No, no, not the dark side. ;) I'm not that insane. No, it's just after all that waiting for the new Mac Pro…I can't see myself getting one. :( Yes - just read MacDoc's post re:touring them around. But...
The quandary: my Mac Pro is now 6 years old - it's a 2008 3,1 - 2.8GHz single core, with 4 internal HDs, 18GB of RAM, a 4 port USB card and it's starting to seem slow, especially compared to my 2012 Retina i7. My Dell 24" 2407WFP monitor is now 7 years old, and although very good for its time, is not an IPS monitor.
Although it could be argued that an iMac could/would do all I need it to do and has been able to for a number of years, I've always had Macs in the pro line, since I like to be able to have more than one HD IN the box and I've also usually extensively upgraded components (including the drives) along the way. This Mac Pro is probably my least upgraded Mac ever, actually. It's had a lot of different drives in it over the years, but other than an eSATA card that was rendered obsolete by an OS upgrade it's had nothing other than the USB card, drives and memory upgrades. And now, the 2013 Mac Pros have essentially removed the option of internal upgrades - Apple has decreed that my desk will host a herd of boxes. Little bitty 11 lb computer, but a herd of boxes for drives and any PCI cards I may want to add. Expensive boxes.
Options:
1. Upgrade this Mac Pro. New video card? (this one is having trouble with PS6 and openGL, a documented issue - the solution at the moment is to turn off openGL, which isn't much of a solution, IMHO) - video cards that work in this generation appear to be scarce and expensive. RAM is very expensive for this beast - but I don't think more RAM will make much difference as the last addition did solve the excessive page out issues. An SSD for apps and the OS might speed things up a bit, but probably not as much as I'd like. USB 3.0 would be nice, as I have a number of external 3.0 drives - but the cards seem to be persnickety and expensive. Maybe $500 on a 6-year-old machine that is probably worth $700 or $800 so if I sold it? Hmmm…doesn't seem the best route.
2. A 2012 Mac Pro (if I could find one) Expensive - about the same as the bottom of the line 2013 if I'm to get anything with longevity. No USB 3.0, no Thunderbolt. Really not that different from a 2010…which is a 4-year-old machine.
3. A 2013 27" iMac - the 3.5GHz i7 for the greatest longevity. I saw a 3.5Ghz i7 on the refurb store yesterday - it's gone now, unfortunately. I'd get it with the 3TB Fusion drive and upgrade the RAM myself. Then would need to get enclosures for the homeless hard drives and probably a USB hub. Could run the Dell as a second monitor with an adapter, and if manna should ever fall from heaven, maybe upgrade to a newer IPS monitor. Will I be happy with the iMac's monitor - or will reflections be a problem? My desk is by a north-facing window. A bit of an unknown. My Retina seems to be ok in the same location. I do calibrate my monitors - just bought a new Spyder4Pro since Mavericks obsoleted my i1Display2. :(
I use my Macs mostly for designing websites and for processing photos with Lightroom and Photoshop CS6, both for clients' sites and for my own use, and I do some desktop publishing using InDesign. I don't do video - so also have no real need for the particularly video-oriented features of the new Mac Pro. I do tend to have a lot of apps open at any given time; LR, PS, ID, VMWare Fusion running Windows 7 (which is rather slow on this beast; even with 18 GB of RAM I tend to find it's a memory hog and I shut it down if I'm not actually using it), Word, Excel, Acrobat Pro, Transmit and at least three browsers.
And finally, there is still some value in this Mac Pro, so I could sell it and use the proceeds towards a new machine.
So - any thoughts? Advice? Anyone actually HAVE a new Mac Pro? Anyone gone from an old Mac Pro to an iMac? I'm annoyed that Apple went in the direction they did with the Mac Pro - I can understand it as a great video machine etc., but how about something for those of us who would actually like to be able to add things to our machines and keep the darn hard drives IN them? A slimmed down version of the cheese grater? Yeah - I know. We've been asking for it for years, and it's not likely to happen.
