MP All Models The "I just ordered/bought/got my new/refurb Mac Pro" thread [Merged]

[lbotez]

I just got a used Mac Pro (2013) 6 core stock config from Amazon for $3400. Obviously buyer remorse return. When I checked it still had 10 months warranty left. Saved me about $900 out the door price from local Apple store so jumped on this when I saw it listed. Amazon Store card financing gave me a no-interest loan for 1 year to pay it off so I can (sort of) afford it.

I gave up waiting for an update to the Mac Mini to replace my 2011 one. Yeah this is overkill for what I need but it sure is pretty and runs fast, cool and quiet – Handbrake gets it slightly warm but still can't hear fan and Handbrake encodes are about 7 times faster than the 2 core Mini. I'm happy.

That's a great price; I got the same machine from Best Buy new by using a 10% off movers coupon plus by buying a bunch of Best Buy gift cards where I saved $125 plus Best Buy has the 6 core on sale... came down to about that price.

I love this machine. I had a newer and fastest version of the mac mini, but this mac pro just is the fastest mac I've ever had.

The only thing I regret is it came with a 256gb PCIe, which is totally inadequate for a machine like this (just what was Apple thinking?). I bought a 1T SSD for $412; but still hate having all my files on a separate drive.

OWC doesn't have any replacement PCIe's yet. Really want a 1T one. That's what I had on my mac mini...

Other than that, you got a sweet deal. Graphics are fantastic.

Am looking for that 4K monitor, but decided to wait until the next batch of monitors come out next year. There are cheap ones that are okay (but it seems like you have to fiddle with em to get high resolution), or really expensive ones; really would like something around $1K that you set and forget...

Oh, and while I use it for video and photography apps, I guess I could have bought a nice souped up iMac, but I really like the separate components. Have had two other Mac Pros before... love multiple monitors and sort of miss the PCI slots... but hey...

the computer does sort of look like a shiny waste bin though...

 

[flowrider]

OWC doesn't have any replacement PCIe's yet. Really want a 1T one. That's what I had on my mac mini...

Both OWC and Transcend are working on third party solutions for the nMP and the latest MBPs and MBAs. It's been my experience that OWC SSDs are crap, and Transcend's are quality stuff.

Lou

 

[mawyatt1]

That's a great price; I got the same machine from Best Buy new by using a 10% off movers coupon plus by buying a bunch of Best Buy gift cards where I saved $125 plus Best Buy has the 6 core on sale... came down to about that price.

I love this machine. I had a newer and fastest version of the mac mini, but this mac pro just is the fastest mac I've ever had.

The only thing I regret is it came with a 256gb PCIe, which is totally inadequate for a machine like this (just what was Apple thinking?). I bought a 1T SSD for $412; but still hate having all my files on a separate drive.

OWC doesn't have any replacement PCIe's yet. Really want a 1T one. That's what I had on my mac mini...

Other than that, you got a sweet deal. Graphics are fantastic.

Am looking for that 4K monitor, but decided to wait until the next batch of monitors come out next year. There are cheap ones that are okay (but it seems like you have to fiddle with em to get high resolution), or really expensive ones; really would like something around $1K that you set and forget...

Oh, and while I use it for video and photography apps, I guess I could have bought a nice souped up iMac, but I really like the separate components. Have had two other Mac Pros before... love multiple monitors and sort of miss the PCI slots... but hey...

the computer does sort of look like a shiny waste bin though...

Great price!!! What type SSD drive did you get and how does it compare to internal nMP SSD?

Thanks

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I have been looking at a good external drive for the nMB. I have a couple Thunderbolt LaCie 2 Bigs with two 2T 7200rpm hard drives, they are OK but the latency is slow compared to the SSD. Am considering replacing these 2TB drives with the new Seagate 6TB, someone on another thread said this works.

Also, Seagate has the new 2TB drives with a 8GB SS memory that acts as a Fusion but without the OS intervention...wondering how these would work in the LaCie 2 Bigs.

Another option is the LaCie d2 with the small 128GB SSD module, but this is kind of pricey at $500 for the 6GB drive and $300 for the SSD (it's the PCIe type).

 

[lbotez]

Great price!!! What type SSD drive did you get and how does it compare to internal nMP SSD?

Thanks

----------

I have been looking at a good external drive for the nMB. I have a couple Thunderbolt LaCie 2 Bigs with two 2T 7200rpm hard drives, they are OK but the latency is slow compared to the SSD. Am considering replacing these 2TB drives with the new Seagate 6TB, someone on another thread said this works.

Also, Seagate has the new 2TB drives with a 8GB SS memory that acts as a Fusion but without the OS intervention...wondering how these would work in the LaCie 2 Bigs.

Another option is the LaCie d2 with the small 128GB SSD module, but this is kind of pricey at $500 for the 6GB drive and $300 for the SSD (it's the PCIe type).

