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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 :)

What Mac to buy ?

It is a tough question right now about those macs !
I just ordered the MBP retina, I will have 2 weeks to test it and return it if doesn't fit my needs...

but now I am wondering about this topic title... Is it english to say "what mac to buy?" ??? :)
 
Would you say the 12 core Mac Pro at 3799 a bad idea? The price tag is kind of ridiculous
 
The 12 core Mac Pro at $3799 is just fine for what it is. You will spend double that on a Z620 or similar PC, even building it yourself. If you want to step up to the current E5 Xeon platform with the right CPUs to give superior performance. Also compare to equivalently spec'd systems from other vendors, like HP and their Z600.

Sure, the Mac Pro feels like it's been left behind, but look at the big picture for a moment... Very few mainstream PC vendors have jumped on the E5 "Romley" platform. They first started shipping 6 months ago this week, didn't see true availability until late May and are due to be replaced within the next 3 months. They're also power-hogs, heat monsters, the last dying breath of the 32nm process CPUs and they are huge when you look at the 8-core packages. Apple isn't the only one to have skipped this iteration.

So, what are we missing out on with the current E5 Xeons? Honestly, not much. Biggest advantage to the E5 platform is the ability to have 8 cores per CPU rather than 6 and there's a bit more cache to use. And the RAM is 333MHz faster. Per CPU clock, the CPU cores are not really any faster or better. The real advancements come in other refinements, but none are deal-breakers at this time I would think. If Apple releases a new Mac Pro in 2013, as they have promised, they will be doing just fine. Unfortunately, the market and their fan-base isn't always so understanding or rational about these things. They see that PC makers like to release "new" models every 6 months or so, regardless of whether or not there is really anything new inside the box.

Sure, my Z820 workstation is noticeably faster and more powerful than my 2010 (current model) Mac Pro systems. It's also noticeably more expensive, noticeably more power hungry and expensive to operate, etc... It's nice having PCIe v3 slots, oh wait, nothing really uses them yet. It's nice to have integrated USB3 ports, but that hardly justifies a $10K workstation. More cores? Hmmm... For the same money, I could have two Mac Pro systems or even 3 PC's based on the previous Westmere generation of Xeons.


I'm not knocking the new Xeon platform, but I am saying it like it is. The advantages are there and they come at a steep price with a handful of compromises. In retrospect, Apple's decision to not release a system for this iteration seems perfectly logical. Especially since they [these new Xeon CPUs] were long-delayed and will therefore have a very short (less than 1 year) retail life cycle before the next iteration of Xeon (at 22nm / Ivy Bridge based) is released.


As for which Mac to buy at this time, it's a tough question to answer. It seems that new iMac and Mac Mini are imminent. Current Mac Pro systems are a known quantity and won't be updated for at least 3 months, more likely it will be 5 or 6 months. An iMac, even if updated here in the coming weeks as being predicted, is still going to be less powerful than a Mac Pro. It will have USB3 and Thunderbolt ports, but adding expansion cards via Thunderbolt is expensive and restrictive to the true potential of those cards. However, I've found the current iMac and Macbook Pro retina systems to handle exceptionally well for use with R3D processing and other tasks. Premiere handles great on the MBPr. I wish the iMac had a better GPU...
 
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@Jeff Kilgore

If I was to buy a new 15inch MBPr Retina with maxed out everything, SSD. Would I be pretty set with Red Workflow through Premiere? I work only through premiere. I have a Mac Pro dual 2.6ghz from 2011 at home 16gigs of Ram etc at home that works fine but I would really like to be able to edit on the road more. My current 13inch 2.3ghz Macbook Pro is pretty worthless.
 
Jeff Kilgroe said:
re is really anything new inside the box.

Sure, my Z820 workstation is noticeably faster and more powerful than my 2010 (current model) Mac Pro systems. It's also noticeably more expensive, noticeably more power hungry and expensive to operate, etc... It's nice having PCIe v3 slots, oh wait, nothing really uses them yet. It's nice to have integrated USB3 ports, but that hardly justifies a $10K workstation. More cores? Hmmm... For the same money, I could have two Mac Pro systems or even 3 PC's based on the previous Westmere generation of Xeons.

.
Click to expand...


Jeff you seem to know a bit about these things. Question... I got a Z800 for my flame, are you saying it would be smart to skip the update and not buy into a Z820 and then get what ever comes after that? Whats an estimated guess for when the "above z820 HP" comes out?

Do not mean derail the thread.
 
Jeff Kilgroe said:
I wish the iMac had a better GPU...
Click to expand...

i am really hoping for that to be taken care of tomorrow...at least with more options in the BTO...
i love the mbp but the iMac line really is a great value for the money....you pretty much get a faster mbp with a 27" screen for 30% less....and with thunderbolt and usb3 teh expansion problem is more or less taken care of.....except for that pesty GPU problem....
 
Seems I can talk about it now in case y'all didn't quite pick up on it above with the "imminent" and GPU comments...


new iMac here [next month and december for the 27"] with nVidia Kepler GPU. ;)
 
new iMac looks stunning...CUDA acceleration...2K screen...Fusion SSD drive for fast boots...i5 processor over 3ghz.

wow. so close to everything I need, without the tower.
 
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