My last Mac Pro, sold

[apple_iBoy]

I'm still hanging on to a Mac Pro 1,1. I received and returned a 12-core MP in late 2012 and I've been sitting on the credit. I initially thought about getting an iMac but decided to see if apple might have something up its sleeve. Half a year later, turns out that it did.

However, since we still have yet to see any price tags, the jury's still out. I may yet end up buying an iMac.

I'm interested to know why those of you who are switching right now are doing so before the final details are known about Mac Pro (late 2013)? What if the cost is lower than what some on this forum predict it will be?

By the way, my Mac Pro 1,1 is still a great machine. It has been the most solid and reliable piece of tech I've ever had. Unfortunately apple has left it in the cold on OS updates, which is a real shame. It's kind of like a wind-surfing, rock-climbing senior citizen that doesn't get invited to the geriatric prom anymore. After I purchase it's replacement, whatever that may be, I plan to take my 1,1 to work to live out the rest of its days in my research lab. Selling it doesn't seem to make a whole lot of sense to me, since it would go for a pittance but is still so useful.

 

[flowrider]

I'm interested to know why those of you who are switching right now are doing so before the final details are known about Mac Pro (late 2013)? What if the cost is lower than what some on this forum predict it will be?

I know enough to know I don't want one.

From another thread:

Well written, but I'm not buyin' it. Because Apple is making a more powerful but less configurable MacPro, I need to reassess my needs? I don't think so. I'm quite happy with my 6 HDDs and 1 SSD. Sure I have redundancy, but it's my backup. HDDs and SSDs fail, and if they do, fine, I still have my stuff.

Over the years since my first expandable Mac, a Mac IICI, I have counted on being able to modify my Mac to fit my needs, not modify my needs to fit the needs my Mac.

As you can guess, I do not plan to migrate to the next MacPro!

Lou

 

[apple_iBoy]

I know enough to know I don't want one.

From another thread:

Thanks. I understand your reasoning.

But I'm really posing the question to the members of the thread who are currently replacing their Mac Pros with iMacs.

 

[flowrider]

^^^^Yep, I not one of those boys. I replaced a 3,1 Mac Pro with a 5,1 Mac Pro. My wife has an iMac, enough said

Lou

 

[Garamond]

^^^^Yep, I not one of those boys. I replaced a 3,1 Mac Pro with a 5,1 Mac Pro. My wife has an iMac, enough said

Lou

This is the third time in this short thread you feel the need to tell us you will keep your Mac Pro. Seems like you need many reassurances to defend your own decision.

 

[flowrider]

^^^^And you've posted about your plan FIVE times. Did you need a reassurance when you posted your plans? We each make our own decisions. Your happy with yours, and I'm happy with mine. I need and expect nothing from you, but a little respect. I will stay out of your threads in the future, and please stay out of mine. Have a nice life with your iMac

And, BTW, I wasn't responding to you, but to apple iboy who made a comment about my post.

Lou

 

[Garamond]

^^^^And you've posted about your plan FIVE times. Did you need a reassurance when you posted your plans? We each make our own decisions. Your happy with yours, and I'm happy with mine. I need and expect nothing from you, but a little respect. I will stay out of your threads in the future, and please stay out of mine. Have a nice life with your iMac

And, BTW, I wasn't responding to you, but to apple iboy who made a comment about my post.

Lou

You seem pretty full of yourself, take a step back and calm down please

 

[Macsonic]

You seem pretty full of yourself, take a step back and calm down please

Yep. It's a weekend and let's all enjoy it. I am getting some grilled chicken and with ice tea.

 

[Mactrunk]

I'm still hanging on to a Mac Pro 1,1. I received and returned a 12-core MP in late 2012 and I've been sitting on the credit. I initially thought about getting an iMac but decided to see if apple might have something up its sleeve. Half a year later, turns out that it did.

Why did you return the 12 core?
Seriously, from a 1,1 to a 5,1 and it wasn't a keeper?
I went from 3,1 to 5,1 and it was a major boost.

 

[apple_iBoy]

Why did you return the 12 core?
Seriously, from a 1,1 to a 5,1 and it wasn't a keeper?
I went from 3,1 to 5,1 and it was a major boost.

There was a whole saga in another thread when I was thinking of returning it (I was accused of being a liar and never having it, and of being a troll, and of being a spoiled ingrate, and everything else).

Even though I'm a grown man able to buy my own tech gear, my mom and dad still like to give gadgets and computer stuff as gifts. My mom in particular likes to call Apple for buying advice, and they always seems to take advantage of her enthusiastic naïveté (in 2006 they sold her a Mac Pro with three video cards — when I asked her why she got that option, she said " that's what they told me you'd want if you make websites.")

Although Mac Pro 1,1 was still chugging away (and still is), I had begun considering replacing it with an iMac. Not just to get an update of technology and speed, but also to get an energy-efficient machine that I could leave on all the time with a lower electricity footprint (Mac Pro functions as a home server for us).

