And then hopefully we will see the new thin thunderbolt display this year
^^^This.
I went from not caring about the ATD ever, to wanting the new one, after realizing that the configuration constraints on the new iMac are too serious and significant to allow me to have the build I want. And that the solution probably lies in the ATD.
CSB for those who are interested in this sort of thing
So I use my Mac for three things, for which it must be block-of-iron reliable and perform:
1. Media server for the entire home, out of iTunes library w/ATV3s;
2. Editing and archiving family photos, audio, and video (I'm that guy); and
3. Using, without impact, the physical terminal as the central productivity point for the home... i.e. Office, financial, web, writing, etc.
My wife and kids use iDevices the 98% of the time they don't need a "truck," to use the Steve Jobs term.
So, four years ago, I bought a maxed-out iMac and for a long time it performed as needed in these tasks. However in the interim it wore down, video went from DVD-quality to 1080p, archiving needs went up, and the playback device changed from Xbox 360 to ATV3. It was time for a new iMac, and it was the end of 2011 so I figured what the heck, only a matter of months now and I can just get the new model. The SSD prices were untenable in the 2011 model, so it was just as well.
Around June, WWDC came and went with no new iMac. My current iMac gave up, even maxed out it couldn't keep up anymore and I retired it to light duty as a cash register at my business. I figured it was any day now that the new iMacs would surely land, so I bought at a sweet discount the 2012 cMBP in a base config and maxed out the RAM, and a TB drive array for the video archives. The idea being I could just flip the cMBP after settling into the new permanent 2012 iMac. Minimal loss, all good.
Well, we all know it took until, well it's still not widely available, the 2012 iMac. And what's worse, the CTO for it is terrible: $1300 for an SSD??!?! And the fusion option, while interesting, requires aftermarket work for me: 128GB worth of SSD isn't enough, even with a 3TB HDD. So whether I wanted to get a blade SSD and then maybe max out the HDD, or just get a 1TB HDD config and replace it outright with a much-cheaper-than-$1300-SSD-480GB-or-so, either way I need to have an AAR do it because I don't plan to screw up my non-user-serviceable machine by breaking it open. Heck, the 2012 Mac Mini I use as a POS server at my business was better suited to the task than the new iMac, and a damned sight cheaper too, even max configged. Why not just get one of those? But the answer was even better than that.
The MBP has performed well, but the display is just too damned small and it sorely needs an SSD. I have SSDs at work and at my business and once you've gone flash, you never go back. I don't game on my computers (my business is a vintage arcade and game store, filling that need) so the GT680MX GPU means nothing to me. Intel graphics 4k are plenty for HD video editing. Processor speed kinda does matter but I'll live with it for now. What was I to do for the permanent solution? I wanted to get another four or five years out of ONE Mac, especially considering that by 2018, none of us might need a computer anymore, it might all be cloud and mobile and so on.
Enter the Mac Pro. Or whatever it's going to be -- Tim Cook's promise didn't actually nail that down. (He said it would be "something great for our pro users later in 2013"). Even if it was just the existing Mac Pro updated to new CPUs, Thunderbolt, and USB3, it would fit the bill. I could mix and match SSDs and HDDs all I wanted, it was up to the task of 24/7/365 server duty, and all expansion and modification options would be on the table.
But that's "later in 2013."
Which could mean spring of 2014 the way Apple is being run these days.
What to do?
I realized finally that the ATD was the link in the chain that would tide me over. If the new ATD came out and I used it to solve my too-small-display problem, I could then slap an OWC SSD into my cMBP myself, continue to run my TB video repository drive array, and just turn off the power-saving on the cMBP and stick it on a stand as though it were a 2012 Mac Mini. Which, in essence, is precisely what it is. They share the same architecture to a considerable degree. THEN, when the Mac Pro or whatever comes out, that's the only part I have to replace. The rest stays as it is, the ATD is already there, I can probably yank the HDDs out of the LaCie enclosure and just slap them inside the Pro, and then resell the enclosure and the cMBP, losing a couple hundred bucks maybe on depreciation. Meanwhile, uninterrupted service by the unit.
I've already ordered the SSD. But to get going on this "for reals," I need the new ATD to be released. Hopefully now, with this news, it won't be long.
