Kevin Patrick
Forum Replies Created
-
[Walter Soyka] “Once you “modify” that Mac online, even with something as simple as additional RAM, you are actually commissioning the assembly of a new Mac, from scratch, from a bin of existing parts. It is not based on existing Macs in the warehouse. They’re taking an empty chassis, adding the processors, adding the RAM, adding the graphics card, and adding a HDD, according to your order.”
I thought this thread was getting longer than I thought it should. But I’m gonna make it even longer.
Making these kind of changes to systems other than the Mac Pro does not change the lead time by weeks, only days.
Change memory, hard drive (any) or display on a Macbook Pro and you’ll only go from in stock to 1-3 days.
Change memory, hard drive (except the 2G HDD) or graphics on an iMac and the maximum lead time is 2-4 days. Also for iMac’s, SSD and graphic upgrades are build to order only. At least that’s what the Apple person told me in an Apple store when I asked whey they don’t have any SSD configurations.
Change just memory (any size) on any Mac Pro and it goes from stock to 1-3 weeks.
A new Mac Pro is coming. I can feel it.
-
Take hard drives out of the discussion and only non-standard Mac Pros have long lead times. Non-standard iMacs, Mac Minis, and any MacBook configurations only add a few business days to the lead time.
This is something that has recently changed for Mac Pros. Which usually suggests something new is coming.
(must be a slow day, didn’t think this topic would generate so much interest)
-
Sorry, I should have been more clear.
In the comparison I was making, I excluded hard drive configuration changes.
I was only looking at changing CPU (if possible), memory and graphics options. Changing these non-hard drive options moved the ship date out weeks for Mac Pros, days for the rest of their computers. For the Mac Pro, the date also moved out weeks for the RAID card.
-
[Oliver Peters] “don’t point to 4K as evidence of it being a pro app”
Perhaps FCP X could be characterized as a Pro app because it takes a pro to figure out how to make it work? As Mark has clearly demonstrated.
-
I believe all Apple’s iPods, iPads, iPhones and all Macs (desktops and towers) come from Asian suppliers. Apple has a very good supply chain. Better than some of their competitors.
Order a custom engraved iPod today and it states that it should show up in 6 days. And that’s shipped direct from China. At least the one I ordered for my kid came direct from China. To me, that’s a pretty impressive supply chain.
I realize that the computer industry has issues with the terrible flooding that’s happened and that’s impacting the hard drive business for everyone.
However, if you add Mac Pro specific items (excluding hard drives) to just about any Mac Pro all the lead times seem to jump from in stock to 1-3 weeks. That has not been the case, which was the reason this got posted by MacRumors. They spend their days looking for rumors worthy of posting. (note their not called MacFacts)
It’s not the same for an iMac, Mac Mini, MacBook Air, MacBook Pro. Add memory or change processor or graphics for any of these and the delivery dates change from stock to 1-3 business days. Not weeks.
The point is, when things like this happen, it usually signals the fact that a new product is coming. It’s also happening around the time Intel’s new processors are supposed to be coming out. It may be the Mac Pro everyone wants. Or it may be similar to what Apple did with the MacBook, where it was discontinued and replaced with a new MacBook Air. End of life, replaced by a new form factor around the same price and features. So, maybe a new type of Mac Pro? (cue Craig)
-
The 6 core is kind of hidden. It’s a processor option under the quad core, been there for a while. But it’s 1-3 weeks as well.
-
The quad and 8 core models are in stock. (US store) The 12 core is 1-3 weeks.
Changing processor, adding memory or a second hard drive changes all the in stock models to 1-3 weeks.
Sounds like house cleaning to me.
-
[Mark Morache] “I’m halfway through the biography, and when Jobs returned to Apple, he drew vertical and horizontal lines on a white board, indicating desktops for the pros and consumer markets, and portables for the pro and consumer markets.”
I read the bio as well. To me, the question was what did Jobs consider to be necessary for Pros. From the very beginning of Apple through his return, Jobs was pretty adamant about producing closed systems. As in, you can’t open them up and expand them. From the first Apple computer (which he did not want expandable) to the first Mac to the first iMac. So did he push for a Mac Pro, or did he reluctantly agree? As he occasional did on other issues.
He was also extremely focused on simplicity, in everything Apple did. I can see where his desire for simplicity might have directly, or indirectly driven the FCS team to create a simpler Final Cut.
-
Didn’t you start this thread?
-
I was going to post a short Holiday piece I was putting together with FCP X. But just as I was about to export it, I realized Undo had quit working. Being a seasoned FCP X user, I quickly exported to Compressor. Well not quickly, as for some reason FCP X had consumed all 24 GB of RAM and was running extremely slow. Once the project had gotten sent to Compressor, I smartly duplicated the project, so as not to loose all my work. Then I quit FCP X. Well, not quit, more like Force Quit. I then checked on Compressor, but apparently the process was hung. I decided to reboot. I tried to open up FCP X, but it kept crashing before it could launch. So I trashed the preferences. (many thanks to my number 2 App, Preference Manager) Unfortunately, that didn’t work. So I deleted FCP X and re-downloaded a new copy of FCP X. Well, I tried to download it. The App Store seemed to think FCP X was still installed, even though it wasn’t. So I decided to do a clean install of Lion. I wiped my drive clean. But I forgot, Lion didn’t come with an install DVD. So, I went down to my local Apple store and bought a Lion USB drive. I installed Lion and then installed FCP X. Thankfully, that seemed to work. I was now able to launch FCP X without any issues. However, my original Project was somehow corrupted, as FCP X would crash when I tried to open it. Thanks to my #3 most used App, Event Manager X, I was able to move the corrupted project, so I could load the duplicate project. That project loaded okay. Unfortunately, all the media had the Modified File red icon. My Timeline was still intact, but FCP X couldn’t locate the media. I hadn’t moved, or renamed any of the media. Perhaps all the issues I had with FCP X and Compressor had somehow modified the metadata. I guess I should have duplicated the media when I duplicated the project. So I re-imported all the media and now I’m replacing all the Modified File clips with the new imports, of the same clip. Since it’s only Friday, I should be done before Christmas. While FCP X does have some version 1.0 issues, I have to say it is quite a bit faster than FCP 7. In fact, FCP X is really a pretty awesome NLE, once you understand the workflow. As you can see, I’ve got it nailed.
Have a Merry Christmas and a Happy Boxing Day!
Happy Holidays to all.