nice keyboard, both in features and design.
It’s probably the best looking keyboard out there. Actually, just the best keyboard. Yeah, that’s right Optimus overpriced and pointless LED buttons, I’m talking to you. It’s keys feel nice, much like a laptop keyboard. Going to and from my Macbook was nice. Standard keyboards feel totally different and the different pressures required can get annoying.
The biggest drawback is that it isn’t a native Mac keyboard. It’s littered with disgusting Windows logos (2). But, it’s still worth it I think. The shiny black and aluminum looks sleek. The volume control slider + mute button at the right is also very useful. The trackpad looks cool (with the glowy orange around it) but I rarely use it.
Some slight remapping is required for OS X—between the “windows” key and the alt key, to make it the normal Apple keyboard layout. But it’s a simple fix using the Double Command Prefpane.
They’re sweet. I used to hate them, having used one for a few minutes at the Apple store, reading bad reviews and just the idea. But since I got one and Apple’s got a good track record, I figured I’d try it out. I like it more than my MX610 for most things.
The biggest thing it has going for it is that it’s so comfortable, cause of it’s smooth shape. First I thought I’d hate the little ball scrolly thing, but it’s actually fun to use and play with. Much less friction (none of that clicky nonsense), but you get the control because of its small radius, so I like it better than scrolling now.
The MX610 is decent, but the shape is a bit awkward and the 5000 buttons on it get uncomfortable. I use it in Windows and for gaming.
It’s nice not having to wait for stuff. Photoshop loads stuff blazingly fast, and I can finally work with HUGE files and a bazillion layers. In the past, SO MUCH of time was spent waiting for Photoshop to do stuff, and only a fraction on actually thinking about what to do or doing it.
This is really the biggest reason I got it, and on its own is worth it. Now Photoshop can finally keep up with my keystrokes and its great. Yes, I work very inefficiently — with many many layers and folders, so that virtually anything can be changed or tweaked later.
Of course, Adobe CS3 rocks too, and its performance boost (infinitely over CS2 and by a bit over the beta) also helped.
General OS X usage is great too, probably from the fast hard drive reads. Copying files from drive to drive is lovely, with a few gigs a minute. Interdrive performance is decent.
Sometimes it hangs, but thats usually the fault of software.
The X1900 XT is not the beast that it used to be when the card was launched, but it’s still no slouch, especially coupled with 5 gigs of RAM and 8 cores of 3GHz Xeon power.
I setup a few games just for some quick testing and the results are satisfactory. UT2004 flies at max settings, as do most games of the last generation. Command and Conquer 3 runs alright, and Rainbow Six Vegas has to be turned down one notch but plays smoothly.
This is the best Mac gaming experience, though it can definitely be topped by some cutting edge PCs.
I might have forgotten something, so feel free to ask any questions! Advice, why I chose something, how I like _____, whatever…
Comments
This place isn't ALL about me — just mostly.
Dennis
3 years, 2 months ago
Nice rig!
Kyle
3 years, 2 months ago
This puts my baby to shame. And for a while I was really proud of my 20″ iMac :). I need to upgrade badly. So did you feel like the main issue with your Macbook Pro was the hard-drive limitations, cause I’m attracted to the thought of one. Glad to hear your reaction to the Mac Pro, and once again I’m freakin’ jealous.
Anand
3 years, 2 months ago
Yeah, the hard drive space flexibility was an issue for me since, well that was my main and only machine so it had everything on it. Pictures (gigs of raw files), projects, etc.
I only had a 100 GB one though, with 20 partitioned off for windows so I had like 77 GB that I could actually use… Your mileage may vary, and if you get one of the bigger hard drives (like 160 or 200) then you should be fine and well off, I think.
Kyle
3 years, 2 months ago
Thanks for the advice. From the sound of it we both like to abuse our hard-drives via ginormous Photoshop files so I’ll keep that in mind.
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