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New Mac Pro Tech Specs

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Re: New Mac Pro Tech Specs

#121

Post by lonelappde »

xuki wrote: post #117
kbumsik wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't have an HEDT but an outdated Haswell i5 laptop (not an Ultra Low Voltage model at least, so it's quite fast). Last year I spotted a bug in Firefox and I though it was time to put a line in the contribution section in my resume. The contribution experience was a nightmare because a full build of Firefox took 3 hrs and running the entire testing framework took 4 hrs, though it turned out that I needed to run on…

Maybe spin up an instance on GCE or EC2 and remote into it? If you live anywhere near a data center it should be under 50ms delay. Your time is certainly worth more than whatever the cost of the instance.

And it's much easier to set up a build env on a VM than local machine

Re: New Mac Pro Tech Specs

#122

Post by GlenTheMachine »

lliamander wrote: post #49

Slightly off-topic, but who here uses a HEDT (high-end desktop) or workstation computer for software development? Does it make a significant difference in comparison with a standard business laptop?

I do, although not the kind of software development most people do.

I’m a robotics controls engineer. The code I write is pretty short compared to most of you, and it doesn’t take long to compile. But to test it I have to run very complicated dynamic simulations. These never run in realtime. It’s not uncommon for a thirty-second simulation to take five, ten, fifteen minutes to run; sometimes I have to run many iterations of the sam sim to collect valid statistics. So both CPU speed and number of cores translates directly to time spent waiting for the sim run to finish.

I have a 2013 trashcan Mac Pro with 12 cores. It’s still a good machine.

Re: New Mac Pro Tech Specs

#123

Post by vmlinuz »

lliamander wrote: post #49

Slightly off-topic, but who here uses a HEDT (high-end desktop) or workstation computer for software development? Does it make a significant difference in comparison with a standard business laptop?

Not a desktop, but... My employer typically gives people a MacBook Pro, but when a colleague left a couple of months ago I snarfed his laptop - a ThinkPad with 24GB RAM and an i7. I put Slackware on it (for I am Old Skool) and it's really handling many many tabs, plus our many-docker local dev environment far better than everyone else's Mac.

Of course, it's far bigger and heavier than the Mac, but also of course (for I am Old Skool) I'm using it with a decent keyboard, a decent-sized monitor, a decent mouse, and a USB-C charger. It does mean I can't go to meetings, but that's ok with me...

Re: New Mac Pro Tech Specs

#124

Post by skellera »

jasoneckert wrote: post #99
jasoneckert wrote: post #30

At the base configuration (single 8-core Xeon W) with 256GB SSD and 32GB RAM for $6000, it's about twice what it should be. I could build a faster dual Xeon Silver series with more cores, Nvidia graphics, much larger SSD and 32GB RAM in a nicer case for around $3000. So, that Apple logo and macOS are the other $3000.

I love how any post I make that is critical of something Apple always gets me some negative points here on Hacker News - I actually made a point of showing my tech class this social phenomenon a few weeks back and we had a good discussion that explored possible reasons why it happens.

No one is going to disagree that you could build the same thing for cheaper and the point has been made over and over again.

Apple isn’t selling for your use case.

Re: New Mac Pro Tech Specs

#125

Post by Marsymars »

pier25 wrote: post #111
Corrado wrote: post #103

I think they should include Apple Care for their professional equipment. This won't put any any more money in Apple's pocket but I could see it being another differentiator and a good bit of PR, especially to all of those price arguments. Plus, it's only $300 and I'm sure Apple could suffer that "loss" on a $6,000 - $30,000 purchase.

I've always argued that for the prices that Apple charges Apple Care should be included in all its products. The first Apple computers I bought lasted for years and I never thought Apple Care was necessary, but since the fiasco with the 2011 MBP and the butterfly keyboards I'm not buying another of its products without Apple Care. Yes, Apple ended up doing the right thing in both cases but it took years after the pro…

I don't think Apple should necessarily include coverage for user-caused damage as standard, but having only a single-year warranty on manufacturer defects is kinda shameful for a premium product. I expect premium products across most product categories to carry a three or five year warranty as standard.

