Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Could the nMP have been discontinued?
- Thread starter xraydoc
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
I''m tired of waiting for Apple to update the Mac Pro. It's frustrating. But you know what's also frustrating? Having my posts removed for being "Off-topic" when we're all just letting off some steam and having a little fun in a mundane and repetitive thread. The mods should loosen up a bit and have a little sense of humor.
Also, the Mac Pro is dying or already dead. No updates or even rumors of updates. No announcements of coming awesomeness. Total radio silence from Apple.
It's time for power-users to look to HP or Dell. I've already been playing with the specs on a new Z-machine and I'm coming in around $2400 for a solid, upgrade-able system with lots of room for expansion.
Good day, Sir!
Also, the Mac Pro is dying or already dead. No updates or even rumors of updates. No announcements of coming awesomeness. Total radio silence from Apple.
It's time for power-users to look to HP or Dell. I've already been playing with the specs on a new Z-machine and I'm coming in around $2400 for a solid, upgrade-able system with lots of room for expansion.
Good day, Sir!
I've played around with the hp Z820, it was a solid system. The only issue I have with HP is the website is confusing. Can't seem to comprehend how to customize a build, or frankly, even what you're buying. They just list processor (no GHz) and prices. By the time you click into one, the only option is to add to a cart. At that point, I'm out...At a glance, not very user friendly. They have a large area for improvement in this particular area. Sure Apple has some serious faults right now, but website and customizing a computer (if options exist) has never been one of them.
Haha, the third listing says "not included". What the heck is not included?
Computer is not included......lol.I've played around with the hp Z820, it was a solid system. The only issue I have with HP is the website is confusing. Can't seem to comprehend how to customize a build, or frankly, even what you're buying. They just list processor (no GHz) and prices. By the time you click into one, the only option is to add to a cart. At that point, I'm out...At a glance, not very user friendly. They have a large area for improvement in this particular area. Sure Apple has some serious faults right now, but website and customizing a computer (if options exist) has never been one of them.
View attachment 656297
Haha, the third listing says "not included". What the heck is not included?
The lack of updates which includes the majority of Apple's computers. But highly unlikely the will kill off all of them.
I'm sticking with my 6,1 Mac Pro. Its already paid for itself many times over and the fastest editing machine I've ever used.
I just bought a new 2013 nMP to back up number one. Will not go beyond a system that doesn't run Aperture. El Cap supposedly does, Yosemite positively will. But not until I work out a new workflow. Furious about that. Photos is an absolute joke. Snapshot shoebox for Grandma, teenagers and lazy dilettantes. Probably Capture One Pro which I already own. Too much invested in TBolt 2 to care about TBolt 3. All photo work and nothing above HD 1080. nMP plenty fast. New Retina 15" MBP and a 2012 tower. Resolve and FCPX until they decide to yank that for iPhone editing. Tim Cook and Ive. Put them in a self driving car into the sunset. Bet it will be pretty, though. Until it has to avoid a left turning truck.
If you hover the mouse over the Shop Now button, there is a dropdown that says recommended configurations and a second choice of configure. Click configure.
If you think HP is confusing, just try and configure a computer at Dell
While the warranties are better at HP and Dell, I keep returning to a custom builders site to do research. Looking at configurations there is a snap.
I just clicked on the "Configure to order" option under the "Shop Now" button from the Z840 page. Configuring seems fairly straightforward.I've played around with the hp Z820, it was a solid system. The only issue I have with HP is the website is confusing. Can't seem to comprehend how to customize a build, or frankly, even what you're buying. They just list processor (no GHz) and prices. By the time you click into one, the only option is to add to a cart. At that point, I'm out...At a glance, not very user friendly. They have a large area for improvement in this particular area. Sure Apple has some serious faults right now, but website and customizing a computer (if options exist) has never been one of them.
Haha, the third listing says "not included". What the heck is not included?
Oh yeah? Like that...err..'Not Included' business? Pretty straight forward?
http://store.hp.com/us/en/pdp/desktops/hp-z840-workstation-t4p08ut-aba
Like I said, I personally enjoyed my experience with the Z820. On glance I'm really not seeing anything like that on the page they directed me to. This from their 'Mac to Z' page...If they have multiple pages on how a customer can buy or configure a Z840, they've lost me. Not likely to waste time calling them either. If I was in the market hardcore though, yeah, I'd try a bit harder.
