[geeks] Replacing a Mac Pro 2006

[Shannon]

On 02-Dec-2012 18:35, Ben Greisler wrote:
> On Dec 2, 2012, at 3:31 PM, Shannon wrote:
> 
>> Yeah, have to agree there. I'm not even sure it would hurt them or kill the
>> Mac Pro either. There is room for something.
> 
> Apple announced there would be something else that we should see mid-2013 from
> what I understand.

Yeah, 6 months too late if it happens. Still good to see if they really
will do it.

> Most people really don't care what is inside the machine and broken machines
> aren't a huge problem percentage-wise. And now that Apple includes two 10Gbs

...and yet every time I talk to people, they hate it, even end users
like my own mother and father.

I think that is an example of Apple believing its own lies. This is a
very common complaint, service issue, and even the local Apple store
employees say its a problem and they have a fairly small Apple
population here to care for.

> Thunderbolt connections on the iMacs, allows up to 32GB RAM and both SSD and
> spinning rust disks, there is a pretty good choice of options. Thunderbolt
> allows the connection of anything from a 10GBs HBA to fibre channel to
> anything else that is PCie.

...which is great if you have, want, or can use TB devices. You can't
hook everything up to it or a lot, and I prefer as much as possible to
be internal.

Things like Thunderbolt remind me of the 1980s when my computer had
everything hooked to it as separate boxes. Neat technology, but a step
back to the 1980s in terms of physical clutter.

And yes... you can put 32GB of RAM in them, but its not fun. There is a
good choice of options as long as by choice you mean very limited. You
can put 1 or 2 drives in and again, its not fun.

They won't do what I want, and can't be upgraded to do so, and that's a
shame for machines which typically last for years.

>> The iMacs the reason I can't use one is they are incredibly difficult to
> work
>> on, and in their quest to make them excessively thin, they dropped features
> 
> Curious, what did they drop from the iMacs that can't be added back in again
> via TB?

Internal optical drives, more than 1-2 hard drives, better graphics, an
external monitor (I don't want one built in I can't upgrade or fix).

Also there is the form factor: its basically a monitor. That's a pretty
serous flaw if you want a different monitor and only have room for one.

Don't get me wrong, the iMac is a fine machine, if you can live with its
characteristics. I would certainly consider one as a secondary machine.

The problem is for those of us it isn't a match for, there really isn't
much except overkill high end or weak low end.

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