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maxed out Hex nMP (used) for £2200 or maxed out iMac 5K 27" (new) for £2400?

maxed out Hex nMP (used) for £2200 or maxed out iMac 5K 27" (new) for £2400?

  • iMac

    Votes: 11 64.7%

  • Mac Pro

    Votes: 6 35.3%
  • Total voters
    17
D

dogbait

macrumors regular
Original poster
Feb 4, 2005
136
11
London, England
I have a biz discount and can get either get a used nMP w/ 6-core CPU, 2x D700, 64GB RAM and 1TB SSD for £2200 or I can get a new maxed out iMac 5K, w/ 512GB SSD, 32GB RAM, Radeon 580 for £2400 odd.

What would you guys suggest?

CPU is equivalent in multi core, but iMac is considerably faster in single core.

iMac has HEVC but Mac Pro is more multi threaded and has dual GPUs which suits my workflow (video compression of old home videos, Lightroom, lots of Java coding with big web apps).

As far as displays go - I already have a stunning 34" LG Thunderbolt 2 ultrawide screen which is great for programming. But...I'm an amateur photographer and can certainly appreciate the Retina magic of the 5K (never used a 5K display besides an hour's messing about at an Apple Store with all my apps on a USB drive).

Mac Pro is silent, iMac I hear mixed things about...
 
MarkC426

MarkC426

macrumors 68040
May 14, 2008
3,701
2,097
UK
Where have you seen that price for the imac?
From Apple UK that spec is £3000 for the i5

Edit: my bad, you probably didnt have vat :)

But answer to your question, probably go with the imac.
Have been really put off the nMp, with all the gpu issues people have had.
 
Last edited:
AidenShaw

AidenShaw

macrumors P6
Feb 8, 2003
18,667
4,677
The Peninsula
dogbait said:
Thanks for all the feedback. Might just wait it out till December and see what the new iMac Pro is like.
Click to expand...
Or, better to wait until January and see what actual users say about the Imac Pro. Thermal throttling and fans that under load sound like a Scarebus A320 taking off might not be seen in the quick early tests.
 
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P

poematik13

macrumors 65816
Jun 5, 2014
1,402
2,100
The iMac's 4.2ghz i7 is actually roughly the same performance as the 6-core mac pro. The 580GPU is also better than the D500 GPU.

iMac is the better deal. Only get the mac pro if you want to use your own monitor or you need 128GB of ram, or 6 TB2 ports.
 
h9826790

h9826790

macrumors P6
Apr 3, 2014
16,656
8,587
Hong Kong
I know there is a repair programme, but where to compare the failure rate to the maxed out iMac?

No one know what's the failure rate to trigger Apple provide a repair programme. And no one knows if the same number applicable to all product.

The Mac Pro suppose to be a work station. May be 5% failure rate will start the repair programme. And may be iMac require 10% failure rate. Who knows? No repair programme for the maxed out iMac doesn't mean it's failure rate is lower.

That's why I want to see the reference, the actual number. On the iMac forum, also lots of people complaining about GPU overheat. Both CPU and GPU keep running at 100C is not that fun.

TBH, I believe if we use the maxed out iMac like we use the Mac Pro (really stress it 24/7, but not just checking email, or Facebook). The iMac failure rate may be higher.

The overall iMac failure may be lower than nMP. That may be due to the users are difference. Most nMP user try to get most out of the machine, but iMac users clearly not like this in general.

I really do not know which machine is more reliable. IMO, both are bad, especially if compare to the cMP. But I personally cannot conclude that nMP has a higher rate.
 
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h9826790

h9826790

macrumors P6
Apr 3, 2014
16,656
8,587
Hong Kong
SoyCapitanSoyCapitan said:
There is no reported high failure rates or product recall for that iMac.
Click to expand...

I think I just explained it. The main usage for most users should be very different (e.g. 4k video editing vs Facebook). The standard to start the recall programme may also different.

I know it make sense to suspect the nMP has higher (or even much higher) failure rate. But I just can't conclude in that way.

If both machine do the same thing, e.g. Mining. I doubt if the nMP really has much higher failure rate.
 
SoyCapitanSoyCapitan

SoyCapitanSoyCapitan

Suspended
Jul 4, 2015
4,487
2,551
Paris
h9826790 said:
I think I just explained it. The main usage for most users should be very different (e.g. 4k video editing vs Facebook). The standard to start the recall programme may also different.

I know it make sense to suspect the nMP has higher (or even much higher) failure rate. But I just can't conclude in that way.

If both machine do the same thing, e.g. Mining. I doubt if the nMP really has much higher failure rate.
Click to expand...

The fault is the GPU design. We know Apple had no experience at that so the first time they tried it they ****ed up.

But my real choice in this discussion would be to build a workstation PC for less than that cost because the components will all be new, upgradable, industry standards and any OS can be installed (legit or not).

Apple is not going to win back workstation users yet. It seems they still stick to the same strategy of old API, partial drivers, proprietary components, Apple tax prices etc etc for the foreseeable future.
 
