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The new Mac Pro is the xMac
- Thread starter Cubemmal
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When prices crept up from £1,499 to £2,099 while component costs plumeted, that stopped being the case. Pre-Intel, there was always an entry level system or xMac that wasn't a Mac Mini or iMac.
Possible other definition of prosumer as :
Person with enough money to indulge an interest in Computer Technology. Might do some part-time programming. Background in technology from years ago.
Not satisfied with what's in an iMac and not impressed enough with the Mini. Already might well have a Retina MacBook Pro.
Back in the G5 days the entry level Power Mac started at only £1099 and there were still complaints about it being too expensive.
Read it yourself. In the fancy scroll infographic is says "features", as in "it features dual FirePro graphics" which means options.
Also at the very end "Performance claims are based on technical specifications of preproduction Mac Pro hardware as of June 2013 and are subject to change."
They can do whatever they want. It is my belief that if they price this as you people say then it is DOA. All the talk about FirePro and dual GPU is to convince the pros that it is a viable computer. One look at FCPX will show you they have a history of giving the pros less and trying to convince them that is all they need.
If this was a machine geared towards to the pros then it would have PCI slots. Instead they made a machine that can be configured for that kind of work. I don't know why this point is so hard to see for people.
As for definitions - whatever. You know what I mean.
Hey, that's almost me!
At least closer than the other definition. I don't have an iPad, and I rarely use iMovie. Although I will be very disappointed when Apple officially announces that the dual-GPUs have no Crossfire.
Well you could just inform us instead of being a jerk about it. All I've seen is the professional crowd complain about the box - you like it, so what?
Hey, that's almost me!
At least closer than the other definition. I don't have an iPad, and I rarely use iMovie. Although I will be very disappointed when Apple officially announces that the dual-GPUs have no Crossfire.
Well that makes two of us. We need a few more then we can call ourselves a "Market Segment" and call for a focus group.
And tripling the price as well.
Whatever the iCan costs, I'll have to spend an additional $1500 just to hold the drives I already have in my current Mac Pro.
TCO is an issue, regardless of whether you are a 1 man band or a studio.
The fact that people from The Foundry, Pixar, and Black Magic are insanely impressed with this machine is enough for me to get one. I'm guessing the complainers in this thread didn't watch the Foundry/Pixar demo or at least if they did had NO clue what they were looking at.
The fact that Apple is about to deliver a powerhouse of a machine in a super small form factor is incredible. People on all kinds of forums I visit are wanting to buy it based on this alone because they can take it on set, on location, etc and work. Thats not practical with the current Mac Pro unless you are interested in throwing your back out.
There are tons of external expansion ports in the machine, it ships with TWO FirePro cards, you can put up to 128 gigs of RAM in the machine, and it has all the network connections you could want.
My big question is what is so "Pro" that people are doing on this thread that this machine isn't good enough?
The fact that Apple is about to deliver a powerhouse of a machine in a super small form factor is incredible. People on all kinds of forums I visit are wanting to buy it based on this alone because they can take it on set, on location, etc and work. Thats not practical with the current Mac Pro unless you are interested in throwing your back out.
There are tons of external expansion ports in the machine, it ships with TWO FirePro cards, you can put up to 128 gigs of RAM in the machine, and it has all the network connections you could want.
My big question is what is so "Pro" that people are doing on this thread that this machine isn't good enough?
Man, just a cock fight going on here. "My truck has a 36" lift... oh yeah, well mine has a 48". Diff strokes for diff folks. Anyone who makes a living off what they do is a professional, plain and simple.
So for any arrogant idiots that work in big companies making 50k, stop nocking on the dude that's a small gig because he probably makes twice what you do because he owns his company.
If the new pro works for you, great, if not, then move along. Yeah it sucks to have sunk tens of thousands of dollars into your workflow, but rather than acting angry/upset, you should keep a calm head and be working on your Apple exit strategy for the next few years. The fact that you are angry, more than likely tell me you probably work for someone else, because business owners keep calm heads and if they don't... they probably won't be in business long.
So for any arrogant idiots that work in big companies making 50k, stop nocking on the dude that's a small gig because he probably makes twice what you do because he owns his company.
If the new pro works for you, great, if not, then move along. Yeah it sucks to have sunk tens of thousands of dollars into your workflow, but rather than acting angry/upset, you should keep a calm head and be working on your Apple exit strategy for the next few years. The fact that you are angry, more than likely tell me you probably work for someone else, because business owners keep calm heads and if they don't... they probably won't be in business long.
3d rendering in my case. You can get very expensive software for that, but the hobbyist software is very powerful and it is also very inexpensive.
My software needs CPUs for that. 12 cores is enough for TODAY, in my case. The problem becomes what happens 24 months from now. We can get 16 cores TODAY, via Dell or HP.
And spare me the "Apple OS is better" argument - that may have been true in the past, but it isn't today.
These aren't going to have a life-cycle as short as an iMac. I am on a 5 year life-cycle - even the top end iCan isn't going to cut it for me.
Thankfully, all of my software is feature compatible on both platforms (finally!), if it becomes necessary to change platforms again.
I will go with option (3): build a dual-CPU Hackint0sh to my desired specifications, with whatever internal HDD capacity, GPU, memory slots (et. al) I desire. Sell 2008 Mac Pro on EBay.
