AppleInsider spent almost $14,300 to build a DIY PC with similar components as the $9,600 Mac Pro, so maybe not so much...
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Apple Begins Preparing First Mac Pro Orders for December 30 Delivery
- Thread starter MacRumors
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
AppleInsider spent almost $14,300 to build a DIY PC with similar components as the $9,600 Mac Pro, so maybe not so much...
Hahahaha, that's hilarious!
----------
Great point! Thanks for the reference sir.
I really want one of these, but have no legitimate reason to own one. I do kind of hope the form factor makes it to the Mac Mini at some point?
Really very reasonably priced when compared to comparable HP or Dell workstation.
I'm going for 8-core, D700, 32gb ram, 1 TB. Hopefully by the time the MPro ships, OWC will be shipping their Helios 2 TB enclosure for my ATTO R680 and Kona 3G cards. TB hub of choice will be the Sonnet, if they can ever ship.
I'll also add an HDMI UHD or 4K monitor-- either the $1300 Dell or we will see what else announces at CES (the LG looks good).
Obviously my application is video, so the MPro is optimized for FCP X.
Adobe will run but CC needs to be optimized to take advantage of the GPU's.
Awaiting benchmarks from initial users and then just sit back until Feb.
I'm going for 8-core, D700, 32gb ram, 1 TB. Hopefully by the time the MPro ships, OWC will be shipping their Helios 2 TB enclosure for my ATTO R680 and Kona 3G cards. TB hub of choice will be the Sonnet, if they can ever ship.
I'll also add an HDMI UHD or 4K monitor-- either the $1300 Dell or we will see what else announces at CES (the LG looks good).
Obviously my application is video, so the MPro is optimized for FCP X.
Adobe will run but CC needs to be optimized to take advantage of the GPU's.
Awaiting benchmarks from initial users and then just sit back until Feb.
Why bother writing stuff that accomplishes nothing but reveal your own ignorance? People who've actually priced it out find that Apple is actually helping you get a substantial discount on what this machine would cost you to build.
----------
The post you are replying to which I have copied above cites no facts, contributes no insight, and is full of inflammatory language. It contributes nothing to a healthy discourse. It is, in short, a troll post. Sadly, MacRumors not only lacks a system to punish trolls, they actively defend them by deleting any post that is willing to call a spade a spade.
I ordered the identical rig save the D700s - I went with the D500s figuring it was such a huge leap over my current 5770 that I'd be fine.
As for the 4K display, my 30" ACD although aging with too few and old ports like FW400, still works fine and I love the matte finish. Since my current monitor still works, I'm going to sit tight and hope that sometime in 2014 Apple comes out with a 4K display of it's own that's more reasonable in price than the $3,600 USD Sharp. I'm figuring about half the price of the Sharp is about right (which coincidentally is what I paid for my ACD) and is more in line with the pricing of the 4K displays coming out this year.
Problem is this isn't a comparable system. They shouldn't have bought two W9000's and more like two Radeon 7970s.
The D700's are not W9000s, because that has to do with the driver. Apple does the driver, as they always have. Not AMD. So you're getting rebranded consumer silicon. I can't believe people are still buying into this.
----------
Man, this is just wrong. Period.
For all those crying about the prices...
$2000 buys you a i7 GTX780 hackintosh - great for gaming, iffy for longevity
$2700 buys you a decked out MBP
$2800 buys you a decked out 27" iMac
$3000 buys you the baseline nMP
Similar PCs to the basline nMP can be had for maybe $300 less, at most, except if you want workstation GPUs, it will cost you more.
So the prices aren't out of line at all. Please stop the crying.
$2000 buys you a i7 GTX780 hackintosh - great for gaming, iffy for longevity
$2700 buys you a decked out MBP
$2800 buys you a decked out 27" iMac
$3000 buys you the baseline nMP
Similar PCs to the basline nMP can be had for maybe $300 less, at most, except if you want workstation GPUs, it will cost you more.
So the prices aren't out of line at all. Please stop the crying.
Do you have something to support this? I'm trying to find out myself what exactly the GPU's are. Another difference between the normal FirePro's and consumer cards is ECC vram, if I'm correct. Though I haven't seen anything as to whether the D700's have ECC vram or not.
AMD seems to be supporting the fact that these are "FirePro Professional Graphics" Not going to be a good thing if people find out they are just rebranded consumer GPU's.
As far as I can tell, Apple still publishes quite a few pro-caliber titles, they just don't always put the "Pro" moniker in the name. That doesn't change the fact that these applications are primarily targeted at the professional marketplace.
Apple also has third-party software partners who write pro-caliber titles as well. Note that for the Wintel PC market, none of the major hardware manufacturers (Dell, HP, etc.) publish many professional workstation software titles.
