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Prosumer Tower with Big display?

S

s!ke

macrumors member
Original poster
Feb 28, 2012
54
1
Basically I'm looking for iMac type power but without an integrated display. I need the power for: Design, music production, games, etc. I need the screen real estate for: Design, photography, games, etc)

Mac mini is not enough because I want the dedicated GPU, and the Mac pro is just out of my price range. The iMac power (and 5k res) is great, but I want to be able to update my display every so often. Right now I'm using a 27" iMac and external 24" monitor at home and a MBP with LG Ultrawide 34" at work. Neither is really ideal. Ideally, I'd like a nice 36"-43" 4k TV as a display. Vizio has one for $600.

Any suggestions? I wish they had iMac power in a tower that isn't the price of a Mac Pro. And maxing out a high end macbook pro is starting to put me in Mac Pro kind of of money.

Any thoughts or suggestions?
 
s!ke said:
Basically I'm looking for iMac type power but without an integrated display. I need the power for: Design, music production, games, etc. I need the screen real estate for: Design, photography, games, etc)

Mac mini is not enough because I want the dedicated GPU, and the Mac pro is just out of my price range. The iMac power (and 5k res) is great, but I want to be able to update my display every so often. Right now I'm using a 27" iMac and external 24" monitor at home and a MBP with LG Ultrawide 34" at work. Neither is really ideal. Ideally, I'd like a nice 36"-43" 4k TV as a display. Vizio has one for $600.

Any suggestions? I wish they had iMac power in a tower that isn't the price of a Mac Pro. And maxing out a high end macbook pro is starting to put me in Mac Pro kind of of money.

Any thoughts or suggestions?
Click to expand...

Explore the possibility of a Mac Pro 5,1 (the classic). If you don't need Thunderbolt, and if you don't mind adding in a card or two (USB3, or perhaps a bootable PCI SSD setup) you can have a powerful machine.
 
Any "classic" MacPro 5.1 you get on eBay will have to be upgraded, most likely (latest CPUs, more RAM - which is ECC-RAM).
And the end of the day, just how much do you save - especially, if you don't already have the PCIe-cards that most cMP-owners want to keep?
Given this chart:
http://wccftech.com/massive-intel-xeon-e5-xeon-e7-skylake-purley-biggest-advancement-nehalem/
I would assume next-generation Skylake "Purley" Xeons to be available sometime in Q1 2016 - not sure if Apple will update the current MacPro before that date (or if it all even after the availability of Purley-Xeons).

So, your best bet is to either wait and get a gaming PC in the mean-time, or try to get a good deal on a MacPro now.
 
What exactly is you budget? If you spend about $2000 to +/- $500 wait and and get a Mac Pro after the current machines get upgraded like MRainer said above. The slowest current model costs $2999.
 
Hm, yeah after seeing that the processor and SSD is user serviceable I'm leaning towards the Mac Pro because I can upgrade it years down the road.

Any idea if the GPU's are user changeable? Or just the processor, SSD and RAM? It looks like it's soldered onto the board according to iFixit https://d3nevzfk7ii3be.cloudfront.net/igi/5tgNxfdHE3ltotS2.huge

Maybe Apple will update the MP to Thunderbolt 3 at the same time as Skylake?

Thanks,
Chris
 
s!ke said:
Hm, yeah after seeing that the processor and SSD is user serviceable I'm leaning towards the Mac Pro because I can upgrade it years down the road.

Any idea if the GPU's are user changeable? Or just the processor, SSD and RAM? It looks like it's soldered onto the board according to iFixit https://d3nevzfk7ii3be.cloudfront.net/igi/5tgNxfdHE3ltotS2.huge

Maybe Apple will update the MP to Thunderbolt 3 at the same time as Skylake?

Thanks,
Chris
Click to expand...

Check the refurbs on Apple's site...
 
MRrainer said:
Given this chart:
http://wccftech.com/massive-intel-xeon-e5-xeon-e7-skylake-purley-biggest-advancement-nehalem/
I would assume next-generation Skylake "Purley" Xeons to be available sometime in Q1 2016 - not sure if Apple will update the current MacPro before that date (or if it all even after the availability of Purley-Xeons).

So, your best bet is to either wait and get a gaming PC in the mean-time, or try to get a good deal on a MacPro now.
Click to expand...
I REALLY want to wait for Skylake for TB3, DDR4 and new GPU's but it looks like the next two years Intel is releasing Xeons based on Haswell and Broadwell chips.Here:
http://www.extremetech.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/ief9b32d.png

Not until 2017 do Purley come out on Skylake tech.... Am I reading this right?
http://www.extremetech.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/2s3it8gv.png
 
s!ke said:
I REALLY want to wait for Skylake for TB3, DDR4 and new GPU's but it looks like the next two years Intel is releasing Xeons based on Haswell and Broadwell chips.Here:
http://www.extremetech.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/ief9b32d.png

Not until 2017 do Purley come out on Skylake tech.... Am I reading this right?
http://www.extremetech.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/2s3it8gv.png
Click to expand...

Yes, you may be right. I might have misunderstood the chart. Grantley still seems to be based on the current generation.

See also this:
https://www.reddit.com/r/intel/comments/2zkme2/questions_about_xeon_e3_e5_and_skylake/

So, (prospective) MP-buyers might have to wait much longer than Q1-2016.
Given past history, I would even be surprised if there's a new MacPro one year from now.

The GPU in the 2013 MP is user-servicable, it's just that there are no after-market GPUs.
 
If you want to use a 4K TV as a monitor you'll have to make sure you buy one with Display port inputs or HDMI 2.0 inputs (this will require a mini display port to HDMI 2.0 adapter) if you want to use the TV at 4K 60Hz.
 
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