Post your Mac Pro woes here

[Sesshi]

Anticipating the probably inevitable issues I'm posting this so the aggrieved can list their problems, and also how Apple attended to it. I'm curious to see how full this thread will get. I'm guessing the problems will be along the lines of heat and general build quality, but I'd love to be proved wrong.


EDIT: No bitching about price - just functional issues you've come across.


Myself, looking to purchase one eventually but for now equivalent Windows machines to the Mac Pros will replace my iMacs - I'm partially switching back. If there are no major problems in the apparent manner of the Mac Minis, I might get one sooner.

 

[hal0n]

Anticipating the probably inevitable issues I'm posting this so the aggrieved can list their problems, and also how Apple attended to it. I'm curious to see how full this thread will get. I'm guessing the problems will be along the lines of heat and general build quality, but I'd love to be proved wrong.

Myself, looking to purchase one eventually but for now equivalent Windows machines to the Mac Pros will replace my iMacs - I'm partially switching back. If there are no major problems in the apparent manner of the Mac Minis, I might get one sooner.

Wait, you're already complaining about problems that you might have if you were buying on of these, but you're, infact, not even looking seriously at buying one in the near future.

I have already placed my order..

 

[Sesshi]

Nope. Not complaining - just wondering whether the Mac Pro is actually built to 'Pro' levels or whether it'll have just as many problems as some other Macs. You've ordered one? Good, I've seen quite a lot of people buy them so hopefully if you have problems you can let us know about it here.

 

[thegreatluke]

Only a couple people have received their Mac Pros so far!

And those people are busy posting Mac Pro pr0ns.

So I doubt anyone's found an issue with their Mac Pros yet.

The Power Macs have generally had no widescale problems as they're "standard PC-like" machines with standard parts and they're simple to put together, so I figure the Mac Pros will be the same.

 

[telecomm]

I'm disappointed they're not cheaper, so I could afford one.

I'm also disappointed they're not slower, so I'd feel more satisfied with my G4.

Woe is me!

 

[Sun Baked]

I'm disappointed they're not cheaper, so I could afford one.

I'm also disappointed they're not slower, so I'd feel more satisfied with my G4.

Woe is me!

A Dell Precision 690 Workstation or a Intel 5000x-based workstation isn't likely to be cheaper, at the moment.

But those will drop in price quick while Apple stays at $2495.

 

[Sesshi]

Only a couple people have received their Mac Pros so far!

And those people are busy posting Mac Pro pr0ns.

So I doubt anyone's found an issue with their Mac Pros yet.

The Power Macs have generally had no widescale problems as they're "standard PC-like" machines with standard parts and they're simple to put together, so I figure the Mac Pros will be the same.

Yeah... I thought I'd leave this thread to stew in anticipation

A Dell Precision 690 Workstation or a Intel 5000x-based workstation isn't likely to be cheaper, at the moment.

But those will drop in price quick while Apple stays at $2495.

You're right. I priced up a Mac Pro today and the Apple wasn't hugely more expensive than my 690 spec - I think ultimately there was only about a £500 difference in the sticker price if I remember correctly for the entire system. However I get a bit more off on the Dell.

But it wasn't really price that did it. First of all, workwise I do a lot of stuff in Citrix windows in any case and in all other respects I'm pretty platform-independent. So it's actually the mundane stuff such as browsing and writing letters, etc that I like using the Mac more. That's fine - I'll continue using the MBP + ACD for that.

The other issue is support: At least Dell has a professional level of support, and moreover it's included with the machine. I figured I'd balance a slight productivity hit of Windows for my uses with a machine I can definitely rely on.

I've already taken delivery of (single dual-core) 490's for another purpose and they're putting in very respectable performances, so based on that the Mac Pros (and the 690s) should be excellent. Looking at the Mac Pro innards so far, interesting to compare Dell's use of direct fans where Apple have used finned cooling combined with airflow through the case.

It would definitely be better though if I could have a 'power desktop' that I could do everything on, not divide things between platforms. It's just that at the moment I don't have confidence in Apple hardware engineering and possibly build quality nor support. So as I said, I'll be interested to see people's experiences of the Mac Pro over the period of the next few weeks / months.

 

[icec0ld]

here's my woe: im broke.

 

[Mord]

a dell 690 compared with an identical mac pro is $831 more, remember, every detail the same.

 

[stevo86]

just ordered mine !!

i'm pretty well poor so it's pretty much base model... 2x 2.66Ghz, 1 GB RAM (will upgrade later), 160GB hdd (also have a 250 to go in there), nvidia 7300 gt (i know, it's crap).

so excited!! can't wait for my first Mac!

 

[Mord]

the 7300 is not that bad, it's about a 9800 pro that supports SM3.

unless you do 3d design video editing with apple pro software or games not many apps use video acceleration.

