Looking for advice on a Mac Pro, your thoughts?

[MacDevMike]

Hey guys, so basically I am an iOS/Mac developer that plays some games (Windows and Mac), does some amateur photography and video, and am considering a new machine with more graphics power. Currently, I run a 2014 fully maxed Macbook Pro (see sig) connected to two 24" 1080p screens with some USB drives attached. In general, its an excellent setup for development and basic gaming needs.

However, I am thinking about changing things up and putting a full nMP in its place and then using my MBP as more of a mobility/secondary system. As I make a living on the Mac, a nMP isn't hard to justify if I don't go nuts on the specs. It looks like I could pick up a basic 4C/D300/256gig ssd rig for about 2800, or bump to 512 and 16 gigs of ram for 3150. In addition, there are refurb 6c/d500/256 gig systems for 2800 as well. It seems that OWC offers SSD upgrades for the future (that will probably come down in price over time) as well as CPU and ram upgrades as well.

The other option would be a 2010 cMP and get a flashed video card to go the old school route. I do like tinkering with things, so this could be fun as well.

What do you guys think? Obviously I could build a top of the line gaming rig for a couple grand but honestly it is completely outside of my workflow. That would involve me having an additional tower and screen(s) connected just for gaming and my entire flow is in OS X. But with the nMP I could just bounce the system in to Windows and run the D300s in XFire. Keeps my work flow together and gives me 4-5x the gaming power.

It also looks like some of the folks in the forums and tinkered with OCing the MP, so I figured you guys could relate to what Im thinking.

Fire away.

-NOTE- I scrapped the 5k iMac idea due to heat concerns.

 

[keysofanxiety]

My first recommendation would be to wait until they update the nMP (hopefully by the end of this year); no point sinking that sort of money on old tech.

Also save some cash and upgrade the RAM yourself.

 

[ZombiePhysicist]

the 'new' mac pro is long in the tooth. Then again, they may go years without updating it, or never update it. Regardless, at least wait till after WWDC where there is a some chance they could announce an update.

That said, I went with a maxed out cMP when the nMP was just announced. The only thing I'm missing is thunderbolt, and I don't miss it. I have a 12core 3.46GHz processor upgrade. USB 3 upgrade. Video cards to drive 10 screens. Plenty of space for old spinning drives. A super fast 4TB SSD. And it runs really quiet on my old 2010 5,1.

That said, if they significantly upgraded the nMP, it might cause me to pine and upgrade. But it would have to be at least 16 or more cores running at 3.5GHz or more, and the video cards would have to be epic as they are not upgradeable... Oh, and they'd have to have 2 slots so I could get 10 or 20TB of SSD space (which supposedly is coming this year).

They need to pump up the nMP. They will be making a huge mistake if they do not continue to give pros real pro tools. The pros were what carried apple's carcass across the 'do not die' line so that Steve Jobs had a shot at saving apple. Apple ignores this segment at their peril, IMO.

 

[MacDevMike]

My plan is definitely to wait for WWDC next week and make sure they don't do an update. And even if they did, it might offer the current systems at bigger discount while they clear the channel. Also, I will be getting the base RAM, because OWC makes ram cheaper and installs are no brainers.