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Wait for the new MacPro or get the new iMac?
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[Marcus Moore] “The assumption of a mini-tower has always seemed dubious to me. There’s little to no market segment between those already being served by an iMac, and those who need the power (relatively speaking) and expandability of a MacPro.”
I went on and on about this the other day.
It, of course, veered off course but we were talking about the death of the MacPro.
And then the “build-it-yourself-for-much-cheaper” PC argument came along.
The people that are building their own PCs, time and time again at least in the small samples that have been posted here to the cow, are building the equivalent of an iMac tower.
My guess, and it’s only a guess, is that if a headless iMac tower came into being, it would fly off the shelves like hot cakes. Apple likes hot cakes.
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[Jeremy Garchow] “The people that are building their own PCs, time and time again at least in the small samples that have been posted here to the cow, are building the equivalent of an iMac tower.”
…and loving it, I should have added.
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[Herb Sevush] “HP was considering getting out of the consumer PC market, it never once, not for a moment considered getting out of the workstation market.”
I’m not going to start digging up articles but there were a few which did clarify that they included workstations. I may have posted one at the time which explicitly raised and addressed that workstations were part of what they were looking to sell off.
[Herb Sevush] “And Dell is acting real funny for someone not committed to the workstation market – the T7600 would blow anything your describing out of the water.”
Specs don’t make the company, profit margins do. Dell is in trouble. That doesn’t mean Private Equity will dismember them. P.E. usually does one of two things. They either do a strip down or, alternatively, really infuse a company with needed capital to grow. If it’s the latter it may be to help Dell make more acquisitions to compete with HP in the business service area. But that too would make PCs a smaller part of its future business model (meaning they could sell that off specifically). Even selling it off doesn’t mean “death” to that division. It seems Lenovo is doing very well post their IBM PC division acquisition… and Lenovo is probably hitting Dell’s sales since Lenovo is combing while Dell sales are falling precipitously.
BTW it’s not that workstations are universally unprofitable to sell but it seems relative to other markets, it’s a shrinking portion of the pie.
Basically HP, Dell, and Apple too, are thinking about their business models relative to workstations. Each may head in different directions in handling that.
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I think Apple would love to double down on secrecy- but it didn’t seem to help them with the iPhone5 leaks.
Granted, the MacPro doesn’t have the same appeal for scoop-seekers as a new iPhone or iPad; which is likely how the new Retina MacbookPro and iMac were able to be released relatively unspoiled.
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[Marcus Moore] “Granted, the MacPro doesn’t have the same appeal for scoop-seekers as a new iPhone or iPad; which is likely how the new Retina MacbookPro and iMac were able to be released relatively unspoiled.”
Exactly. We’ll see what happens later this year, but my guess is that we will start to hear some leaks come game time.
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[John Godwin] “Are you the same Mark that was on the Liquid Silver boards a lot some years ago? I see a lot of Silver DNA in some of the FCPX choices …”
Not me – liquid silver sounds like something I shouldn’t tried out at one of those festivals I used to go to when I was young and used to edit using a cutting block and glue!””
Mark,
Yeah, me too. I think editors who have only cut on electronic/digital systems have missed the very educational tactile experience of literally cutting apart slices of reality and rearranging them, abetted by that potent glue, of course.
First tv job I had the only way I could do dissolves (on 16mm film) was to shoot the shot, fading the shutter manually to closed with a little lever on the side of the Bolex, backwinding the film x number of frames, then starting the next shot and fading manually back up. In camera dissolves. Timing was pretty important.
Now, whatever system one chooses, the options are almost limitless. That’s why I sometimes am amazed by the lack of appreciation of how good we’ve all got it.
Then my adult son makes some smart remark about how I used to have to carve my shots frame by frame in stone with a hammer and chisel and I just get back to work.
Best,
John -
I checked out the monitor the other day, and it IS better. Much less glare than on the current TBolt monitor, which is actually what I was shopping for. In fact, I looked at the two side by side, and the Tbolt was just reflectively hideous. So, no TBolt monitor for me. I found the reflection on the iMac acceptable, though I’d still rather have matte. I can see a possibility of one for me down the road. As for a monitor, I’ll probably get the comparable Dell or an Asus, since both come with matte finish, though, sadly, niether come with TBolt.
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[Chris Harlan] “I checked out the monitor the other day, and it IS better. Much less glare than on the current TBolt monitor, which is actually what I was shopping for. In fact, I looked at the two side by side, and the Tbolt was just reflectively hideous. So, no TBolt monitor for me. I found the reflection on the iMac acceptable, though I’d still rather have matte. I can see a possibility of one for me down the road. As for a monitor, I’ll probably get the comparable Dell or an Asus, since both come with matte finish, though, sadly, niether come with TBolt.
“I agree about the TBolt monitor.
It is a pity because the rest of it is a very nice looking monitor, but the glare truly sucks.
For a decent 27″ check out the Viewsonic LED if you want dual link res:
https://www1.viewsonic.com/products/tvs/vp2770led.htm
The HP is also very very nice:
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I have a 2009 8-core Nehalem MP right now, which is beginning to feel its age in terms of rendering times. I’ve thought about getting an iMac instead, but I would have to buy new raid gear, and a new doohickey for broadcast video output, and at least one multi-disk external drive enclosure to handle the 4 drives I run inside my Pro. I’d have to run all of that off Thunderbolt, which could eventually choke even its 10Gb bandwidth (see tests performed by Macworld), and I’d have to store all that stuff on my desk or near it (instead of inside the machine), *and* I’d have to power everything separately. BLAH.
Honestly, I’ve considered just getting the 2012 12-core Mac Pro as a replacement. I would get performance beyond any iMac, could use all my existing cards (in which case Thunderbolt doesn’t really matter), and keep it all in one tidy case. And I’d get another 3 year warranty. Not really ideal, but compared to trying to make everything work with an iMac, it doesn’t look so bad.
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Los Angeles Cameraman
Canon C300 (x2), Zeiss CP.2 lenses, P2 Varicam, etc.
http://www.lacameraman.com -
Check barefeats articles from the last month detailing performance tests of the iMac vs MacPro. While the MacPro wins on some raw benchmark scores, the iMac wins in some real-world situations. The current gen MacPro is not cut and dry faster than the iMac in all situations- depending on what software you’re using.
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