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  • Hey all, just changed over the backend after 15 years I figured time to give it a bit of an update, its probably gonna be a bit weird for most of you and i am sure there is a few bugs to work out but it should kinda work the same as before... hopefully :)

Buying Mac Pro today

Peter,

You might also want to consider the newest 17 inch laptop Macbook pro that just got revised. The top one is i7 with 8mb cache.
I believe you can throw in 16mb (maybe 32) into the laptop, and 3 SSD, one for main drive, 2 for the optical drive bay
with a kit adapter.

This way you have strength and portability, a friend of mine just did this instead of the iMac cause he needed to be on the road
sometimes.

The new MacBook 17 incher has Thunder Bolt and still express card slot, 15 inch do not have the expresscard slot anymore.

Just an idea.
 
Michael McLaughlin said:
Peter,

You might also want to consider the newest 17 inch laptop Macbook pro that just got revised. The top one is i7 with 8mb cache.
I believe you can throw in 16mb (maybe 32) into the laptop, and 3 SSD, one for main drive, 2 for the optical drive bay
with a kit adapter.
Click to expand...

If he's looking for a desktop system (ie: temporary replacement for Mac Pro), the iMac is the better route. More powerful, dual Thunderbolt ports, bigger display, etc.. And cheaper than a loaded Macbook Pro.

Both the iMac and Macbook Pro are due for updates. The Macbook Pro did get adjusted a couple months back, but it wasn't an update. They just tweaked the specs for the entry-level unit and removed one of the CPU config options. There's nothing available now that wasn't available a year ago when I bought mine. Intel has updated mobile CPUs and chipsets coming this summer. We're probably 4 months out or more. Next Intel platform to be updated is Xeon. Followed by the ultra-compact, which will get Ivy Bridge in probably March/April time frame, so we can expect new Macbook Air systems then. As well as all those cool "ultrabook" PCs being shown off at CES that had the high-DPI "retina" displays and whatnot.
 
1. Installing ram will not void warranty, Apple even shows you how in the little booklet or pdf. Buy from Kingston or Crucial they usually have good prices and I think they both have configuration tables on their websites.

2. Apple is probably discontinuing the pro line, this is no longer where their money is generated, there may be one more generation but I feel that is doubtful. Look to Boxx or some other high end pc provider. I have been through this kind of transition several times in the last 20+ years... Mac to Sgi to pc back to Mac and it looks like I will be once again transitioning to pc.... whatever gets the job done...
 
I love your faith despite all information and counter trends. You give me hope. Will another Mac Pro be released on day? I find it hard to believe they are gone for good. The added thunderbolt is worth waiting alone, let's face it, we are R1/Epic/Scarlet owners, we need speed, power and space.

Barry Bishop said:
NO!!!!!
Intel just released info on their new cores.

http://www.xbitlabs.com/news/cpu/di...ips_for_LGA2011_Platform_in_March_Rumour.html


Surely you can wait a wee bit longer.

http://buyersguide.macrumors.com/#Mac_Pro


Honestly your going to get a thunderbolt connection as well as better performing CPU. In the long run your better off just getting a crappy PC to hold you over on craigslist till the MacPro is released.
Click to expand...
 
A RED/EPIC DIT guy I work with says the Red Rocket does 90% of the heavy lifting when you transcode. He actually went out of his way to say you DON'T need the latest Mac Pro because it'll be a waste of money. An old one will work just as well.

For whatever it's worth...
 
William Albertini said:
2. Apple is probably discontinuing the pro line, this is no longer where their money is generated, there may be one more generation but I feel that is doubtful. Look to Boxx or some other high end pc provider. I have been through this kind of transition several times in the last 20+ years... Mac to Sgi to pc back to Mac and it looks like I will be once again transitioning to pc.... whatever gets the job done...
Click to expand...

Totally WAG with nothing more than conjecture to back it up. :thumbdown:
 
Not just a thought, but a good thought. Mac Pros from two years ago are plenty fast. In fact, 533+ days, that's like buying a Mac Pro that was released six months ago.