Anyway, while I'm thinking about this, Christmas rolls around and there's a new Mac Pro. It was again outfitted in the most outrageous way for me. I have really sweet and generous parents. I was kinda annoyed with Apple though, because they had extracted top dollar for a product that was essentially 3 years old. When mom was recounting the conversation, she said the guy talked her into this model because of how future-proof it was. I'm less convinced that's true. I already have a machine that I can't (cleanly) update to new OS, because it's not "64 bit enough" (despite the fact that the box says "Mac Pro 64 bit workstation"). It didn't have latest tech like thunderbolt — while I know it had other capabilities that overshadow thunderbolt, I know apple and believe that someday down the road, that lack of capability will be used to exclude the older machines from something.

So anyway, I did return it. I was going to order a nicely configured iMac to replace it. But then I got intrigued by what Apple might come up with as the modern replacement of the Mac Pro. And I waited. And waited. Waited some more. Got teased at WWDC. Still waiting. And after all this time, I still might get an iMac. Before I make that decision, all I want to see is the specs v. pricing of the new machines. It's kind of maddening that this info has not yet been released.

When I do replace the original Mac Pro with whatever I decide on, I plan to take it to work (I'm an engineering professor). I have a little lab that doesn't have a nice computer, and the Mac Pro 1,1 will live out its days there.

 

[apple_iBoy]

Well, after much deliberation and pondering, I decided to buy an iMac to replace my Mac Pro 1,1. As some may know, I returned a 12-core Mac Pro in early 2013 to wait for what I imagined would be around the corner, and have been sitting on a sizable Apple credit since then.

I think the late 2013 MP will be an incredible machine, and unlike a vocal chorus on MacRumors, I actually think it is probably priced appropriately, relative to the value of its components. I'm glad I waited to see what it would be all about, and I'm content that I've had enough time to think it over.

However, since my needs are much more modest than the capabilities of the MP, I decided to get myself a BTO 27" iMac. I chose the i7 model with a 256 GB SSD and the upgraded video card.

For now, I will be taking my HDs from the Mac Pro and putting them into a 4-bay USB 3 enclosure. Somewhere down the line, when prices inevitably drop some more, I will likely transition that data into a Thunderbolt enclosure with SSDs.

With the leftover money I had, I ordered my significant other a 13" MacBook Pro Retina (the mid-range model with 8 GB RAM and a 256 GB SSD).

So, my calculus on this is that I've gotten a much more capable machine, with a nice 27" display (upgrading from my 2004 20" Cinema), plus a really nice little laptop for my partner.

Will this iMac have as long a useful lifetime as my original Mac Pro? Not sure — but I imagine the ratio between price and lifetime will meet my expectations.

My Mac Pro 1,1 will be moved into my lab at school for my research students to use. I'm sure they will be thrilled, as it is a much more capable and speedy machine than the 2 year old Dell that the institution supplies (thanks for that, Apple).

 

[Squareball]

I sold my super upgraded MP 1,1 two years ago upgrading to an iMac and never looked back. As much as I loved the MP, the iMac was faster and has thunderbolt if I really needed major expansion.

 

[stjames70]

MacPro 3,1

I thought that the greatest bottleneck in any system is the storage medium. That being said, the 3,1 has the ability to use 3rd party RAID cards and have that card connected to the backplane. I have 6 TB of effective storage through a combination of 2 M500 960gb drives connected to the ODD1 and ODD2 SATA ports and 8 M500 960gb drives in a RAID 1+0 array. I also have a GTX Titan from a MacVidCards mod.

The system is super quiet, super light (one HD weighs more than all those SSDs), and it runs cool. Same thing cannot be said of the iMacs -- they are hot, sometimes noisy, and good luck replacing a failed system drive.

So no, the iMac is not the choice to have if you need reliable, serviceable systems (oh, I almost forgot to mention that the CPUs on iMacs are not XEON server class chips). It is a good choice if it's really just for home use.

 

[costabunny]

Looks like I am in the same boat.

I LOVE the Mac Pro (and always have), but I have some upgrades I want to do if its to keep up with my demands over the next 3-4 years and to be honest I really cannot afford them

I want a 780 series GPU, a bigger SSD and a hi-res screen. Best way for me to get all this is actually to buy a new iMac 27". so my hex core is also listed everywhere now. It will be sad to see it go, but the iMac offers me everything I want (now they have a reasonable GPU option) and I can use thunderbolt external for my mass storage with no speed drop.

The Mac Pro is Dead; Long live the Mac Pro

 

[apple_iBoy]

Same thing cannot be said of the iMacs -- they are hot, sometimes noisy, and good luck replacing a failed system drive.

