new mac pro?

[cod65]

Whats appealing with the Mac Pro's is the form factor, it's literally sackable in your carry-on luggage and you'll stay under weight. The thought of sending this stuff tumbling down conveyer belts is terrifying.

Pelican cases are pretty indestructable and utilitarian. I've always packed most everything in them with no regrets and 100's of flights. That said, I always carry the laptop onboard in this:
http://www.pelican-case.com/1470-tan.html
then I can even put it under some seats, or overhead, work on stuff as long as the battery holds out (not long). If I had to check it for some stupid reason I would have good faith in it. IN fact, I used it as a packing box when it needed to be shipped for repairs.

[cod65]

well ,this is certainly an interesting read that I wasn't expecting:

http://www.futurelooks.com/new-apple-ma ... diy-style/

main caveats are pretty much 'no upgrading', which may or may not be a big deal.

[sinica]

Hey everyone.
Does anyone have actual information to working a long time with TD and Mac Pro?
What about AMD: capacity, constraints, bugs?
Any actual opinions?

[elburz]

The Thunderbolt outputs are finicky and have a specific output pattern you need to use, the FirePros aren't that great, the hardware isn't extensible itself so you have a ton of external dongles and boxes, it's extremely expensive for the raw specs (you can find sub-$2000 pc's on pcpartpicker that are more appropriate for TouchDesigner), you can't easily rack mount it without spending even more money on it. The list goes on.

If you're considering getting a Mac Pro, you should see what the latest rumours are for the redesign. Apparently there will be one for the Mac Pros "soon".

To put it in context, I use a Touch Bar MacBook Pro as my daily computer, but when it's TouchDesigner work time I use a PC, no questions asked.

[ben]

There are no issues specific to the Mac Pro, it is just a old spec computer by now so it only will give you so much power. In macOS all GPUs have same feature set, you don't need to worry about the AMD FirePros in there, other than there are outclassed in other machines now.

I use macOS laptop daily for a lot of my experimentation and building, then run it on a Windows workstation when I want max power (my laptop is old too ).

[L05]

I've tested multiple display outputs with the 2013 Mac Pro. As Elburz mentioned, it's a big hassle that requires multiple adapters, and it's not stable enough for me to trust it in a production environment.

The thunderbolt outputs only support a maximum of two DVI or HDMI displays before you have to use Active DVI adapters. This page from Apple outlines this requirement under the "Connect more than two DVI or HDMI displays" section:
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202801

Also mentioned, Apple (allegedly) plans to redesign the Mac Pro in the next year or so.

[landonth]

I was looking at grabbing a couple of those but I was really disappointed they weren't willing to give me a significant price cut to have them shipped without video cards, since I've got enough of those to sink a ship.

if you want to use your GPUs, just grab some fractal node 202 cases and put your own components in:
http://www.fractal-design.com/home/prod ... s/node-202

I built a machine into one and shipped it to and from NYC <-> Vienna for a month long install running all day every day with no issues. it's very compact but not a pain to put together either.

[sinica]

Thanks, everyone. Looks like Mac Pro is not a favorite. And only one advantage - size...

[elburz]

We have a travel case Silverstone SG02. Small, fits a full length GPU + 1 slot PCIe card. It's basically the same shipping size as the Mac Pro (since you have to put the Mac Pro in a rectangular box anyways)