I bought a 1TB 840 EVO Samsung SSD from Newegg for $412 or so not too long ago (it was a great deal) ... They have them on sale; right now it's $499 but if you wait a bit they usually have some kind of coupon or something to knock the price down a bit more. I have it in a cheap USB 3.0 case for the time being. Seems to be plenty fast enough for storing files. Though would love to get a 2.5" thunderbolt enclosure for 2 SSD drives (without having to buy the drives from the manufacturer of the enclosure); I have a 512GB SSD too... the SSD Thunderbolt enclosures are expensive right now. My USB slots are getting full on the macpro and I would like to use up some of those thunderbolt slots instead.

Don't really buy any more traditional 3.5" Hard Drives anymore. SSD's are the way to go...

 

[MacTCE]

My stock 6-core arrives tomorrow, I can barely hold myself.

I am also a bit nostalgic to leave my faithful 2009 iMac but it will be such a leap I know I won't want anything else when I get my hands on it.

Congrats! You're going to love it.

 

[fastlanephil]

Great price!!! What type SSD drive did you get and how does it compare to internal nMP SSD?

Thanks

----------

I have been looking at a good external drive for the nMB. I have a couple Thunderbolt LaCie 2 Bigs with two 2T 7200rpm hard drives, they are OK but the latency is slow compared to the SSD. Am considering replacing these 2TB drives with the new Seagate 6TB, someone on another thread said this works.

Also, Seagate has the new 2TB drives with a 8GB SS memory that acts as a Fusion but without the OS intervention...wondering how these would work in the LaCie 2 Bigs.

Another option is the LaCie d2 with the small 128GB SSD module, but this is kind of pricey at $500 for the 6GB drive and $300 for the SSD (it's the PCIe type).

I just ordered a 2TB 10,000 rpm Western Digital Velociraptor Duo from B&H Photo for $449. It has near SSD speed but at a much lower per MB price. They are reported to be quite reliable and quick, even on the outside of the platters but are a little on the noisy side which could be an issue depending on what you're using it for.

 

[jaycee520]

Just ordered my first MBP this morning at around 10am +8GMT. It's a BTO to be shipped here in the Philippines. My ETA is Aug 11-18. Keeping my fingers crossed!

the hardest part but its all worth it!!! ull love the switch...Cheers

 

[spencers]

Wooot!

 

[sauria]

Wooot!

Image

Nice, did you upgrade it?

 

[say19]

Just placed an order for my first ever Mac Pro!

I could never afford one before, and I used to enjoy the iMacs a lot - but I need something that I don't have to be paranoid about heat with sigh.

Now I have to figure out how to migrate etc. I'm thinking this might be a good time to start with as fresh a start as possible. The Apple Migration Assistant is pretty reliable these days right? Might just use it for User Account Mail iTunes, and do all the app installation etc myself, and try to keep it nice and clean.

 

[spencers]

Nice, did you upgrade it?

I upgraded it to an R2D2 unit..

 

[maclove4life]

I upgraded it to an R2D2 unit..

Image

Lol nice. It's too bad nMP won't be able to handle 5k

 

[sauria]

Lol nice. It's too bad nMP won't be able to handle 5k

Last generation video cards in those. I wonder if he'll be an upgradable video card available?

 

[maclove4life]

Last generation video cards in those. I wonder if he'll be an upgradable video card available?

next 2 years? maybe.. i'm taking a wild guess.

 

[jaro1]

Hi to everyone here,

Just received my first Mac Pro (but not first Mac in general) - six-core with D500's onboard. Previously I worked on iMac late 2009 and Macbooks Pro (and even Powerbook earlier in the history).
New 'can' is connected to Eizo CX271 and LaCie TB2 6TB array and looks amazing!
iMac with 5K display looks very tempting, but IMHO it's still a consumer (or prosumer) product. so I decided to go with nMP... and this decision was made after hours of reading this forum - so thank you guys!

 

[hotdog4u]

Hi to everyone here,

Just received my first Mac Pro (but not first Mac in general) - six-core with D500's onboard. Previously I worked on iMac late 2009 and Macbooks Pro (and even Powerbook earlier in the history).
New 'can' is connected to Eizo CX271 and LaCie TB2 6TB array and looks amazing!
iMac with 5K display looks very tempting, but IMHO it's still a consumer (or prosumer) product. so I decided to go with nMP... and this decision was made after hours of reading this forum - so thank you guys!

how do you like it?

 

[jaro1]

how do you like it?

I like it, it's much faster than iMac from 2009 especially for video editing but also Aperture and PS CC is running fast as hell
Now opposite of my EIzo i'm looking forward for any 4K display with good color reproduction...

