OntheRez Offline Upload & Sell: On
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Perhaps this will be useful to someone considering upgrading their desktop Mac. First my usage. I'm the only "professional" photographer in my small town. Professional is in quotes because there aren't enough people to support full time so I do a variety of things. Most of this involves intellectual work done at a distance: statistical analyses and reporting, technical writing, and some architectural CAD work. I do a lot a writing. I'm also the sports reporter with weekly deadlines (both written and photo). In a busy week I deal with 2K+ RAW photos. I'm on my 3rd Mac Pro. It's 4+ years old. I was blown away last month when I helped a friend acquire and setup a new 27" iMac with the 3.4 Ghz i7 processor (platter drive). Frankly it kicked my Mac Pro's butt! Understand, I've hot rodded this thing (2010 dual quad 2.4 Ghz) as far as it will go: max RAM, PCI-e SSD bootdrive, 4+ TB online storage, 30" CinemaHD monitor, etc. It's used daily for several hours at a minimum.
My first instinct was to go with the new Mac Pro (nMP). No doubt these are impressive cans I believe - once again - that Apple has staked out new hardware territory well beyond the current paradigm. They have done this before. (You'd have to be fairly old to remember the "Apple is dead" dirge that followed the introduction of the Mac. Reason: "No one will use those expensive 3.5" floppy disks cause everything is 5.25". The problems with the nMP are that the hardware ecology hasn't caught up yet, and bluntly the software developers in main don't even begin to exploit its capabilities. (Yes, I'm talking to you Adobe.
I depreciate my work computer over 3 years. (Yes the IRS claims they last 5. Wonder how many 5-year old computers are still in mainline service?) Three years seems to be a fairly good upgrade cycle because in that time hard/soft ware have generally advanced enough that new equipment makes economic sense. So my decision came down to how future proof do I want to be and how much extra do I want to pay to be a pioneer.
I ended up comparing the fully tricked 27" iMac (3.5 Ghz, 512 GB SSD, 4 GB VRAM, but minimum RAM: cost $2850 shipped no tax) vs both the 4 and 6-core nMP. The 4-core is roughly the same cost while the 6 is an extra $1K. Non-Apple RAM upgrades to 32MB are about the same for each. I've not owned a closed case machine since the Mac SE. My DOS boxes have always been hand assembled. The idea of NOT being able to modify a machine is difficult to accept. I believe Apple is returning to Steve Job's original vision of "computer as toaster." Regardless of choice, I'll have to invest in new peripherals because everything currently is eSATA, FW800 or USB-2.
All the testing I could find suggests that the 4-core nMP doesn't out perform the top level iMac. The 6-core does, but at a healthy premium. Also the nMP SSD upgrade is dramatically more expensive than the iMac. As far as I can tell other than Apple's Final Cut Pro and Pixelmater nothing is making use of the dual GPUs. Finally, I realized that while I can rig my 8-year old CinemaHD display to work with the nMP it would be a bit of a kluge and in examining the iMac screen it is clearly sharper and has better color. So while I can use the display in the short term I'd soon be looking at another ~$1K for a new monitor.
Dropping down to a 27" screen is a real negative, but it is possible to add a second monitor. Also I hate the idea of losing a computer because the screen went TU. After much head scratching and muttering I went with the fully tricked iMac, added $150 for 2 extra years of warranty (so it won't matter if the screen dies), so "tax, title, and license" it will arrive on my doorstep for <$3k. I'm getting an OWC "miniMax Stack" which is USB-3, inclues a CD-ROM, has room for drive, and multiple ports including eSATA, USB-3, and FW800. A good transition device. A further advantage is that the company I deal with will give me $1500 for my 2010 Mac Pro (minus my shipping costs). So run it for 3 years at $500 @ year (minus resale value) and see what the nMP looks like in 2017.
As with all choices there are downsides to any direction I went. As we say in statistics, "You can't maximize all the variables in any equation." This seems the best trade-off.
Long winded, but maybe of value
Robert
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