Side Note

Post #384,699 by pwhysall 12/28/13 6:18:59 AM Reply	Side Note I'm seeing some chatter about how you can't build a PC with equivalent performance and features for the same money. Now, this appears to be on-the-face-of-it true. However, one thing that needs to be borne in mind is that Apple don't pay the same prices as we do for components, even when we're shopping at NewEgg and getting things cheap. They pay less. A LOT less. We don't know what Apple pay AMD for D700 GPUs, nor do we know what they pay Intel for E5 Xeons, but you can bet your last Rolo that when Apple take £4000 off you, they didn't just spend £4500 to do it. And these components are all brand shiny new - in six months, the Mac Pro spec will be the same as it is today, yet the components required will have become cheaper at retail. Interesting and thoughtful critique at Engadget: http://www.engadget....comment=124618941
Post #384,731 by Ashton 12/28/13 10:44:16 PM Reply	IOW it's a beautifully-sculpted server/frozen-in-time with limited RAM (for those who want infinite), modest storage (for those who want PBytes) and pretty-fast (for those who--sometimes in rendering?--want Space Balls-grade ludicrous speed. And its wired-in display card is an evanescent thing subject to guaranteed quick-obsolescence. (Buy another machine. to stay current--send all your stuff There, thunderously.) Methinks that Steve would have loved the whole spec-opera, probably despite above--as We Know they want (if possible: Only) one to buy the next New one, passing-on this one to steerage when the warranty runs out--if there is a warranty on niche experimental items? (Wonder what exchange-cost is, of a mobo with one failed capacitor. You Can rework such things, if Apple would.) Anyway, I Like artful miniaturization (in electronics too) and this is shiny-shiny, there. Maybe in a few years a few C-notes might buy a low-end surplus one.. Could have a Veyron web-surfer for the price of a commodity. Drill hole in teak desk, route that spaghetti through complementary shiny-pipe; add orchid in fluted crystal vase, a bottle of 1961 Ch. Haut-Brion in cooler at side (now worth ~cost of entry-level.) Et Vilola! Walter Mitty's very own CIEIO Center-of-Power. Fingers crossed.
Post #384,732 by pwhysall 12/29/13 3:07:28 AM Reply	TBH It'd make a brilliant regular desktop, because you'd be more than adequately served by what's in the box. Tube. Whatever. And you'd only have to have KVM wires, and even then you could go wireless for the KM. The 64GB RAM limit thing is baffling. I'm going to upgrade shortly to 24GB in my desktop PC because I'm hitting 8GB regularly, and that's just doing 20MP photo work - still images! Video people - at whom this box (tube, whatever) is aimed - buy things with Xeons in not for compute performance, but because the Xeon platform can talk to more than 64GB RAM.
Post #384,752 by Ashton 12/29/13 6:24:25 PM Reply	GMTA; whenever later you find Two.. penuriously-Cheap: Call!

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