New Mac Pro coming in the fall

hippietim said:
I saw somewhere that fully loaded they’re $45k. The only way this makes sense is if you absolutely have no choice but to use a Mac. Because you can get something more powerful for way, way, way less money and run Windows or Linux.
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Yes, I would think you could put together a similar Dell workstation solution for less than 20k. Now, all the HW is state-of-the-art including the new Apple monitor. But we all know how the prices go down next year when the latest-greatest is again introduced. If video editors spend 90% of their time starring at Adobe Premier or a custom editing video app, it does not matter what OS and UI is running in the background.
 
hippietim said:
I saw somewhere that fully loaded they’re $45k. The only way this makes sense is if you absolutely have no choice but to use a Mac. Because you can get something more powerful for way, way, way less money and run Windows or Linux.
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iOS build farm owners are very happy right now.
 
AFAIK HP, Dell etc. machines with similar specs are at least the same money. And the display competes with reference gear many times its cost. It's not prosumer gear but pro - aimed mainly at hires video editing and rendering. Audio pros don't need the full blast, a 12-core and 96GB RAM should be plenty. And when the MP lasts 10 years the price is ok (my 4.1 is in its 10th. year now). And semipro/ hobbyists should look elsewhere (Mac Mini, iMac etc.). I'm glad Apple is in the pro market again (although a scaled down version with half the PCI-slots would do for me).
 
merlin17 said:
AFAIK HP, Dell etc. machines with similar specs are at least the same money.
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They are. Once you go over the 500 GB RAM mark things start getting pricey. 1 TB machines were a thing trying to assemble FPGAs when I was doing that as a job and 6 years ago they were $100k+ running $1MM+ software. :|
 
merlin17 said:
AFAIK HP, Dell etc. machines with similar specs are at least the same money.
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Not in this case, for whatever reason. Normally Macs are only a smidge more that a similarly spec-ed PC, but they've gone nuts with the Mac Pro pricing. Guess they figure they've found a market that's entrenched enough in the OSX ecosystem that they're not going to migrate away.

The base configuration for the new Mac Pro isn't especially impressive (8 core Xeon, 32 gigs of ram, lower end of the "pro" version of the current GPUs) - the Dell equivalents are in the $3000 - $3500 range.

We'll see how the cost for the upgraded Mac Pros do compared Dell workstations. Those will enter a world where the markups even from Dell become totally absurd compared to what they're paying for the components.

The Mac Pro base config happens to exist in world where the Dells/HP workstations still seem somewhat tethered to the cost of the components. Maybe the upgraded Mac Pros won't look so crazy stupid expensive compared to similarly spec-ed Dells?
 
It looks indeed that audio pros and programmers should just stick to MBPs for the time being. A decent Mac Pro with less PCI slots and basic video card would have been nice but this is not their market just now.
 
Believe it or not I have two 2017 MBPs, one office one and one for home/studio. Neither has had any keyboard issues. The office one has been in extensive use for 2+ years now, the keys are getting very worn down but still work just fine.
 
ksandvik said:
Believe it or not I have two 2017 MBPs, one office one and one for home/studio. Neither has had any keyboard issues. The office one has been in extensive use for 2+ years now, the keys are getting very worn down but still work just fine.
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The 2017s don’t really have the bad problems. It’s the butterfly design they debuted in 2018 that’s got the rampant issues.
 
As funny as this is, high end hardware has always been priced on the crazy side. I've just priced out a Linux workstation at work (no Apple tax or anything), and the total came to something like 8K. For work, given how much I make, it makes fiscal sense. But in no possible circumstance does $1K for a fucking monitor stand will ever make sense.
 
plexi59 said:
As funny as this is, high end hardware has always been priced on the crazy side. I've just priced out a Linux workstation at work (no Apple tax or anything), and the total came to something like 8K. For work, given how much I make, it makes fiscal sense. But in no possible circumstance does $1K for a fucking monitor stand will ever make sense.
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Agreed.

...In business I have always ascribed to the school of thought that "If I can stand-up in a court of law and explain away an expense, its golden"; and, having been audited in the past, even unusual items expensed were easily explained away by us as necessary..

The processing power of a first-rate machine.. okay.. Expensive. But a grand for a stand? .."necessary" ...likely not. It's just a shameless, almost contemptuous bilking of their customer base in my ever-so-humble opinion..
 
You might want to see it the other way round: the monitor would normally cost 6k, but the stand is optional for those who'd use the VESA anyway, so they SAVE 1k. It seems from the specs the monitor competes with 40k competitors, so I'd calm down a bit...
 
merlin17 said:
You might want to see it the other way round: the monitor would normally cost 6k, but the stand is optional for those who'd use the VESA anyway, so they SAVE 1k. It seems from the specs the monitor competes with 40k competitors
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Correct rationalization, poor delivery on Apple's part. :D

I think Apple has ignored the "pro" market for so long that people have forgotten that the once used to play in that space and that these latest computers are an attempt to, once again, play in the "pro" market. They are not aimed at even pro-sumer types. If you're not writing this off as capex on your yearly budget, you're not the target audience for the monitor or the new Mac Pro?
 
iaresee said:
The 2017s don’t really have the bad problems. It’s the butterfly design they debuted in 2018 that’s got the rampant issues.
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Butterfly keyboards were introduced 2017, of which I have two now, one at work and one back home. Zero issues. I still prefer the previous keyboard layout, better ergonomics range and much quieter. But the idea that all butterfly keyboards fail is not true.
 
ksandvik said:
Butterfly keyboards were introduced 2017, of which I have two now, one at work and one back home. Zero issues. I still prefer the previous keyboard layout, better ergonomics range and much quieter. But the idea that all butterfly keyboards fail is not true.
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2015 actually for the first iteration of the design. But it's the 2018 butterfly design that has the problems. As I said...

https://ifixit.org/blog/14776/apples-butterfly-keyboard-continues-to-plague-macbook-owners/
 
Oh, that's my dream. I've been waiting for this 5 years. But I'm afraid that the price would be high and I would need to wait a few more months(
 
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