Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

MP 7,1 Waiting for Mac Pro 7,1 A1991 (no more)

Apropos of the eternal question of waiting for what comes down the pipe versus buying for now, were I to go back in time a month I think I would buy a base iMac Pro and enjoy it in the interim, and when selling it for a Mac Pro (hopefully) make back most of my money with the resale value and scalping the space grey peripherals to crazy people :p
 
fuchsdh said:
...were I to go back in time a month I think I would buy a base iMac Pro and enjoy it in the interim...
Click to expand...

I'm not sure I see how a month's difference in time has much impact on the economics of this plan. If you'd have done this a month ago, what's blocking you from doing it today? Nice use of the subjunctive, btw.
 
Nugget said:
I'm not sure I see how a month's difference in time has much impact on the economics of this plan. If you'd have done this a month ago, what's blocking you from doing it today? Nice use of the subjunctive, btw.
Click to expand...

You're right, in that I'm assuming the hysteria will quickly die off and prices will drop to a few hundred. I could be wrong :p

I do wonder if the Mac Pro will be similarly clad, though. Feels like it'd have to be space grey since the iMac is.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Aldaris
Nugget said:
I'm not sure I see how a month's difference in time has much impact on the economics of this plan.
Click to expand...

Consider Many people (ok, not that many) purchased the iMac Pro as interim workstation or simple purchased it coz they can and as soon the mMP goes on sales all these iMac Pro will be on sale on eBay moreless at the same time...

So if you already have an iMac 5k, simple HOLD, unless you have critical work waiting to deliver before the mMP arrives and you can t done it on the iMac ... (very few cases), even consider an eGPU as iterim, GPUs are quick to sell, and the eGPU enclosure maybe repurposed for external NVMe, PCIe Capture card, etc.
 
Biped said:
I ask this, because, after a cursory look ( read : quick and not in depth ) the only difference between i9 and XeonW is the inclusion of ECC memory support. Per lineup it seems there is parity other than this feature. Oh and the price is twice to three times as much.

There may be differences in instruction sets ? ...
Click to expand...

FWIW, I did see the dialog on PCIe lanes and so forth. Even so, we do know that the basic architecture is pretty much the same.

Which brings me to my question:

ECC as a product differentiator.

My recollection/understanding is that the MP basically has ECC (supposedly) because the contracts from larger firms (including Government) had ECC as a requirement, so Apple had to have it to compete.

Now this isn't disputing that from an error-checksum standpoint it isn't a good idea - it was and still is a good idea from a data integrity standpoint. Its from this perspective that my *real* question now arises.

Q: is there any particularly GOOD reason why Apple hasn't moved to differentiate the entire Mac product line from PCs by moving the entire line over onto ECC?

Granted, ECC price markup is a cash cow for Intel, so they'll not want to "sell the farm" to Apple on the cheap (unless forced to), but other than that factor, memory has gotten generally cheap so that's not really a big obstacle. Similarly, everyone is becoming more concerned over data protection (although more from a security standpoint than an assurity standpoint): assuming that its markup price is brought down to zero (or close enough), would ECC as a feature sell in the generic consumer space?
 
The Ryzen line of CPUs also can use ECC memory.

For me it is a sell - my data is important.
 
-hh said:
Q: is there any particularly GOOD reason why Apple hasn't moved to differentiate the entire Mac product line from PCs by moving the entire line over onto ECC?
Click to expand...
None of the CPUs that Apple uses supports ECC memory, except for the Xeons in the trash can and
iMacPro. That's a pretty GOOD reason ;) .

-hh said:
that its markup price is brought down to zero (or close enough), would ECC as a feature sell in the generic consumer space?
Click to expand...
I would think "yes". I have a Dell workstation (same basic CPU/PCH as the MP6,1 hex-core) with ECC RAM.

I didn't get ECC because my data is important (if a bit flipped in my terabytes of gay porn I probably wouldn't notice).

What ECC gives me is the assurance that if I get a BSOD or app crash or other glitch - the chances are vanishing small that a memory error was to blame. (Except, of course, if the BSOD reason is "Uncorrectable memory error" - then I know totally that the memory is to blame and the crash points to the offending DIMM.)

ssgbryan said:
The Ryzen line of CPUs also can use ECC memory.

For me it is a sell - my data is important.
Click to expand...
I hope that ECC on Ryzen pushes Intel to move ECC support down the line - at least to the higher end Core CPUs.

I remember that in the Pentium III days all of the mainstream Intel CPUs and North/South bridges supported ECC, and most of the mobos did as well. If you wanted ECC, you just verified that the system (or mobo) supported it - and paid the price premium on the RAM.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: Biped
Actually, it will take a fraction of a second after Apple finally reveals whatever the price is (which will, based on history, be far too high).
 
Naimfan said:
Actually, it will take a fraction of a second after Apple finally reveals whatever the price is (which will, based on history, be far too high).
Click to expand...
With Apple's newly repatriated $350 billion from their overseas earnings stockpile, I would think they could now afford to offer a new 2018 Mac Pro that's actually price competitive with similar specced Dell, Lenovo, HP, etc. machines. At least, let's hope it's assembled in the U.S. somewhere, and not imported whole from China or someplace like that.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: Naimfan
I think the tcMP was also assembled in the US.

Most macs and the iPhones are assembled in places like China.

What’s US assembling got to do with price competitiveness ?
 
singhs.apps said:
I think the tcMP was also assembled in the US.

Most macs and the iPhones are assembled in places like China.

What’s US assembling got to do with price competitiveness ?
Click to expand...

There's certain corporate tax advantages via U.S. based final assembly factories, even though most if not all the separate parts originate from outside the U.S.
Similar to how Dell, Lenovo, HP final assembly factories located in the U.S. operate.
 
vailr said:
There's certain corporate tax advantages via U.S. based final assembly factories, even though most if not all the separate parts originate from outside the U.S.
Similar to how Dell, Lenovo, HP final assembly factories located in the U.S. operate.
Click to expand...

Well presumably that factory they used ain't spending its days cranking out a tube Mac Pro these days.
 
vailr said:
With Apple's newly repatriated $350 billion from their overseas earnings stockpile, I would think they could now afford to offer a new 2018 Mac Pro that's actually price competitive with similar specced Dell, Lenovo, HP, etc. machines. At least, let's hope it's assembled in the U.S. somewhere, and not imported whole from China or someplace like that.
Click to expand...

If you are hoping for it to be assembled in the USA you have to expect much higher prices. That's exactly why it WON'T BE assembled in the USA.

A while before Steve Jobs passed away President Obama called him to the White House and implored him to bring Apple manufacturing back to the US. Steve Job's reply to the President was "IT'S NOT GOING TO HAPPEN".

And really why would you want it to be assembled in the US? To do that Apple has to consider the price of assembly. Over-seas they get very qualified employees to assemble their products for around 8 dollars an hour. To find anything near that they have to contract companies in the south (Like Texas or Georgia) to assemble the Mac Pro 6,1 which is why the price dissuades many potential customers. This is because the South has historically been the lowest price place in the US to have any type of this work done. You get an un-trained Goober who is working for $12.00 an hour and NO benefits to build your Mac. I would much rather have someone in China build my Mac. Very disciplined. Better build, better QA and lower prices.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: PeterJP
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back