Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Mac Pro gets half-assed “update”

marco.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

111–120 of 321 posts

Re: Mac Pro gets half-assed “update”

#111

Post by spqr »

sillysaurus wrote: post #100
robomartin wrote: post #98

This illustrates the issue I highlighted in another thread: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4097141 The fact that Apple keeps hardware and, increasingly, software, so tightly controlled leads to a situation like that of this "new" Mac Pro. If the Apple hardware ecosystem were open like that of Windows you'd have major companies all over the world evolving the platform in wonderful ways. Performance would go up an…

Which monitors did you buy? How did you get them so cheaply?

I have two Hanns G 28" LCD monitors that are 1920x1200 that cost $220 each from a sale on Newegg.

I'm guessing you buy Apple products and have no idea how cheap non-Apple hardware can be?

Re: Mac Pro gets half-assed “update”

#112

Post by donio »

sillysaurus wrote: post #100
robomartin wrote: post #98

This illustrates the issue I highlighted in another thread: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4097141 The fact that Apple keeps hardware and, increasingly, software, so tightly controlled leads to a situation like that of this "new" Mac Pro. If the Apple hardware ecosystem were open like that of Windows you'd have major companies all over the world evolving the platform in wonderful ways. Performance would go up an…

Which monitors did you buy? How did you get them so cheaply?

I don't know what robomartin got but the Dell U2412M which is a decent 24" 1920x1200 IPS panel can be had for $300.

Re: Mac Pro gets half-assed “update”

#113

Post by chao- »

beedogs wrote: post #106
forrestthewoods wrote: post #29

Our sound guy is PISSED at the lack of update. Seriously, incredibly pissed. I've honestly never seen him this angry before. He'd been counting down the days till WWDC and a long overdue update. There are three major pieces of software he uses on his Mac that he swears by. It sounds like they have all just released or are about to release Windows versions. I'm beginning to wonder if this is a trend? Apple is clearly…

I say the future of desktop software is going to involve Linux, finally. Both Windows and OS X are becoming walled-garden tablet-centric shitfests.

As a Linux desktop user, I want to agree with you.

As a Linux desktop user, I'm not sure that I can.

Re: Mac Pro gets half-assed “update”

#114

Post by mbetter »

cbsmith wrote: post #102
icegreentea wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I really doubt you can get the same performance out of a MacBook Pro. Professional media software (audio or video) takes a -lot- of power. Trying to run through a big multi-track synth setup would probably bring a MBP to it's knees. I mean for one thing, despite all the awesomeness that is Ivy-Bridge, I still do not think that Intel can cram in the same level of performance into a 35W chip that use to go into a 90W p…

> I really doubt you can get the same performance out of a MacBook Pro. Professional media software (audio or video) takes a -lot- of power. Trying to run through a big multi-track synth setup would probably bring a MBP to it's knees. With audio, it is seriously child's play. Compression is about as CPU intensive as you can get with audio outside of voice recognition, and it just isn't there. Video is mostly offloade…

> With audio, it is seriously child's play. Compression is about as CPU intensive as you can get with audio outside of voice recognition, and it just isn't there.

Don't do much audio work, do you? Between softsynths and DSP effects on 32+ tracks, professional-level audio workstations will eat all of the processing power available on pretty much any modern CPU and ask for more.

Re: Mac Pro gets half-assed “update”

#115

Post by [deleted] »

forrestthewoods wrote: post #29

Our sound guy is PISSED at the lack of update. Seriously, incredibly pissed. I've honestly never seen him this angry before. He'd been counting down the days till WWDC and a long overdue update. There are three major pieces of software he uses on his Mac that he swears by. It sounds like they have all just released or are about to release Windows versions. I'm beginning to wonder if this is a trend? Apple is clearly…

[deleted]

Re: Mac Pro gets half-assed “update”

#116

Post by robomartin »

sillysaurus wrote: post #100
robomartin wrote: post #98

This illustrates the issue I highlighted in another thread: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4097141 The fact that Apple keeps hardware and, increasingly, software, so tightly controlled leads to a situation like that of this "new" Mac Pro. If the Apple hardware ecosystem were open like that of Windows you'd have major companies all over the world evolving the platform in wonderful ways. Performance would go up an…

Which monitors did you buy? How did you get them so cheaply?

NEC 24WMCX We bought a pile of them way back. Found a deal.

Re: Mac Pro gets half-assed “update”

#117

Post by vacri »

Terretta wrote: post #40
millzlane wrote: post #10

This isn't surprising. Look at the product wikis and see the comparison of all the hardware. From the mac pro all the way down to the phone. They have been selling overpriced hardware for a very long time. To be fair.. before the intel switch the hardware was theirs. Now, after the intel switch they're still selling over priced hardware except now it's cheaper for them because they're not using powerpc's anymore, and…

Not overpriced. Nobody could come close to the price of the Macbook Air with fully equivalent hardware, for example, and today's MBP release is the same. When competitors try to meet the specs across the board, without any major compromises, they cost 20% more. The overpriced thing is a decade old, and used to be justified as a brand positioning (pay more for quality build). Now, Apple's supply chain lets them offer…

Nonsense. Comparing a Lenovo X220 with equivalent specs, it comes out slightly cheaper on the Lenovo side. There are minor differences on both sides (eg thunderbolt versus replaceable battery) but going for SSD, same RAM, same CPU, similar screen size, the Lenovo comes out at $1216 and the Mac Air at $1349 (in Australia).

Re: Mac Pro gets half-assed “update”

#118

Post by ben1040 »

justindocanto wrote: post #107
cbsmith wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You don't want to Osborne your existing line.

Osborne? Never heard this term. What's this from?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Osborne_effect

Osborne Computer announced a future product that would outperform the current line. People waited, rather than buying what was currently being offered. In the meantime, with the drop in sales they ran out of cash and went bankrupt.

Re: Mac Pro gets half-assed “update”

#119

Post by sneak »

brunorsini wrote: post #97
petercooper wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I might be wrong, but you can still use the display with a current Mac Pro using DisplayPort, right? (You just won't get to use the other connectors.) I have a 2008 Mac Pro and was looking into doing this, but I'd need to buy a graphics card with DP first. UPDATE: Thanks! Yes, I was wrong ;-) Another source: http://store.apple.com/us/question/answers/product/MC007LL/A...

I wouldn't count on that, because I actually had to update my macbook air just to get the Almighty Thunderbolt Display to work. In fact, my previous MBA (2010 generation, display port)didn't even power the thing up (it's powered exclusively over thunderbolt).

I don't think that's accurate. The thunderbolt displays include a power supply with a magsafe power OUTPUT for charging a mac laptop plugged in to the thunderbolt cable, so it logically follows that they must have their own AC input.

Re: Mac Pro gets half-assed “update”

#120

Post by paxswill »

fratis wrote: post #69
veemjeem wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Probably the ones who have 32gb of memory for their photoshop scratch buffer. There's still quite a few of these types of professionals. You just can't put that much memory in the Macbook Pro. Processor speed is probably less of an issue compared with memory capacity.

Why not just use a top-of-the-line iMac with 32GB RAM? It's not officially supported, but it does work.

Because 32GB is the supported max for the lower end Mac Pro. The higher end ones support up to 64GB officially, 64GB and 96GB respectively are the actual maximums.
Post reply on HN