Apple Made Me Buy a Windows HP Workstation

[JamesPDX]

I'm partial to this one:

View attachment 630156​

Cobalt blue and emerald green might also be nice.

Sometimes a nMP is just a nMP.
[doublepost=1462476468][/doublepost]

So, yep, that is exactly what happened. I wanted to buy a Mac Pro for my 4k editing needs. I nursed my 2009 Mac Pro 4,1 for 7 years, upgrading the RAM, the video card, constantly changing out hard drives as my needs dictated, loving the configurability and reliability of that machine.
But it was choking on the 4k footage I'm editing now, the bottleneck was memory and processor, and the only solution was to replace it with something faster, that could be upgraded over the years as I did with the classic Mac Pro.
So I shopped the Mac Pro, configured it to what I needed, and ended up with a decent system: the 3.5 GHZ six core, 64GB of RAM, 256 Flash Drive, and the dual D700 GPUs. That came to $5,799.00. Really, Apple? For a machine that hasn't been updated since 2013?!?! Add to that the fact that I don't trust Apple to keep building the Mac Pro - burned by Aperture and FCPX - and the fact that this machine will never be able to be updated over the coming years the way I did with the 2009 Mac Pro.
So I found myself researching HP workstations.
A couple days research later, I had my system. The HP Z640 Workstation. 3.5 GHZ 6 core Xeon, 256GB PCI Flash Drive, adding an AMD 390x graphics card and 64GB of RAM. With the additional memory and graphics card, it came to just over $3,000.00
Apple, I think, IMHO, is moving on from the professional market. It just doesn't make sense otherwise. Killing off the professional software, building "pro" machines that don't meet pro needs, not consistently updating the "pro" machines they do build... you get the idea.
Makes me sad, as I've been relying on Apple for professional needs for many years. But I believe the ethos of the company has changed... time to move on.
[doublepost=1461876080][/doublepost]Oh, i will admit, I'm keeping the old Mac Pro as well. Still perfectly suitable for photo editing and personal use. . Just wish Apple could come to their senses and build a real replacement for the Mac Pro.

Hey Mark, what's the noise level like for a post-room? Or do you have a machine room?

 

[OS6-OSX]

I'm partial to this one:
Cobalt blue and emerald green might also be nice.

All colors will be available but with problem, the nMP will still not be able to be upgraded!

 

[AidenShaw]

All colors will be available but with problem, the nMP will still not be able to be upgraded!
View attachment 630164

As long as "Flower Power" and "Dalmation" aren't offered. I'm still embarrassed for Apple about those.

 

[MarkusL]

All colors will be available but with problem, the nMP will still not be able to be upgraded!
View attachment 630164

I'll have the Beige Gold please.

 

[grame]

Hackintosh Mac Pro?

http://www.rampagedev.com/?p=2001

 

[AidenShaw]

Hackintosh Mac Pro?

http://www.rampagedev.com/?p=2001

Nice article - but DDR3, E5-2600 (v1) processors and a GTX 700 GPU aren't really progress.

Same story with current DDR4 RAM, current v4 processors, and Maxwell or Pascal GPUs would be very interesting.

 

[accentaudio]

Apple did not "make" you buy anything...

So, yep, that is exactly what happened. I wanted to buy a Mac Pro for my 4k editing needs. I nursed my 2009 Mac Pro 4,1 for 7 years, upgrading the RAM, the video card, constantly changing out hard drives as my needs dictated, loving the configurability and reliability of that machine.
But it was choking on the 4k footage I'm editing now, the bottleneck was memory and processor, and the only solution was to replace it with something faster, that could be upgraded over the years as I did with the classic Mac Pro.
So I shopped the Mac Pro, configured it to what I needed, and ended up with a decent system: the 3.5 GHZ six core, 64GB of RAM, 256 Flash Drive, and the dual D700 GPUs. That came to $5,799.00. Really, Apple? For a machine that hasn't been updated since 2013?!?! Add to that the fact that I don't trust Apple to keep building the Mac Pro - burned by Aperture and FCPX - and the fact that this machine will never be able to be updated over the coming years the way I did with the 2009 Mac Pro.
So I found myself researching HP workstations.
A couple days research later, I had my system. The HP Z640 Workstation. 3.5 GHZ 6 core Xeon, 256GB PCI Flash Drive, adding an AMD 390x graphics card and 64GB of RAM. With the additional memory and graphics card, it came to just over $3,000.00
Apple, I think, IMHO, is moving on from the professional market. It just doesn't make sense otherwise. Killing off the professional software, building "pro" machines that don't meet pro needs, not consistently updating the "pro" machines they do build... you get the idea.
Makes me sad, as I've been relying on Apple for professional needs for many years. But I believe the ethos of the company has changed... time to move on.
[doublepost=1461876080][/doublepost]Oh, i will admit, I'm keeping the old Mac Pro as well. Still perfectly suitable for photo editing and personal use. . Just wish Apple could come to their senses and build a real replacement for the Mac Pro.

