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Thinking very VERY seriously about pushing the button on this.

iMac 10-core Xeon W, 64GB DDR4, Radeon Pro Vega 64X, 2TB SSD

$6,727 plus tax $403.62 and then another hundred for shipping before fucking December in 'rona.

Could sign up for Apple Pay and do $600 payments for 12 months 0 APR... shouldn't be too bad of a problem provided the world holds together that long... And if it doesn't, then this is my last computer... and I guess it'd be nice to go into the afterworld with a freshly upgraded rig.

IDK, Please talk some sense into me about how stupid this would be.

Also to factor in... I need to buy a new machine one way or another SOON. Or else I need to wipe my main and be out of commission for at least 3-4 days which could cost me a few grand on its own... and then also still buy a lesser mac for my daughter.

Why an iMac and not a cheese grater similarly priced? If I get the iMac I can give my current iMac to my daughter for school. My old 2015 iMac isn't holding up to my use anymore, but should be fine for a few more years for a high schooler to work on. If I get a cheese grader fine, but factor in at least another $300 for a minimum 27" 2K monitor.

Any reason to even think of a refurb trash can design? Are they too old now?

General thoughts on why this entire rant is retarded? Like. I too dislike Apple, but I need them. It's love/hate. But god if I do this I'm buckling in for the next 5 years... tax write off would be nice I guess.

Can't really back down the specs any because I dual boot windows and do some gaming. Need 2TB so I can give Windows and Mac a TB each (and I still have 8TB external).

Don't really want to go lower than the Vega 64X because even that benchmarks poorly against many cheaper cards... for gaming (but does do better for some other tasks)...

Ugh... talk me into or out of buying another god awful expensive mac.

Comments
  • 5
    Why does it have to be .... that much?
  • 3
    What are you working on that requires 64GB of DDR4 RAM?
  • 7
    An expensive car payment for over a year isn't deterrent enough? You can get a prebuilt windows for like $1500. You can always cut specs if you're fine with it. Just look at what you're doing and ask yourself if you really need it. Like 64GB of ram, what are you doing with that, rendering an entire disney movie? Hosting 50 VMs? Why are you locked to the apple architecture, sounds like you should get out of if it's going to cost you a car payment for a year.

    Also, your name makes me chuckle.
  • 3
    @EmberQuill He must use chrome.
  • 3
    Do you need what it offers? And is the apple branding worth it to you?
  • 1
    @SortOfTested ultimately I like the prospect of deving on windows less than this price tag...
  • 3
    @HiFiWiFiSciFi Does it cost 6k plus to not dev on windows...? I'm not sure that is the case.
  • 0
    @N00bPancakes I could get a mid level Mac for dev and then a separate windows rig for gaming... but I feel like I’d be close to that price tag... and I’d need another whole desk.

    (or a Keyboard Mouse Video switch... which just feels kind of hacky to me... but then again I'd be able to keep mac and windows booted simultaneously and switch with just a button press... and I've been thinking about running a windows box just for persistent wireshark on my network... these decisions are so hard.)
  • 2
    @HiFiWiFiSciFi Not sure about this need another desk ... There's a lot of 'needs' here that i'm not sure are 'needs' / sound more like rationalization ... it's your money.
  • 0
    @N00bPancakes Yeah... I can hear myself trying to talk myself into this...

    You guys are making me rethink it. Which is good.

    I have the need for a good dev box and I've spent as much as 4K for that in the past.

    I also have "want" for a good gaming box, and that's been a little lower, but still expensive....
  • 2
    @HiFiWiFiSciFi Hard to know anyone's needs but I suspect with some discipline you can get a nice dev mac for a lot less.

    Plus a desktop windows gaming rig ... and still come out ahead, and even ahead on performance on that gaming rig.

    Not like you can't still do some mid level gaming on the mac, and save the heavy stuff for the desktop.

    Granted I get wanting it all on one machine too.
  • 2
    @HiFiWiFiSciFi
    There's also linux. I've been full time Linux for years. I own macs, but they're primarily for testing and ios dev. I haven't turned one on in about 6 months.

    It's a nice machine, but it's at a premium. Lenovo has some solid fedora options presently, so give a look around before you commit. Self building is also easily possible with threadripper CPUs at that money.
  • 2
    (1/2)
    (I only know about hardware prices in Europe, but generally it's more expensive there)

    You can get a very decent gaming PC for less than 1000€, due to much superior cooling (space!) it will probably be even faster than that iMac. (case 60, psu 60, mobo 60, ram 100 for 32gb, ssd 100 for 1tb nvme, cpu 200, gpu 300, cables 20 → 900€ total)
    Dealing with the keyboard/mouse can be as simple as switching their USB plug (or get a USB switcher). Display should be handled by the monitor.

