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I use an 8-core iMac Pro with 64GB RAM; it’s wonderful. When I bought it I was doing some embedded device work involving a Windows VM, as well as heavy web dev

I use an 8-core iMac Pro with 64GB RAM; it’s wonderful. When I bought it I was doing some embedded device work involving a Windows VM, as well as heavy web dev on a frontend JS app and a backend app with tons of Chrome tabs open. All these things crave memory, and my 16GB MacBook Pro was swapping itself to death. This was pre-32GB MacBook Pros, so I bit the bullet and couldn’t be happier with the setup. It’s dead silent basically no matter what I do and doesn’t get thermally throttled during heavy workloads. Having the extra RAM also makes a huge difference. Now that I’m doing more regular web dev on an Elixir & React app, I benefit from the 16x parallel compilation & test suite, as well as the ability to keep basically anything open without resource issues.

Kimitri 7y ago
I have a similarly specced iMac Pro and I use it for very similar tasks. Could not be happier with the machine. I think the RAM + the very speedy storage make this a great choice for the kind of dev work I do.
maaaats 7y ago
I got a Lenovo laptop with roughly the same specs, though.
- bgentry 7y ago
  Your Lenovo laptop has an 8 core 3.2GHz Xeon with 4.2GHz Turbo Boost, 19MB Cache, 64GB DDR4, silent cooling even under heavy load (which it can sustain), and an SSD that does 1700MB/s with full disk encryption?
  - maaaats 7y ago
    Not at my laptop until monday so not sure about all details, but almost that, yes. It's a top specced P1. Xeon but 6 cores I think. 64gb ddr4. 1500mb/s read I think it was on the SSD. Not silent, exactly though, hehe.
    - bgentry 7y ago
      Wow, that’s a beast of a laptop. I just configured one and the cost isn’t all that different from my 18mo old iMac Pro :) I have to imagine that the battery life isn’t great given the non-mobile parts, and that it must weigh a ton? I’m enjoying the combo of a powerful workstation where I work most of the time, and then a thin & light portable device for when I need portability. For me that combo works well and hits the right trade offs, especially the silence I get to enjoy. I’m also remembering that Apple ships the same SSD setup in the newer MacBook Pro machines, which weren’t yet out when I bought this iMac Pro. Definitely nothing unique or unusual about that speed anymore!
      - maaaats 7y ago
        Yeah, not cheap, but my company let me choose between that and a top of the line macbook, and since my previous macbook was a catastrophy I switched setup entirely. The weight isn't too bad, I have it in my backpack commuting by bike in hilly Norway. But maybe too heavy for a shoulder bag. The battery time is useless, yes, so that's the big tradeoff. But since I bike instead of commuting by train or so, I never used my previous laptop not plugged in anyway.
      - lliamander 7y ago
        I don't think the P1 is all that heavy. Maybe 4lbs?
  - alluro2 7y ago
    Actually, P53 and P73 can be specced with all of those - and more. Up to 128GB RAM, Quadro graphics, 3 drive slots/bays (2 NvME, 1 2.5")...And the chassis is not compromised for thinness, so cooling is adequate.
    - alluro2 7y ago
      Forgot to add - and you get a decent display, and it's portable, and it's still cheaper than MP.
      - killjoywashere 7y ago
        And, as an added bonus, you can have major shoulder problems for life from lugging that 17" behemoth around.
        alluro2 7y ago
        Hah, I agree...But, on the other hand, you can carry it when needed, and I do regret not buying one of those for work instead of Razer Blade, "because it's thin and light" - it gets overly hot and noisy when doing heavier work and is definitely not up to par to these...
      - swebs 7y ago
        What operating system does it come with?
        alluro2 7y ago
        I think Lenovo (together with other questionable actions that alienate their userbase) removed the option to choose Linux for workstations, so it comes only with Windows 10. But Thinkpads are traditionally very well supported on various Linux distributions.
    - lliamander 7y ago
      I'm thinking of getting either a P1 or a P53 for my next work upgrade. The P53 will likely have better thermals, but the P1 has an option to remove the discrete GPU, and just use the integrated GPU. As I have no need for a fancy GPU, I figure it would reduce unnecessary power draw.
  - vetinari 7y ago
    That ~1700MB/s FDE speed is a limit coming from Intel AES support. The drives themselves (assuming NVMe, 4 PCIe gen3 lanes) are faster. Even those crippled by being connected to two lanes can achieve this speed.
sdan 7y ago
I do similar work (arguably a bit more intensive) on my 2016 MBP with the lowest specs possible (8gb ram, 2ghz cpu) and it's surprisingly silent most if not all the time. I have around 5-6 windows with 10-15 tabs each within them as well some ssh tunnels and some other applications open (I do heavy front/backend with docker builds through ssh as well as ML work through ssh) Not sure what's going on, but my lowest-end Mac is running everything I need like butter.