 

[AidenShaw]

Apple did not "make" you buy anything...

Rephrase it as "Apple left me no choice but to buy..." and argue with that.

 

[accentaudio]

Rephrase it as "Apple left me no choice but to buy..." and argue with that.

There's always a choice...

 

[AidenShaw]

There's always a choice...

True, he could have bought a Windows Dell workstation, or a Windows Lenovo workstation, or a Windows SuperMicro workstation, or if his apps ran on Linux a Linux workstation....

He did not have a choice to buy an Apple workstation. Apple forced him to buy a Windows system.

 

[DEMinSoCAL]

They are not. Nvidia has been called out and ridiculed several times. several nvidia users, me included are actually hoping for an AMD comeback. there are certainly some very rabid fanboys on both the amd and nvidia side though, il acknowledge that and they are an absolute nuisance, as bad and often worse than Apple fanboys.

however, Microsoft fanboys virtually dont exist, you can barely find a single person on earth who would tell you they love Windows. i have never seen a person defend any of the microsoft issues you mentioned. in fact, pc users are actively criticising microsoft for most of them.

Compared to OSX, I LOVE WINDOWS. There...said it. Takes care of one of your untruths. I use both, but am 90% Windows lover and 10% OSX tolerater (is that a word?)

"Still uses a fragmenting file system, a registry." Who cares? It doesn't affect my day-to-day, and I spend practically ZERO time on filesystem issues in Windows compared to having to deal with never-ending permissions issues and other related stupidity in OSX.

"Tablet interface on a desktop?" Have you used Windows 10 or just 8.1? Because Windows 10 gives you back your desktop and is mostly like Windows 7 (or can be made to). As Apple gets closer and closer to merging their OSX and iOS, you soon will not be able to use that excuse against Windows users, and OSX will look like an iPad.

"Skylake users have to upgrade to Windows 10?" Never heard of that. I know that almost all Dell 6th-gen systems using Skylake chipset support Windows 7 - Windows 10 and you can download the drivers for Windows 7 or 8 right from Dell.com. I would guess ALL new Skylake systems COME with Windows 10, so why would they have to upgrade?

" Secretly downloading Windows 10 on a users computer taking up precious drive space." Precious drive space? People have multi-terabyte drives in their system. 6GB is nothing. If it is to you, that says a lot.

"Transmitting user data back to Microsoft." Use Google much? If you're concerned that MS is part of the CIA or NSA and your information is that valuable, during the initial setup of Windows 10, you can opt out of most of the telemetry with a single flick of your mouse.

I'm hardly a Windows fanboy but can clearly tell when people have an agenda.

 

[AidenShaw]

"Still uses a fragmenting file system, a registry." Who cares? It doesn't affect my day-to-day, and I spend practically ZERO time on filesystem issues in Windows compared to having to deal with never-ending permissions issues and other related stupidity in OSX.

HFS+ is also a fragmenting filesystem, but by default defragments as you use it (slowing down accesses to fragmented files).

NTFS lets you defer defragmentation to off hours, and by default will defragment when the system is idle.

What's the difference - whether it defrags in your face or at off times?

And what's the difference between deleting a corrupted plist file and deleting a corrupted registry key?

"Transmitting user data back to Microsoft." Use Google much? If you're concerned that MS is part of the CIA or NSA and your information is that valuable, during the initial setup of Windows 10, you can opt out of most of the telemetry with a single flick of your mouse.

After setup, go to "Settings -> Privacy" to opt out or opt in...

 

[owbp]

"Transmitting user data back to Microsoft." Use Google much?

I had numerous situations with my friends saying, "Apple is making fingerprints database" and "Windows 10 is spyware" while all of them use Google search engines, gmail, Chrome and what else not as theirs default, everyday tools .

 

[ActionableMango]

" Secretly downloading Windows 10 on a users computer taking up precious drive space." Precious drive space? People have multi-terabyte drives in their system. 6GB is nothing. If it is to you, that says a lot.

Mostly it just says I have a Windows tablet. 6GB is not nothing on a tablet.

Apple does the same thing with large iOS upgrades.

I don't think either of them should be doing that without at least some sort of dialog popup.

 

[Larry-K]

I'm partial to this one:

View attachment 630156​

Cobalt blue and emerald green might also be nice.

Emerald Green, with the Green Lantern Logo, Please.

 

[DEMinSoCAL]

Mostly it just says I have a Windows tablet. 6GB is not nothing on a tablet.