 

[hotdog4u]

I like it, it's much faster than iMac from 2009 especially for video editing but also Aperture and PS CC is running fast as hell
Now opposite of my EIzo i'm looking forward for any 4K display with good color reproduction...

i hope that new iMac 5k doesn't kill your love for mac pro...

 

[Tom-Create-Pro]

I upgraded it to an R2D2 unit..

Image

Nice!

 

[woodenarch]

Trust Adorama for nMP purchase?

Has anyone else purchased from Adorama? Any reason not to order from them. Straight out I am saving almost $900. They don't have the 16 Gb ram Mac Pro in stock per how I have specified, but they do have a 12 Gb in which I can add to it later. Here is what I am looking at ordering https://www.facebook.com/media/set/...072.1073741825.1207759059&type=1&l=c6d13310dd

They don't allow returns for computers but figure if something is wrong I will have the apple care..... your guys thoughts and opinions will help me make my decision.

 

[lbotez]

Has anyone else purchased from Adorama? Any reason not to order from them. Straight out I am saving almost $900. They don't have the 16 Gb ram Mac Pro in stock per how I have specified, but they do have a 12 Gb in which I can add to it later. Here is what I am looking at ordering https://www.facebook.com/media/set/...072.1073741825.1207759059&type=1&l=c6d13310dd

They don't allow returns for computers but figure if something is wrong I will have the apple care..... your guys thoughts and opinions will help me make my decision.

I've bought stuff form Adorama before; they are fine... but mostly buy camera equipment from them. However, they are just about as good as B&H in my opinion.

I've never returned a mac. If there is something wrong with the one you get, Apple with fix it or replace it.


Interestingly you could put an 8 GB module in that empty ram slot... according to everyman.com: http://www.everymac.com/systems/app...q/how-to-upgrade-mac-pro-cylinder-memory.html

Unofficial RAM Compatibility & Performance Details

Formally, Apple notes that one should "use the same size memory modules across all slots to maximize performance."

Although four matched memory models is best, in detailed real world testing, site sponsor Other World Computing found that increasing the total memory, regardless of configuration, "will always provide the most significant performance bang for your dollar."

For example, adding one 8 GB module to the three default 4 GB modules in a system initially configured with 12 GB of RAM (for a total of 20 GB of RAM), still is as much as 33% faster than a system configured with four matching 4 GB modules (for a total of 16 GB of RAM). It is worth noting that this 33% performance boost is provided with only 25% more RAM, as well.

However, there also is one critical disclaimer about mixing modules. 4 GB and 8 GB modules are UDIMMs (Unbuffered DIMMs) whereas 16 GB and higher capacity modules are RDIMMs (Registered DIMMs) and these two types of modules cannot be mixed. In other words, you can install any combination of as many as four 4 GB and 8 GB modules, but you cannot install 16 GB or higher capacity modules alongside smaller ones.

You can install fewer than four 16 GB or higher capacity modules. Two 16 GB modules and two empty slots is acceptable, for example. The Cylinder Mac Pro models will not boot if 16 GB or 32 GB RDIMMs and 4 GB or 8 GB UDIMMs are installed at the same time, though.

 

[jaro1]

i hope that new iMac 5k doesn't kill your love for mac pro...

Will not... Yesterday i have compared views from iMac 5k vs nMP with Sharp 4k display, no big differences for me, both color reproduction is not this what I want.
4k as a resolution is ok for me, but I need wide gamut, so hope that EIzo or NEC will show someday a display with color Management in 4k res.

 

[Korican100]

Just put in an order for a 6,1. Very excited, but NERVOUS.

I ordered the base 3.7 quad core, and 12gb ram. Got the 64gb Ram kit from OWC, and ordered the 8 core 3.3ghz CPU for an upgrade.

Going to perform mini surgery on my mac right when it gets here!

 

[say19]

Just put in an order for a 6,1. Very excited, but NERVOUS.

Congratulations! Mine finally arrived this week, but with a faulty fan - they are collecting it today sigh. About a week for a replacement.

I'm now four weeks without a functioning Mac and counting.

On the upside, it's been an interesting exercise seeing how much I can actually get done with only iOS devices.

 

[Macsos1?]

Refurbished vs New MacBook

Ok I've been looking at every thread and still trying to decide between a brand new 15" with retina display or a refurbished one. I'm a student also so I can't decide if I should use the education pricing or do the refurbished one. The refurbished one I'm looking at:
$2099
Originally released July 2014
15.4-inch (diagonal) Retina display; 2880-by-1800 resolution at 220 pixels per inch
16GB of 1600MHz DDR3L SDRAM

512GB Flash Storage1

Brand new with education price:
2.5GHz quad-core Intel Core i7
Turbo Boost up to 3.7GHz
16GB 1600MHz memory
512GB PCIe-based flash storage 1
NVIDIA GeForce GT 750M with 2GB GDDR5 memory
Built-in battery (8 hours)2
$2,299.00

HELP!!