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Finally: the ashtray replaced with a new, better cheese grater!

Jorgen Udvang

Subscriber Member
Yes, it's the new Mac Pro. I can't afford this right away, but I hope I will within the next year. They're back to a sensible form factor, and the specs are impressive. Storage will mainly remain external, and although I would have preferred space for a couple of large disk drives internally, that's where the world is going I suppose.

https://www.apple.com/mac-pro/design/
 

DougDolde

Well-known member
I don't need anything more than my 2013 Mac Pro Itrashcan) that has been running 24/7 since 2013. I can upgrade the SSD to 2 TB for $600 from OWC.
 

Stuart Richardson

Active member
As much as I dislike the externalization of all my components, I can agree with Doug that the Mac Pro 2013 has served me really well. I got a 6 core version with the base storage and ram, and then upgraded ram to 64gb via OWC. Since then it has done very well as a reliable, efficient computer. Now that I am editing more 4k video, however, I have found render times to be a bit annoying, particularly for things like H265 and noise reduction. Additionally, Lightroom can lag quite a bit when spotting large images and film scans, though I mostly do that in Photoshop anyway, as it is faster and better.

I am looking forward to the new Mac Pro, but the price is daunting. I am curious to see how much you actually get at the entry level...6000 dollars for a computer with a 256gb hard drive is pretty tough to swallow. I know that most that consider this computer use external storage, myself included, but having more space with that extremely fast storage can be extremely useful for apps, transferring data and so on.

Overall, however, it seems like I will still need some sort of dock or set of adapters with the new Mac Pro, as it does not have a firewire port for my scanner (unsurprisingly), thunderbolt for my monitor, or enough USB ports for all the various USB 2 and 3 things like my printer, card readers, keyboard, mouse (for charging), phone, external drives for clients etc. I do not really object to them making most things USB-C, but compared to what it was like with a Mac Pro in the mid 2000s, it still seems like you will need a bunch of external bits and bobs to keep it organized. As far as I recall from the G5 and pre-trash can era, nearly everything could plug in natively and with 4 bays it was enough most people's needs. Times, of course, change.

P.S. There is also the elephant in the room regarding the new OS versions...I keep getting messages all the time about how "this software needs to be updated by its developer", so all the 32 bit apps will stop working. I think that will mean we will be out of luck running FlexColor on the new MacPro. That would be the biggest hit for me. Other things like i1 profiler will likely update themselves if they haven't already.
 

Stuart Richardson

Active member
The more I read about it, the more it sounds like it is not the best option for me. Max Yuriyev has a good video up on it on youtube, where he shares some thoughts on how it might be for video editors. His take is basically that you need to put at least a few more thousand dollars into it in order to bring it to a level where its strengths start to make it better than an iMac Pro. I am left wondering options would suit me, however. I use an Eizo 4k monitor for color correction, so I do not want to give that up and get an iMac Pro, and while I am ok with my almost six year old Mac Pro for awhile, eventually I want to get something that can update it. Strangely, this reminds me a lot of the situation in the Leica S...nothing has changed for years and years, and when they finally do come around with something new, the projected price is incredibly high for what you get. At least with this MacPro if you put more in you can get a configuration that is best in class. With the S you get something that is most likely twice as expensive as the upcoming Fuji GFX100, which surpasses it handily, at least on all the spec charts.
 

Jorgen Udvang

Subscriber Member
For photo and 1080p editing, the Mini should be enough for most. with 6 core i7, 64GB RAM and 1TB SSD, it's still unde $3,000. For animation and 4K and above, it's another story. For now, I'm looking at another Mini, my third.
 

jduncan

Active member
Other than the SSD, is all storage external?

Hi,

Yes and no. It's external if you want, if not you can but the pegasus module, but I guess it will be at the cost of one graphics card. Current Light room is not that good at
using one CPU let alone two, and one can always but the dual GPU modules.

Here is the pegasus one :https://www.promise.com/us/Promotion/PegasusStorage

I will love if the R4 supported SATA SSDs.

We will have to wait and see. In any case for Photography 10gbit ethernet is fast enough and I am starting to wonder if we should start to move to it. A 10gbit NAS can have so much more utility.

Best regards,
 
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