EDIT: ITGuy, correction...if you look back at my original screenshot one of the computers listed had a "customize & buy button. That one definitely let's you customize. Either way, I think they could improve some of this web flow a bit.
Last edited:
- www.hp.com
- Click on "Desktops"
- Click on "Workstations"
- Click on "HP Desktop Workstations"
- Click on "Z840"
- Hover over the down arrow right next to the "Shop Now" button.
- Select the "HP Z840 Configure to Order"
Yep, you're right. However, you blew past everything I said. Back to topic, shall we?
No, I did not. I was attempting to help you based on this statement of yours:
The only issue I have with HP is the website is confusing. Can't seem to comprehend how to customize a build, or frankly, even what you're buying. They just list processor (no GHz) and prices. By the time you click into one, the only option is to add to a cart. At that point, I'm out..
IMO the steps I outlined above are not confusing at all. It took me all of a couple of minutes to figure out how to customize an HP Z840 system. Likewise you said they "just list processor (no GHz)" when that's not true...at least not on the page I pointed you to. Likewise the only option is not just to add it to your cart. This may have been the case on the page, whatever it was, that you were on. However the page I walked you to provides everything you want. It's straightforward to reach, doesn't take a whole lot of steps (given the number of products HP sells), and provides easy to understand information in order to customize a build.
https://www.pugetsystems.com
As I said, they don't offer a 3 year warranty as standard, only 1 year but you can buy additional years. They do have a wealth of articles to read through to help you pick a system and they are pretty prompt answering emails.
Maybe we can meet in the middle and agree to disagree?
I provided screenshots and links to pages that don't show that information. It would appear they have many pages and paths that show different products and information for the same machine but with different configurations. Some clearly don't allow customization...To that, you have to hand it to Apple. Their computer sales pages are pretty straight forward. My opinion, it could use some front end attention.
I do understand what you're saying and appreciate the time you took to point me and others in the right direction. Thanks sir!
There's nothing to agree to disagree on. My post was not an attempt to invalidate what you said. It was an attempt to help you customize a Z840. That's it, nothing more.
I'm agreeing to disagree on some remarks you made...such as "Likewise you said they "just list processor (no GHz)" when that's not true...at least not on the page I pointed you to."
Let's move on.
Already acknowledged in the post you responded to:
"This may have been the case on the page, whatever it was, that you were on."
my post didn't get deleted.. it was silly to begin with but now with no other context, it's looking borderline tourette's sitting there:
#324
One of the main draws to HP (or Dell) for me is the onsite technical support warranty. Lugging a 70lbs computer to a store for service isn't my idea of fun. I had to do that once with my old Mac Pro. The big users I know seem happy with Dell Precision desktops. I'll try them when I upgrade my HP workstation in a few years.
I used to be on this forum all the time avidly reading up on hints and tricks to flash the Mac Pro, kexts to run new video cards not offered by Apple, how to do CPU upgrades, on and on. Now, I don't read any forums at all. It's no more worries about trying to work around outdated hardware. I do miss you all, though. I do note that many members seem to have moved on.
Oh, the HDD cooling on my 5.1 Mac Pro wasn't too great. Had HDDs running in between 40 and 50 deg C. The HP Z system runs them at 30 deg C (I live in the tropics). No more drive failures.
[doublepost=1474559301][/doublepost]
Yup: bought my HP system from B&H.
I used to be on this forum all the time avidly reading up on hints and tricks to flash the Mac Pro, kexts to run new video cards not offered by Apple, how to do CPU upgrades, on and on. Now, I don't read any forums at all. It's no more worries about trying to work around outdated hardware. I do miss you all, though. I do note that many members seem to have moved on.
Oh, the HDD cooling on my 5.1 Mac Pro wasn't too great. Had HDDs running in between 40 and 50 deg C. The HP Z system runs them at 30 deg C (I live in the tropics). No more drive failures.
[doublepost=1474559301][/doublepost]
Yup: bought my HP system from B&H.
I'm pretty comfortable rolling my own PCs, been at it so long that my first cpu upgrade involved a 286. I spent quite some time learning about 'unsupported hardware', and even specced out a pretty powerful machine that would have run about $900--ready to one click order it, but held off. I have a mac pro 2010. Did some reading here and ended up ordering a faster cpu for the 2010 as well as a memory upgrade.
