Which Mac Pro Refurb? (1 Viewer)

[Michael Harris]

Hello all:

I'm getting ready to pull the trigger on a Mac Pro Refurb from Apple's site.

These are the two I'm looking at and both cost $1,999.00.

Refurbished Mac Pro Quad 2.66GHz Intel Xeon
Two 2.66GHz Dual-Core Intel Xeon processors
1GB (2 x 512MB) memory (667MHz DDR2 fully-buffered DIMM ECC)
250GB Serial ATA 3Gb/s 7200 rpm hard drive
16x SuperDrive (DVD+R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW)
NVIDIA GeForce 7300 GT graphics with 256MB memory

Refurbished Mac Pro with One 2.8GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon
One 2.8GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon processor
2GB (2 x 1GB) of 800MHz DDR2 ECC fully buffered DIMM
320GB Serial ATA 3Gb/s 7200-rpm hard drive
16x SuperDrive (DVD±R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW)
ATI Radeon HD 2600 XT 256MB (two dual-link DVI ports)

This computer will be used for general use, photo editing, maybe some web work, and light gaming in Windows mode (no super graphics intensive games though). It is going to replace one PC and my G-4.

Recommendations?

 

[Phil Kim]

Perhaps I am missing something, but quad-core looks better than two dual-core in every way: faster (CPU, GPU, memory), more memory, bigger hard disk.

 

[Daryl L]

I'd say this one.

 

[DaveF]

From your brief description of computer usage, I suggest buying a less expensive iMac. MacWorld has a great article on the new rules of buying a Mac.

 

[Sam Posten]

I'd wait the 27 days and 13 hours till the Stevenote but that's just me =)

 

[Christ Reynolds]

Is that the ATI card that inevitably dies in all Mac Pros? Better do some reading on Mac forums. If it is, run away from that card.

CJ

 

[ErichH]

Micheal - we set up a single quad 2.8 the first week of release.
A very solid machine. No problems with the video card here. Easily runs as fast as a previous gen 3.0 duo with the same 2g memory.

The only thing we didn't like was the cheap super drive Apple uses in the pro recently. A 30.00 pioneer solves that problem.

I doubt there will be any movement on the pros in the next 2 months. Too much 10.5.3 and iPhone stuff going on right now.

 

[Christ Reynolds]

Neither did anyone else, the first few months of use. But one of the ATI cards has been systematically dying in a ton of machines.

CJ

 

[Michael Harris]

Thanks for all the input folks. And DaveF, thanks for the link. Something to consider.