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2019 imac or 2017 imac pro?

gevalt

gevalt

macrumors member
Original poster
Jul 22, 2002
52
54
nyc
i need some advice from the collective.

i'm looking to replace the ole' cheese grater (2010 12-core) with a newer machine.

i'm a professional video editor and the old machine has been EOL'ed by both apple and avid technology.

while avid finally released last week a version of their software that is catalina compatible i'd like to maintain version compatibility with my company (particularly now with WFH and sending stuff in), as well as with 32-bit codec media.

so the question becomes... if i get a 2019 imac CTO with an i9 processor, it'll ship with catalina. earlier 2019s shipped with mojave. while i understand that it's not a fully straight-forward process, will i be able to roll back the imac to mojave? or have there been firmware updates that will prevent it?

OR... should i get a refurb 2017 imac pro similarly configured? that will ship with either high sierra or mojave so i won't have to worry about rolling back. while the single thread CPU score for the i9 is about 20% faster that the pro's xeon but compared to the cheese grater either will be a vast improvement. the imac pro has twice as many t-bolt 3 ports than the imac and other enhancements. AFAICT the screens are identical.

what say y'all?

thanks in advance
 
gevalt said:
i need some advice from the collective.

i'm looking to replace the ole' cheese grater (2010 12-core) with a newer machine.

i'm a professional video editor and the old machine has been EOL'ed by both apple and avid technology.

while avid finally released last week a version of their software that is catalina compatible i'd like to maintain version compatibility with my company (particularly now with WFH and sending stuff in), as well as with 32-bit codec media.

so the question becomes... if i get a 2019 imac CTO with an i9 processor, it'll ship with catalina. earlier 2019s shipped with mojave. while i understand that it's not a fully straight-forward process, will i be able to roll back the imac to mojave? or have there been firmware updates that will prevent it?

OR... should i get a refurb 2017 imac pro similarly configured? that will ship with either high sierra or mojave so i won't have to worry about rolling back. while the single thread CPU score for the i9 is about 20% faster that the pro's xeon but compared to the cheese grater either will be a vast improvement. the imac pro has twice as many t-bolt 3 ports than the imac and other enhancements. AFAICT the screens are identical.

what say y'all?

thanks in advance
Click to expand...
I'm having similar decision issues as well upgrading from 2013 iMac to either iMac pro or an all out iMac i9 . I like the idea of better fans, 2 thunderbolt busses equaling 4 ports . Hoping the T2 isn't an issue for audio recording as I have heard it was resolved with latest mojave update . The refurb looks like a great deal . Then I have seen many back and forth about fan and throttling for iMac i9 too . I know my 2013 fans will annoy me a little when the get running more .
 
scotttnz said:
An iMac update of some sort is looking likely, sometime between now and WWDC in June. I’m waiting to see what that is before I decide on my next machine.
Click to expand...
Well I guess I could wait 5 more or so weeks . My 2013 has been going black once in a while and powers off . I just did an SMC reset maybe that fixed it but if this keeps up I might have to buy sooner
 
gevalt said:
i need some advice from the collective.

i'm looking to replace the ole' cheese grater (2010 12-core) with a newer machine.

i'm a professional video editor and the old machine has been EOL'ed by both apple and avid technology.

while avid finally released last week a version of their software that is catalina compatible i'd like to maintain version compatibility with my company (particularly now with WFH and sending stuff in), as well as with 32-bit codec media.

so the question becomes... if i get a 2019 imac CTO with an i9 processor, it'll ship with catalina. earlier 2019s shipped with mojave. while i understand that it's not a fully straight-forward process, will i be able to roll back the imac to mojave? or have there been firmware updates that will prevent it?

OR... should i get a refurb 2017 imac pro similarly configured? that will ship with either high sierra or mojave so i won't have to worry about rolling back. while the single thread CPU score for the i9 is about 20% faster that the pro's xeon but compared to the cheese grater either will be a vast improvement. the imac pro has twice as many t-bolt 3 ports than the imac and other enhancements. AFAICT the screens are identical.

what say y'all?

thanks in advance
Click to expand...
I just ordered my iMac Pro for $3479. It comes with Mojave. I like the T2 chip for video Encoding. It’s quiet (2019s have fan noise issues). 4tb3 ports.
As has been stated over and over, there will be updates and who knows when and how good.
 