Back in my days as a mainframe programmer, IBM would take a product line that was getting a bit stale in its product life cycle, and provide some sort of incremental improvement. This was called a 'mid life kicker'--as it would kick up the interest in the product line while folks waited for the Next Big Thing to be announced. This is what I am doing with my 2010. While I am concerned for the future of this product line, I figured that if I can get a few more years out of my box, all that skylake technology in my hypothetical build will be a lot cheaper, or some better hardware will come along.
My hypothetical build had a cpu (i7-6700k, IIRC) that had a certain benchmark at about 11,000. My current quad core in them mac pro is benchmarked at maybe 5,000 and the 6 core upgrade I just ordered is about 9,000. So I started thinking that the new build would not be as dramatically faster as I first thought it would. I know the ram and bus is faster, but it still got me thinking. Also, to get ECC ram on a new build, it would drive the cost way up--so I was losing that. I really struggled with this decision since I enjoy buying and building new PCs so much, but I forced myself to think about the functionality I needed and was using--and found my new hypothetical build was not a dramatic improvement like I thought it would be. I know benchmarks do not reflect real life experience, but it sure beats building a new pc to see how fast it is.
Also, my understanding is that the new cpu will take the ram from 1066 to 1333--a little less than a 30% speed improvement.
So, my mid-life kicker was about $275. Still have that idea of unsupported hardware in my back pocket for next year, or when the 2010 gives up the ghost...
I already got the mac pro booting on an ssd drive, so picked up lots of performance doing that--and my opinion is that ssd provides a bigger boost than a new cpu, and more ram unless its ram-constrained, which mine is not.
Not suggesting this is the best approach for other folks, just sharing my thinking thus far.
[doublepost=1474725458][/doublepost]
I don't think any pc-based mid-towers weigh anything near what a mac pro weighs. When I am humping that mac pro around, I am simply amazed at how heavy it is--well at least it would deter theft.
Back in my days as a mainframe programmer, IBM would take a product line that was getting a bit stale in its product life cycle, and provide some sort of incremental improvement. This was called a 'mid life kicker'--as it would kick up the interest in the product line while folks waited for the Next Big Thing to be announced. This is what I am doing with my 2010. While I am concerned for the future of this product line, I figured that if I can get a few more years out of my box, all that skylake technology in my hypothetical build will be a lot cheaper, or some better hardware will come along.
My hypothetical build had a cpu (i7-6700k, IIRC) that had a certain benchmark at about 11,000. My current quad core in them mac pro is benchmarked at maybe 5,000 and the 6 core upgrade I just ordered is about 9,000. So I started thinking that the new build would not be as dramatically faster as I first thought it would. I know the ram and bus is faster, but it still got me thinking. Also, to get ECC ram on a new build, it would drive the cost way up--so I was losing that. I really struggled with this decision since I enjoy buying and building new PCs so much, but I forced myself to think about the functionality I needed and was using--and found my new hypothetical build was not a dramatic improvement like I thought it would be. I know benchmarks do not reflect real life experience, but it sure beats building a new pc to see how fast it is.
Also, my understanding is that the new cpu will take the ram from 1066 to 1333--a little less than a 30% speed improvement.
So, my mid-life kicker was about $275. Still have that idea of unsupported hardware in my back pocket for next year, or when the 2010 gives up the ghost...
I already got the mac pro booting on an ssd drive, so picked up lots of performance doing that--and my opinion is that ssd provides a bigger boost than a new cpu, and more ram unless its ram-constrained, which mine is not.
Not suggesting this is the best approach for other folks, just sharing my thinking thus far.
[doublepost=1474725458][/doublepost]
I don't think any pc-based mid-towers weigh anything near what a mac pro weighs. When I am humping that mac pro around, I am simply amazed at how heavy it is--well at least it would deter theft.
The ecosystem is what was typically given the credit for Apple's rise (intel - 2010 or so) but as many are pointing out that ecosystem has been left to rot on multiple fronts for the short term goals of iToys. If I end up moving back to windows, the desktop may be the first device but it won't be the last. I suppose the one upside to all of this is that even the most diehard fanboys are taking a more critical attitude towards Apple these days. However even if a nMP is revealed this year it is really going to have to be a home-run for it to stop the current tide of discontent.
You don't expect them to make contributions that are actually useful do you?