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    Mac Pro vs. Water Cooled Tower?

    Discussion in 'Apple and Mac OS X' started by NeRo45, Sep 23, 2008.

  1. NeRo45

    NeRo45 Notebook Evangelist

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    Hey everyone :D I have a little problem choosing which to go with. On one hand I always wanted a Mac to play around with but on the other hand I would need Windows to run my Architecture programs. The only other difference would e the price between the two but if its worth it than I am willing to cough it up. Also, is the new HD 4870 x2 compatible with the MAc Pro? Thank you
     
    NeRo45, Sep 23, 2008
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  2. Chris27

    Chris27 Notebook Deity

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    Water cooling isn't worth it. Since you are still constrained by room temperature, its only going to buy you about 10 degrees C and that's with a good water cooling setup. Water cooling kits suck. All of this is really irrelevant unless you plan on doing a lot of overclocking. If that is the case, you might as well go phase change. In my opinion you get much more bang for your buck if you upgrade often than investing in an expensive cooling kit.

    As for the Mac Pro, it's a professional server. What do you plan on doing with it? For general use/gaming you can build a desktop 1/3 the price that will do everything you want.
     
    Chris27, Sep 23, 2008
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  3. J12

    J12 Notebook Evangelist

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    Water cooling really isn't worth it. No kits are really that good. Just buy the components separately, a good wc loop will run you 200-300.
     
    J12, Sep 24, 2008
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  4. Modly

    Modly Warranty Voider

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    Watercooling is only worth it if you plan to be on the cutting/bleeding edge of overclocking. I don't mean to offend you, so please don't take it wrong, but if you are asking if you should go for a high powered desktop, or a high powered desktop with watercooling, you don't need the liquid.

    It would be one more thing to go wrong in a computer for something that you won't utilise.

    Now, being an owner of a Mac Pro myself... I can highly recommend one to anybody that needs a badass tower. While I do tap out my processors fairly infrequently right now, I know that I'll have enough to get me by for the next several years without a new computer.

    The card you want though, I've got no idea if they have a Mac version available yet.
     
    Modly, Sep 24, 2008
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  5. NeRo45

    NeRo45 Notebook Evangelist

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    Ok thanks for the info everyone! I will be doing heavy gaming as well as some 3d work and CAD apps. I guess I have a real urge to get a Mac. What would be a really good Video Card Configuration for the Mac Pro?
     
    NeRo45, Sep 24, 2008
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  6. csinth

    csinth Snitch?

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    csinth, Sep 24, 2008
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  7. Xirurg

    Xirurg ORLY???

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    Nehalhem will bring 16 cores :rolleyes: imagine that in FSX
     
    Xirurg, Sep 24, 2008
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  8. Budding

    Budding Notebook Virtuoso

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    I would suggest you build yourself a nice cost effective quad core non-Xeon desktop PC with a nice HD4850 or 9800GTX or GTX260, and buy a Mac Mini or Macbook or Macbook Pro or iMac with the spare cash.
    If you're not going to be doing anything super intensive in OS X, there is no point at investing in a $500 Dual socket 771 motherboard with a couple of $1000 Xeon CPUs.
     
    Budding, Sep 24, 2008
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  9. csinth

    csinth Snitch?

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    If you want to build your computer (fun and useful to know how to do), here's a thread to help you out:

    http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=276390

    The $600 configuration has the same graphics card as the $2000-ish.. and the $1000 configuration and above will be better at gaming. For CPU intensive applications though, the Mac will perform much better.

    I don't know if you really want to do water-cooling if you build it yourself.. if you have a well ventilated case with good heatsinks, it will cool your computer adequately.


    Now if you wish to BUY a desktop.. I dunno where to start you.
     
    csinth, Sep 24, 2008
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