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thanks everyone.

as we know, there's almost ALWAYS a new machine coming just over the horizon.
even if there is a new machine coming out soon, that one will only ever be able to run catalina or later.
since i still need to have mojave on it, the new machine is moot.

i did some other research plus read a similar thread here and ordered an imac PRO from ipower resale.
i should have it next week.
even as a 201(7) machine, since the cheese grater lasted me 10 years,
i'm sure this machine will certainly last long enough

thanks again.
 
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My 2013 iMac has been just going black out on power shut down . no warning too . I'm getting tempted to just get that refurb , but yet I'm waiting on any possible new iMac news . If I cane get an iMac pro with Mojave that would be a bonus so I don't have to update most my 3rd party programs .
 
and of course, 2 days after i ordered from ipower resale and they already had shipped (it should arrive tomorrow), apple posts on their refurb site a whole boat load of 2019 imacs with i9's. there hadn't been ANY there for weeks.
 
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gevalt said:
and of course, 2 days after i ordered from ipower resale and they already had shipped (it should arrive tomorrow), apple posts on their refurb site a whole boat load of 2019 imacs with i9's. there hadn't been ANY there for weeks.
Click to expand...
I have been seeing apples site with the refurbs on and off , at one time its loaded then an hour later just base model type stuff etc . It's crazy every other day its like that . I'm going to wait a few more days to see if anything comes up maybe
 
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gevalt said:
and of course, 2 days after i ordered from ipower resale and they already had shipped (it should arrive tomorrow), apple posts on their refurb site a whole boat load of 2019 imacs with i9's. there hadn't been ANY there for weeks.
Click to expand...
FWIW: Both the 2017 27" iMac i7 and the 2019 27" i9 can ramp up the fans fairly quickly ( 2019 i9 is quieter longer and a big reduction in noise over the 2017 version ). For video especially the iMac Pro is a excellent choice due to the significantly quieter thermal system.
 
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I’ve had my refurb iMac Pro for a month and can confirm that it’s very quiet. I use it for hobby video making using FCPX and Logic. Base model + 64GB RAM. No complaints with the machine except OWC replaced the screen very slightly off center creating a sharp edge on one side where the chin meets the screen.

How are you making out OP?
 
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I can confirm that the iMac Pro is fantastic machine, even for 2020. It's a great product and the Xeon processor is still a beast, the machine is also super quiet even during full load. Its also held its value incredibly well, even more so than the standard iMac's that are fully spec'ed out.
 
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^ Been pushing mine with renders for my latest game almost 24/7 and I still have to hear it's fans. Over a month since I've had it and there's no noise comming from it under load. I'm at a point where I'm scared the fans are broken.

Best workstation for game development I've ever used. I can see this machie lasting me for the next 3-5 years without issues.
 
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gevalt said:
and of course, 2 days after i ordered from ipower resale and they already had shipped (it should arrive tomorrow), apple posts on their refurb site a whole boat load of 2019 imacs with i9's. there hadn't been ANY there for weeks.
Click to expand...


as we know, there's almost ALWAYS a refurb machine coming just over the horizon.
 
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Grohowiak said:
Refurbs come with Catalina.
Click to expand...
actually, the imac pro refurb came with high sierra.
first thing i did was to upgrade it to mojave.
then i installed all my apps from scratch rather than restore from my backup.

3 months later and i'm very happy with my decision, even considering last week's new imacs.
 
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gevalt said:
actually, the imac pro refurb came with high sierra.
first thing i did was to upgrade it to mojave.
then i installed all my apps from scratch rather than restore from my backup.

3 months later and i'm very happy with my decision, even considering last week's new imacs.
Click to expand...

Interesting.
Had to be on the shelf for a while.
 
Grohowiak said:
Interesting.
Had to be on the shelf for a while.
Click to expand...
could be why they were being sold off so inexpensively. ipower resale had a bunch of them, as did OWC. apple at the time was selling the same refurb for $750 more. last week, with the release of the new base machine as a 10 core, apple was selling the 8 cores again for a decent price.
 
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