Mac Pro Christmas present — exchange for iMac?

Hi everyone. I first want to say merry Christmas and happy holidays to all. I have a "nice" problem to pose and hope I can get some feedback.

My parents got me a new Mac this Christmas. Please understand I'm very thankful and grateful (let me get that out of the way first to avoid potential abuse in the thread).

As happened the last time my parents gave me computer, my mom called Apple and sought out (was talked into) the very most extreme thing they had to offer, a 12 core Mac Pro. This is outrageous overkill for my needs. Just like last time, the Apple phone rep apparently sensed my mom's lack of tech knowledge and convinced her that I could use a machine like this "so I don't fill it up with all my photos."

I use my current desktop computer (2006 Mac Pro) to house my iTunes media library, to play with photos and video in a very amateur way, and do other mundane things. I also have a 2011 Macbook Air that I use mostly for work related things (I'm an engineering professor).

I am considering exchanging the Mac Pro for a high-end 27" iMac. Because of the price differential, I could also add an additional Thunderbolt display, Thunderbolt backup drives, Fusion drive, and a few other perks. My current thinking is that I would take this unopened Mac Pro to the Apple store, ask for a gift card for the purchase amount, and place an order for January delivery of a new iMac. There are a few reasons i am thinking about doing this.

I know Apple has something new in store for the Mac Pro in 2013. I feel that major updates might shorten the length of time this machine is eligible for updates and upgrades. I already feel a little burned by Apple with regard to my 2006 Mac Pro, which cannot run Mountain Lion (easily) and which I have had to jump through ridiculous hoops to pair up with a marginally up-to-date graphics card. The fact that this 2012 Mac Pro doesn't have Thunderbolt (cannot even connect to the Thunderbolt display!) makes me feel that it will not be enjoying the Apple love for very long.

Another advantage of the exchange is the nice display options I'd have. Currently my Mac Pro is hooked up to a 20" Cinema Display (from when the aluminum models first came out a number of years ago). I feel an upgrade to two 27" screens would be a more definitive advantage than having a zillion processing cores.

I realize that the iMac is almost un-upgradable and as such is more of a disposable product that might not have the legs of the Mac Pro. However, based on my experience with my current Mac Pro, Apple hobbles the upgrade path to these wonderful machines, which should be so superbly upgradable, and in the process really diminishes what should be the Mac Pro's crowning advantage.


I am basically wondering if anyone can think of a compelling reason why I shouldn't do this — maybe something spectacular about this Mac Pro that I've overlooked? Will I somehow find a use for those 12 cores that I don't currently understand? Does it really have a value for a user like me, given the pricetag?

Your help would be appreciated.

ClassObject said:

The pro will do everything the iMac does and more. Keep the pro.

I sorta smell troll.

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Your sense of smell's off buddy. Thanks for the useful feedback.

Macman45 said:

It's a shame you are back home in the Staes. The deal-breaker for me and the Pro however is the lack of FULL T/Bolt support....I have a Pegasus R4 for bulk storage.

I went with the Top end BTO Imac ( delivers January ) 32GB RAM 2GB GPU etc. etc. would sut you down to the ground. Your parents have the 14 day return option, so if it won't offend them if swap, why not contact Apple and ask for a return / re-order?

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Appreciate the meaningful response. I think the lack of thunderbolt is what bothers me the most as well. The iMac you describe is the one I think I'd order too.

MacMilligan said:

I'd keep the Mac Pro. Not only is the VGA card upgradable, but you can easily pop in more hdds or ssds when needed. I'd say support wise, both systems will lose os upgradability around the same time but the mac pro will be worth more for resale. VGA tech changes so fast that it would be a drag to be stuck with the 680mx 3 years fom now when midrange desktop cards will be walking all over it.

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That is a good point. Although I haven't had the best experiences with video card upgrades with my 2006 MP. It came with the GeForce 7300 (actually it came with 3 of them — another example of Apple giving my folks a questionable sale pitch). I have a more modern card in there now but it involved kext finangling and blank screens and possibilities of breakage with every point upgrade. I guess Mac Pros have gotten better in that regard huh? Still have a bitter taste about the way the Mac Pro 1,1 has been dealt with.

I do love the MP for ability to add drives but I kind of see thunderbolt on iMac as the way to do that going forward. Legit reasoning? Is there a reason to prefer internal drives?

Lots to think about in here. Appreciate the opinions and ideas.

I had been planning on replacing my 2006 MP with an iMac on my own sometime this year. This has kind of accelerated my plans a little.

Those of you who have mentioned the rock-solid longevity of the Mac Pro, yes I agree with you there. My 2006 1,1 is still humming along like a new machine — albeit a new machine that is locked out of the current OS and that is being propped up by a graphics card that it had to be tricked into accepting. But you're right, I'm betting that Mac Pros generally have a longer useful lifetime than the typical iMac, and although I've never sold one, I bet it's true that they retain a lot of resale value over the years.

As far as the question of whether I need Thunderbolt or not, I guess with the Mac Pro, the answer would be no, not immediately. But I think there's potential in that technology for things that right now I can't understand or fully appreciate. I am betting that somewhere down the road in the next few years, there will be something about Thunderbolt that I want or need. I also would not put it past Apple to make Thunderbolt some sort of (arbitrary?) cutoff for some future tech — as in all machines without Thunderbolt are left out in the cold. I imagine early adopters of USB also faced the question of "why do you need that?"

I do little on my Mac Pro that is very processor-intensive. The reason I have it is because I have need for a large amount of storage (several terabytes right now). This is mostly because of my music fetish — my classical collection alone has a dedicated terrabyte drive, and I have crates and crates of CDs that I still am in the process of importing (I am somewhat particular about how the metatagging is done and it takes me a long time). iCloud has made it possible for me to listen to a portion of my music library wherever, but it doesn't hold anywhere near all my tracks, and I still need a home base for the files. Until Thunderbolt rolled along, it seemed like a Mac Pro was the only reasonable solution for me. Now that doesn't seem to be necessarily true.

The other thing about Thunderbolt that really appeals to me is the portability it conveys to massive amounts of my data. There have been times when I've been working over very large projects (mostly HD video), and would have loved to not be constrained to working on my desk computer at home. As I mentioned, I have a Macbook Air that I take to and from work, and there is a Thunderbolt-equipped iMac on my desk at work. I've thought how cool it would be if I could have a super-fast external drive that I could move back and forth easily between all those machines. Right now, without TB on MP, that's not feasible.

Vote with your wallet (or mothers wallet in this case) if you take it back and swap it for an iMac you are basically telling Apple you don't want a real desktop computer, you want an anorexic laptop on a stand..

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Yeah this is a point I've been thinking about as well. I really wouldn't want to come across to Apple like a customer who wants a toy instead of a professional machine. However, on the flip side, I think Apple kind of made its own bed on this one. With the exception of those incredible number of cores, I think the Mac Pro has languished for years with inconsistent and infrequent updates that never really push it to its full potential. I think Apple knows this. I think there was a big collective sigh each time Apple has released a Mac Pro update the past few years — yes, I know some are thrilled with the current offerings, but I think many of us have been disappointed.

So at the moment, I am still leaning toward my original plan. But I'm still thinking about the points you guys have made.