Macbooks for the pros: How to choose from several feasible options



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The introduction of the 2018 MacBook Pro models just a month after the WWDC surprised everyone. What is even more surprising is that this array of devices actually has offers that are useful to high-end professional users.

What's a high-end pro?

while, and from time to time, someone challenges my definition of what is a pro-user. So in this article, I'm going to distinguish between pro users and what I'm going to call the high-end pros.

My readers are right. Even someone who simply lives in a browser can be a professional user where he or she works. My real estate agent, for example, who uses his phone as a main tool and a browser-based SaaS real estate application on his computer, is undoubtedly a pro

When I say "pro" in the context of material choices I do not speak not just someone who uses technology for the job. What I really want to say is someone who has to push the capabilities of technology to do his job.

I'm talking about developers with huge development environments, a bunch of open virtual machines and a live simulation of a network

I'm talking about video editors that incorporate 4K videos (and sometimes even 8K), which add effects, then have to browse clips and see them live. [19659004] I'm talking about the live streamer that has to make a dynamic chroma key and process several video inputs, mux them on the fly, and send them back to viewers around the world.

I'm talking about scientists, 3D modellers, backers, photographers – all those who need a huge processing power, a lot of memory, high-speed storage and network local high speed.

These are the high-end professionals who can not do their jobs without the necessary power.

a PC and stop whining "

I hear that a lot.But it's reductive for some needs."

A feature of a high-end pro is the need for & dquo; A powerful computing platform Another is often the need for specialized applications, or applications that streamline the workflow.

I am a good example of this. What I do can easily be done in a browser on any machine, there is a long list of applications that I use that only exist on the Mac. [19659004] In my case, most of the features of these applications can be duplicated on a PC.For example, instead of using Final Cut Pro X for video editing, I could use Premiere Pro. [19659004] In fact, it's a good example.I found Premiere Pro incredibly buggy.For a video, it crashed over the 39, a hundred times. For almost everyone else, he crashed a lot. In desperation, I moved to Final Cut and made some discoveries. It almost never hangs. Its integration with Motion is so natural that in a few hours I can develop and add my own plugins that save me hundreds of mouse clicks and keystrokes per edit. Its rendering and overall speed are often 10 times higher than those of Premiere.

Publishing projects that took seven or eight days to go from a raw video to Premiere Pro have fallen back to a day or two in Final Cut. For someone as busy as me, it's a game changer. But it limits me to the Mac for video editing.

I found similar workflow benefits for some of the tools I use in producing my huge PowerPoint slides and software development. The fact is that without these tools, I would not be able to do my job in the number of hours available in a week.

It's not that I like the Mac. In fact, a lot about Apple and the Mac m annoy me a lot. It's using tools that only exist on Mac, that I can get through my workload and have a few hours of rest for sleep

Ok, so let's talk about machines.

Summer 2018 Macs for the Pros [19659003] As of July 2018, there are three Macs that I consider appropriate for high-end pros. Each of these machines is defined as such by allowing 32GB of RAM or more, and four or more cores.

The iMac Pro 2017

This bad boy is at the top of the Mac food chain. The base model is equipped with a 8-core Xeon W and can scale up to 18 cores. It reaches 32 GB of RAM and can be upgraded up to 128 GB of 2666 MHz DDR4 ECC memory

In addition to that, you have up to 4 TB of super fast SSD storage and only in this machine, a 10GB Ethernet connection. Prices start at $ 4,999 and reach $ 13199

Mid-2017 iMac

The 21-inch and 27-inch iMacs both have a bit of trouble. Even the low-end iMac 21-inch offers an option for a 3.6-GHz Intel Core i7 quad-core processor (Turbo Boost up to 4.2 GHz) and 32 GB of RAM. At the top end, the 27-inch will take you up to 64GB of RAM

At present, these beasts are still using the latest generation of Intel Kaby Lake processors. Since the new MacBooks were introduced with Coffee Lake processors, there will likely be an improvement a few minutes after buying one of these iMacs and your grace period back from 14 days ends.

Price for the low-end i7 with 32GB of RAM and a 1TB SSD is $ 2,999, up to $ 5,299 for a full-capacity machine.

