Apple Mac : why it is going to be bad for pro sofwares soon

[sporkles]

^ that's why they stopped it. Apple wants the huge profit they're making by raping their customers on RAM upfront. if you break it all down the profit they make on the RAM probably comes close to paying their cost for the mother/logic board.

Of course. I had to check, though, and it seems as though the RAM is still upgradeable in the new iMac.

[H20nly]

^ another thing to watch out for when considering upgrading RAM on an iMac... mine said that it supports up to 16 GB of RAM. since it came with 4 i figured i had two choices... replace it with 16 GB or add the 16 GB to the 4 GB and see what happens... i've been building computers for a long time so i had to try ... anyway, my iMac now has 20 GB of RAM and it all shows up in the system settings. so, i don't think you should buy anything based on this information and find out after the purchase, but don't take everything they say at face value.

[steko]

http://bgr.com/2013/12/26/mac-pro-windows-diy-cost/

[beats me]

There’s a Mac Pro shop walking distance from my place which is an authorized Apple resale and repair shop. If it is technically possible I think there is some good money to be saved if you bought the smallest drive and RAM possible in a new Mac, buy the upgrades from a third party, and then have them install it. It’s more of a hassle than anything, but if you aren’t hurting for a computer then it’s probably a good thing to do if you don’t have a bottomless wallet.

Interesting though that even a google search yields vague terms like “difficult” and “not user upgradable”, as if Apple somehow blocked out things like “Macs can be upgraded by a certified technician”.

[Sage]

The problem with Apple is more to do with the hardware rather than the OS.

My MBP basically stopped working for the second time within a few months a couple of nights back while on stage. The very reason I started using Apple was for reliability, if there is no guarantee of that, the sooner I jump ship, the better. When the last failure happened, Apple's idea of customer service turned out to be severely poor, if I had stuck with the official Apple route, would have been looking at weeks, possibly months just for a repair.

[Stromkraft]

MacPro? Who cares? It doesn't provide enough money to run a large company.

Media production companies care. There hasn't been a Mac Pro yet that didn't make the company I work for a lot of money. We use Windows 8 PCs too, but the TOC with the Macs are way lower.

People whining about Macs usually have no idea on what people and companies out there are creating with them.

[Machinesworking]

The problem with Apple is more to do with the hardware rather than the OS.

My MBP basically stopped working for the second time within a few months a couple of nights back while on stage. The very reason I started using Apple was for reliability, if there is no guarantee of that, the sooner I jump ship, the better. When the last failure happened, Apple's idea of customer service turned out to be severely poor, if I had stuck with the official Apple route, would have been looking at weeks, possibly months just for a repair.

I guess that's because of where you're located? I bought a used Mac pro a couple years ago, and the power supply went out on it. Getting it repaired at the Apple store was actually cheaper than buying the power supply off eBay and installing it myself. I used to frown upon the Apple stores, but the Genius Bar and the almost free repairs they will do on machines like mine (2009 used Mac Pro), IMO raises the value of macs in general.

[Machinesworking]

http://bgr.com/2013/12/26/mac-pro-windows-diy-cost/

One thing of note, the bottom of the line new Mac Pro is underpowered compared to the 09-12 8 + core lines, so getting a newer used 8 core is a better deal.
The top and middle mac Pros are great value, and would prevent you from needing a new computer for close to forever really. Especially considering how many dammed plug ins you could run in Live.

[Stromkraft]

The problem with Apple is more to do with the hardware rather than the OS.

My MBP basically stopped working for the second time within a few months a couple of nights back while on stage. The very reason I started using Apple was for reliability, if there is no guarantee of that, the sooner I jump ship, the better. When the last failure happened, Apple's idea of customer service turned out to be severely poor, if I had stuck with the official Apple route, would have been looking at weeks, possibly months just for a repair.

We buy Applecare for all our units. That's 3 years of service in total.

You still have the second hand service market for out of warranty machines. There's also a huge knowledgeable community out there willing to give advice if you want to do repairs yourself.

Overall, having used or owned several MBPs and MPs I've seen very few go down, also in companies we are working with. I think you find other machines aren't necessarily better. But why not check out the any of the purpose-built music computers that some computer builder companies sell? If nothing else you save a lot of time putting them together with a minimum of surprises.
Which happens to be why I use OS X for music production. but that's not the only choice.

[Stromkraft]

One thing of note, the bottom of the line new Mac Pro is underpowered compared to the 09-12 8 + core lines, so getting a newer used 8 core is a better deal.
The top and middle mac Pros are great value, and would prevent you from needing a new computer for close to forever really. Especially considering how many dammed plug ins you could run in Live.

