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iMac Pro or next year’s Mac Pro?
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[Tom Sefton] “Anyone who is considering buying an iMac Pro is not in the slightest bit interested in building something themselves. “
When everyone talks about building their own PC, they conveniently skip the cost of their own labor. Let’s say it takes you only 2 days (conservative) to build the unit and make sure all the drivers are right, make a few calls to various support numbers, etc. If you freelance and get a fairly standard rate for your time (not counting gear), you’ve just added $1K to the cost. Maybe more. Then when the next update of something comes along and you spend another day dealing with that. On and on and on…
– Oliver
Oliver Peters – oliverpeters.com
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[Steve Connor] “I prefer using FCPX primarily which is why I asked the question in the first place. :)”
FWIW – B&H has a Cyber Monday deal on the quad-core 2013 Mac Pro. $1K off. Not the fastest machine, since it’s entry-level, but a decent upgrade for many here. Certainly more than enough for HD and offline editing. However, I’m not sure how that works with B&H for those outside of the US, if at all.
– Oliver
Oliver Peters – oliverpeters.com
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[Steve Connor] “That’s true, I do a lot of work with IBM and I see large amounts of MacBook Pros at the various offices I visit!”
– Oliver
Oliver Peters – oliverpeters.com
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Plus you need to have some pretty specific knowledge before you start. It’s like comparing the purchase of a new convertible against a kit car.
Not for everyone – rewarding if you can do it, but takes time and effort that you could otherwise spend making money/enjoying the experience, and nobody to help if the clutch fails.
Co-owner at Pollen Studio
http://www.pollenstudio.co.uk -
[Oliver Peters] “If you freelance and get a fairly standard rate for your time (not counting gear), you’ve just added $1K to the cost. Maybe more. Then when the next update of something comes along and you spend another day dealing with that. On and on and on…”
If we are going to micromanage billable hours then you have to consider the amount of time it takes to install software, plugins, transfer/remake user settings, etc., which can easily take the better part of a day so add that additional cost to the iMac too. Not to mention the cost of down time if the iMac has to go into the shop for a repair that takes a week, but the DIY person can get replacement parts and do the fix themselves in just a day or two. ????
The sweat equity of building & maintaining a Hackintosh certainly should be factored in, but I also think trying to estimate the cost of an off-the-shelf unit vs a custom build down to the billable hour can become superfluous.
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[Andrew Kimery] “but I also think trying to estimate the cost of an off-the-shelf unit vs a custom build down to the billable hour can become superfluous.
“It is very easy to switch to a less powerful or other Mac if the main machine goes down.
So, you’d have to factor in a switch to another Hackintosh, and keep the drivers and such maintained on that machine too.
Hackintoshes never made good business sense to me, but I don’t have an inkling to build my own computer.
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[Oliver Peters] “When everyone talks about building their own PC, they conveniently skip the cost of their own labor. “
Well, looking at the cost of my Hackintosh, with all the parts it added up to under $1600. And this machine equals the current iMac in terms of processing power, but with 32GB RAM and a superior GPU. Plus additional internal storage. If I spec’d out an iMac, that would be in the $3600 range.
This unit took me about 16 hours to assemble, all told. At $65/hour that’s another $1040. And the four hours a friend helped me is another $260…still less than a new iMac.
[Tom Sefton] “Plus you need to have some pretty specific knowledge before you start.”
Knowledge on assembling a computer…or just following a guide. Not TOO hard. But then again, I’ve torn apart Avid’s during my Post Coordinator days and assistant editor days, talking the ABVB ones with 6 internal cards…so I’m used to it. But yes, not for everyone, that’s for sure. That’s why my friend also offers a service where he assembles Hacks for his friends…they supply the parts, he assembles.
[Tom Sefton] “and nobody to help if the clutch fails.”
Well, I’m there when the clutch fails…
Shane
Little Frog Post
Read my blog, Little Frog in High Def -
[Jeremy Garchow] “It is very easy to switch to a less powerful or other Mac if the main machine goes down.
So, you’d have to factor in a switch to another Hackintosh, and keep the drivers and such maintained on that machine too.”
Why would you have to switch to another Hackintosh? It’s just MacOS running on non-Apple branded hardware so bouncing between it and, say, a MBP shouldn’t be any different than bouncing between an iMac and a MBP.
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But my point is that you are in a minority of editors and creatives that have the knowledge and expertise to build a machine that is reliable enough to earn a living from.
Co-owner at Pollen Studio
http://www.pollenstudio.co.uk -
[Oliver Peters] “When everyone talks about building their own PC, they conveniently skip the cost of their own labor. Let’s say it takes you only 2 days (conservative) to build the unit and make sure all the drivers are right, make a few calls to various support numbers, etc. If you freelance and get a fairly standard rate for your time (not counting gear), you’ve just added $1K to the cost.”
Uggh I’ve been working on this feature and spent a few days just moving data around.
They used an HP on set and physically removed RAID sets back and forth for data management.
All due to the fact that they had one single Thunderbolt port on that thing.
Now, of course, I have to document every move I made with the hardware on top of the actual work of transcoding the files for assembly 😛
Why can’t Windows just mount a damn RAID set without having to go through flaming hoops 😛
I have never had this issue on any Mac.
So even a well put together PC didn’t do it for me.
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