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Subject: Re: [AE] (OT) New Mac Pro - Who's getting it?
From: Steve Oakley <steveo@practicali.com>
In-Reply-To: <list-5326076@media-motion.tv>
Date: Sat, 21 Dec 2013 20:02:22 -0600
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References: <list-5326076@media-motion.tv>
To: After Effects Mail List <AE-List@media-motion.tv>

yes this entire thing is sad. I priced out a machine at $4017 for 6 core =
3.5ghz which I think will do better than the much more expensive 8 core =
that runs slower. I don't mean this purely for AE work but for PP =
editing and Resolve / speedgrade.

the machine certainly has insane bandwidth...=20

but while PC hardware might be cheaper it comes with its own headaches, =
especially related to codecs. There simply isn't ProRes for PC or an an =
**>> affordable, near universal, size independent, very widely adopted ( =
or easy to get / install codec ) with deep color / alpha support <<**. =
start listing PC codecs and they all fail to get check marks in EVERY =
column, and thats what we have cried about for years. its just =
completely ridiculous this has not been solved by now. =20

Win7 also has its networking problems too. don't get me started on =
those.

so the question is, how much of your time is worth $1500-$2500 to stay =
on mac vs PC switch ?=20

the ECC ram is not a requirement of most MB designs and non-ECC ram will =
work. be interesting to try in the mac ash tray and see how normal ram =
would work. my bet is it probably works fine.

you can only have dual CPU's if you have zeon's :( however an i7 6 core =
at 3+ghz is more than fast enough for most of us. the xeon premium is a =
big part of the crazy price.

so its cool apple built a 4K ready edit machine. too bad most of us aren =
not touching 4K now or in the near future. good to be looking forwards =
but a lot of what the machine does could also of been done more =
economically.=20

I'm not going to get one. I'm going to look at the use market for a 5.1 =
tower instead.

S


On Dec 21, 2013, at 6:46 PM, Teddy Gage <teddygage@gmail.com> wrote:

>      James, you can do whatever you want, but don't misrepresent the =
facts. A custom PC with similar render numbers on many benchmarks than =
your new mac pro will actually run you closer to $1,200-1,500. You could =
literally buy three hex-core computers for the price of that single mac =
pro. In terms of render power, that's a far cry from "a couple hundred =
dollars" difference. Yes the Pro has many bespoke custom parts. But they =
are more or less matched to 90% by regular high end PC components. For =
example nobody "needs" ECC RAM at 200% markup or Xeon-class chips at =
300% markup.


> Regular DDR4 RAM and i7 chips are just as good, if not faster, in many =
cases.=20
>=20
>      You don't have to build it yourself, and you don't have to buy it =
from Dell or HP, who also charge a hefty markup closer to Apple's, which =
is where a lot of these inaccurate numbers are coming from. There are =
tons of mid-level workstation builders out there with great reliability =
and good warranties. Your justification is fine, I'm not here to tell =
you how to spend your money. But your comparison is simply not accurate =
if you understand computer hardware and benchmarks.=20
>=20