iMac 2019 or iMac Pro...?

[Freida]

Well, me personally can wait, but the chances are this used iMP then is sold (live in Northern Europe - smaller 2nd hand market, this is the first one I've ever seen for sale). Other ones that may come out may be more used than this one and/or also pricier. I'm now getting it at a 30% discount off listing price after only 4 months usage.

I've been waiting many years for a new mac already, never having been able to settle for either iMac or MBP and then continously waiting for a new type to come out. However, as I'm beginning to grow impatient I had therefore decided to go for the new iMac once released. After it came out with the old design I was thinking about waiting for WWDC to check for an eventual new iMac design, but later figured the chances for this are slim. iMP is normally out of my budget, and I don't expect the Mac Pro to be any cheaper when you include display etc, probably the opposite.

Hence, I found myself with three options:
1. Wait for new iMac design (2020?)
2. Get the new iMac now
Then all of a sudden, the third option; 3. purchase a four months old base model iMac Pro at a 30% discount

As no one can answer option number one, I started this thread to help decide between 2 and 3. I ended up going for option number 3

Get the used one. 30% is a lot and 4 months is nothing. Get applecare for it and you are golden
I missed the discount so yeah, go for it. ;-)

 

[macduke]

I run two additional monitors—not optional for me. For that reason, the additional TB bus makes the iMac Pro more desirable to me. I am unlikely to add a pair of 5K monitors but if I got the Vega 64, I could without adding an eGPU (only way according to Apple Support bulletins). I'll likely get a TB audio interface. Easier to add to an iMac Pro if running two side monitors.

I already have a Display Link box so I could add a monitor to a USB port—those work pretty well as long as you aren't running OS 10.13.4–6 on a 2010 or earlier iMac.

Yes! Yes! Yes! If you have remaining time, you can add AppleCare before that year is up.

Even though last week's OS 10.14.4 update appears to have fixed the kernel panic issues with USB 2 interfaces on T2 equipped iMacs, I still want Apple to own that issue for another couple of years on anything I buy. So, while I am considering used, no way will I buy used without AppleCare.

Yeah, I was actually kinda glad that the new one didn't have a T2. Seems like it needs some more work. Maybe it will be fine when I next upgrade in 6-8 years when they're all ARM top to bottom anyway, lol.

 

[mpe]

If I just had one iMP I could imagine mine is a bit noisier- I have two, and they both sound the same under load. To be fair the 8 core does get more of an actual hammering as it does all my video stuff too.

I wouldn't say they were noisy either...just that the i9 I have is a bit quieter. I left it stress testing for a while too.

If you load one and the other one is idle, that would explain it

Or perhaps the fan is broken in yours, or just you got a special model in the lottery. Can't explain it.

 

[MacRS4]

I can't imagine both the iMac pro units are broken in the same way

Ordered from Apple's site, delivered tail end of last week - a day late due to a plane being stuck in Germany.

 

[tomscott1988]

Saying Apple products hold their value...

I bought a 2017 base model 27 in Feb, 10 months old with Apple care and trackpad for £1150 it was £2150 new. That’s £1000 loss in 10 months, £100 per month

Basically bought it because it was super cheap and had 3 year warranty and has proved to be quite a decent system now I have it all set up the way I want. It benches similarly to my 2010 Mac Pro but in day to day is far quicker in almost all tasks.

I think holding value is a bit of a myth now as Apple have had a few bad years with cooling, build quality T2 etc the confidence isn’t what it was.

At the end of the day if your looking at machines like discussed and paying that sort of money surely your making money with it and it can be written off. Otherwise I don’t know why you would spend that amount as a casual user.

The best bit about the iMacs is TB3 as long as the CPU will do what you want you can add blistering NVME SSDs like the X5 and they will have trim enabled because it’s supported unlike usb. You can add an external HDD raid like the Thunder Bay 6 from OWC. 6 bays of storage and allows daisychaining and a display port. It also has a NVMe slot so you could add a super fast scratch or even the OS if you went with a fusion.

The 2017 machines especially there wasn’t much more than 10% between the non hyper threaded CPUs and the hyperthreaded ones throttled to similar performance to the non HT so to me the base line seemed the best option as it sustains performance the best, although the graphics card isnt great but it does the job.

The main benefit of the iMac Pro is it has two sets of TB3 ports on separate busses whereas the iMac has 2 on one bus.

At the end of the day the high end iMac is £1000 cheaper it, you can upgrade aspects, it performs within 5% which is margin of error and for some tasks is better.

No brainier over the iMac Pro. Might just be me but I really dislike the space grey too, it marks really badly the ports get so scratched up because let’s be honest it’s not easy to navigate those rear ports. Everyone buys it too so I like the original silver, certainly will look better in 5 years time.