Ultimately, whether or not an application is "professional" doesn't come down to the existence of "Pro" in the software title's name. It's the marketplace that decides: the people who earn their paycheck using these tools, whether it be Aperture, Photoshop, AutoCAD, Maya, etc.
It's not like you need to show your graphic designer union card to purchase one of these computer or applications.
Just to let you know.
Apple also has third-party software partners who write pro-caliber titles as well. Note that for the Wintel PC market, none of the major hardware manufacturers (Dell, HP, etc.) publish many professional workstation software titles.
Ultimately, whether or not an application is "professional" doesn't come down to the existence of "Pro" in the software title's name. It's the marketplace that decides: the people who earn their paycheck using these tools, whether it be Aperture, Photoshop, AutoCAD, Maya, etc.
It's not like you need to show your graphic designer union card to purchase one of these computer or applications.
Just to let you know.
Last edited:
You have no idea what you are talking about- if you did you would be able to cite some sources. From what we've seen so far in early tests, the D700s (with their Apple drivers) are far, far better than 'consumer silicon'. No doubt the full reviews will confirm this, by which time you will be nowhere to be seen.
Just because you don't like FCPX doesn't mean its not "Pro". The fact is that many professionals in the field are using it.
You also don't have to just use FCP on these things, as no doubt over time most if not all of the rest of the video software that doesn't already support OpenCL will, or will support it better. Premiere does support it (though it will only use a single GPU for preview, but will use both for rendering). Resolve supports it. Various plugins already support it.
But thats ok, everyone is entitled to an opinion, even if its wrong.
Last edited by a moderator:
I got my 6-core yesterday
I may be the only person to get theirs yesterday as I called Apple and asked them to expedite my order which they did for free.
I had them hold it at the local FedEx facility so I could pick up at my leisure (immediately) as FedEx had been backed up with deliveries and hadn't been delivering until 10pm in some cases.
I learned of the free expedite on request by saving a Twitter search timeline for "Mac Pro", I found a developer in Arizona who was tweeting @ his friends recommending they make the same request. Unfortunately their orders were BTO so they didn't see the use of getting Apple to overnight their orders.
It flies but I'm still running a 2008 Cinema Display and got the wrong DVI adapter so I'm typing this on a 1280x800 resolution desktop
I'm going to hit the 5th Ave Apple Store soon and pick up the Dual Link DVI adapter since I'm free from family obligations today (we celebrated on Christmas Eve).
PS All the Oculus Rift demos for Mac that dragged before absolutely fly now.
I may be the only person to get theirs yesterday as I called Apple and asked them to expedite my order which they did for free.
I had them hold it at the local FedEx facility so I could pick up at my leisure (immediately) as FedEx had been backed up with deliveries and hadn't been delivering until 10pm in some cases.
I learned of the free expedite on request by saving a Twitter search timeline for "Mac Pro", I found a developer in Arizona who was tweeting @ his friends recommending they make the same request. Unfortunately their orders were BTO so they didn't see the use of getting Apple to overnight their orders.
It flies but I'm still running a 2008 Cinema Display and got the wrong DVI adapter so I'm typing this on a 1280x800 resolution desktop
I'm going to hit the 5th Ave Apple Store soon and pick up the Dual Link DVI adapter since I'm free from family obligations today (we celebrated on Christmas Eve).
PS All the Oculus Rift demos for Mac that dragged before absolutely fly now.
I'm pretty sure a high end Apple product coming out cheaper than an equivalent DIY setup is one of the first signs of the apocalypse.
...we live in strange days, people.
Could be slow shipping. I heard about the UPS and FedEx having issues.
----------
Check the parts it uses. No it's not. It's actually underpriced for Apple.
----------
It happened with the 2008 Mac Pro. Probably explains why everyone with a Mac Pro seems to have the 2008 model. Dell or HP can sometimes be cheaper than DIY also, so a comparable with Dell or HP would be nice to see.
----------
From what I've heard, "many" is not the right word to use. Most of them use some Adobe software or Avid.
P.S. Does anyone know if FCPX still sucks? My brother tried it and said it was trash like iMovie '08.
Last edited by a moderator:
When run on a Hackintosh using OS X 10.9, LuxMark does report the 7970 as a FirePro D700, but that appears to be a glitch in LuxMark and not an attempt by Apple to falsely rebrand the 7970 as the FirePro D700 (not that I would expect AMD to allow such a thing, anyway
).And if Apple can write a driver that gets orders of magnitude better performance out of "consumer silicon" than the OEM can, you'd think the iMac and MBP would be the kings of the gaming community with benchmark scores annihilating anything a Windows box could offer.