Buy the Mac Pro used, upgrade the RAM and put in a SSD hard drive. Upgrade the video card, toss a rocket in and switch to Adobe Premier 5.5 and you are editing, CCing, adding effects and being productive. Nothing productive happens if you sit on your thumbs right?



Dustin Cross said:
Save some money and get a used MacPro. You can get an 8-core 2009 (4,1) for $2000 and maybe less. Look around a little and you will find they have added ram and upgraded video cards for that price. I have six of those right now and they run great.

If warranty is mandatory, look at the refurbished MacPros from Apple.

Just a thought.



Dusty
Click to expand...
 
Terry VerHaar said:
Totally WAG with nothing more than conjecture to back it up. :thumbdown:
Click to expand...
Methinks I ruffled a fanboys feathers.... 18 months and counting since the last MacPro update, add the FCP debacle to the mix. Look at the earnings numbers for Mac Pro versus iphone or ipad, or macbook for that matter..... The writing has been on the wall for some time now, it clearly states that Apple is a consumer electronics company, and is fairly rapidly shedding its pro offerings. Remember the 30" cinema display? It is no more. The XServe? No more. BTW I write this on my venerable macpro, and I will be sad to transition to another platform, in fact I am waiting until April in the hope there is one more generation before it gets flatlined. I am waiting but not holding my breath....
 
William Albertini said:
Methinks I ruffled a fanboys feathers.... 18 months and counting since the last MacPro update, add the FCP debacle to the mix. Look at the earnings numbers for Mac Pro versus iphone or ipad, or macbook for that matter..... The writing has been on the wall for some time now, it clearly states that Apple is a consumer electronics company, and is fairly rapidly shedding its pro offerings. Remember the 30" cinema display? It is no more. The XServe? No more. BTW I write this on my venerable macpro, and I will be sad to transition to another platform, in fact I am waiting until April in the hope there is one more generation before it gets flatlined. I am waiting but not holding my breath....
Click to expand...

Frankly, it just bugs me when people make things up to answer someone's question. That's all. Apple never telegraphs what they do, either way. So you know exactly what I do - NADA. :frown2:
 
William Albertini said:
... add the FCP debacle to the mix. Look at the earnings numbers for Mac Pro versus iphone or ipad, or macbook for that matter.....
Click to expand...

Since you bring up FCP... how does the existence of FCPX, with it's massive overhaul and continued development support your theory?
 
Regarding the Mac Pro update, you have to realize this is entirely Intel's doing. The Sandy Bridge-EP / Xeon E5 platform was to release in Q4 2011 but has been continuously delayed and will now release in March first week. It is not just Apple - other vendors are affected by this as well. Of course, it is just this segment that is affected - other vendors offer much more solutions to keep up with the latest tech with other segments with Xeon E3, E7, Opteron 6200, Core i7 SB-E, etc.

Just speculating - I am fairly confident there will be a new Mac Pro middle of 2012 based around Xeon E5, but long term I do see iOS and OS X merging, and migration from x86/Intel to ARM. It is simply more profitable. Intel Xeon CPUs are very expensive (and becoming even more so every generation - a single Xeon E5 8C costs to the tune of $2000!), and the Mac Pro sees the lowest gross margin amongst all of Apple's products. So much so that Mac Pros are at times cheaper than competition from the likes of HP or Dell which have 1/5th the gross margin compared to Apple overall. Besides, outside of motion pictures, journalism and a few niche industries, Mac Pro never gained any traction as a productivity workstation. Engineering, architecture, finance, medical, etc. etc. are all dominated by Windows and Linux systems. I see Mac Pro surviving for a long, long time, but it will cease to be performance oriented and more of a pro device to complement and create content for Apple's consumer devices. (Note: I do include internet streamed films and videos as part of content.)
 
and the world ends in Dec 2012...

Probably not. I believe another Mac Pro will come. Now Apple might not make as much on a product like this BUT... Is Apple still making money on Mac Pro sales? Little profits on many items = large profits overall. That is still good business, assuming of course they are making profits on MP sales.