Kimitri 7y ago

I have a similarly specced iMac Pro and I use it for very similar tasks. Could not be happier with the machine. I think the RAM + the very speedy storage make this a great choice for the kind of dev work I do.

maaaats 7y ago

I got a Lenovo laptop with roughly the same specs, though.

bgentry 7y ago
Your Lenovo laptop has an 8 core 3.2GHz Xeon with 4.2GHz Turbo Boost, 19MB Cache, 64GB DDR4, silent cooling even under heavy load (which it can sustain), and an SSD that does 1700MB/s with full disk encryption?
- maaaats 7y ago
  Not at my laptop until monday so not sure about all details, but almost that, yes. It's a top specced P1. Xeon but 6 cores I think. 64gb ddr4. 1500mb/s read I think it was on the SSD. Not silent, exactly though, hehe.
  - bgentry 7y ago
    Wow, that’s a beast of a laptop. I just configured one and the cost isn’t all that different from my 18mo old iMac Pro :) I have to imagine that the battery life isn’t great given the non-mobile parts, and that it must weigh a ton? I’m enjoying the combo of a powerful workstation where I work most of the time, and then a thin & light portable device for when I need portability. For me that combo works well and hits the right trade offs, especially the silence I get to enjoy. I’m also remembering that Apple ships the same SSD setup in the newer MacBook Pro machines, which weren’t yet out when I bought this iMac Pro. Definitely nothing unique or unusual about that speed anymore!
    - maaaats 7y ago
      Yeah, not cheap, but my company let me choose between that and a top of the line macbook, and since my previous macbook was a catastrophy I switched setup entirely. The weight isn't too bad, I have it in my backpack commuting by bike in hilly Norway. But maybe too heavy for a shoulder bag. The battery time is useless, yes, so that's the big tradeoff. But since I bike instead of commuting by train or so, I never used my previous laptop not plugged in anyway.
    - lliamander 7y ago
      I don't think the P1 is all that heavy. Maybe 4lbs?
- alluro2 7y ago
  Actually, P53 and P73 can be specced with all of those - and more. Up to 128GB RAM, Quadro graphics, 3 drive slots/bays (2 NvME, 1 2.5")...And the chassis is not compromised for thinness, so cooling is adequate.
  - alluro2 7y ago
    Forgot to add - and you get a decent display, and it's portable, and it's still cheaper than MP.
    - killjoywashere 7y ago
      And, as an added bonus, you can have major shoulder problems for life from lugging that 17" behemoth around.
      - alluro2 7y ago
        Hah, I agree...But, on the other hand, you can carry it when needed, and I do regret not buying one of those for work instead of Razer Blade, "because it's thin and light" - it gets overly hot and noisy when doing heavier work and is definitely not up to par to these...
    - swebs 7y ago
      What operating system does it come with?
      - alluro2 7y ago
        I think Lenovo (together with other questionable actions that alienate their userbase) removed the option to choose Linux for workstations, so it comes only with Windows 10. But Thinkpads are traditionally very well supported on various Linux distributions.
  - lliamander 7y ago
    I'm thinking of getting either a P1 or a P53 for my next work upgrade. The P53 will likely have better thermals, but the P1 has an option to remove the discrete GPU, and just use the integrated GPU. As I have no need for a fancy GPU, I figure it would reduce unnecessary power draw.
- vetinari 7y ago
  That ~1700MB/s FDE speed is a limit coming from Intel AES support. The drives themselves (assuming NVMe, 4 PCIe gen3 lanes) are faster. Even those crippled by being connected to two lanes can achieve this speed.

sdan 7y ago

I do similar work (arguably a bit more intensive) on my 2016 MBP with the lowest specs possible (8gb ram, 2ghz cpu) and it's surprisingly silent most if not all the time. I have around 5-6 windows with 10-15 tabs each within them as well some ssh tunnels and some other applications open (I do heavy front/backend with docker builds through ssh as well as ML work through ssh) Not sure what's going on, but my lowest-end Mac is running everything I need like butter.