 

[Sesshi]

Possibly Hector. I think I may have forgotten to take into account the price difference between the FX3500 and the 4500 when making the choices.

Edit: I've just done the pricing up again when compared to my 690 specs and the Apple's sticker price is ~£400 cheaper. That's quite a surprise - however if we're talking price, the 690 is still significantly cheaper for me after my corporate discounts.

That doesn't really matter to me as much as the fact that a dead machine which has to be sent away for repair in god knows how long is not a productive machine, as opposed to a machine where the engineer turns up with spare parts the next day.

 

[Macmadant]

LOL Already !!!!!

 

[Mord]

i get 15% off with my edu duscount, and if i were to buy one i'd up my student ADC membership to select and get a 25% discount.

 

[GoCubsGo]

Why is this thread even here? Why be so negative about the whole thing? I mean yeah, it may have issues, but if you don't own one all this thread will become is people bitching about the price. I'm sorry you're having woes with a computer you do not intend to buy. I hope things look up for you kind friend.

 

[OldCorpse]

OK, trouble

First, it moos and whines something horrible, though that could've been the oohing, and aahing of delight as it was being upacked. Then, it gets dirty just from my looking at it, though that may be because I gave it a dirty look and I can't help that but I get dirty thoughts looking at it. Heat - it melted the carpet it stood on, but maybe it just seemed so, cause it is really hot and the carpet melted away in shame. Finally it is so fast that it disappeared as I was looking at it, and then I woke up and realized I didn't have the money to buy it. So that's my complaint about it: I don't have the money, even though it's cheap for what you get. And I blame Steve for draining my wallet thoroughly ever since I embarked on the Apple acquisition journey last year.

 

[Monk Edsel]

Why is this thread even here? Why be so negative about the whole thing? I mean yeah, it may have issues, but if you don't own one all this thread will become is people bitching about the price. I'm sorry you're having woes with a computer you do not intend to buy. I hope things look up for you kind friend.

I thought the same thing. I have a black MacBook on the way, and I'm sure as hell not thinking, "gosh, I can't wait to get online and complain about it!" But then again, that seems to be everyone's favorite thing to do here.

 

[Sesshi]

Why is this thread even here? Why be so negative about the whole thing? I mean yeah, it may have issues, but if you don't own one all this thread will become is people bitching about the price. I'm sorry you're having woes with a computer you do not intend to buy. I hope things look up for you kind friend.

You're right, I edited the first post with a no bitching about price note.

As or the rest I think I've explained myself pretty succinctly. Out of 7 Macs that I've purchased this year in my effort to fully switch, 6 Macs have developed some sort of fault be it minor or major, or been delivered DOA. There are also outstanding issues I still need to address with some of the machines, but since they aren't core functional issues they can wait - I don't want any downtime right now, especially with how long it will take Apple to take care of things.

Now with Dell, I know that even if the hardware is faulty someone will be around to fix it the next day. With Apple, if a similar problem happened god knows when it'll be fixed. I would either have to send it back in, or cart it to an Apple Store and hope they have exchange units/spares.

I have one desktop per site and I really don't want to double up my purchases like my most frequently carried Macbook, which Apple turned around in the laughable time of virtually two weeks (the machine is fully Applecare'd). Likewise it took Apple around a week to replace the iMacs. And in fact, even the Macbook which I purchased as a spare against the machine failing again already has some minor structural issues.

My opinion of Apple design is sky-high. My opinion of Apple hardware build quality as well as the ability to provide support should things go wrong lurks somewhere in the toilet.

I couldn't afford to have the Mac Pros behave in the same way. Why do I have to budget for up to two additional desktops as a hedge against Apple's poor support? So, I need to be assured, and I don't think I'm alone in thinking about this, that the Mac Pros are significantly better built than the 'lesser' Macs. For that I have to turn to these forums.

As I said, once new Mac Pro users get past the new shiny toy phase I will be very interested in problems they encounter. If they don't, then I might get one quicker. I really do want a 'proper Mac desktop' but at the moment it seems like a bit of a risk to me bearing in mind how much each will be and given my reliability experience with Apple.

 

[telecomm]

Why is this thread even here? Why be so negative about the whole thing? I mean yeah, it may have issues, but if you don't own one all this thread will become is people bitching about the price.

You're right, I edited the first post with a no bitching about price note.

Uh, to be fair, all the posters to this point who have "complained" about price were clearly being sarcastic. As subsequent posters have cleverly observed, price is in the Mac Pro's favour.

 

[Sesshi]

Uh, to be fair, all the posters to this point who have "complained" about price were clearly being sarcastic. As subsequent posters have cleverly observed, price is in the Mac Pro's favour.

And is it fair to say that given Apple's past pricing that worries me even more viz-a-viz build quality?

Anyway, I'm not sure if there's a way for this thread to stay noticeable but I await reports of issues. No other distractions please, I'm sure no-one wants to get into an argument or anything.