T

theitsage

Suspended
Aug 28, 2005
795
862
I would never vote for the iMac in its current form. It is by far the one model with the most component failures due to overheating.
 
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D

dogbait

macrumors regular
Original poster
Feb 4, 2005
136
11
London, England
SoyCapitanSoyCapitan said:
But my real choice in this discussion would be to build a workstation PC for less than that cost because the components will all be new, upgradable, industry standards and any OS can be installed (legit or not).
Click to expand...

So in February I actually did just that and built a Windows 10 system with a i7-7700K CPU, Geforce GTX 1070, 1TB SSD and 32GB RAM in a gorgeous Apple-esque small form factor case:
https://hardforum.com/threads/hg-osmi-build.1925137/#post-1042828973

Probably the best workstation PC I've ever owned and almost as quiet as a nMP. However, I hadn't used Windows since version 7 and despite all the acclaim Windows 10 gets I found it to be a really confusing mish-mash of Windows 7 + Windows 8 paradigms. On top of that the Linux subsystem is a far cry from the POSIX integration macOS boasts. The final nail in the coffin for me though was having Candy Crush, Facebook and OneDrive advertised to me on my paid for Windows OS!

Insanity. I honestly have no idea what Microsoft think they're doing but I deeply regret dropping £1500 on a PC build. Windows might have macOS beat on customizability of hardware but in every other aspect it's a disgusting mess.

Otherwise interesting points comparing potential failure rates of the new iMac vs the nMP. Curious myself whether the super-thin iMac chassis can handle the heat. As it is my Retina MBP (maxed out 2015 model) frequently runs around 90-99C - hasn't died yet but gotta wonder how long these devices can operate when the thermal cycling is so aggressive.
 
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SoyCapitanSoyCapitan

SoyCapitanSoyCapitan

Suspended
Jul 4, 2015
4,487
2,551
Paris
dogbait said:
So in February I actually did just that and built a Windows 10 system with a i7-7700K CPU, Geforce GTX 1070, 1TB SSD and 32GB RAM in a gorgeous Apple-esque small form factor case:
https://hardforum.com/threads/hg-osmi-build.1925137/#post-1042828973

Probably the best workstation PC I've ever owned and almost as quiet as a nMP. However, I hadn't used Windows since version 7 and despite all the acclaim Windows 10 gets I found it to be a really confusing mish-mash of Windows 7 + Windows 8 paradigms. On top of that the Linux subsystem is a far cry from the POSIX integration macOS boasts. The final nail in the coffin for me though was having Candy Crush, Facebook and OneDrive advertised to me on my paid for Windows OS!

Insanity. I honestly have no idea what Microsoft think they're doing but I deeply regret dropping £1500 on a PC build. Windows might have macOS beat on customizability of hardware but in every other aspect it's a disgusting mess.

Otherwise interesting points comparing potential failure rates of the new iMac vs the nMP. Curious myself whether the super-thin iMac chassis can handle the heat. As it is my Retina MBP (maxed out 2015 model) frequently runs around 90-99C - hasn't died yet but gotta wonder how long these devices can operate when the thermal cycling is so aggressive.
Click to expand...

Most members here were very surprised with Windows 10. It got rave reviews and experiences. We grew tired of people crying about Windows not having a Fisher Price interface for kids and moms. It's a power user system that is supposed to have deep options and configurability for everyone from creatives, IT, finance sector, etc. It has to support crucial applications that have been around for years such as network and printing software. Windows can support many legacy applications dating back to the 90s (great for Steam users . :) )

As for consistent interface. It doesn't exist. On macOS or Windows almost every mainstream app has its own SDK and very few of them follow Apple's. We have had several interface updates to macOS since 2001 and there was mish mashing and performance problems each time.

Win 10 even managed to do things like Exposé and virtual desktops better than macOS and even on very old hardware. Apple would shaft you until your bank account is drained just to be able to run something relatively basic like Sierra or High Sierra. Many older computers could run these systems if Apple didn't neuter them in hardware or software.

Anyway, we are not even going to go near this debate again. Not after so many years. The things we debate nowadays:

- when is Apple going to ship drivers that meet universal industry standards and not their own cut down versions?

- when is Apple going to ship an OS with up to date APIs across the line?

- when is Apple going to stop shafting us with proprietary hardware that we can't upgrade?

- when are we going to have all these nice graphics drivers that PC users have updates and optimised regularly?

- when are we going to stop getting shafted with these overpriced memory and underspecced GPU options?

Apple made some promises to us at the last event. I'll see if they meet these promises. If not they can **** off and I will happily tell all my corporate clients to upgrade thousands of machines to Windows workstations.
 
Last edited:
S

shaunp

Cancelled
Nov 5, 2010
1,811
1,395
To be honest I wouldn't buy either of them. I had the hex core nMP and while it was a nice machine it just got a bit long in the tooth and I ended up with stuff sprawled all over my desk as there is no internal storage other than a single SSD.

I wouldn't get the iMac simply because I think all in one computers have a limited life span - as in you can't upgrade anything on them other than the RAM.

I think you would be better off waiting to see what Apple bring out next or if your apps will run on anything consider just building a PC.
 
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