Configured-to-order iMacs commonly have final assembly in the US and in Cork, Ireland. I bet the iMac Pro will be the same given its small volume.
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.
iMac Pro order thread
- Thread starter Trebuin
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
I am impressed that you were able to do your job today on your 2011 MBP. You really milked the life out of it and got your money's worth. And I can only imagine what it is going to be like after you've experienced editing your first job on your new iMac Pro. You are going to be blown out of the water!
Thanks Bryan... I'm not going to lie, it's held my business back a lot, but I knew that I could persist and make it work and it has without missing deadlines, so I've been really blessed - so far - I just need it to last until the iMac Pro arrives.
Hahaha! I hope so! I wanted to get a Trash Can Mac Pro at the end of 2015, but I decided to continue to invest in other areas of the business instead, as it was already nearly 3 years old, so I waited and waited and waited... and then got quite worried that nothing was going to come... then the small meeting with the group of journalists had me abuzz and I was so glad with the specs when they announced the iMac Pro at WWDC. For videographers, it's an almighty machine when partnered with FCPX. So many of the people in my line of business use FCPX and will appreciate this, but then there are the Windows users who laugh, joke and poke fun at it. What they don't get is that we don't need to have the greatest ever specs in order to beat them because FCPX is so well optimised.
My MacBook Pro from early 2011 can't even play a 4K file smoothly, and yet I've shot 3 4K cameras, transcoded to Proxy and been able to output films that can arguably compete with a lot of people in my area, and I'm only just starting out in my first couple of years in business. Therefore, I'm well excited for the iMac Pro, regardless of what people say. I can even offer 4K delivery now at an extra cost to the client and make my money back from that additional extra.
From my experience, it pays to invest in the best equipment. Even at today's wedding, I was shooting with 2 GH4 cameras and a GH5, and a grand hall was lit by a single chandelier - no other light source, as the sun had already set. Therefore, I got out my Rotolight Neo, lit the speeches with that light and used two prime lenses partnered with those two cameras, which cost quite a lot of money and I made it work.
If you have the tools, anything is possible. The iMac Pro is another tool that will hopefully help me to crank out more films faster, and give me time to be creative and make more promotional content as well. I could talk forever, but I just thought I'd share a little of the journey with you.
Thanks for your comment!
I ordered 10-core/1TB SSD/128 RAM/Vega 64 CTO + a few adapters through PowerMax/Oregon and I simply let them wrestle with the delivery estimate. The only issue with this approach is that I had to pay up front rather than being charged when the iMac Pro actually ships. I also wangled AppleCare+ for $150. 
I ordered 10-core/1TB SSD/128 RAM/Vega 64 CTO + a few adapters through PowerMax/Oregon and I simply let them wrestle with the delivery estimate. The only issue with this approach is that I had to pay up front rather than being charged when the iMac Pro actually ships. I also wangled AppleCare+ for $150.
Nice!!! Amazing system you have there!!! I love that you went with the 128GB RAM! I think you already mentioned why in another thread, but I keep getting people mixed up!!!
It'll be interesting to see who gets theirs first and what their thoughts are! I think I might be a day or two later than the people who have posted here, so it'll be great to see what people think!
Yes the max of 128 GB RAM is so that the i/o wait time for my workload completing its i/o activity is minimized. With such a large amount of RAM the kernel buffer cache that uses RAM dynamically can expand to accommodate my i/o demands. The i/o to the RAM(memory) kernel buffer cache is much faster than to the physical SSD storage and also hugely faster compared to the actual physical RAID5 units I have attached and to which the i/o is directed at. The i/o wait time is a killer for me getting things done quickly.
Some people use the SSD for their i/o and as such want a larger SSD for this purpose. For me, I want a small SSD mainly for the macOS and some of my applications, but that is it. So I can get by with a small SSD and that is why I opted for the smallest 1 TB SSD offered in the iMac Pro.
Last edited:
Fascinating to read this, bxs. Thanks for sharing!
I did computer science at University, but that was the end of my interest in programming and the dynamics of the inner workings of operating systems and such. That said, it all made sense, which is a huge bonus to the £9,000 my family spent on my tuition fees (which seems a drop in the ocean as to what they're charging kids these days!).
It'll be amazing to reduce your wait time with this machine then - hope you're able to drop a first impressions analysis of your time with the iMac Pro and how it's improved your working life too!
8-Core, 64GB, 1TB SSD, Pro Vega 64, estimated delivery 2-4 Jan (UK).
