Another hardware question (was: Re: Apple laptops)
On Jul 16, 2015, at 12:00 PM, colorsync-users-request@lists.apple.com wrote:
On Jul 15, 2015, at 3:56 AM, Mark Stegman <mark.stegman@gmail.com <mailto:mark.stegman@gmail.com> <mailto:mark.stegman@gmail.com <mailto:mark.stegman@gmail.com>>> wrote:
Apple laptop users,
This sort of discussion is a bit of an indulgence but I have been thinking about this for quite a while and the forum is quiet at the moment. It also has a high proportion of serious users and I would like to know what they think about current the range of laptops on offer from Apple.
— Not to highjack this thread - well, I guess I am, but at least I changed the Subject line… Regarding legacy hardware, I am wondering about users’ experience with the new Mac Pro models - the “eggplant” ones, or whatever people call them now. I have been a happy camper with my 2010 Mac Pro, upgraded with an SSD boot disk & 32GB RAM. But camera files are getting bigger & bigger! My 645z images, while wonderful, are taxing LightRoom a lot more than anything from my Canons. And my retouching work will soon be on 50mp files from Canon, as well. So it looks like the writing is on the wall, another hardware upgrade is unavoidable. But I really don’t know much about how the newer Mac Pros are working out for people, so would love to hear some reports. I assume I’ll have to load it with RAM, SSD size, etc. at purchase, as Apple seems to want to discourage cracking the case later. Are Thunderbolt externals an improvement over stuffing multiple big drives inside my desktop machine? Any “gotchas” adapting current peripherals - e.g., I’d like to continue using my NEC PA241W. I guess I’d really like some sense of whether the performance increase will feel like it justifies all the trouble & $$ of the upgrade (yes, I’m checking places like BareFeats.com, but I’m interested in feedback from people working in imaging, specifically). Thanks in advance for any comments. John JWL Images Emeryville, CA
On 16 Jul 2015, at 20:39, John Lund <john@jwlimages.com> wrote:
But I really don’t know much about how the newer Mac Pros are working out for people, so would love to hear some reports. I assume I’ll have to load it with RAM, SSD size, etc. at purchase, as Apple seems to want to discourage cracking the case later. Are Thunderbolt externals an improvement over stuffing multiple big drives inside my desktop machine? Any “gotchas” adapting current peripherals - e.g., I’d like to continue using my NEC PA241W. I guess I’d really like some sense of whether the performance increase will feel like it justifies all the trouble & $$ of the upgrade (yes, I’m checking places like BareFeats.com, but I’m interested in feedback from people working in imaging, specifically).
Opening them up and fitting RAM is really easy — so don’t waste your money having it installed at purchase. Thunderbolt works well but the cables are plugs are too easy to move both up/down and left/right in the sockets so I don’t think they are very suitable for some work environments where you need to plug and unplug frequently or in areas where it is likely to get knocked. You may be able to run the PA241W on a Thunderbolt adaptor, but one gotcha is that larger panels like the PA271W have to use a DisplayPort cable to run at full resolution. They will run on an adaptor but only at reduced resolution. The ventilation is a great bit of product design but the Mac Pros will get really hot if you stress the processors and graphics cards at the same time. I’ve heard a couple of reports of meltdowns. Haven’t run into any imaging specific issues with the new Mac Pros — nothing that can’t be solved by purchasing expensive Apple adaptors (like FireWire 800) anyhow ;-) Biggest imaging problem for us at the moment is with the Mac OS. Networked machines cannot “see" files on Mac servers without massive delays and searches of remote volumes just cannot be trusted — really annoying in repro work where images and layouts are being edited simultaneously. -- Martin Orpen Idea Digital Imaging Ltd
On Jul 20, 2015, at 9:33 AM, John Gnaegy <gnaegy@apple.com> wrote:
Darth Pros.
Darth Pro: “Cube…I am your father.” Cube Desksitter: “Nooooo!”
Anybody else miss the NeXT cubes? Waaaaay ahead of their time, though I suppose we've long since passed them by by now...but NeXTSTEP had some things like true resolution independence (via Display PostScript) that's still sorely lacking today.... b&
participants (6)
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Anthony R Sanna
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Ben Goren
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John Gnaegy
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John Lund
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Martin Orpen
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Rick Gordon