imac 27" vs mac pro? help

i upgraded my snow leopard os x to yosemite and my macbook pro won't even boot up just goes to grey screen. it will boot in safe mode only. yosemite fucked my 2011 macbook pro.

Boot into safe mode, backup all your personal data to whatever backup medium you have, flash drive, spare hard drive, even dvd-r's if need be... Then, try the following:

Internet Recovery

Starting in 2010, Apple introduced its Internet Recovery service, which allows a system to download the contents of the Recovery HD partition from Apple’s servers, instead of having to load the recovery tools locally. This option allows a system to run these tools in the event its hard drive has been completely wiped or otherwise does not have recovery tools on it.

To load Internet Recovery, you need to be connected to a non-enterprise WPA/WPA2-secured Wi-Fi network, and then follow the steps above for Local Recovery but instead hold Option-Command-R when starting up. When you do this, you will see a spinning globe appear as the system downloads the recovery tools from Apple.

Note that Internet Recovery is only supported on the systems in the following list, and later:

MacBook Pro (13-inch, Early 2011)
MacBook Pro (15-inch, Early 2011)
MacBook Pro (17-inch, Early 2011)
iMac (21.5-inch, Mid 2011)
iMac (27-inch, Mid 2011)
MacBook (13-inch, Mid 2010)
MacBook Pro (13-inch, Mid 2010)
Mac mini (Mid 2010)
MacBook Pro (15-inch and 17-inch, Mid 2010)
iMac (21.5-inch and 27-inch, Mid 2010)
MacBook Air (11-inch and 13-inch, Late 2010)

Weird.

Almost forgot, that guide above is if you DO NOT have a recovery HD already on your macbook, to see if still have a recovery partition on your macbook, try this:

Restart your Mac and press Option when the grey screen appears. Then select Recovery Disk.

Open Disk Utility and format the partition with the name you want for Mac OS Journaled. I always use 3 pass for security reasons. It will take about 1:30 hours.

Then close Disk Utility and select Install Mac OS. Choose the partition you just formatted and install from there. This will take about an hour depending on your internet connection speed.

thanks dude. i've tried most things and this, but still boots to grey. i'm wondering if it's the logic board? it's late 2011.

The Mac Pro would be overkill unless you also do video production. The iMac should be fine.

And this way too:

Recovery Mode

Starting with the release of OS X Lion in 2011, Macs have offered a Recovery Mode that users can access to diagnose hardware issues, restore Time Machine backups, manage hard drives, and even reinstall OS X itself. To use Recovery Mode, reboot or start your Mac and hold the Command and R keys simultaneously on your keyboard as soon as you hear the familiar startup chime. Keep holding as your Mac boots, which may take a few moments depending on its specific configuration. You can let go of the keys when you see a screen similar to the screenshot below.

hahaha ya people impressed with your ability to buy overpriced shit and an inability to understand what's going on in your overpriced shit are not the people I'm trying to impress.

As usual GLP has motivated me to not be lazy and build a hackintosh, thanks guys

thanks geez, i'll give that a go. your screenshot did'nt appear as you said check below!!!

Oh shi-! My bad, here is the picture:

[link to cdn3.tekrevue.com]

It was taken from this article:

[link to www.tekrevue.com]

I use a macbook pro for editing music. Its the industry standard! People can trash macs all they want but when it comes down to multimedia,Macs are the way to go!!!!!!!! PERIOD! Yes they are very overpriced but well worth it when it comes to rendering videos and working on music. Pcs are good for overall things but when you need power and speed without crashing,MACBOOK all the way! Most studios Ive worked in have some sort of Apple computer. Very Very rare to see a pc.

NEVER upgrade ram in a mac laptop, will never work the same again

LOL! Exactly, seriously you won't regret it, it's very fun to do! And in the end, you will have a machine that is just as powerful, if not more - than a current iMac model; and the fact that it will cost half, if not more than half the price of an iMac. Just hit up the tonymacx86 link I posted, and get yourself an account. It's a very friendly, helpful place. And definitely use the buying guides for help on getting the most compatible hardware.



Oh were not talking about any ol' PC... Were talking about PC's loaded with OS X!!!

There is a new 27” iMac with a retina display for about $2900 base.

