Mac Pro good buy at 50% off?

[wonderdoggie]

Hey guys,

A local apple dealer has priced unboxed (usually display units) Mac Pro at 50% off.

Assuming its in good condition, is this a good buy spec wise in 2018?

I've been looking to get a new Mac for my home office and I've been eyeing the imac (waiting for a new refresh in September), but this has caused me to pause and think a bit.

It was released in 2013 but the specs still seems pretty solid.

Any thoughts will be highly appreciated.

 

[mattspace]

Consider it against a 2010 - 2012 model.

It has old graphics cards, which offer no officially supported upgrade path. It's not old enough to have user-accessible PCI slots, which Apple IS supporting for new graphics card on the 2010-12, but it's also not new enough to have Thunderbolt 3, which is the only way Apple is supporting to upgrade graphics on a non-tower machine.

It's a real evolutionary dead end as a machine.

 

[HDFan]

It has old graphics cards, which offer no officially supported upgrade path. It's not old enough to have user-accessible PCI slots, which Apple IS supporting for new graphics card on the 2010-12, but it's also not new enough to have Thunderbolt 3, which is the only way Apple is supporting to upgrade graphics on a non-tower machine.

It's a real evolutionary dead end as a machine.

But if you don't need high power graphics, don't need to add any PCI cards or external GPU, have limited desktop space, at 50% off it may be a good deal, particularly if you need a lot of cpu's for things like video rendering. Check ebay for completed used listings to see how the price compares, as well as compare it to the iMac Pro.

Remember that you have to buy all of the peripherals - mouse, keyboard, hard disk and monitor, if you don't have them. Look at your long term plan. If eventually want an iMac Pro then you would be wasting money on a monitor. The new 2019 (?) Mac Pro will need one, but then Apple will hopefully have their new monitor ready by then.

 

[Squuiid]

If you want to spend money on old tech, get a 2010-12 cMP. The 2013 trashcan is just not worth it, even at half price.
I completely agree with @mattspace

Can you add 10GbE to the trashcan for $99? Nope.
Can you add an RX 580 or GTX 1080 to the trashcan? Nope.
Will Mojave have HEVC (H.265) decoding on the trashcan? Nope.

Sure, the cMP CPUs are rather dated now but overall the cMP is a better machine IMO.

 

[mattspace]

But if you ..., have limited desktop space,

...is the only reason to buy it.

Be aware however, that the D500 & D700 equipped models treat their graphics cards as a consumable, and eventually burn them out once you've pushed them hard enough, for long enough (which you might be more likely to do attempting a modern workload on an older computer).

If you're not space constrained, you can build up a cheesegrater (and keep it under your desk, or even suspended from the underside of your desk, like mine) with equal or better capability to do work, for a comparable, or lower price, and it will be no more obsolete, with the single exception that it won't be able to use thunderbolt storage products (or thunderbolt monitors).

 

[AlexMaximus]

I absolutely do agree with all previous posts to think twice about a 2013.
The updated pricing @Apple in 2017 did reduce the Mac Pro 2013 - 6 core model down to 2999.
Having said that, if you could get a mint condition, open box 6-core model for 1500 US, I probably would reconsider.

It really depends on the tasks what you do with the mac. After all, it will work great for iMovie, Photos and Photoshop.
If you don't do heavy rendering in DaVinci, or other very intense GPU or CPU tasks such as Maya, C4D or stuff like that, the mac might be great for the next three years, especially if you have already a great display you don't want to part with.
A Mac Pro 2013 will still be better then any mac mini and it is super quiet. But then again, the new iMac is just around the corner and it will come with a 6 core as well. I think it really comes down to your budget. The new iMac will be an absolute blast with the new intel CPU, thats for sure. You might bite yourself in the @ss for even getting a MP 2013 for 1500, once you stand in front of the new 5K iMac of late 2018...

 

[nguyenhm16]

I bought a 4 core from OWC when they were around $1,500. For that price I thought that was a fair deal for what I used it for, as a fancy Mac Mini replacement that could drive my new Dell 38” Ultrawide. I since upgraded the RAM to 32gb (PC3-14900 ECC RAM is surprisingly cheap on eBay etc) and a Samsung 1tb M.2 SSD (there’s another thread here telling you which adapter to get) and couldn’t be happier. Then again I also love my sealed, all in one, non-expandable iMac Pro so YMMV.

 

[pl1984]

What is the configuration and what do you anticipate doing with it. I purchased a six core, 16GB, 256GB, D300 and I've been very pleased with it. It is noticeably faster in day to day tasks than my stock (except for memory) 2010 5,1.

I purchased mine for the novelty (form factor). The only regular usage issue I have with it is the USB ports being located on the back of the system. Their location makes it a hassle to plug in USB drives. But then this is shared by the iMac too.

 

[ruka.snow]

If it is in fantastic/new condition with the box. Buy it, shove it in storage for 10-20 years then sell it on eBay.

 

[thefredelement]

I like my 2013, I use it for software engineering, audio recording and hobby style photo editing. Occasionally I'll do some 4k video in FCP, but nothing crazy like a pro.
I do wish my code compiled faster so may look into the next generation when it's announced as I've got it paired with the LG Ultra and am not in rush to stop using that. Though I don't feel like replacing it for what I do is anything urgent.

It also looks sick with all black stuff on the desk.

 

[jclmavg]

If you want to spend money on old tech, get a 2010-12 cMP. The 2013 trashcan is just not worth it, even at half price.
I completely agree with @mattspace
Can you add an RX 580 or GTX 1080 to the trashcan? Nope.

 

[Flint Ironstag]

All depends on what you're using it for. It makes a nice Plex server, with high wife acceptance factor.

 

[jameslmoser]

Is this using the new built in eGPU functionality? I heard there was some way of enabling it over TB2 but haven't really looked into it yet.

 

[apolloa]

Is this using the new built in eGPU functionality? I heard there was some way of enabling it over TB2 but haven't really looked into it yet.

You’ve been able to get an egpu thunderbolt 2 for a while now, can’t remember the make, but it won’t be as fast as thunderbolt 3 egpu’s. It of course also means having another box to take up power and desk space.

 

[Squuiid]

It's a bit of a hack though. Thunderbolt 2 eGPU requires disabling SIP and running some scripts I believe. Not exactly Apple supported. What happens when you get an OS update? Does it break it and you have to re-run the script?

 

[jclmavg]

It's a bit of a hack though. Thunderbolt 2 eGPU requires disabling SIP and running some scripts I believe. Not exactly Apple supported. What happens when you get an OS update? Does it break it and you have to re-run the script?

NVIDIA on Mac is always a "hack" since there's no official NVIDIA support and it breaks down with every OS update, EGPU or no EGPU. Which is a shame and purely Apple's fault. Anyway, there are more methods now to enable TB2 EGPUS which do not require to disable sip. Check egpu.io. Bottom line is, the trashcan remains useful.