iMac Pro (2017) - worth buying in 2024?

[Mr Showbiz]

I can buy an iMac Pro (2017- 18 core, 128gb) for about £1400.

How would you rate this purchase in 2024? A lot of power for the money, or buying into old intel tech that’s about to break down?

(An M2 MacStudio plus monitor is around £3,700)

[MarkOne]

Just on the CPU benchmarks, you’d be better off with a 2023 Mac mini.

The iMac Pro gets a single core score of 1339 and a multi core score of 8003 in geekbench.

The standard 2023 M2 is 2657 and 14469 by comparison.

Also those Xeon chips get pretty hot, and I bet the iMac might get pretty noisy under load.

But it does have a lovely display!

[BigRedX]

I take at a price of £3,700 you're either looking at an Apple display or a highly-spec'd MacStudio?

Personally I wouldn't buy an Intel Mac unless I needed it to run essential legacy software.

I've just ordered a brand new Mac set up for myself - the lowest spec Mac Studio but with 64GB RAM and a 1TB SSD, plus three 27" Dell displays - a good one as my main display and two ordinary ones for secondary use - and a 5 bay Thunderbolt drive enclosure all for just over £4,000. It would depend on the spec of Mac you want and how good a display, but you should be able to but together a suitable system for under £3,000.

Mine will replace my 2010 Mac Pro which is still running fine, but too many of the programs I use can't be updated to the latest versions that I need to maintain compatibility with the people I collaborate with. My use is mainly for graphic design, but I expect it to handle all my music needs too - our synth player has a much lower spec M-series MacMini and it handles everything our band need to do without problem.

[ConcertinaChap]

I have both an iMac Pro and a Mac Studio M2 Ultra. The Pro (which I bought in 2018) still stands up pretty well, it's screen is gorgeous and it's speakers pretty good - both as good as on the Studio display (which I suspect just inherited both from the Pro) and you're still going to be pushed to run out of cycles. The SSD is blazingly fast by any standards and you've got a stack of ports - as many as a Studio. They put a lot of work into the design of the cooling, resulting in a machine that is very rarely heard and then barely a whisper under extreme provocation. One other major plus, it's the only machine from 2017 that can be upgraded to Sequioa which means you're good for security and other updates for at least the next three years.

So why did I get the Studio? We need two decent machines (one for me and one for my wife the composer), which need was served by my Imac Pro and her Mac Mini M2 Pro. Then, for reasons I won't bore you with, we needed a reserve machine at least as powerful as Anne's so I got the Studio and made the iMac the reserve machine, in which role it still gets frequent use and is still acquitting itself honourably. If it hadn't been for this I'd have happily still been using the iMac as my main machine.

I would say that for £1400 you're getting a lot of machine, utterly quiet and decently powerful, not so much as Apple silicon but still more than most people need. Only you can say how important long term compatibility with Apple silicon is to you. If not a big issue then I'd be severely tempted.

CC

[ConcertinaChap]

Having said that, looking at the prices of iMac Pros on ebay you might want to see if you can edge the price down a little ...

CC

[Mr Showbiz]

Thanks for the opinions guys. CC, I think you have tipped me over the edge.

[Mr Showbiz]

One last question C.C, if I could take advantage of your iMac Pro experience.

Has it ever broken down, and what’s your prediction on its lifespan?
Cheers.

[ConcertinaChap]

Re-reading my post, it was a bit of a love letter to the iMac Pro, but I do think highly of it I have to say. If you did go the Apple silicon route you'd be at least as happy I'm sure, just a little bit poorer, and there are those who argue it's the safer route. With both points of view in this thread you should be able to decide what suits you.

To your question, it has never broken down. I'm expecting it to have a decent lifespan based on my experience with other Apple kit. For instance we have a 2013 Macbook Air that does duty every morning for a bit of browsing in bed and remains in fine fettle. My wife's M2 Mac Mini replaced a 2012 Mac Mini last year. That was also working fine and after reinitialising it I sold it on ebay. We needed to make the change because she wanted to run software that needed a later OS than the Mini would run, not a problem for the iMac Pro at least for three years, maybe more.

