4 ms·

It was not always like that. It's the current generation. Old generations had more reasonable pricing.

by vbezhenar 4y ago

sleepybrett 4y ago
I feel like the switch was the garbage can pro. I wonder if it's just more of a 'it's not where the market is' thing. Working in tech and creative industries even previous to the garbage can there was a dramatic shift in people just opting into laptops instead of desktops. With only the people with really demanding workflows sticking with the desktops. Now I mostly only see mac desktops in video production contexts (editing stations, compositing/effects, 3d.. maybe you'd also see that in high end audio production as well). As offices have changed over the years with more hot desking etc. it's hard justifying a desktop machine... not to mention the pandemic. So maybe apple made a conscious decision. Keep the mac mini to serve a lower end mostly stationary workforce or for installation type work, kill the whole middle-to-lower-highend desktop line and cater to a high end 'studio' workstation.
KennyBlanken 4y ago
Yup. I asked for an OG intel cheese-grater at an old job. The boss blinked and said something along the lines of "we're not spending that kind of money for your system" and I pointed out that with 16gb of ram but otherwise base config, it was about the same price and a much better deal performance-wise than a Macbook Pro. Xeons versus an intel mobile i5, and the widest/fastest memory bus around at the time? No contest. The water-cooled ones were an absolute shitshow...Apple was pushing the edge too hard on that. AIO coolers are still kinda hit-or-miss (the good, well-made ones are fine.)
rconti 4y ago
Yup. My 2006 Mac Pro (first gen intel mac pro, the original cheese grater tower) cost me under $3000. IIRC, that plus a 24" Dell display added up to $3k total, or $4400 in today's money.

4 ms·

It was not always like that. It's the current generation. Old generations had more reasonable pricing.

by vbezhenar 4y ago

It was not always like that. It's the current generation. Old generations had more reasonable pricing.

sleepybrett 4y ago
I feel like the switch was the garbage can pro. I wonder if it's just more of a 'it's not where the market is' thing. Working in tech and creative industries even previous to the garbage can there was a dramatic shift in people just opting into laptops instead of desktops. With only the people with really demanding workflows sticking with the desktops. Now I mostly only see mac desktops in video production contexts (editing stations, compositing/effects, 3d.. maybe you'd also see that in high end audio production as well). As offices have changed over the years with more hot desking etc. it's hard justifying a desktop machine... not to mention the pandemic. So maybe apple made a conscious decision. Keep the mac mini to serve a lower end mostly stationary workforce or for installation type work, kill the whole middle-to-lower-highend desktop line and cater to a high end 'studio' workstation.
KennyBlanken 4y ago
Yup. I asked for an OG intel cheese-grater at an old job. The boss blinked and said something along the lines of "we're not spending that kind of money for your system" and I pointed out that with 16gb of ram but otherwise base config, it was about the same price and a much better deal performance-wise than a Macbook Pro. Xeons versus an intel mobile i5, and the widest/fastest memory bus around at the time? No contest. The water-cooled ones were an absolute shitshow...Apple was pushing the edge too hard on that. AIO coolers are still kinda hit-or-miss (the good, well-made ones are fine.)
rconti 4y ago
Yup. My 2006 Mac Pro (first gen intel mac pro, the original cheese grater tower) cost me under $3000. IIRC, that plus a 24" Dell display added up to $3k total, or $4400 in today's money.