My "external" storage (for backups) is already fulfilled with a Synology 1511+, with five 3TB drives, RAID-5 + hot spare.
I am certainly not going to purchase some thunderbolt nonsense to replace my existing internal and external storage configurations because Apple is only offering the iTrashcan and it touting thunderbolt as the greatest thing since Jesus' tears.
This is a $5000 no question. Isn't the processor close to 2k alone?
Either way, new thunderbolt controllers, PCI SSD, dual video cards at 2k? No way.
This thing isn't anywhere near being what I'd consider an xMac. An xMac is an official Apple version of a custom built PC using consumer parts. About the only thing this Mac Pro has in common with the latter is the power plug and USB ports. Actually, scratch that last one because a PC would have a lot more USB ports.
There's no way this thing's doing to cost $2000. I'm guessing at least $3000 for the base version and that's not counting all the money people are going to have to spend on thunderbolt accessories.
There's no way this thing's doing to cost $2000. I'm guessing at least $3000 for the base version and that's not counting all the money people are going to have to spend on thunderbolt accessories.
I am a software developer, and I consider myself a "pro" user if I keep burning out iMacs and Mac Minis for the computational requirements I need. I am most certainly NOT a prosumer.
I have a large computational need for research. Does that mean that the software engineering community is segmented into "pro" software developers, and middle-of-the-line developers? haha. just kidding.
but in all honesty, i've enjoyed using the mac pro since the day of the virginia tech supercomputer cluster in 2004 (back then it was powermac g5). those were the good old "pro" days.
ha, try to make a supercomputer cluster with these trashcan pros
"Made Quiet"
can someon please tell me what they do to make their Mac Pro be loud????
I have a 2009 8 core and 2010 quad core model. I max out all cores, on both, daily for hours straight for 3D renderings. The fans have never gone above the idle rpm (whatever its called, the lowest). It is impossible for me to hear the Pros at any time yet i hear this over and over again recently that the pros were loud. I dont get it
can someon please tell me what they do to make their Mac Pro be loud????
I have a 2009 8 core and 2010 quad core model. I max out all cores, on both, daily for hours straight for 3D renderings. The fans have never gone above the idle rpm (whatever its called, the lowest). It is impossible for me to hear the Pros at any time yet i hear this over and over again recently that the pros were loud. I dont get it
Not a hope.... $$2,999 at a minimum.
Also it won't 'only' be made in the USA. People forget that for EMEA territories it will be assembled in Ireland just like the previous MacPro.
Sonnet xMac
I may be hijacking this thread, but I have a 2012 Mac mini and was intrigued by Sonnet's rack-mountable mac mini expansion. Has anyone used this? I know it's quite pricey, but I am curious whether it has allowed for PCIe video card expansion, etc.
I may be hijacking this thread, but I have a 2012 Mac mini and was intrigued by Sonnet's rack-mountable mac mini expansion. Has anyone used this? I know it's quite pricey, but I am curious whether it has allowed for PCIe video card expansion, etc.
I wanted an xMac. The main reason was I wanted to be able to replace faulty components without the downtime involved in someone else repairing it (my current iMac spent 1 month away on 2 Applecare repairs). Plus the cost of getting someone to do it if not covered by a warranty making an older machine a potential cost liability.
In my experience, the things most likely to go wrong are hard drives, monitors and RAM. The new Mac Pro has a separate monitor and it looks like the RAM and storage are user replaceable. So that hopefully suits me
The cost was too much for a Mac Pro, and I only need strong performance rather than top end. Hopefully there will be a lot of options with the new model. I think that is one of the reasons for building it in USA, to reduce CTO shipping times.
If the Mac Pro has cheaper configurations available in the lower end of the estimates in this thread, then I will have what I wanted in an xMac.
In my experience, the things most likely to go wrong are hard drives, monitors and RAM. The new Mac Pro has a separate monitor and it looks like the RAM and storage are user replaceable. So that hopefully suits me
The cost was too much for a Mac Pro, and I only need strong performance rather than top end. Hopefully there will be a lot of options with the new model. I think that is one of the reasons for building it in USA, to reduce CTO shipping times.
If the Mac Pro has cheaper configurations available in the lower end of the estimates in this thread, then I will have what I wanted in an xMac.
So am I (software developer). People are getting too hung up on the terms, I'm lazy and just broke it into "Professional" (graphics professionals) and "Prosumers" (other professionals like this and enthusiasts) because that's probably how Apple marketing sees it.
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I love how people will state a high price without any supporting explanation to how they arrived at that conclusion.
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Mine isn't loud, but it isn't silent. It's not as quiet as my other Macs by a long shot. On the other hand when it's working hard the fans don't speed up like the other ones which are louder than the pro is normally.
The new Pro should be able to be deadly quiet when at idle and working, but we'll see.
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Yes way. If you examine my argument I'm saying bottom end, SSD at 80G or 124G, TB controllers are cheap, and low end video cards can come in that low.
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Consider this. I just got my mother board replaced on a 2011 MBP. This includes CPU, GPU and all the support logic. It cost me $210, plus $100 in labor. For whatever reason (I think this computer was a lemon and had the problem from the beginning (a GPU problem) which Apple recognized) this is surely coming in at cost.
$200 for the motherboard. Apple knowns how to drive component costs down.