It would be silly for Apple to completely stop pro sales, switching everything to iPhones and iPads. What happens when this market saturates and sales figure fall?

If they were taking a loss, I understand why they would be discontinued. If they are making minimal profits, they still are making money, employing people and holding onto a loyal piece of the market that their competitors are not.

Hear me dooms-dayers.... A new Mac Pro will come, it is only a matter of time.
 
William Albertini said:
Methinks I ruffled a fanboys feathers.... 18 months and counting since the last MacPro update
Click to expand...

...And just what would they update it to? Serious question here. you do realize that Intel has not released any new Xeon CPUs in that time frame, right? You do realize that the current top of the line Xeon chipset (i5520) from Intel is now three years old, right?

That's about to change though, the Sandy Bridge Xeons and new host chipsets are due to ship in production volumes to OEMs in 3 weeks.

As for the future of the Mac Pro, it's sadly overdue for a complete re-design and overhaul. I'm pretty sure we have seen the last of the giant tower that is not rack-mountable and has gobs of wasted space inside. The current Mac tower design is nearly a decade old! I seriously doubt that Apple will discontinue the Mac Pro. It makes little sense for them to do so, you can quote sales figures all you want, but one of the last things Jobs said on matter is that he always wants Apple positioned at the high end as a professional solution and involved in every aspect of media production from inception, through creation, do delivery to customers via iTunes or the App Store. I believe they still feel this way. And I think moving forward, we're going to see a re-designed Mac Pro that is smaller, sleeker, and ironically more flexible, than its predecessors. ...Just my theory on this.
 
Subhadip Sen said:
Just speculating - I am fairly confident there will be a new Mac Pro middle of 2012 based around Xeon E5, but long term I do see iOS and OS X merging, and migration from x86/Intel to ARM. It is simply more profitable. Intel Xeon CPUs are very expensive (and becoming even more so every generation - a single Xeon E5 8C costs to the tune of $2000!), and the Mac Pro sees the lowest gross margin amongst all of Apple's products. So much so that Mac Pros are at times cheaper than competition from the likes of HP or Dell which have 1/5th the gross margin compared to Apple overall. Besides, outside of motion pictures, journalism and a few niche industries, Mac Pro never gained any traction as a productivity workstation. Engineering, architecture, finance, medical, etc. etc. are all dominated by Windows and Linux systems. I see Mac Pro surviving for a long, long time, but it will cease to be performance oriented and more of a pro device to complement and create content for Apple's consumer devices. (Note: I do include internet streamed films and videos as part of content.)
Click to expand...

I see a massive shift to ARM from x86 in the coming years and not just from Apple. Microsoft is working feverishly on WOA (Windows On Arm). For now ARM is playing catch-up and doesn't have the power to satisfy performance-hungry desktop and workstation users, but it's fast enough for most people doing general tasks, watching movies, playing music, playing games, etc.... ARM-based "ultrabooks" are arriving this year, many shown at CES. ARM based tablets are everywhere... In another 5 years, we could definitely see desktop workstations and gaming PC's that are ARM based, using dual ARM processors with 8 to 16 cores each. And they could very easily run circles around what we are buying now or will be buying later this year.

iOS and OSX will indeed merge at some point. I don't think that's a secret as it's been mentioned as highly possible by Phil Schiller and Steve Jobs; and at this point it seems to be a very logical evolution. Look at what Microsoft is doing with Windows 8. It's the first version of Windows in a long time that I'm actually really excited about. Very streamlined, can run on mobile devices or massive workstations, they are bringing it to ARM and may eventually combine x86 and ARM support within the same OS core. And it's come up that we could see systems with both x86 and ARM CPUs in the near future ...Apple may do the same, I'm half-expecting a solution like that to come in the MacBook Air within the next year or so. 11" MBA would be an x86 "Ivy Bridge" ultrabook or an iPad, depending on what you wanted to do with it.

