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Better snap up those Mac Pro towers while ye may
For those of you who do need workstations with PCIe slots, etc., like Mac Pro 12-core towers, you’d better run out and grab ’em now, because they are pretty much GONE, GONE, GONE.
Apple is NOT taking any more orders on any CTO (custom) machines, and while a few pre-built machines may be left, they are few an far between, even at places like Mac Mall that have always tended to have inventory.
David Roth Weiss
ProMax Systems
Burbank
DR*@****ax.comSales | Integration | Support
David is a Creative COW contributing editor and a forum host of the Apple Final Cut Pro forum.
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34 Replies
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Yep. The pipeline is drying up. I recently had to get my MP repaired at the Apple Store. This required a number of MP-specific parts to do troubleshooting. It took them over a week to get those in and AFAIK, so had to come from another nearby stores as corporate couldn’t confirm a shipping date on one of the parts. Apple will have to continue to be able to service these units, but not necessarily in a timely manner, now that they are EOL’ed.
– Oliver
Oliver Peters Post Production Services, LLC
Orlando, FL
http://www.oliverpeters.com -
[Oliver Peters] “Apple will have to continue to be able to service these units, but not necessarily in a timely manner, now that they are EOL’ed.”
Hopefully that will help the resale value of my Tower if I opt for a Tube.
Herb Sevush
Zebra Productions
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nothin’ attached to nothin’
“Deciding the spine is the process of editing” F. Bieberkopf -
While I just sold my old 2,1, I’m keeping my 4,1 tower running a while longer – just added Cal-Digit USB 3/eSATA card and adding GTX 780 tonight – about as good as I can get until tube time…
Lance Bachelder
Writer, Editor, Director
Downtown Long Beach, California
https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1680680/?ref_=fn_al_nm_1 -
To talk to the high speed RAID storage that they have owned for years and cost more than the workstation does?
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To add in different (and possibly even more) GPUs than what the Tube offers or to not have to buy ThB peripherals to replace perfectly functioning PCIe cards.
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[Andy Branner] “So just so I get where you’re coming from, you’re saying that spending several thousand on a dead, technically outdated and inferior (on so many levels) machine merely to “protect” (most likely) outdated PCI cards from yesteryear that (most likely) could be replaced by USB/TBo counterparts for (most likely) a few hundred bucks, is not only recommendable, but also sensible economics and makes for a “pro” rig?”
Most any top end PC workstation will blow the doors off Apple’s little tomato can semi-workstation using any methodology you could care to come up with. Only in your world is lack of speed, lack of choice, and lack of connectivity an improvement. The Tube may well be an excellent choice for many, depending on the price points and models, but it is a constricted narrow environment suitable mostly for those addicted to the limitations Apple loves to provide. Spending several thousand dollars on a machine that embeds it’s GPU’s, no matter how fast, is a certainty that in 3 years time you will be owning an anchor to the past.
Herb Sevush
Zebra Productions
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nothin’ attached to nothin’
“Deciding the spine is the process of editing” F. Bieberkopf -
[Andy Branner] “Yeah. I’m sure that’s a need that’s going to creep up REAL soon with those monsters. 😀
Hop into the Resolve forum and 3-5 GPUs seems pretty common for people that grade all day, every day.
Oh, and… https://bit.ly/1cWjH0L“
Most likely not a user replaceable part. Even if they are user replaceable the price of custom boards aimed at a tiny market will probably make just buying a whole new Tube a viable alternative.
[Andy Branner] “Again… which? “
Does it matter? No PCIe card, be a RED Rocket, Kona 3 or just an additional ethernet card is going to work in a Tube which means a USB 3 or ThB peripheral will need to be bought to replace a perfectly functional card.
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[Andy Branner] “Feel free to actually back that up with some actual, tangible data and not just the usual ad hominem rant and worn straw men sitting on a slippery slope…”
It would be nice if you actually understood words and phrases like ad hominem and strawman, but I guess that’s too much to expect.
Any PC workstation can have multiple CPUs, meaning twice as many cores as even the highest end Tube, meaning better performance. Any PC workstation can have more GPUs than the Tube, meaning better performance. Because the Tube is limited by design it cannot compete with higher end PC workstations. I know my math is suspect but 2 is twice as large as 1 the last time I looked.
You can argue that almost no editor needs more speed than the Tube can provide, but you can’t reasonably argue that the fastest Tube is as fast as a loaded HP, ProMax, Boxx or any other PC workstation. The Tube isn’t as fast and it isn’t as expandable because Tbolt 2 max’s out at 8x and GPU’s still require 16x slots.
The Tube’s design traded speed, flexibility and expandability for lower power consumption and a smaller footprint, although both of those are slightly mitigated once you add in the space and power requirements of Tbolt to PCIe boxes.
The Tube is a perfect Apple device – love it as it is or leave it alone.
Herb Sevush
Zebra Productions
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nothin’ attached to nothin’
“Deciding the spine is the process of editing” F. Bieberkopf -
You come across like my wife’s ex husband. That isn’t a compliment.
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I wouldn’t be surprised if David would be able to provide a ProMax system that is pretty quick…
https://www.promax.com/s-211-promax-one-plus-models-benchmarks.aspx
If you really can’t change the GPU, and are limited to 64GB of RAM then although the new Mac Pro looks revolutionary and is undoubtedly a fast machine, a top spec HP or ProMax system will provide benchmarks that are far beyond what is capable.
I’m not saying the new Mac Pro isn’t a great product – we will have some of them, but the thought that I can never upgrade….
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