Earlier quoted context omitted.
I’d guess around the price of a small sedan.
or a mid-range road bike.
Or 2 months rent
New Mac Pro Tech Specs
71–80 of 497 posts
Re: New Mac Pro Tech Specs
#72Slightly 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, but mostly because there's a few projects where running multiple virtual machines with multiple cores and lots of ram is useful for them. Also because I run a VM for cad work for my 3d printer, on the same machine.
Yeah, I sometimes will be running a dozen or so docker containers, although the CPU utilization on those tends not to be very high - RAM is the main bottleneck for me. However, I also don't typically leave those running. I just spin them up when I need to for testing. I'm not sure how fast my other applications would run if I left those up.
Re: New Mac Pro Tech Specs
#73What are people doing that require such high-powered desktops?
I am working on a project right now where I am rendering atmospheric effects (lots of clouds). Even on a 12-core workstation, it takes a very long time to render a single frame to even be able to get a good idea as to what things will look like, so I'm doing a lot of changing something, waiting… changing something, waiting.
Most of the final rendering can be offloaded to a farm, but being able to quickly and interactively get a good idea of what something will look like is extremely helpful and time-saving. Right now, I'm doing some of the work on an EC2 instance with 48 cores (96 vCPU) to help with this—cost-effective for occasional use, but I can certainly see the appeal of a machine like this. And for task like compositing where you need access to a bunch of huge source files, or where maybe you have a specialized video I/O device you need to use, running in the cloud might not be practical at all.
Re: New Mac Pro Tech Specs
#74Earlier quoted context omitted.
That would be fine if Bluetooth worked... I swear, the old IR wireless keyboards and mice were more reliable.
I’ve been using exclusively BT keyboards and mice for 10+ years ... what’s exactly wrong with them?
I've only had one bluetooth device, a Fitbit, that actually worked with any kind of reliability. From time to time I still have to bang it on the side of my phone to get it to pair back up.
Re: New Mac Pro Tech Specs
#75Slightly 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?
My company provides a pretty standard laptop, but they rarely have more than 2 cores. In native app development, Android Studio and Xcode are severely bottlenecked by 2 cores. The difference between my laptop and my Mac Mini (6 cores) is astounding. The difference between a build taking 6x minutes and 1x minutes is more than just 1/6 because it goes from "Well, guess I'll check email/messenger/HN real quick." to taki…
Slow builds can definitely break concentration. I'm on a dual core as well, although most new business laptops come with 4 cores.
My build times aren't as long, because I'm working with Java-based microservices, so each service takes a minute or so to build (with tests) but even that delay can break concentration. Turning off tests helps, but then you don't always have the immediate feedback of the test results (and don't worry, I always run the tests before committing).
Re: New Mac Pro Tech Specs
#76This page would look better if they used high-quality 3d animated renders instead of the simplified 2D-graphics. Someone on the design team thought this was a great idea? It looks unpolished and out of place (in comparison to other well-done Apple product pages).
I used to make these spec pages.
The purpose of these pages is to representative and informative than for selling or marketing.
This is an absolutely great style update.
Re: New Mac Pro Tech Specs
#77Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don't think they're expecting you to plug in a "proper" keyboard and mouse since it comes with a Bluetooth keyboard and mouse. Plus it appears you get another 2 Thunderbolt 3 ports on the front as well.
Which is insane.. do people really use the wireless capability of their keyboard or mouse? Especially when you can't use your freaking mouse when it's charging? Serious insanity. Edit to add: of course I know people use those keyboards... I meant are people actually moving with them in ways that makes the wireless capability useful? Do most users not stay in a pretty close proximity the whole time?
Yes. Two double AAs each in my wireless Logitech mouse and Microsoft keyboard last years. So much better than wired.
Re: New Mac Pro Tech Specs
#78Re: New Mac Pro Tech Specs
#79What are people doing that require such high-powered desktops?
Chrome.
Re: New Mac Pro Tech Specs
#80Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is the frustrating part. The amount of innovation pushed forward in desktop computing in the past 20 years and every once in a while they get some things wrong and people just can't believe it. Manufacturing and component commitments make "Oh just remove the touchbar" comments lacking of substance. Same with removing the headphone jack conversation–no one wants to talk about the trade-offs in making a phone wate…
> Same with removing the headphone jack conversation–no one wants to talk about the trade-offs in making a phone waterproof whether they trade a headphone jack for a waterproof phone. This is not true at all. There are multiple Android phones that have waterproof and they have headphone jacks.
What did they sacrifice for that? Nothing is free and those plugs are large.