Well, I like that Apple uses quite good components and builds solid Hardware.
I dislike OSX, the company strategy and it’s attitude as whole.
An Apple build machine with a sane pricetag and Windows+Linux would be a great machine.
An Apple build machine with the regular pricetag, jailing and OSX is an accessory first.
However, to be fair, a Dell Precision or an IBM Workstation aren’t much cheaper either.
And I find the design really not so great. I usually don’t have my PC somewhere “presented” to the audience.
Usually it’s in a corner somewhere, unseen, bothering no one.
My first thought was, if I put this in the corner of the office, where the PCs usually stand, the staff will mistake it for an ashtray or garbage bin and try to throw stuff into it.
Surely is my OCD but you can’t have square desks, rooms with corners, square screens and everything and a cylindric computer.
That said, I got it all. Apple, non Apple, OSX, Linux, Windows.
And my favorite mobile machine is a 13" MacBook Air with Linux. Solid Harware, solid OS. - Runs OSX too, but solely for iOS development.
And for the rest a DIY PC with Win+Linux.
It is extremely small compared to all other xeon workstations and normal PC desktops.
The cooling system probably will be very silent as well.
For music graphic and film more people might use Macs than for 3D.
Just because of the size and noise level I would buy such a machine as well
but because it only runs AMD cards it is a no go and I will happily use my MacPro and my NVIDA card.
Plus online GPU rendering became so powerful I do not even see the need to get all the hardware in my studio anymore.
Saves on the energy bill and does not heat up my room so much.
And as stated if go you XEON than Dell and HP are at the same price tag with much less finished products.
This server grade hardware is just painfully expensive.
On paper, a Mac seems like it would be a perfect fit for me. It’s got the Unix-y stuff I like from Linux, but closer to the broad range of software support I like from Windows. For some reason whenever I actually use one I wind up with similar conclusions arexma stated though.
I am actually quite looking forward to the next version that has much better improved multi display and spaces support
as well as RAM compression and tabs and tags for the finder/file system.
My fear OS X becomes iOS is unfounded like Ubunut they rather melt together but stay true for what they are intended for.
I have Win7 Ubuntu as and always go back to OS X as it seems more elegant easier to handle.
The sad story is that there’s no real advantage though. It’s a design, aesthetic or “religious” choice really.
The advantage Apples PPC architecture had for video editing and music recordings disappeared along with the PPC in 2005.
I can’t tell you how many studios I’ve seen, especially in advertising, having Macs, running Adobe XY Suite or Cubase on it and telling how superior their Mac is over a PC for their work…
But there is still quite a difference in the OS and how comfortable it makes it for you to work with.
The native support of PDF, Spotlight, Quicklook which can preview also document pages, and soon file tagging etc,
in terms of productivity the OS has more build in features I enjoy actually really using.
That might be more a felt difference and I am sure OS X or Win can deliver the same way with purchased 3rd party apps.
Ubunutu has some pretty nice ideas OS X and Win copied from and their idea to dock the Ubuntu Touch device right
into the Ubuntu desktop is pretty nice.
However in my work experience specifically here at the university level the PCs are a pain in the … for many reasons
and the simplicity of OS X reduces often the need for tech support which generates costs as well.
The real killer feature for me to use Mac as a platform is bootcamp and than I have a PC that can run everything
unlike a normal PC that in most cases can only run Win or Linux.
I don’t think so, cooling of the mac has never been inadequate, noisy some times but not recently, so if they say that they built all the project around this cooling system I trust them.
Based on what? I think this will work as well as on my iMac that makes nearly no noise under full load and the MacPro I have that also makes hardly any noise under full load …
The noise level of the MSI card coolers is just fantastic.
Have you seen the size of that thing (cylinder shape - about 25cm tall with a diameter of about 17 cm) ? That inadequate cooling is the best one that IS at the moment compared to what that beast has inside it ( double zeon and double workstation radeon )
Can you compare a unified thermal core system with two or more fans that spin like crazy ?
I admit maybe top notch is a little too much because so far I haven’t seen any proper reviews with benchmarks and the good stuff but you have to admit that from a design point it beats anything of that size at the moment.
Ad man chiming, this is a correct representation of the ad industry.
I think the machine looks like an interesting build, but as others have said, a cylinder for a tower is an odd shape, it will conform to no natural office space. The one central fan at the top will lead to one or two idiots ruining the machine by spilling a drink on it or resting a binder on it by accident. Overall the cooling system seems like a good idea, but with two GPUs and a Xeon(s), heat dispersion is important and this seems like something that will require maintenance to keep optimal cooling up. I assume that is why they have made the cover removable. I am always weary about putting high end hardware (that has a tendency to superheat) in a confined space, especially if it is using an air cooled system - if it was liquid cooled that would be a different story.
If I had to describe the design, I would say it looks like a collaboration between Dyson and Darth Vader. Does not immediately strike me as an apple design.