It's funny about the Mac Pro not gaining any traction... You would think it would have. It did, but not as much as Apple wanted. Mac Pro still out-solld dual-Xeon workstations from Dell and HP combined in 2009. So it's not like it was unpopular. But the lack of traction, if we are to call it that, I blame this mostly on the hardware offerings. What they had was good, but their entry-level model was a castrated dual Xeon box. So you ended up with half the RAM capacity and half the memory bandwidth, just to save some $$$ on extra CPU cores you probably didn't need. They had no "Pro" offering to appeal to most professionals out there who need more than an iMac, but don't need the behemoth dual Xeon workstation. I really hope they address this with the next Mac Pro revision. Actually, the dual-Xeon box is fine. But I want to see them release a Mac that is based on a desktop-class CPU and positioned in the market with a price to match. Which means it should start between the price of a Mac Mini and iMac. People would eat those up like you wouldn't believe.... Apple has to know this....

Professional engineers, designers, etc.. do like the Mac platform and want to use it. AutoDesk's best-selling product in 2011 (best-selling by a landslide) was AutoCAD for Mac, they are brining more of their products to Mac as well. By and large, the majority of their AutoCAD customers are running iMac and MacBook Pro systems. And the systems run it well... I've been an AutoCAD user myself for years and the Mac version is nice, runs great on my current model i7 iMac as well as on the Mac Pro.
 
Jeff Kilgroe said:
I see a massive shift to ARM from x86 in the coming years and not just from Apple. Microsoft is working feverishly on WOA (Windows On Arm). For now ARM is playing catch-up and doesn't have the power to satisfy performance-hungry desktop and workstation users, but it's fast enough for most people doing general tasks, watching movies, playing music, playing games, etc.... ARM-based "ultrabooks" are arriving this year, many shown at CES. ARM based tablets are everywhere... In another 5 years, we could definitely see desktop workstations and gaming PC's that are ARM based, using dual ARM processors with 8 to 16 cores each. And they could very easily run circles around what we are buying now or will be buying later this year.

iOS and OSX will indeed merge at some point. I don't think that's a secret as it's been mentioned as highly possible by Phil Schiller and Steve Jobs; and at this point it seems to be a very logical evolution. Look at what Microsoft is doing with Windows 8. It's the first version of Windows in a long time that I'm actually really excited about. Very streamlined, can run on mobile devices or massive workstations, they are bringing it to ARM and may eventually combine x86 and ARM support within the same OS core. And it's come up that we could see systems with both x86 and ARM CPUs in the near future ...Apple may do the same, I'm half-expecting a solution like that to come in the MacBook Air within the next year or so. 11" MBA would be an x86 "Ivy Bridge" ultrabook or an iPad, depending on what you wanted to do with it.

It's funny about the Mac Pro not gaining any traction... You would think it would have. It did, but not as much as Apple wanted. Mac Pro still out-solld dual-Xeon workstations from Dell and HP combined in 2009. So it's not like it was unpopular. But the lack of traction, if we are to call it that, I blame this mostly on the hardware offerings. What they had was good, but their entry-level model was a castrated dual Xeon box. So you ended up with half the RAM capacity and half the memory bandwidth, just to save some $$$ on extra CPU cores you probably didn't need. They had no "Pro" offering to appeal to most professionals out there who need more than an iMac, but don't need the behemoth dual Xeon workstation. I really hope they address this with the next Mac Pro revision. Actually, the dual-Xeon box is fine. But I want to see them release a Mac that is based on a desktop-class CPU and positioned in the market with a price to match. Which means it should start between the price of a Mac Mini and iMac. People would eat those up like you wouldn't believe.... Apple has to know this....

Professional engineers, designers, etc.. do like the Mac platform and want to use it. AutoDesk's best-selling product in 2011 (best-selling by a landslide) was AutoCAD for Mac, they are brining more of their products to Mac as well. By and large, the majority of their AutoCAD customers are running iMac and MacBook Pro systems. And the systems run it well... I've been an AutoCAD user myself for years and the Mac version is nice, runs great on my current model i7 iMac as well as on the Mac Pro.
Click to expand...

Yes, they should bring back the Cube. The Mac Mini server is a poor substitute.
 
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