Apple does the same thing with large iOS upgrades.

I don't think either of them should be doing that without at least some sort of dialog popup.

I'm definitely not a proponent of Microsoft force-feeding updates, but I was remarking about the space used, as that was what the OP was annoyed about.
[doublepost=1462501519][/doublepost]

HFS+ is also a fragmenting filesystem, but by default defragments as you use it (slowing down accesses to fragmented files).

NTFS lets you defer defragmentation to off hours, and by default will defragment when the system is idle.

What's the difference - whether it defrags in your face or at off times?

And what's the difference between deleting a corrupted plist file and deleting a corrupted registry key?



After setup, go to "Settings -> Privacy" to opt out or opt in...

I can't tell if you're agreeing or disagreeing with my points!

Also, with regards to defragmentation, with SSD's in practically everything, this is less of an issue (or no issue at all, really).
[doublepost=1462502526][/doublepost]

Mostly it just says I have a Windows tablet. 6GB is not nothing on a tablet.

I would agree in the case of a Windows tablet, but then again, if you have a true Windows tablet you should be using Windows 10 for the best experience anyway. Buying a minimum storage device, be it a 16GB iPhone or a low-end Windows tablet you're going to have to get slim to do updates.

 

[Melodist]

There's always a choice...

LOL what's your point other than exercising opposition?

That's like me saying "The meat industry has left me no choice but to become vegan" and you responding "the meat industry did not make you become anything".

If you look for objectivity, go to wikipedia and avoid forums.

Emerald Green, with the Green Lantern Logo, Please.

I'd totally be up for a Captain America design.

 

[SoyCapitanSoyCapitan]

Rephrase it as "Apple left me no choice but to buy..." and argue with that.

I hate to make an analogy because sometimes people just don't get analogies, but if your partner or religion or political party or your employer lets you down in a big way then yes, they did make you leave and search for better options. Same with brand loyalty.

 

[Precision Gem]

LOL, iPad Pro for what pros? Not video and film guys, that's for sure. I think Tim Cook and Phil Schiller need to take a week off, and spend the time touring some post houses, indie film offices, live theatre sound departments, etc. They'll get an earful. When it comes to these kind of customers, listening is something Apple execs should try.

Believe it or not, there are many "Pros" out there who's profession has nothing to do with post houses, indie film offices or live theater sound departments. There are many other professions, with many more people involved in them than yours.9

 

[navaira]

Does anybody feel like making a mock-up of Hermes and Louis Vuitton oMP? (o stands for old as it is anything but new now.)

 

[dreadnull]

I must've missed something, in which case I apologize, but I configured a build to order Z640 today on HP's site and with a 3.5 Ghz Xeon, 64 gigs of RAM and PCI SSD it landed at $5421. Couldn't stick a AMD 390 in there though.. Not trying to defend the 2013 Mac Pro or anything, just curious how you got the price down to $3000?

 

[joe8232]

I'm a scientist and do a lot of parallel computation in python and Fortran. I've always used Macs (need unix) and am currently using a 6 core mac pro 2013. I'm starting a new job in the summer and need to invest in a new workstation. I simply can't justify spending $5000 (ball park) to buy the same machine my old university bought me when I started there in 2014!

I've been looking into titancomputers.com and I can get a 20 core, 64gb RAM machine for the same amount. Does anyone have any experience with them? I know I'll have to "put up with" ubuntu, but I can't justify the cost for the Mac when my productivity will suffer. I have everything crossed for an upgraded dual processor mac pro at WWDC!

 

[Padaung]

As long as "Flower Power" and "Dalmation" aren't offered. I'm still embarrassed for Apple about those.

View attachment 630165​

I really like the blue dalmation iMac (However, I think I'm bias. I grew up with dalmations as household pets). I had a Power Mac at the time so didn't buy one. I still look out for one on eBay

 

[OS6-OSX]

Does anybody feel like making a mock-up of Hermes and Louis Vuitton oMP? (o stands for old as it is anything but new now.)

They were out of LV cMP's. You have no idea what a designer nMP cost these days!

 

[linuxcooldude]

I must've missed something, in which case I apologize, but I configured a build to order Z640 today on HP's site and with a 3.5 Ghz Xeon, 64 gigs of RAM and PCI SSD it landed at $5421. Couldn't stick a AMD 390 in there though.. Not trying to defend the 2013 Mac Pro or anything, just curious how you got the price down to $3000?

He only used one video card. If he configured for two like the nMP, would likely put it on par with the price.
[doublepost=1462538755][/doublepost]

Apple did not "make" you buy anything...

Its just a common argument tactic. If a something does not fit my needs, it must be to blame. Same with using personal experience as proof also known as "anecdotal evidence"