A single-year warranty is in general an indicator that a) the manufacturer doesn't have faith in reliability past the first year and b) the manufacturer is begrudgingly just meeting the minimum standard for warranties in most jurisdictions. Even if neither of these are the case, the optics aren't good.

Re: New Mac Pro Tech Specs

#126

Post by na85 »

hinkley wrote: post #116

This thing is pulling almost 12 amps by itself. Add a couple monitors and hopefully you have recent vintage wiring in your office...

That'll be a peak amperage; it won't draw 12 amps by itself.

Even if it did, most displays pull less than 1A, so theoretically you have room for 3 more displays on your standard 15A North American residential circuit. Any office should be on 20A circuits, anyways.

Re: New Mac Pro Tech Specs

#127

Post by kbumsik »

xuki wrote: post #117
kbumsik wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't have an HEDT but an outdated Haswell i5 laptop (not an Ultra Low Voltage model at least, so it's quite fast). Last year I spotted a bug in Firefox and I though it was time to put a line in the contribution section in my resume. The contribution experience was a nightmare because a full build of Firefox took 3 hrs and running the entire testing framework took 4 hrs, though it turned out that I needed to run on…

Maybe spin up an instance on GCE or EC2 and remote into it? If you live anywhere near a data center it should be under 50ms delay. Your time is certainly worth more than whatever the cost of the instance.

Probably. But I always try to build Linux programs natively or in an officially supported environment at the first attempt because I'm not sure what potentially cause problems when I build it in a something unsupported environment. On top of that running the testing framework needed an X11 environment. You know, it sometimes also takes significant times to figure out how to set up in a different environment. I might try EC2 if I became a regular firefox contributor.

Re: New Mac Pro Tech Specs

#128

Post by loeg »

lliamander wrote: post #49

Slightly off-topic, but who here uses a HEDT (high-end desktop) or workstation computer for software development? Does it make a significant difference in comparison with a standard business laptop?

I use a first-gen AMD Threadripper 1950x (16 cores x 2 HT, or 32 logical cores), if that counts as HEDT.

It's absolutely faster than any business laptop for doing builds of medium sized C and C++ projects.

(But I think a non-HEDT desktop would also outperform a typical laptop in this use case -- thermal throttling is a real problem for laptops.)

Re: New Mac Pro Tech Specs

#129

Post by lostlogin »

pier25 wrote: post #111
Corrado wrote: post #103

I think they should include Apple Care for their professional equipment. This won't put any any more money in Apple's pocket but I could see it being another differentiator and a good bit of PR, especially to all of those price arguments. Plus, it's only $300 and I'm sure Apple could suffer that "loss" on a $6,000 - $30,000 purchase.

I've always argued that for the prices that Apple charges Apple Care should be included in all its products. The first Apple computers I bought lasted for years and I never thought Apple Care was necessary, but since the fiasco with the 2011 MBP and the butterfly keyboards I'm not buying another of its products without Apple Care. Yes, Apple ended up doing the right thing in both cases but it took years after the pro…

It presumably is in some areas. In New Zealand we have The Consumer Guarantees Act. Things are expected to have a reasonable life span. What this means is not specified but is generally accepted to be relative to the price paid (eg if it’s expensive, it should last). It’s a fantastic piece of legislation. I’ve had a 2.5 year old iPhone covered for example.

Re: New Mac Pro Tech Specs

#130

Post by Marsymars »

hinkley wrote: post #116

This thing is pulling almost 12 amps by itself. Add a couple monitors and hopefully you have recent vintage wiring in your office...

Presumably that's with the dual-GPU, 28-core processor model under full load (and the MPX module drawing its full 500W, among other peripherals). An office with this kind of workload is going to require robust wiring regardless of which particular workstations are installed.
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