PC Pro review the new Mac Pro

[pctech]

http://www.pcpro.co.uk/reviews/desktops/386710/mac-pro-late-2013

Look at the eye watering price.

[Simon]

 

[zappaDPJ]

5/6 stars given for value for money is probably an indication that it actually isn't particularly overpriced for the technology involved. I have to say that because I'm still thinking of buying one

[Lance]

You know you need it Zap!

[zappaDPJ]

I do!

[Simon]

Need it, or want it?   

[Technical Ben]

http://www.pcpro.co.uk/reviews/desktops/386710/mac-pro-late-2013

Look at the eye watering price.

Wait. I take that back. Reports were for £3000/£3500 for the spec. That's what the hardware I compared it to on the PC was. Even allowing for higher quality parts etc, I cannot see it as "better" than a PC equivalent. But all to their own, if the software is iOS, and the money is there for the purchase.

But me, I'd rather have a tin can I know I can fix, I know if it "breaks", it's not an expensive insurance with a specialist repair person. I'd prefer a dumb truck (http://www.pcpro.co.uk/reviews/desktops/385555/chillblast-photo-oc-v) over a super sports car. But then again, as said, if someone else was paying!  

As far as I can see, the only way Apple are getting those boxes at those prices is a heavily reduced price for the AMD card. Considering what the equivalent non-pro AMD cards go for (the gaming cards can be, and are, exact replicas with different bios), the pro cards have a massive mark up for consumers to buy (like in the thousands for 1 model etc).

I'd be too scared to sneeze near that thing. 

[pctech]

Some years back I did consider buying a Xeon based workstation as a home PC with the thought it would last longer, the spec I looked at was dual hard drives, couple of gigs of RAM and I forget the graphics hardware now.

Price (from Viglen) was around 2.5k, I came to my senses before spending the money though and eventually spent 2k on a Pentium D based system with then top of the range Nvidia graphics card.

[Technical Ben]

Yeah, a lot of the options are there for specific server needs. Like error correction/detection. It's not needed for most businesses, let alone home users. For example, in video encoding, 1 pixel (especially on a HD screen) 1 shade slightly out of place for 1 frame will never be noticed, even by freaks like me!

But 1 bit error in a high speed stocks trading server (that it's on the bit level is the true error, but that's by the by and I'm not knowledgeable enough to know if it can be sorted on the software level), though and you want 100% guaranteed extra expensive HDDs, memory and processors. Most consumers stuff is 99.9%, and that's all we need.

It's a bit like the graphics cards. While a bargain now, what about in 6 months time, or 12? Will an upgrade also be a bargain? I tend to get mid range PC parts and buy often over top range.