My work computer is an iMac, not by choice, it’s just the industry standard (advertising). I use Adobe products for 99% of my working day. My work days are something like 9am - whenever I go home, most days this means 7pm-10pm or on busy weeks 2-3am, or not at all. Point being, I use my workstation more than my personal PC(s).
For my computers, I have a tablet-PC (windows 8/ubuntu) and a custom tower (windows 8). With all of that said, I prefer windows UI over macs. I find whichever mac OS (leopard - mountain lion currently) I am using, there is a lack of structure and containment with the work. The best explanation/analogy uses a work desk, which essentially is what your desktop represents. If I am doing artwork, I might have paints, paintbrushes, pencils, etc. sprawled across my desk, but then say I want to do some math work, or drafting, or whatever else you might do on a desk, I would want a clean surface to work on. I find that on my Mac, everything just collects on screen, all windows float and never really are used full screen, kind of like a desk with layers of supplies and mess stacked up. However, on windows every application is self contained and keep documents contained within that application. The amount of times I have lost a marquee mask in Photoshop because of clicking a pixel outside the document is a number I care not to think about.
This is valid if you have Macintosh applications that you wish to run. In my workflow, I have never run in to a scenario where I needed to use a program that was not available on windows. I have no use for being able to do the opposite (aka. booting to OSX, if I was able to).
…and this is key, and the most important. Work on what suite you best and makes your work more efficient. What works for you might not work for others, and vice-versa.
I think for myself, as someone who is well versed in both of the OS market leaders, it comes down to cost. Unfortunately I do think that macs are overpriced. Great computers, great OS, for the most part great design, but still overpriced. I built my computer for somewhere just over 2500 dollars in the end, for the relevance, here are the important specs:
Then there are this miscellaneous items, like the motherboard (important, but not impressive), case (6 back USB 3.0 and 4 USB 2.0, 2 front/top USB 3.0 and 2 USB 2.0, one eSata on the back, one one the front/top, one HDD drop dock at the top/front, an abundance of fans/vents with removable filters), power supply, liquid cooling system, blueray/dvd reader/writer, etc.
There is no way that I could have afforded something of a similar spec in an Apple product.
But as you said, personal preference is all that matters in the end.
Ad man chiming in, this is a correct representation of the ad industry.
I think the machine looks like an interesting build, but as others have said, a cylinder for a tower is an odd shape, it will conform to no natural office space. The one central fan at the top will lead to one or two idiots ruining the machine by spilling a drink on it or resting a binder on it by accident. Overall the cooling system seems like a good idea, but with two GPUs and a Xeon(s), heat dispersion is important and this seems like something that will require maintenance to keep optimal cooling up. I assume that is why they have made the cover removable. I am always weary about putting high end hardware (that has a tendency to superheat) in a confined space, especially if it is using an air cooled system - if it was liquid cooled that would be a different story.
If I had to describe the design, I would say it looks like a collaboration between Dyson and Darth Vader. Does not immediately strike me as an apple design.
My work computer is an iMac, not by choice, it’s just the industry standard (advertising). I use Adobe products for 99% of my working day. My work days are something like 9am - whenever I go home, most days this means 7pm-10pm or on busy weeks 2-3am, or not at all. Point being, I use my workstation more than my personal PC(s).
For my computers, I have a tablet-PC (windows 8/ubuntu) and a custom tower (windows 8). With all of that said, I prefer windows UI over macs. I find whichever mac OS (leopard - mountain lion currently) I am using, there is a lack of structure and containment with the work. The best explanation/analogy uses a work desk, which essentially is what your desktop represents. If I am doing artwork, I might have paints, paintbrushes, pencils, etc. sprawled across my desk, but then say I want to do some math work, or drafting, or whatever else you might do on a desk, I would want a clean surface to work on. I find that on my Mac, everything just collects on screen, all windows float and never really are used full screen, kind of like a desk with layers of supplies and mess stacked up. However, on windows every application is self contained and keep documents contained within that application. The windows are also easily anchored and can be locked to certain areas of your screen. The amount of times I have lost a marquee mask in Photoshop because of clicking a pixel outside the document is a number I care not to think about.
This is valid if you have Macintosh applications that you wish to run. In my workflow, I have never run in to a scenario where I needed to use a program that was not available on windows. I have no use for being able to do the opposite (aka. booting to OSX, if I was able to).
…and this is key, and the most important. Work on what suites you best and makes your work more efficient. What works for you might not work for others, and vice-versa.
I think for myself, as someone who is well versed in both of the OS market leaders, it comes down to cost. Unfortunately I do think that macs are overpriced. Great computers, great OS, for the most part great design, but still overpriced. I built my computer for somewhere just over 2500 dollars in the end, for the relevance, here are the important specs:
Then there are this miscellaneous items, like the motherboard (important, but not impressive), case (6 back USB 3.0 and 4 USB 2.0, 2 front/top USB 3.0 and 2 USB 2.0, one eSata on the back, one one the front/top, one HDD drop dock at the top/front, an abundance of fans/vents with removable filters), power supply, liquid cooling system, blueray/dvd reader/writer, etc.
