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Will USB3 solve the imac’s limitations?
I currently have a 3-year-old imac that is showing its age a little bit. I edit and use Color/occasionally Motion. I’m learning Nuke. Not for broadcast so far, but could be in the future.
I can get a second-hand 8 core mac pro at pretty much half the list price. I’m really surprising myself by having doubts.
for the same money I can get a refurb i5 imac with the following advantages:
1. 27 inch screen
2. It’s faster, at least in these tests
https://www.macworld.com/reviews/product/343881/review/27inch_imac_core_i5266ghz.html
3. It has a 1TB HD compared to the mac pro’s 640GB
4. One-year warrantyIt seems to me the two main disadvantages are:
1. Lack of expandability. This is partly offset by the fact that where I live (Hong Kong) imacs have amazing resell value and sell very quickly. If I need more power/better GPU in the future I can sell it and go back to the big glass-fronted sweet shop for a new one, or a refurb.
2. I/O. The imac is limited by firewire 800.So my question is: When better I/O hits the imac, will it make the mac pro less of a necessity?
I assume it will remove the bottleneck for external RAID. I’m a one-man operation so no plans for network SAN, whatever that is. Will it also enable external video monitoring setups? With a card of course. In this area I am completely ignorant. I’d love to have an FSI (or a panny pro) but realistically, it’s not going to be this year whichever computer I get.If USB3/lightpeak will eventually solve these problems, then I think I will stick with imacs and wait it out. If not, I may as well get the mac pro now.
I realise that there is a professional image aspect to having a mac pro, but as I am currently editing in my underpants surrounded by empty beer cans I don’t think that’s really a consideration.
Thanks!
Andy
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8 Replies
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Sounds like the iMac would suit you just fine. Remember the iMac has gigabit ethernet for fast IO, and you can use an AJA IO for video monitoring off the FW800 port if you need it.
Remember the 8 core Mac Pro is getting old compared with the iMac. When the Mac Pro gets refreshed later this year it’ll be the speed king again.
-Stuart
7 MacPros – Kona 3, Kona LH & Kona LHi
1 G5 – Kona LH
xbox360, Wii, PSP, PS3
https://www.speak.co.uk -
Buy when you need. Don’t plan for the future. It is unknown whether or not USB3 will be implemented in future macs, or WHEN it will. So don’t wait until it comes out, because it might not when you need it. Buy when you need…that is the best way to do this.
Shane
GETTING ORGANIZED WITH FINAL CUT PRO DVD…don’t miss it.
Read my blog, Little Frog in High Def -
When I see the new iMac I fill like slapping the face of the guys that decided the connexion.
A handicapped great computer.
rafael -
Thanks for your comments. I’m going to pass on the mac pro.
I agree about buying stuff when you need it, it’s just that “need” is such an elastic term – especially with shiny things.Yes Rafael, I’d be standing behind you with the monkey wrench like in that scene in Airplane. They knew what they were doing. When the imac gets decent I/O, it will become the imac pro and double in price. I was just speculating that, if USB3 becomes ubiquitous and it has pro video uses, apple won’t be able to stop the imac eating a lot (more) of the mac pro’s dinner. And for someone like me, it will be perfect.
Or they will find another way to cripple it – kinect-style gesture control only maybe. You’ll have to edit by jumping up and down in front of it, waving your hands around. Actually that sounds pretty good.
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Andy,
For years we have been bearing the development of affordable hardware up to our needs. Now that the hardware is available they don’t want to sell it to us as we need it.
Apple is applying the same mean strategies of any Japanese company to make buy what we don’t need.
rafae -
As we have shown with our iMacs here, you can connect up to Ethernet based SANs and cut all day with iMacs. We have two year old iMacs (3 of them) and a new Core Duo 27″ iMac all connected to a 32TB SAN cutting ProRes HD all day everyday.
Our new facility will have 8 edit suites and four of them will be outfitted with 27″ iMacs as the main editing station. All capture / layback will be handled by one of our 5 MacPro based systems, but for pure editing, After Effects, Photoshop and even Color, the 27″ iMac especially is a great workhorse.
Just don’t get the i5 or i7 versions as Apple seems to have purposely crippled the ethernet port on those.
Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Editor, Colorist, Director, Writer, Consultant, Author, Chef.
HD Post and Production
Biscardi Creative Media“Foul Water, Fiery Serpent” featuring Sigourney Weaver coming soon.
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Yeah Walter,
That means that as “B” computer can works.
What would you do without your Mac Pro?
rafael -
It’s the same all over. I’m going to spend the mac pro money (tomorrow!) on a 5d mark2. Because i can’t wait any longer for red/nikon/panasonic/fisher-price to do it properly. Excited though.
Of course all these companies know their business. Maybe I’m dreaming, but imagine a company that made every product as amazing as it could be. Yes, they would cannibalise sales from their own product lines but imagine the kudos and brand loyalty.
Apple does a lot better than most companies at making truly great stuff. My girlfriend is going to by an imac and she has no idea what an ips screen is, but she will appreciate it once she has it.
Apple does ok, relatively, but maybe there is room for a company that does things better for you and me.
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