A Retina iMac is probably a more obvious choice than a 4-core Mac Pro. If you're a musician you want 8 cores or more IMHO. Anything less is false economy.

It's too bad Ableton won't support that second graphics card. Anyone heard of any third party plug-ins that do somehow? Think of all that horse power being unused.

[Machinesworking]

Overall, having used or owned several MBPs and MPs I've seen very few go down, also in companies we are working with. I think you find other machines aren't necessarily better.

Same here. I'm on my 6th macbook pro, at least two of them were upgrades to better machines because of a deal I spotted etc. but only one logic board failure out of all of them. One had a cracked LCD, but that's not an Apple fault... Apple like any company are subject to the possibility of failure due to third party parts, but more than most laptop makers they vet the hell out of the parts.

Also, there's an added bonus to Apple, they hate lawsuits and will buckle before it gets too bad. There's a problem with graphics and bad solder on 2011 macbook pros; there's a class action lawsuit heating up, and Apple will probably just give everyone a new mbp before the lawsuit gets out of hand. Wait and see, but they have a huge bank account for development, and for getting rid of things like this.

[Machinesworking]

A Retina iMac is probably a more obvious choice than a 4-core Mac Pro. If you're a musician you want 8 cores or more IMHO. Anything less is false economy.

It's too bad Ableton won't support that second graphics card. Anyone heard of any third party plug-ins that do somehow? Think of all that horse power being unused.

I dunno, until I got the the Mac Pro I had only had two core machines.
There is a trade off as well. As far as I know only U-He plug ins are capable of using CPU not assigned to the track they reside in.
The way Live and most DAWs handle CPU use is to assign a core to a track, so theoretically anyway my 4 core 2.7 i7 laptop should handle things like mastering with CPU pigs like all stuffed onto the Master fader without a hiccup compared to a 12 core 2.3Xeon.
Essentially if you tend to working in 8 tracks or less a 4 core machine will give you 8 threads, and probably it's worth it to consider the speed of a single chip compared to multi cores.

I do know that geek bench is deadly accurate IMO in terms of DAW use.
http://browser.primatelabs.com/mac-benchmarks

Notice the difference in power between single and multi core tests.
My 09 machine score great in multi core, (IE multiple tracks with plug ins) and gets pummeled in single core tests. (IE a single tracks with multiple plug ins)

Don't know of any plug ins supporting graphics card cpu use?

[beats me]

One thing of note, the bottom of the line new Mac Pro is underpowered compared to the 09-12 8 + core lines, so getting a newer used 8 core is a better deal.
The top and middle mac Pros are great value, and would prevent you from needing a new computer for close to forever really. Especially considering how many dammed plug ins you could run in Live.

A Retina iMac is probably a more obvious choice than a 4-core Mac Pro. If you're a musician you want 8 cores or more IMHO. Anything less is false economy.

It's too bad Ableton won't support that second graphics card. Anyone heard of any third party plug-ins that do somehow? Think of all that horse power being unused.

I’m seriously considering getting the high end iMac that doesn’t have the 5K display. There is nothing that I (or most people) are going to need a 5k display for in the computer’s normal lifespan. $500 saved. Plus you can’t use the 5K display as an external or 2nd display like you can with other iMacs.

[Machinesworking]

I’m seriously considering getting the high end iMac that doesn’t have the 5K display. There is nothing that I (or most people) are going to need a 5k display for in the computer’s normal lifespan. $500 saved. Plus you can’t use the 5K display as an external or 2nd display like you can with other iMacs.

I started losing some eyesight around 40, you're closing in on that. I much much much prefer looking at the retina display on the MBP over my 1900x1200 display on the Pro. I would recommend the 5K your eyes will appreciate it, and it's obviously more future proof.

[beats me]

I’m seriously considering getting the high end iMac that doesn’t have the 5K display. There is nothing that I (or most people) are going to need a 5k display for in the computer’s normal lifespan. $500 saved. Plus you can’t use the 5K display as an external or 2nd display like you can with other iMacs.

I started losing some eyesight around 40, you're closing in on that. I much much much prefer looking at the retina display on the MBP over my 1900x1200 display on the Pro. I would recommend the 5K your eyes will appreciate it, and it's obviously more future proof.

Damn, you!

Maybe this thread will be the one that answers this question. Early on there were reports that Fusion drives had issues with audio production software. Is that still the case? I’d really like to get a 3T Fusion drive. Drive space always seems to be my main issue (fuck you, Native Instruments).

Standard iMac with 3T Fusion drive: $2,349 – feels close to $2,000

5K iMac with 3T Fusion drive: $2,649 – not that much more but feels scarily close to $3,000

Hold up, with CA sales tax

$2580 vs. $2,910