Where's the flood of Thunderbolt options?

[tomscott1988]

One of the reasons I've kept my cMP 3,1 going so long is the ability to add upgrades like a PCIe SSD RAID card to speed up the boot drive, moving up to a more powerful graphic card, adding a USB/Firewire card, RAM additions, and boosting internal storage to 12TB. When I first bought the machine I didn't know I would want most of these upgrades - until I did.

I'm a graphic designer with a small home-based studio. My computer is the main electronic tool I use to earn my living. Keeping it working as efficiently as possible for as long as possible makes a lot of sense for a small timer like myself. Ditching the whole computer three years ago because the startup disk was too slow would have been achievable, but not desirable. I'd rather spend my profits on other things.

Whether I fit the profile of "most users" is irrelevant to me, though I understand why Apple must make such calculations. Nevertheless, one of the primary selling points for the Mac Pro to me has always been the internal options available. It was a very versatile tool, suitable for many different professional scenarios.

That is no longer the case, it appears.

Not every user has the same needs, and I think Apple has missed the mark in that the nMP caters primarily to a small niche of ultra-high end users. That's fine, but in the meantime I find myself in No-Mans-Land when it comes to a purchase option that makes long-term sense for me. The iMac falls short for what I'm looking for, and the nMP is optimized for tasks I never perform. And both machines appear to have been constructed and designed as disposable tools, which I find very disconcerting, especially as a user looking for long-lasting power and utility.

The more I consider the direction Apple has taken the Mac Pro, the more I'm inclined to consider the 5,1 the best option for my goals.

I completely agree with you and I'm in the same boat being a photographer and graphic designer. I have upgraded mine from a 3,1 to a 5,1. I got a 5,1 today with the 3.4ghz 6 core upgraded processor, 48gb ram, 512gb PCI SSD and it was £1200! A similar specced 6 core nMP is £3700! They are 20% quicker and 60% more expensive then you have to get a thunderbolt raid enclosure for the drives which are £400…. just doesn't make sense to spend £4000 for a 3-4 year machine which is already reaching 2 years old and the gpus won't support 5k later on.

Most video guys have switched out their nMP for the 4k retina because its cheaper and supports 5k natively… sums it up.

The fact is that the 5,1 is 5 years old and people are looking at them because its so much value for money and they really aren't that far behind the nMP. There is a lot of life left and all the pereferals owned by cMP owners will fit, they aren't redundant. Like sigmadog I upgraded mine as far as I could and the processors started to be the problem.

Currently if you want to upgrade the upgradable options on the nMP like the processors and SSD… A. the processors are 1/3 the price of the machine so add another £1000, B. Apple branded SSDs aren't available from apple as upgrades, meaning you have to go with a secondary vendor which still cost a fortune like OWCs AURA.

Crazy.

I love the size, the way they look… but as a professional desktop for users like me who want them to last 5-6 years the cost doesn't make sence atm compared to the 5,1. The 5,1 will be great to fill the gap until I see what direction apple go with the 7,1.

I don't think we will see another MP for 2 years anyway, apple don't care about the product. On their website the mini and the pro are hidden you have to click across. They are the Ba***rds of the family.

 

[Demigod Mac]

Count me in as well. Upgrade my 5,1 with a flashed Titan X for ~$1300 after taxes or buy a [slower] nMP with D700s for $5000 PLUS several hundred $ per enclosure for all my cards and hard drives just to achieve functional parity. The mess of cables and boxes is just the cherry on top.

Now do you understand why pros are so upset with the nMP?

 

[Zorn]

I love the size, the way they look… but as a professional desktop for users like me who want them to last 5-6 years the cost doesn't make sence atm compared to the 5,1. The 5,1 will be great to fill the gap until I see what direction apple go with the 7,1.

I don't think we will see another MP for 2 years anyway, apple don't care about the product. On their website the mini and the pro are hidden you have to click across. They are the Ba***rds of the family.

This pretty much sums up my feelings as well. I love the way the nMP looks. I like that it's a super quiet machine. I would be a buyer in a heartbeat if you could just upgrade the GPUs, it's really the one part of this machine that will feel dated fast, and already is horribly dated.

Apple could get a whole other revenue stream, for extremely marginal effort if they just offer a CTO GTX 980. Literally this would be so easy for them to do, and nVidia would jump at the chance. They just don't care because they'd rather you throw your nMP in the garbage next year when 7,1 is out with new nVidia chips.

 

[linuxcooldude]

I've learned my lesson, I will never put a non-natively supported video card in my Mac Pro's ever again. Too unpredictable, constant uncontrollable reboot cycles with blank screens, even to the desktop. No flashed PC cards, some only supported under Nvidia drivers...Ugh.

 

[ixxx69]

Not every user has the same needs, and I think Apple has missed the mark in that the nMP caters primarily to a small niche of ultra-high end users. That's fine, but in the meantime I find myself in No-Mans-Land when it comes to a purchase option that makes long-term sense for me.

True, not every user has the same needs, but I don't see people here trying to make that argument. You can pick on ClassObject's poor choice of wording to start his post, but the obvious point of his post is that it's delusional to think that most people's major concern when purchasing a Mac is being able to upgrade the CPUs and GPUs.

You suggest that the nMP caters to a small niche of ultra-high end users. That's where there seems to be a huge chasm in understanding here. I would suggest that the MP market is a small niche to begin with and the original MP owners who want to upgrade their CPUs and GPUs are a tiny niche of that small niche.

The big difference is that my understanding is based on market trends, sales reports, and hardware offerings throughout the computer industry, while a lot of people here are basing their understanding on MacRumor postings and a few cherry-picked anecdotal yarns about their own needs (or the needs of a handful of customers they worked with).

A used Mac Pro 5,1 or similar can be a really great value depending on your usage. BTW, that goes for most used computers. That actually goes for most used things.

 

[theSeb]

The nMP has been out for a year and a half and, to my eyes, the flood of Thunderbolt accessories has yet to materialize.

It depends on what you're looking for, but there are plenty of thunderbolt accessories out there.

https://thunderbolttechnology.net/products

As for the nMP... what I love about it is how quiet it is. It really helps me to focus on work instead of listening to whooosh noises all day long

 

[flat five]

Go spread the joy that is nMP from a soapbox in Central Park, isn't that "real life"? Take your poll there and let us know what the "real world" wants.

went up there at lunchtime to run my poll for you.. was really aiming to prove you wrong regarding what the real world thinks of nmp upgrading but i'll be damned.. the turnout was hot.

 

[AidenShaw]

went up there at lunchtime to run my poll for you.. was really aiming to prove you wrong regarding what the real world thinks of nmp upgrading but i'll be damned.. the turnout was hot.

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+100, good sport!