I did forego getting a traditional drive or even a Fusion drive because I figured the all-SSD iMac would run cooler, and probably be less likely to fail. I know there's no way for me to get in there and replace it, so I'm hoping that the reliability of today's SSDs will make that component last longer than the useful life of the system.

The only think i can imagine that could generate any real heat in the system I ordered is the graphics card. If there's a fan on that, I imagine that's the only think that could make any noise, too.

 

[MacVidCards]

The iMac 780 is actually a down clocked 680. Check Barefeats for an actual comparison.

 

[JavaTheHut]

You seem pretty full of yourself, take a step back and calm down please

Ask him about his video card

 

[akadmon]

I'm on my second MP (1,1 bought in 2006, 5,1 hex bought in 2012). Rocking two large displays (30" ACD and 27" NEC), a decent video card (5870), loads of RAM and gobbles of internal storage. I figure I'll get at least two more years out of this rig before I move on, hopefully hooking up with a 4K display or two along the way. iMac? Don't think so! But of course, YMMV...

 

[BJonson]

You got rid of a 5,1 for an imac? LOL. 5,1 will be the most sought out computer in the next year. You can still upgrade them to faster than the new one for cheap. It won't seem like a good idea when the hard drive fails and you have to haul the whole setup to an apple store or when the display fails. I have 4 imacs in my closet. The kids won't even use them.

One has a bad screen.
One can only hold 4gb of memory.
One the screen turned yellow.
Only the 27" can go on a monitor stand but its too heavy.

I replace them a while ago with macbook pros which they love and are faster. I won't use anything but my mac pros. I love the speed and storage and the fact I can use ANY monitor I want. Currently have a 29" dell and love it.

 

[Krevnik]

You got rid of a 5,1 for an imac? LOL. 5,1 will be the most sought out computer in the next year. You can still upgrade them to faster than the new one for cheap. It won't seem like a good idea when the hard drive fails and you have to haul the whole setup to an apple store or when the display fails. I have 4 imacs in my closet. The kids won't even use them.

While the price will still fluctuate, I think any big changes in demand for the 5,1 have already happened at this point. It has been months since the announce, you can't buy the 5,1 new and the refurb supply is getting low. I can get better deals in the used market for a 5,1 than refurbs.

I don't think selling now versus a year from now makes any difference beyond you will lose more value to depreciation in a year.

Do I agree with the OP selling a 5,1 for the current iMac? Not really. I'd have kept the 5,1 so long it was still running.

 

[rabidz7]

Please don't react negatively to this, it's just my opinion.

Why wouldn't you just build a custom mac or get a dell? I cannot fathom how someone could go to an iMac from a Mac Pro. But, I respect your decision, what ever the reason for it. I'm not picking on your choice, though it may feel like that. Also, what was wrong with your Mac Pro that made an iMac necessary. If it was a speed issue, you could have made the Mac Pro much faster than an iMac by doing a few upgrades such as: the GPU, CPU, or RAM.

Please don't react negatively to this, it's just my opinion.

 

[flowrider]

^ ^ ^ ^ And Mine - +1

Lou

 

[apple_iBoy]

Please don't react negatively to this, it's just my opinion.

Why wouldn't you just build a custom mac or get a dell? I cannot fathom how someone could go to an iMac from a Mac Pro. But, I respect your decision, what ever the reason for it. I'm not picking on your choice, though it may feel like that. Also, what was wrong with your Mac Pro that made an iMac necessary. If it was a speed issue, you could have made the Mac Pro much faster than an iMac by doing a few upgrades such as: the GPU, CPU, or RAM.

Please don't react negatively to this, it's just my opinion.

Getting a Dell, or building a Hackintosh = no OS X, and too hobbyist (I don't want to fight my computer to get it to work)

Mac Pro = too much computer for my needs, would need a screen replacement to get an up-to-date display, and relatively sure Apple will arbitrary cut off support for this model before its time is truly due (as happened with my Mac Pro 1,1 which cannot be upgraded past Lion without hacks)

iMac = less money for a computer that will likely be good for 4–5 years, with enough left over to buy a retina MBP to boot

I'm not saying iMacs or Mac Pros are inherently better machines, I just decided that iMac was the better machine for my needs.

 

[gugy]

Count me in for a 4K display IF AND ONLY IF they make it in an anti-glare screen otherwise they can pry the 30" ACD out of my cold, dead hands

Feel the same way. I love my 30" ACD. I wished Apple never discontinued them.
So hopefully they will bring it back with a 4k res sometime in the near future.

 

[odinsride]

Seems to be a lot of people getting rid of their Mac Pros. Add me to that list, gonna be selling off my 2010 MP very soon as I just built a custom PC to replace it. I'll be missing OS X dearly but I play too many video games to continue with a Mac as my primary machine. Seeing the new Mac Pro is what finally made pull the trigger and go through with my plan. Apple has clearly given up on us. RIP Mac Pro