There is no way that I could have afforded something of a similar spec in an Apple product.
I think the most interesting thing about the new macpro is thunderbolt. Hell, they should have just called it the macThunderbolt. Although there is not a whole lot that you can buy that uses thunderbolt thus far… if it truly has the bidirectional speeds they are boasting about, this is a welcomed port to computers all around. I can see there being expansions like additional GPUs, or even daisy chaining computers through the thunderbolt in the future. Could be cool.
But as you said, personal preference is all that matters in the end.
I hardly can imagine Apple shrinking the design of a MacPro into a form factor that I would love to have - small unites - and not make sure that the cooling is adequate. With Apple you often also pay for the engineering of products and lets be honest here in many aspects they pushed the market forward and others than followed.
The MacPro cases are expensive but a heck of great functional design and maybe as a product designer myself I see it differently.
Costs are also not costs. In my family I see PCs and laptops coming and going because they break quickly while those using them are not even heavy users. Sometimes it is just as simple as the AC adapter on the motherboard being broken off etc.
When I got my last MacPro I went to BestBuy to get some hardware. What I experienced was as funny as sad. The same is true for two dedicated PC hardware stores. I got the funniest theories presented about what Apple is using while the photos I took of my Macs interior were clearly showing standard eSATA connectors. And about RAM modules they know nothing at all.
The truth is if I send my mother in law to BestBuy she will like my father in law come back with a new machine instead of the right hardware.
If you buy a Mac you also have free access to qualified (at least better than geek squad and other nerds) tech feedback inside the Mac stores.
A person that can build a PC on their own is saving drastically in money when doing so. But those are not the majority of PC buyers. What we often fail at is seeing that. Others like the security and that service also needs to be funded somehow. Thats why in some respect you pay more for Macs but also get something for it if you need to.
@B-Rae interesting that you find windows one windwo for an application approach better. With PS or similar you can get into full screen mode and on Blender people rant about that they cannot dock out view ports or modules.
Besides all this I find the jokes that are made about Apple often good like this one:
Yea, interesting is a fine word. You don’t have to agree with me. I know you can go full-screen, but that is an extra step to me, and not available in all applications. Also, in full-screen mode, you limit some of the tool bars, for example your open documents bar. Like I said, personal preference.
As for heat, a consistent complaint I hear from macBook users is about how hot they get. Also, in regards to heat disbursement, the main cause I see for macBooks failing is/or can be speculated to be, complications due to overheating.
I also find that users take better care of their expensive mac products, where the other way around seems to rarely be true. Which leads me to another point, the macPro is targeted at professionals, not Mom and Dads. They should be more capable of knowing and working with their components. Which is no different than any laptop, just saying that Apple is not excluded from this issue. The fact is that confined spaces often lead to heat issues with computers, Apple or no Apple.
As for longevity, my previous tabet-pc (HP build), which just recently passed away, lived a long life of 6.5 years and constant grind and abuse. That is pretty good for any “laptop” type machine, even if it was an Apple product.
My old desktop is still kicking around from when I was 15 (over ten years old). It had one hard drive fail when I was in University and that has been the only issue. It is slow as hell by today’s standards, but like I said, still alive.
My iMac at work has had two hard drives swapped out in the past year. One apparently was faulty from the manufacturer and one was due to overheating, an apparent design flaw with the iMacs. Just saying.
Once again, not saying Apple machines are bad, they are definitely a top tear build, just saying they they are not absolved of all flaws. They can have just as many bad days as the other guys.
To think nothing goes wrong with Macs would be kinda silly and stupid.
But MacPros cost more because like with their Dell or HP counterpart use server grade equipments.
You can get the same hardware quality of Macs with PCs but that will not be the local Walmart PC.
My point is simply that quality and service costs money and in that respect there is no real difference between
Mac PC or AlienWare.
Actually the two laptops and the one netbook that died here all had their AC adaptors broken. The netbook might
be because the person did not always handle them right. The two Dell Laptops however were treated very well.
Just the design and hardware in them was just well Walmart level.
That’s why I find this argument that Macs cost more flawed because you can only compare them when you see
each product as a unite and not pick features out and compare them in a way as they would represent the complete
product and eco system.
While the 2008 24" iMac I have is great to work with because it makes no noise at all comes with that of course
for series GPU or CPU workload day in day out it might not be the right choice compared to a dedicated computer.
MacBooks as iMacs are made for a certain use environment.
It shut down twice I think after extreme workload for over days. However how many people complain about NVIDIA
cards blue screening or shutting off as well.
Again if you know what you do it all doesn’t matter but it matters for those who do not always have all the technical
understanding. That’s how product branding and an economy works.
I use the word interesting when I find something interesting no matte if it fits me or not. What I think doesn’t really matter as a designer. Maybe I am too much like Spock.
