Anyone picking up a new iMac Pro?

[Kaido]

I've never done any serious video editing, is Final Cut Pro or whatever that superior to the Windows solutions? The big draw for me would be having a Unix environment with MS Office. They'd have to have nVidia cards before I bite though.

Final Cut Pro was amazing, but Apple kind of ignored all of their other products (cough Mac Mini cough) to focus on iPhone development for awhile there, and then they released FCP-X, which came out half-baked. A lot of people jumped ship to go to Windows because they didn't feel cared about...they waited & waited and then got a mediocre replacement editor (fwiw, it's gotten better over time). Adobe really killed it with Premiere (cross-platform) for video editing, and many other software packages are now available on both platforms, so it became compelling to switch to Windows because you could run the same software & get a (vastly) cheaper computer, which is a big deal when you're running a video production shop & can literally save tens of thousands of dollars on hardware without losing out on features. Really, the only two serious reasons to stay on Mac for video editing are (1) if you still like using Shake (oldie but a goodie), and (2) if you explicitly need/want to use Smoke (Autodesk), which is Mac-only, both of which are fairly specific pieces of software.

I still have friends who edit on Macs, but the large majority of professionals I know are now on Windows, despite being Mac fans. While I'm not a huge fan of Windows 10 (endless updates + spying = yuck), it is (1) very stable (surprisingly so), and (2) has excellent graphical support (which is continuously updated), so it does make for a solid editing platform. It's not like you're really losing features outside of the *nix-based OS, either...Dell has 8K monitors, you can get the latest GPU's anytime you want (you can stick a Titan V or a 24GB Quadro M6000 into your machine anytime you want), you can order parts off Amazon to easily build a 44-core dual-CPU machine with a terabyte of RAM, etc.

I'm still a Mac fanboy, but I've had a hard time justifying Apple's lateness to the party. $13k for a fully-loaded iMac Pro with an integrated video card that you can never, ever upgrade seems like a huge waste, unless you're totally fixated on an AIO machine, but if you look at most of the reviewers on Youtube, they have a truckload of accessories (like big Thunderbolt NAS boxes), so it's not like they're really saving space or anything on their desks lol. And Apple still has yet to release the modular Mac Pro, and there is pretty much zero word on the Mac Mini (last update was over 3 years ago), so I don't feel like they are very committed to professionals still. I just read that developers made like $86 billion from the iOS App Store since inception, so obviously their focus isn't really on the pro's, which makes sense because they're not nearly as big of a market, and Apple hasn't really cared about making progress in the business world (like ever), despite Office now working pretty good on OSX. It is what it is.

I think the iMac Pro is way cool & definitely wouldn't mind owning one, but we've even talked about retiring our Hackintosh at home & switching to Windows just to get a more modern GPU in there (TonyMac has support for up to the 1080, but not the 1080 Ti at the present time). Premiere, Photoshop, Lightroom, daVinci, etc. all run great on Windows. I'd really rather not use Windows, but economics & hardware support being what they are...well, $5,000 for the base model is an awful lot of moola. Very cool device, but I'd go a different route personally.

 

[Kaido]

 

[quikah]

Yeah, that is what I keep hearing. People live in Premier or Photoshop or whatever, doesn't matter what the underlying OS is as long as it is stable (which Win 10 is). Lot of software devs have switched to Mac in Silicon Valley, but don't really need this for software dev.

 

[TheStu]

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/201...veals-what-you-can-upgrade-and-what-you-cant/

Saw that. CPU and are replaceable, GPU is soldered to the logic board. TB3 is fast enough to support external GPUs with minimal performance loss, so not a huge hit there (that and my understanding is that MXM has always been a mixed bag of a standard anyway).

 

[sportage]

Its hard to justify upgrading to a new iMac at any time because these darn machines just never outdate themselves or.... really need updating.
My 2010 iMac runs almost as good as my 2015.
Unlike Microsoft and windows, jumping into an iMac is probably the only computer you'll need for the next 15 - 20 years. And when you do upgrade its probably only because you have the itch for something new or you inherited a lot of money. Justification be damned.
Sliced bread is sliced bread. Its hard to improve on how they slice or how thick the slices are.
In the end its still sliced bread.
Where as with the iPhone, Apple will make major improvements from time to time but not necessarily every time. If you had an iPhone 5 then really wasn't any reason to upgrade, that was until the iPhone X came along which is a major improvement. Swipe instead of that ugly button. Android users should love that.
Same with the iMac, you really have to ask yourself, do I honestly need to upgrade?
And if the wifey says NO, she's probably right on his one.
I suppose one could withdraw the $5000 cash out of the bank and tell the wife your dad needed emergency surgery or bailed out of jail. Then sneak off to the Apple store and buy the damn thing, hide it in the closet for a few months or until its safe, and swear to the wifey, "New? This isn't new. R U kidding? New?."

 

[Kaido]

Its hard to justify upgrading to a new iMac at any time because these darn machines just never outdate themselves or.... really need updating.
My 2010 iMac runs almost as good as my 2015.

I sold my 20" iMac (Early 2006 model) to a friend many years ago...she just messaged me the other day to let me know that it had finally died (she had been using it up until that point!). That was a pretty good 12-year run between the two of us!

 

[manly]

https://slickdeals.net/f/11155807-a...tax-at-micro-center-b-m-1000-off-msrp?src=pdw

Deal of the year

 

[Kaido]

https://slickdeals.net/f/11155807-a...tax-at-micro-center-b-m-1000-off-msrp?src=pdw

Deal of the year

lol the comments

I've heard stories that you can sell you gray mouse & keyboard (just use a boring aluminum colored one yourself)

Very good deal. Any other Microcenter coupons to stack besides $5 off via RMN?

 

[Deepinmind]

It feels like somewhat of a stop-gap measure until the Mac Pros come out. I don't know, I'd like to play around with one and see what it can do.

I’d like to see Anandtech do a full system breakdown like they did on the 2013 Trashcan Mac Pro. They even broke down the limits on the USB 3 ports only having 500MB/s among all of them, and the TB2 ports having to share two ports between one controller. That was good information to know, and I’m just hoping that Anandtech is waiting until the high end 14 and 18 core models drop this year. Please guys???!

 

[Kadarin]

I have no use case for it, so no I won't get one. I do have a current gen top of the line regular iMac, though, which I do use and like.

 

[SKORPI0]

https://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/iMac+Pro+Teardown/101807

 

[dawks]

It really is an incredible computer, considering the performance, and features like the T2 chip. I'd love to have one, but can't really justify the cost. If performance was critically important to my work flow, like rendering, compiling, or compressing, maybe..
My frustration is that they insist on making accessibility to the internals and upgradablity difficult. Realistically there's no reason there couldn't be a panel at the back allowing one to open the case and swap/add/upgrade parts. other than the excuse of aesthetics, and business greed (ie. buy our ram, only we can service it).

 

[sonitravel09]

Apple made all of these into a small all in one design ! if you prefer an ugly noise box tall tower go for it