Basically Apple kit usually lasts very well, part of the payback for the initially high purchase price, I'd say.

CC

PS there are some bits of software you can use the Pro for that you can't do with Apple silicon. It runs Vmware Fusion, meaning I can run Intel-based Windows and hence a couple of bits of Windows-based software that would be lost to me in a totally Apple Silicon world.

[Monohead]

Intel based Macs are on the way out. You'll end up being stuck on an old OS in a few years time. Really not worth investing in Intel when Apple Silicon is so powerful.

[Sam Spoons]

Old Macs are great, my main studio PC is a 2008 intel Mac Pro. I still have a 2011 MBP and a 2012 MBP both of which are fine for many things but I'm thinking of buying an M1 or M2 Mac Mini for the studio as there a few things I'd like to be able to run that the old Mac Pro can't do.

Given that a refurb 2020 Mac Mini M1/2 can be had under $500 this seems a reasonable time to buy and the basic spec will be plenty fast enough for my needs.

[Sam Spoons]

Intentional Bump...

I'm rethinking my studio computer upgrade plans* and seriously considering a 2019 Mac Pro. They are expensive, circa £2k, and intel powered but they can take extra SSDs internally (in a 3rd party caddy) and are significantly more repairable than the M1/2/3/4 Mac Mini/Studio with all major components being replaceable. Since this may be the last studio computer I'll ever buy/need that long term repairability is very attractive.

TBH I don't really need the extra performance available but if I'm going to upgrade I may as well do it properly...

I know I'm being swayed by a pretty case and that a new M2 Studio would cost about the same, do the job fine and actually be even faster** but I see the Mac Pro as a 'proper' computer which will enhance the ownership experience...

* My old 2008 Mac Pro is still working fine but was been left behind by Mac OS 8 years ago so I'm finding it can't accommodate some apps that I would like to run. Also it is 17 years old and, more importantly, so are any spares (there are plenty of used parts available) I might need in future.

** The Mac Pro 7.1 12 and 16 core CPUs are around 6 times faster than my old Mac and with 96GB RAM and much faster storage they should feel pretty sprightly for years to come.

[shufflebeat]

If the forum keeps playing with the S/T continuum you may be able to have bought next year’s model in 2014 and have extra Apple care facility until 1908.

[Sam Spoons]

One lives in hope

[Sam Spoons]

Ok, I'm pretty much decided that I'm going for a 2019 Mac Pro*. I run Reaper V7 and my current 2008 Mac Pro get's by just fine with the relatively low track counts and VSTi instruments I currently use. With Reaper will I benefit from more CPU cores** or from a higher clock speed and is there any point in a faster GPU if I'm not playing games or doing high rez video?

* Big SSD, repairability, upgradability (though I'm trying to avoid the need), lots of memory and connectability, everything inside the box.

[BigRedX]

I wouldn't recommend buying a pre M-series Mac now unless you know for sure that you are completely happy with all your current software, will never want or need to upgrade any of it, and you will never be collaborating with anyone who may be using a newer system and therefore producing files that are not backwardly compatible.

Also be aware that if you use Safari or Apple Mail they will eventually stop working with many websites and email servers.

[ConcertinaChap]

Largely I agree with you, with the sole exception of the iMac Pro. The fact that it can be upgraded to Sequoia means it will be updateable for the next 2.5 years at least and at its current 2nd hand prices you get a hell of a lot of machine for your money. And Apple kit is normally very good at lasting well. I wouldn't recommend one for all cases, of course, but there are points about this machine that still, IMHO, make it interesting. Ours, although no longer my main machine, gets used on a daily basis and, as they used to say of Jeeves, endeavours to give perfect satisfaction.

Also be aware that if you use Safari or Apple Mail they will eventually stop working with many websites and email servers.

Why do you say that? Genuinely curious. Mail standards are very slow to change and even web standards don't change that fast. Mind you, I use Thunderbird and Firefox.

