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> Mac Pro: Buy. If you like paying 2013 prices for 2013 hardware. It's even worse than that, if you're in the UK: the price of the 2013 Mac Pro has gone up by

> Mac Pro: Buy. If you like paying 2013 prices for 2013 hardware. It's even worse than that, if you're in the UK: the price of the 2013 Mac Pro has gone up by £500. Yes yes, Brexit and currency adjustment, and if it were new hardware I'd clench my teeth and bear it. But a £500 increase for hardware that's almost three years old is highway robbery.

deleted 10y ago
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dogma1138 10y ago
The hardware is technically 7-9 years old since the Mac Pro was outdated when it came out. The newest Mac Pro used a Bloomfield CPU (2008) or a Westmere one (2010) and a circa 2009 GPU.
drcross 10y ago
One word- hackintosh.
- tspike 10y ago
  How well does that work in practice? I've heard so-so things.
  - x0x0 10y ago
    I was looking into it, and the answer seems to be fine if you (1) don't reuse hardware -- just buy exactly the components on tonymacx86; (2) don't install OS updates on release but wait until people have figured out how well they work and tweaked the hackintosh software; (3) are willing to suffer some pain around making imessage work. edit: the key to a good experience seemed to be finding a working configuration then leaving it alone. If you want to update the OS regularly, you'll probably be unhappy.
  - kybernetyk 10y ago
    Turned my gaming PC into a Hackintosh because games became boring. I'm amazed at how easy that went down. Installing OS X took only a little longer than on my native Macs. I just had to tick a few checkmarks in the Hackintosh post-install software to customize for my setup. OS X 10.11 updates I could install as soon as they were available from Apple. No problems at all. (I of course checked the appropriate forums for compatibility notes but there never were any problems reported). Haven't installed 10.12 yet (as I'm not too thrilled by the OS on my MBP anyways) but I heard it works just fine on Hackintoshes. Now the caveats: I disabled the onboard audio and attached external USB speakers instead. Because onboard audio seems to be more broken than not and USB audio "just works". I'm also connecting the machine via ethernet and don't have a WiFi adapter attached. Oh, and I got lucky in the first place by choosing OS X compatible hardware (Intel CPU, ASRock mainboard, AMD GPU). Things that doen't work: Browser DRM with Safari. I can't watch Netflix on the machine. iMessage support is cumbersome. And I can't submit binaries to the app store from the machine. But otherwise for work it's a beast (compile times are great compared to my MBP) :) As long as you use Intel CPU/AMD GPU you're golden. Intel's HD GPUs work, too. Nvidia GPUs need 3rd party drivers from Nvidia.
Symbiote 10y ago
> Yes yes, Brexit and currency adjustment It's entirely Brexit. This day last year, £1 was worth $1.527. Today, £1 is worth $1.223. (1.223-1.527)/1.527 = -20% almost exactly, and the Mac Pro has increased in price by 20%. Since GBP is fluctuating a lot, I wouldn't be surprised if Apple's prices include some extra leeway in case of further swings. (And aren't I glad I emigrated from the UK last year...)

deleted 10y ago

[deleted]

dogma1138 10y ago

The hardware is technically 7-9 years old since the Mac Pro was outdated when it came out. The newest Mac Pro used a Bloomfield CPU (2008) or a Westmere one (2010) and a circa 2009 GPU.

drcross 10y ago

One word- hackintosh.

tspike 10y ago
How well does that work in practice? I've heard so-so things.
- x0x0 10y ago
  I was looking into it, and the answer seems to be fine if you (1) don't reuse hardware -- just buy exactly the components on tonymacx86; (2) don't install OS updates on release but wait until people have figured out how well they work and tweaked the hackintosh software; (3) are willing to suffer some pain around making imessage work. edit: the key to a good experience seemed to be finding a working configuration then leaving it alone. If you want to update the OS regularly, you'll probably be unhappy.
- kybernetyk 10y ago
  Turned my gaming PC into a Hackintosh because games became boring. I'm amazed at how easy that went down. Installing OS X took only a little longer than on my native Macs. I just had to tick a few checkmarks in the Hackintosh post-install software to customize for my setup. OS X 10.11 updates I could install as soon as they were available from Apple. No problems at all. (I of course checked the appropriate forums for compatibility notes but there never were any problems reported). Haven't installed 10.12 yet (as I'm not too thrilled by the OS on my MBP anyways) but I heard it works just fine on Hackintoshes. Now the caveats: I disabled the onboard audio and attached external USB speakers instead. Because onboard audio seems to be more broken than not and USB audio "just works". I'm also connecting the machine via ethernet and don't have a WiFi adapter attached. Oh, and I got lucky in the first place by choosing OS X compatible hardware (Intel CPU, ASRock mainboard, AMD GPU). Things that doen't work: Browser DRM with Safari. I can't watch Netflix on the machine. iMessage support is cumbersome. And I can't submit binaries to the app store from the machine. But otherwise for work it's a beast (compile times are great compared to my MBP) :) As long as you use Intel CPU/AMD GPU you're golden. Intel's HD GPUs work, too. Nvidia GPUs need 3rd party drivers from Nvidia.

Symbiote 10y ago

> Yes yes, Brexit and currency adjustment It's entirely Brexit. This day last year, £1 was worth $1.527. Today, £1 is worth $1.223. (1.223-1.527)/1.527 = -20% almost exactly, and the Mac Pro has increased in price by 20%. Since GBP is fluctuating a lot, I wouldn't be surprised if Apple's prices include some extra leeway in case of further swings. (And aren't I glad I emigrated from the UK last year...)