The quandary: my Mac Pro is now 6 years old - it's a 2008 3,1 - 2.8GHz single core, with 4 internal HDs, 18GB of RAM, a 4 port USB card and it's starting to seem slow, especially compared to my 2012 Retina i7. My Dell 24" 2407WFP monitor is now 7 years old, and although very good for its time, is not an IPS monitor.
Although it could be argued that an iMac could/would do all I need it to do and has been able to for a number of years, I've always had Macs in the pro line, since I like to be able to have more than one HD IN the box and I've also usually extensively upgraded components (including the drives) along the way. This Mac Pro is probably my least upgraded Mac ever, actually. It's had a lot of different drives in it over the years, but other than an eSATA card that was rendered obsolete by an OS upgrade it's had nothing other than the USB card, drives and memory upgrades. And now, the 2013 Mac Pros have essentially removed the option of internal upgrades - Apple has decreed that my desk will host a herd of boxes. Little bitty 11 lb computer, but a herd of boxes for drives and any PCI cards I may want to add. Expensive boxes.
Options:
1. Upgrade this Mac Pro. New video card? (this one is having trouble with PS6 and openGL, a documented issue - the solution at the moment is to turn off openGL, which isn't much of a solution, IMHO) - video cards that work in this generation appear to be scarce and expensive. RAM is very expensive for this beast - but I don't think more RAM will make much difference as the last addition did solve the excessive page out issues. An SSD for apps and the OS might speed things up a bit, but probably not as much as I'd like. USB 3.0 would be nice, as I have a number of external 3.0 drives - but the cards seem to be persnickety and expensive. Maybe $500 on a 6-year-old machine that is probably worth $700 or $800 so if I sold it? Hmmm…doesn't seem the best route.
2. A 2012 Mac Pro (if I could find one) Expensive - about the same as the bottom of the line 2013 if I'm to get anything with longevity. No USB 3.0, no Thunderbolt. Really not that different from a 2010…which is a 4-year-old machine.
3. A 2013 27" iMac - the 3.5GHz i7 for the greatest longevity. I saw a 3.5Ghz i7 on the refurb store yesterday - it's gone now, unfortunately. I'd get it with the 3TB Fusion drive and upgrade the RAM myself. Then would need to get enclosures for the homeless hard drives and probably a USB hub. Could run the Dell as a second monitor with an adapter, and if manna should ever fall from heaven, maybe upgrade to a newer IPS monitor. Will I be happy with the iMac's monitor - or will reflections be a problem? My desk is by a north-facing window. A bit of an unknown. My Retina seems to be ok in the same location. I do calibrate my monitors - just bought a new Spyder4Pro since Mavericks obsoleted my i1Display2. :(
I use my Macs mostly for designing websites and for processing photos with Lightroom and Photoshop CS6, both for clients' sites and for my own use, and I do some desktop publishing using InDesign. I don't do video - so also have no real need for the particularly video-oriented features of the new Mac Pro. I do tend to have a lot of apps open at any given time; LR, PS, ID, VMWare Fusion running Windows 7 (which is rather slow on this beast; even with 18 GB of RAM I tend to find it's a memory hog and I shut it down if I'm not actually using it), Word, Excel, Acrobat Pro, Transmit and at least three browsers.
And finally, there is still some value in this Mac Pro, so I could sell it and use the proceeds towards a new machine.
So - any thoughts? Advice? Anyone actually HAVE a new Mac Pro? Anyone gone from an old Mac Pro to an iMac? I'm annoyed that Apple went in the direction they did with the Mac Pro - I can understand it as a great video machine etc., but how about something for those of us who would actually like to be able to add things to our machines and keep the darn hard drives IN them? A slimmed down version of the cheese grater? Yeah - I know. We've been asking for it for years, and it's not likely to happen.
via ehMac.ca http://ift.tt/1kdxzHZ
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