You can upgrade the processor, the video, and the storage and memory to insane levels. If you “max it out” you’ll be pushing 4900 without trying too hard. But a Terabyte of non-volitile memory for storage, 32 Gig of memory for processing, and video memory of 2gigs I think on the optional high end video card.

All in all, it adds up to a damn nice and very fast machine with amazing display capabilities.

To get the same power in a Mac Pro you would spend another $3k minimum for the monitor and storage upgrades. However, the Mac Pro can keep on growing if your needs eventually outstripped the machines initial configuration.

Personally I’d go for the iMac w/ Retina and max out the memory, storage, video and RAM. It’s unlikely that you’d ever outgrow it within the useful life of the machine (about 7 years generally.) If you did, you could always sell it and use the proceeds to get into a Mac Pro. But seriously, I doubt you would ever need to do so..

Good Luck and Merry Christmas!!

Hacks are ok. Still. Not the same. And I do pro work so if I walked into a studio with a hackintosh ,well... lol Most studios have a IMac that Ive worked in. They are plenty powerful enough. My friend has a hackintosh and it works great I have to say.

Here is a build that is comparable to the base $2900 Retina iMac. This one can be expanded up to 32GB of RAM as well, and is fully compatible with OS X Yosemite.

CPU:
[link to www.newegg.com]

Motherboard:
[link to www.newegg.com]

RAM:
[link to www.newegg.com]

For video, the retina iMac is using laptop graphics - An M290X. Its desktop equivalent is the Radeon HD 7870… I just went with this:
[link to www.newegg.com]

For storage, the retina iMac is using that Fusion drive technology; which basically a 1TB hard drive combined with a 128GB SSD drive… I’ll admit, there is a process to getting fusion working under an OSx86 environment; but it is not something that is required… You could just install OS X on the SSD and use the 1TB drive for storage:
[link to www.newegg.com]
[link to www.newegg.com]

So far the total is $641.48, which is including tax and shipping. I know it’s missing a case, power supply, but that shouldn’t be too much more. I know this motherboard doesn’t have thunderbolt either, but does anyone really use that? There are few motherboards on Newegg with thunderbolt support though… For the display, the only comparable monitor to the iMac’s Retina display is this:
[link to accessories.us.dell.com]

And the lowest price I could find is for $2,190.16. I’ve seen this retina stuff; honestly, any HD monitor will do for me:
[link to www.newegg.com]

I'm probably missing some things and I'm sure another user will chime in... OP if you're still following this, the above build will work, but since it is your first time doing this, I would stick with the buyer's guide, any hardware on that list is 100% compatible.



Bah, just walk in with it anyway. I'll agree though, it is not the same in certain cases... Like the fusion drive thing(still not really necessary) , or that filevault 2 doesn't work (being worked on I believe, via Clover EFI), but legacy filevault still does. Things like that...

old wives tale-they last a lot longer-you can buy 3 $400 PC that will fall apart while you own ONE Mac at $1000



You need to get a Mac Pro---iMacs are good, but you can only cram 12GB of memory into them....and you need production quality stuff

actually mine is a mid 2011-the newer ones may accept more

I've got both pc and imac for music production. Pc is mastering and imac for recording and production. Have to say not once since the day I got the imac have I had issues works exactly the same as if it is new no driver problems or anything and the ease of the OS makes it idea for music production. Pc however can drive you mad when trying to get drivers working properly for your gear.

thanks for your opinion. I think i'm still gonna do the Hackintosh route cause i'm also a computer science student and i'd be ashamed of myself if I didn't at least try

If you can afford the Mac Pro then get it. But that being said... even a Mac Mini will do the job. I run a Macbook Pro and use Logic Pro X for music production. I record, mix, and master at 96 Khz sample rate and load numerous Waves Plug-ins (tube compression sims, tube saturators) along with running Impulse Responses for bass cab sims, all of my reverbs, and almost all of my delay effects. My Mac handles it so well that I can even leave Slack and Viber on and chat with friends while mixing.

I say this to say that really... either Mac you're talking about will do the job. In reality... I would probably just get the iMac and spend the extra money on a nice thunderbolt based audio interface. Trust me, the thunderbolt connection is worth your while. Haven't had performance this good on tons of tracks since I ran an M-Audio PCI interface years back.

