Question to those considering the new Macpro

[Walter Soyka]

I’d consider both, but for different reasons.

I like the 2013 Mac Pro Tube for its portability — it’d make a good travel system — but the lack of dual CPU is disappointing for an everyday workstation. I’m due for a new workstation this year and I expect I’ll be sticking with HP.

Walter Soyka
Principal & Designer at Keen Live
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
RenderBreak Blog – What I’m thinking when my workstation’s thinking
Creative Cow Forum Host: Live & Stage Events

[Alan Okey]

That’s easy – I would definitely take the tower. For me, the combination of dual CPUs, my investment in PCI cards, superior internal storage capacity and easily upgradable GPUs easily trump a small form factor and lower power consumption. I really don’t care about Thunderbolt.

[Herb Sevush]

[Alan Okey] “That’s easy – I would definitely take the tower. For me, the combination of dual CPUs, my investment in PCI cards, superior internal storage capacity and easily upgradable GPUs easily trump a small form factor and lower power consumption. I really don’t care about Thunderbolt.”

What he said.

Herb Sevush
Zebra Productions
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nothin’ attached to nothin’
“Deciding the spine is the process of editing” F. Bieberkopf

[Lance Bachelder]

Me too – though I do like Thunderbolt and wish there was a PCI card for my “old” Mac Pro.

Lance Bachelder
Writer, Editor, Director
Downtown Long Beach, California
https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1680680/?ref_=fn_al_nm_1

[Brett Sherman]

Depends on the cost. If the tower with PCIe slots and twin processors ended up adding $4000 to the price, I’d definitely go with the tube.

[Fabrizio D’agnano]

I’d go for the tower even if I had to pay something more for that. The reason is I could keep using my PCIe cards like my Sonnet e-sata for my many e-sata arrays and drives (that are still faster than USB3’s in real world, at least than the ones I tried so- far, I can’t se why e-sata has been dropped), and I could set an internal three or four drives RAID 0 for media, fast, quiet and cheap, that I could easily sync or backup on a cheap e-sata or USB3 external array (I already own, by the way). I am keeping my old 3.1 tower that I refreshed a bit for one more year, if the 2013 was the tower you describe, I’d already bought one because I wouldn’t need to also buy an external TB raid, plus e-sata or PCIe cards adapters, provided the HDMI port on the new MP allows RT output on an HD monitor like a Blackmagic Intensity Pro or whatever, so that another RT output device would not be needed. I have a MBP for portability, my main machine is supposed to stay on my desktop. I’d maybe buy that machine even if it came with no Thunderbolt ports. Am I calling for a faster horse instead of a car? 🙂

Fabrizio D’Agnano
Rome, Italy
early 2008 MacPro, BM Intensity Pro, early 2008 iMac, 2011 MacBook Pro, FCP7, FCPX, OSX 10.8.3

[Loren Risker]

I’d definitely take the new ones. We have a small shop, 16 seats, and I manage the hardware. I’m sick of the towers around and we don’t use any fancy pci cards. My only concern is how to hook it up to our xsan and keep it neat but the thunderbolt to fibre adapters we have seem like they won’t be too messy.

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OutOfFocus.TV – Original series, music videos, mini-docs.

[Charlie Austin]

[Fabrizio D'Agnano] “provided the HDMI port on the new MP allows RT output on an HD monitor like a Blackmagic Intensity Pro or whatever, so that another RT output device would not be needed.”

It does, in perfect sync with your NLE of choice. No lag at all. It’s very nice…

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~ My FCPX Babbling blog ~
~”It is a poor craftsman who blames his tools.”~
~”The function you just attempted is not yet implemented”~

[Andrew Kimery]

[Charlie Austin] “It does, in perfect sync with your NLE of choice. No lag at all. It’s very nice…
“

Is it baseband video, critical viewing quality or extended desktop preview quality, Charlie?

[Charlie Austin]

[Andrew Kimery] “Is it baseband video, critical viewing quality or extended desktop preview quality, Charlie?”

I haven’t had too much time to mess with it, as it’s not my machine ;-(
Damn GF X dept and their fancy gear!

Anyway, it was running in extended desktop mode to an HD projector. I think they had it doing baseband too, though not certain. If I get some time and can push them off the machine, I’ll experiment a bit more. Hopefully someone else can chime in…

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~ My FCPX Babbling blog ~
~”It is a poor craftsman who blames his tools.”~
~”The function you just attempted is not yet implemented”~