The 15-inch MacBook Pro 2018

The new competitor of the high-end pro Mac market is the surprise presentation of last week's 15-inch MacBook Pro 2018. This thing sports a Coffee Lake CPU (Apple's first use of this new generation processor), which you can configure with an i9 and six cores.

Unfortunately, the only ports on this thing are the four Thunderbolt 3 ports, so you'll buy docks or dongles. Factor it in.

The base price for the i7 model with 1 TB SSD and 32 GB of RAM is $ 3,599. If you go crazy with the specs (especially the SSD price, which you do not need), you throw $ 6,699.

Build Your Own Hackintosh

Another choice, though a little tense with risk, is building your own Hackintosh. All current Mac choices at the professional level include a screen. If you are ready to build your own box and use your own screen, a Hackintosh could be the way to go. I have not evaluated the price, but the general reactions of the builders I know are that they have saved about 30-40% on the cost of construction compared to the purchase of a car. a Mac at Apple.

Not taken into account [19659004] Although Apple still sells Mac minis and Mac Pro machines in the form of trash, you should stay away from these. Although my four mini 2012 Macs are great, these machines are way too expensive because they have not been updated for nearly half a decade.

As for garbage cans, no one has ever had anything good to say about these things.

How to decide

With the addition of new MacBook Pros, the decision tree becomes a little clearer. I will let the Hackintosh option out of this because it can be tailored to each of these choices one way or another, but you always run the risk of hbadle and compatibility.

If you need 10Gig Ethernet: If you are moving or working on huge video files on the network and you know that you need 10 Gigabit Ethernet, the IMac Pro is your only choice. Of course, this badumes that you have already updated your network infrastructure to handle 10Gig traffic.

If you want a portable power supply: If you want to do high-end professional work on the move, the new MacBook Pro is a viable choice. I even plan to move it between my main work desk and the office of my work environment because it's easy to move, which means I would not need two complete machines and expensive.

If you want big, Apple quality display: There is no doubt that Apple's iMac screens are beautiful. I do not like them because they're heavy, and so do not work well with all but the most robust (and somewhat inflexible) monitor arms. But if you want a beautiful and big display, you can not go wrong with any of the iMac models.

If you know how much RAM you need beyond 32GB: If you need more than 32GB of RAM, I want the 27-inch iMac (which goes up to 64 GB) or the iMac Pro (which goes up to 128 GB.)

If you want a blistering fast onboard storage: All the options I've discussed have a very fast storage, but the iMac Pro and MacBook Pro go up to 4TB, while the iMacs up to 2TB.

If you really, really want a space Apple keyboard gray: Visit Colorware. $ 199 for a custom keyboard color is a lot less than thousands for an iMac Pro.

If you do not know why someone would buy one of these very expensive machines: Certainly not take in one. If you need it, you already know why.

If you wonder why Apple has not updated the Mac mini in four years, but still insists on selling an obsolete model for full price: You're not alone.

So here you are. High end pro users now have real options, although they are still very expensive and you still pay for a screen you do not want to use. And you? Are you going to buy one of these things? Let me know in the comments below.

APPARENT AND PREVIOUS COVERAGE:

All you need to know about the purchase of Apple MacBook Pro 2018

Apple has updated the 13-inch and 15-inch MacBook Pro 2018 with Touch Bar. Here's everything you need to know about the changes.

Apple upgrades the 13- and 15-inch MacBook Pro 2018 laptops with new Intel chips, but will not question the future of Mac

The guts of the MacBook Pro upgrade needed and the keyboard is quieter. But Apple needs to do more to convince us that he has a bit of enthusiasm or for the Mac wallet.

Blackmagic eGPU: The future of the MacBook Pro is having more things attached to it

Having to tie a plethora of dongles and hubs to Apple hardware quickly becomes the next big thing. For professionals who use Mac hardware, I see adding an eGPU to your MacBook Pro in the future.

I have tried writing this article on an iPad Pro. It's not going well

Apple does not stop to insist on an iPad Pro is a computer. Can I switch to a MacBook Air?


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