Also, if you're aiming to produce music professionally, just get the Mac. Don't bother with PC platforms. I've been down that road. You need something that will work and keep on working. The last thing you need is the blue screen of death hitting you while you're in the middle of recording a vocalist's best take only to lose the moment thanks to a fucking PC crashing again. And yes, I have used the Hackintosh approach. There is a reason the hackintosh sits in my basement collecting dust. It's unreliable and it's extremely inefficient in handling RAM.

THIS

Key question here... are you looking to produce music professionally? Or as a hobby?

If professionally, get the actual mac. If as a hobby, then sure build you a hackintosh. But don't expect the reliability that you get from actual macs. I'm telling you, I have been down that road with producing music through a hackintosh. I would never feel comfortable taking it into a professional setting. I've had things crash and burn and the performance would be way too spotty.

Now could I go in and fix those things by tweaking kernels and what not? Sure. But that is hours, days, perhaps weeks of work spent trying to make my computer work while I have to also maintain my audio interface, mic positions, preamps, gain levels, impedance mismatching, amp adjustments, instrument levels, signal phase, etc. And then I have to make musicians I'm recording effective as well. Thus... it's just nice to have a computer that I know will run when I want it to run. I have used actual Macs now for 8+ years. When I push the power button to turn it on, it turns on. When I open Logic Pro X, Logic Pro X opens. When I record an audio track, audio is recorded. I don't have to deal with lots of bullshit. The computer is just one cog in the overall wheel so for me, I need it to be reliable like an AK.

I know I just gave a long rant again but I'm just speaking from experience in recording professionally. I just want you to be as informed as possible when going into this. Whatever you choose, I wish you nothing but the best.

And you're missing the point of macs entirely. The people you're shaming for not being PC experts (the majority) are the very people Apple is catering to. While you shame... they sell. And I can see why.

Having transitioned from PC to Mac for use in a professional setting, I have found it to work consistently. I don't have to wonder if it's going to work, it just does and it is very comfortable to use as well.

All the more reasons to stick with the buyers guide, each and every part has been vetted to be 100% compatible with OS X. The instability, RAM inefficiency tends to happen when a user tries to install OS X on any ol' PC or a build using parts not known/documented to work properly under OS X. No kernel tweaking needed if every single part works OOB.

In regards to the thunderbolt, again a lot of the motherboards listed in the buyer's guide have thunderbolt support.

[link to www.tonymacx86.com]

"When running OS X as your main operating system, supported and compatible components are extremely important. That is why we have created a large selection of example systems along with a comprehensive list of the best available hardware. The components listed here might not be the only ones that work, but based on our research they're the easiest and best supported options. Use the following Buyer's Guide as a shopping list or as a jumping off point for further customization."

Lol you dont have to wonder if its going to work? thats because you dont know what the hell you are doing. I remember when I posted an employment add on a website where you can outsource work. I needed someone to program something for me and a few people replied. I sent some of those ppl the .rar file and 2 ppl from america had no idea how to open the .rar file and they didnt know what it was. You must be like them. How the hell can someone claim to be experienced in PCs and not know what the fuck a .rar file is.

LMAO $2900 for an IMAC? get the fuck out of here. If you custom build a PC for $2900 you could get something that would BLOW the IMAC specs out the fucking water. The monitor will be tough to beat because thats exclusive to apple, you will just have to find a comparable monitor for the pc. Everything else in terms of hardware specs, a $2900 PC WOULD DESTROY THE IMAC IN ANY RAW BENCHMARK TEST! With a $2900 pc, if you get a cheap case and a cheap power supply and GO ALL OUT ON THE CPU, RAM, MOBO, and GPU, man I think that would be overkill for music production. Unless you want to make hollywood type movies and edit 4k, 8k movies on the fly you dont need a $2900 PC. Imac is a fucking rip.

Thanks! your opinion is appreciated, I produce electronic music (professionally in my opinion) so it's not the kind recording your talking about but I get your point. The thing is I also plan on doing game development and 3d rendering which is why I hope to double boot with windows. My current macbook pro/8gbRAM gets incredibly hot and I rather have a cool running cheaper machine that I can look under the hood and fix/upgrade if I have to rather than something made for limitation.

Your opinion though has made me give this some deeper thought.

Heh.

Cheap power supply.

An imbecile, it's obvious! Care to indicate me 1 fucking virus, idi0t?