Even that seems a long time to wait, but at least it gives me time to start getting things ready to migrate off the old trash can!
RuffDraft - you think yours might be a couple of days later than others - is that because you're in the UK (going by the tuition fees comments!), or did you not order right away? I know the delivery date did start to slip a bit after the launch, but only by a day or two unlike some Apple products where you could order half an hour late and have the date slip 6 months!
I'm impressed that you managed with the MBP for so long BTW. I have one of similar vintage but it's only used very rarely now for odd background tasks. I can't imagine doing anything difficult on it at this point. The trash can seems slow enough at times!
Even that seems a long time to wait, but at least it gives me time to start getting things ready to migrate off the old trash can!
RuffDraft - you think yours might be a couple of days later than others - is that because you're in the UK (going by the tuition fees comments!), or did you not order right away? I know the delivery date did start to slip a bit after the launch, but only by a day or two unlike some Apple products where you could order half an hour late and have the date slip 6 months!
I'm impressed that you managed with the MBP for so long BTW. I have one of similar vintage but it's only used very rarely now for odd background tasks. I can't imagine doing anything difficult on it at this point. The trash can seems slow enough at times!
Nice!!! Sounds like a great iMac Pro is on its way to your doorstep! You getting it for work or just as an upgrade?!
Definitely sounds like a wise plan to get ready for the iMac Pro's arrival. I'm still undecided as to what I'm going to do - I'm tempted to do a back up of my iTunes library to my main editing drive and then keep the SSD super clean... I'll probably end up getting rid of everything else instead and then keeping the music though!
Yeah, it's a long wait, but considering they're only arriving in stores in the middle of this week, I'm guessing they were only really 'ready' for this upcoming week instead, and the order was in fact a pre-order. Therefore, if they're only ready to ship around the 21st and then they start to build other versions (like the ones we've ordered), they only have two days to fulfil orders before the holidays, which fall on awkward days this year - Monday and Tuesday, which gives them a total of 5 days including this week and next week to actually get them to us... I'd say the 2nd of Jan is pretty good going!
I ordered a little later than everyone else and got a day later in terms of my estimate. I'm in the UK too. I'm well impressed with how the dates have held up as you mention - massive improvement over the Trash Cans for sure!
Haha I'd have given so much to have a trash can for these last two years - you don't know how lucky you are with that machine!
I have struggled, but it's like my first car (even though it's my third Mac): she gets me there in the end, and I am always thankful that she survived each project. I just didn't want to give my money to Apple when I knew they were milking the Mac Pro for all it was worth over two years passed its initial launch. I'm glad Apple have finally given us something new, but even more glad that I was able to survive the journey. I just need this Mac to survive this week, and then all of my projects will be out and I can do the rest on the new machine!!! Touch wood, we'll make it!
Oh it's for work, I couldn't really justify that sort of cost for personal use, as good as it would be for the odd bit of home video editing or messing about in Logic! It's mostly for software and web development where I have VMs and a lot of apps running at the same time and the 32MB on the trash can does get a bit squeezed.
In fact the trash can has done ok, certainly not a bad machine so I'm not complaining (especially compared to your MBP...), it's just a shame that there haven't really been any improvements since 2013 when I bought it. I would be tempted to wait to see how the next Mac Pro turns out as it's meant to be more upgradable and will surely be even higher powered than the iMac Pro, but I wouldn't be surprised if it's another year (or more) before we see it and I just don't want to wait that long with a 4-year old machine. I will manage to wait till early January though, which as you say isn't too bad for a delivery time considering the holiday period. Probably best that it's not here too soon anyway or most of the Christmas break would be tied up right away.
I will be rearranging my data during the move to also keep as much of the onboard SSD free as possible. At the moment I have a fair amount of things like photos and personal docs on there which rarely get accessed so there's not much point having them on the fastest storage medium. I'll have a couple of TB of SSD storage externally so I'll move most things onto there and just leave in-use development and video editing files onboard (my music is already on an external drive which is plenty fast enough for that). It will mean quite a bit of reorganising, but that's part of the fun of a new machine.
A colleague of mine always says that when you're about to replace a machine "it knows it's going" and arranges to self-destruct just to be awkward! I have seen that happen so fingers crossed your MBP holds on for the next couple of weeks. I expect you'll notice something of an improvement with the iMac Pro.
What's the "Recycle Fee?"