CC

[BigRedX]

It might have co-incidence, but until I upgraded my ancient 2010 MacPro to a Mac Studio and consequently was able to use a more recent version of MacOS than 10.13, email using Apple Mail had been getting progressively flakey - in particular sending. It never failed completely but I would have days when it would take 2 or 3 attempts for any email to send. The email address I have that uses an Outlook server was particularly bad, but my Apple iCloud account also exhibited flakiness.

I also had similar problems with the Messages app where I would get multiple "unable to send" messages, but when I checked on my iPad or phone they seemed to have gone through OK.

[Sam Spoons]

Mail is refusing to handle my Internet provider's pop mail account but they will be upgrading to imap at some point in the near future which will solve the problem for the foreseeable. But I do all my mail and browsing in my MBP, currently running Ventura (but upgradable to Sequoia and likely to remain fully supported for another 5 years or so. I use Mac Mail but not Safari, my usual browser is Brave and my DAW, as I said, is Reaper

The 2019 intel Mac Pro can run Sequoia and likely to be upgradable for a few more years/Mac OS versions as Apple usually support machines for approaching 10 years from their introduction. My old 2008 Mac Pro still works fine and there are hacks to run more recent Mac OS versions but it became unsupported (or 'obselete' in Apple terms) in 2015 (with El Capitan).

I could buy a M series Mac Mini but I'd spend as much money for very little extra performance and would have a machine that will be a bin job if it fails. Plus I'd have to faff around with external drives and USB hubs hanging off the back whereas with a Mac Pro I can have all that sh!t inside the box out of harms way, I can have a big enough primary SSD (1-2 TB gets very expensive in a Mac Mini/Studio) to run everything so I only need a couple of additional drives for system and data backup which will go inside and I can have lots of RAM (at least 49GB and 96GB or more in most of the machines I'm looking at) and as much USB/Thunderbolt/WHY connectability as I could ever use.

Plus you've got to admit it does just look fantastic

[Sam Spoons]

Bullet bitten, 2019 Mac Pro 3.2GHz/16 core CPU, 96GB RAM, 2TB SSD, AMD Radion Pro 580x 8GB GPU on it's way. I just hope I'm one of the sellers 99% of satisfied buyers not one of his 1% horror stories... Still credit card protection plus ebay's buyer protection and money back guarantee is about as much as I can do.

[OneWorld]

Bullet bitten, 2019 Mac Pro 3.2GHz/16 core CPU, 96GB RAM, 2TB SSD, AMD Radion Pro 580x 8GB GPU on it's way. I just hope I'm one of the sellers 99% of satisfied buyers not one of his 1% horror stories... Still credit card protection plus ebay's buyer protection and money back guarantee is about as much as I can do.

Best of luck then, and yes, it is a handsome looking critter, backed up by an impressive array of stats. I'm sure you'll be delighted with it and it will serve you well. I admire your pluck!

[Sam Spoons]

Well, there's nothing like a good pluck And it was cheaper than the cheapest Mac Studio... Though I could have bought 2.45 Mac Minis for the same money (not sure what I'd do with 0.45 of a Mac Mini mind you...).

[ConcertinaChap]

Well if you'd had a standard family of 2.45 kids then the .45 kid would get the .45 Mac. Best of luck with it, but FWIW I think you'll be delighted.

CC

[Sam Spoons]

I'm not sure where our 2.45th kid is but wherever it is he clearly doesn't need 9/20ths of a Mac Mini...

[Sam Spoons]

Well the dodgy ebay seller turned out to be not too dodgy after all (or maybe I just got lucky...). The Mac Pro arrived this lunchtime and is as described, a very few small marks on the case but otherwise super-clean inside and out. I did have to resort to a 'clockwork'* keyboard and mouse to get it set up for some reason and the mk1 Magic Mouse has a propensity for random disconnection but the old Magic keyboard and touchpad are fine though.

But the Stream Deck Mini mk1 is proving troublesome, it isn't seen by the app, I'll get to the bottom of it, maybe it needs a firmware update but I should be able to buy the full sized version and have that work now (I tried one a while ago and sent it back as it wouldn't work with El Capitan).

* okay, okay USB but 'clockwork' sounded more fun...