[doublepost=1513567212][/doublepost]
When you're spending that much, might as well just buy both the mouse and track pad. You could sell the one you don't use on FleaBay for triple the value of a white one.10 core/64GB/Vega 64/2TB/Magic Trackpad
Ships 1-2 weeks: Delivers: Dec 28 - Jan 5 by 2-3 Business Days
It was showing delivers Dec 27-28 until I swapped the mouse out for the Trackpad.
On the positive side, I was surprised that the regular iMac AppleCare pricing applied. Quite the bargain for a machine this pricey.
ha can't complain at thatWell, more the "my company's paying" thread, in my case at least!
Exactly - they get more work out of me and I get a decent machine to use, everyone's a winner! Well apart from our bank balance when shipping day comes of course.ha can't complain at that
Sweet. I have no uses for an iMac pro that can’t be handled by my current iMac, but the lizard part of my brain covets.
The available horsepower is sick, sick, sick
Purchasing a lottery ticket this week, so wish me luck.
Interesting the way Apple prioritised my shipping (everything ordered at the same time):
Items to be Shipped
Shipment 1
Ships: 2-3 weeks
Delivers: 03/01/2018 - 10/01/2018 by Standard Shipping
VESA Mount Adapter Kit for iMac Pro — Space Grey
(dramatic pause in the email confirmation, then oh, and you might want this to go with it)
Shipment 2
Ships: 1-2 weeks
Delivers: 27/12/2017 - 05/01/2018 by Standard Shipping
iMac Pro
With the following configuration:
3.0GHz 10-Core Intel Xeon W processor with Turbo Boost up to 4.5GHz
64GB of 2666MHz DDR4 ECC memory
1TB SSD
Radeon Pro Vega 64 with 16GB of HBM2 memory
Magic Mouse 2 + Magic Trackpad 2 — Space Grey
Magic Keyboard with Numeric Keypad — US English — Space Grey
Accessory Kit
Order placed 2 mins after they went live, which was actually 12:30 am (half past midnight) in east coast Australia.
Having been burnt in the iPhone X "CDN hates me" shuffle and received a 4 week ship time because the site didn't come up until 12 mins past the hour, and having déjà vu from 2013's Mac Pro launch, I made sure I wasn't going to get a 3 month ship time for this one, so I stayed up.
As it turns out, I don't think Apple is finding it hard to meet demand for this. I bet they (and we) would like demand for the Mac to be as high as the iPhone.
Items to be Shipped
Shipment 1
Ships: 2-3 weeks
Delivers: 03/01/2018 - 10/01/2018 by Standard Shipping
VESA Mount Adapter Kit for iMac Pro — Space Grey
(dramatic pause in the email confirmation, then oh, and you might want this to go with it)
Shipment 2
Ships: 1-2 weeks
Delivers: 27/12/2017 - 05/01/2018 by Standard Shipping
iMac Pro
With the following configuration:
3.0GHz 10-Core Intel Xeon W processor with Turbo Boost up to 4.5GHz
64GB of 2666MHz DDR4 ECC memory
1TB SSD
Radeon Pro Vega 64 with 16GB of HBM2 memory
Magic Mouse 2 + Magic Trackpad 2 — Space Grey
Magic Keyboard with Numeric Keypad — US English — Space Grey
Accessory Kit
Order placed 2 mins after they went live, which was actually 12:30 am (half past midnight) in east coast Australia.
Having been burnt in the iPhone X "CDN hates me" shuffle and received a 4 week ship time because the site didn't come up until 12 mins past the hour, and having déjà vu from 2013's Mac Pro launch, I made sure I wasn't going to get a 3 month ship time for this one, so I stayed up.
As it turns out, I don't think Apple is finding it hard to meet demand for this. I bet they (and we) would like demand for the Mac to be as high as the iPhone.
Yes they did that with mine too, the order email started with an adapter that I included after the machine when placing the order, then had the iMac Pro as almost an afterthought. I did panic a bit at first glance as the machine was off the bottom of the visible part of the email, and I couldn't see the adapter being much use on its own...
The UK delivery date for new orders has only gone back a couple of days even now from where it was at release, so they do seem to have enough stock available for whatever the demand is, unlike the mad stampede for some products in the past. It will be interesting to see how many they do actually sell, to find out whether the demand was low or Apple are just better prepared than normal.
Same! It's almost as if Apple was trolling us.
Having just hit my credit card for its highest one-time purchase, I thought all I've got to show for it is a damn adapter!