    I don't know your needs for development, but that seems quite.. beasty. Way too expensive for me for sure, even if I needed to use a Mac. I also wouldn't spend a lot of $$$ to get (e.g.) a threadripper for faster compilation and whatnot. If I could have it for free (or cheap), that would be great, but otherwise I'd rather use that amount of money for something else that doesn't lose 70% of its value in three years.
  • 2
    (2/2)

    In the end you do you but even if I desperately had to burn 7k$ I'd rather buy two nice computers for 3 to 4k, have some nice dinner with my wife and then invite @rutee07 to come over and spend the rest on hookers and blow.
  • 2
    For $7k you could buy two killer systems, one for Linux and one for Windows. Or, one mega killer PC with dual boot.

    7 grand for a Mac isn't worth it unless you need MacOS.
  • 2
    I've got 1 question: explain to me why you need these specs.

    If you can't do that, you don't need it!
  • 2
    You can get a pc with better specs half of that price
  • 3
    Definitely get a ryzen 5950x and rtx 3080ti, if gpu is also sth u need
  • 0
    What are your requirements for a dev machine? I recently spent $1,400 on a Lenovo X1 Carbon that I booted linux on and it's been an absolutely stellar dev machine.
  • 1
    If you’re not a wizard, Linux means rage every day. Windows is just a shithole.

    Go for it. My first iPhone cured my twitching eye, my MacBook makes life emotionally easier every day.
  • 1
    Ok. Firstly, I’m not a vid. editor, so I don’t “need” anything more than like $60 Pi4 to do most dev.

    I do iOS dev in Swift/Obj-c and I publish... and while perhaps some like to use a platform, I have had much better luck over 8 years publishing to the App Store natively. So... I do need a Mac. And I can get up near my current 32gb ram some days, so the 64gb isn’t crazy and would only save $400 anyway vs. 32gb.

    Secondly, I took it to the boss.

    Decision has been made with my (much more sane) wife to postpone this until at least next February when I know what my tax situation is.

    This is the first year I’m 1099 and also my first year to crack six figures. I’ve been responsible and socked 20% away so it feels like I have a shit ton of liquid cash and I am looking for some write offs and frankly feel like treating myself for having my best year ever in a damn pandemic after getting laid off in March.., but I’ll prolly owe Uncle Sam several thousand of it. Which could make this a much tighter purchase.

    And... I did just spend $800 on ammunition... because even I think there’s a high likelihood of... bad things.

    So, if the world holds together maybe next spring, and if not this old 2015 iMac will make a good point of sale machine for my little afterworld trading post.

    I’m going to be a fletcher and stiller.

    Thanks for all your advice all! I’m intrigued by the idea of a lower Mac, with a powerhouse Windows box on a KVM and I’m going to look at costs on maybe a trash can I can refurb for the Mac side.

    But man... the appeal of that sleek darker grey single box that can handle both my work and gaming needs in a sexy ass thin mountable 5k screen that won’t be outdated for at least 5 years... it is still strong.

    TL;DR ~ wife and community stave off mania driven $7000 computer purchase from stir crazy dev.
  • 1
    $7K with that specs and includes also a shiny bitten apple logo? What a bargain!!!

    /s
  • 1
    @HiFiWiFiSciFi
    I buy the ammo arg. We bought two additional ACRs and have been putting in regular orders for 5.56 for awhile now.

    Not a prepper by any means, but definitely will not be surprised if we see redneck rampage after the shit wraps up.
  • 1
    @SortOfTested

    Are those full auto assault rifles?
    If so, dafuq! You are not even allowed to own shit like that in germany, because of the so called KriegswaffenKontrollGesetz (KrWaffKontrG).
    At best you can get like handguns and maybe single shot rifles or shot guns.
    Hope you don't need that kind of weaponry soon, though.

    Thought about getting a crossbow, cause those are not as strictly regulated.
    I may have watched too much TWD lately... :D

    Also quite curious which distribution(s) you run on a regular basis?
  • 1
    @jay91
    You can't legally acquire those as a civilian here without extreme effort. Even if you somehow managed to work it through an NFA trust, you would be subject to onerous controls and oversight to such a point where taking it out of a safe would get you a visit from the ATF (the FBI, but for random vice related bullshit, and also guns bc reasons). Not worth it.

    Definitely don't pass laws that open up guns to the masses. They're far more trouble than they're worth societally.
  • 0
    @SortOfTested so you apparently went through that extreme effort and casually mention you got another two. You say getting weapons to the masses is not worth it societally, but because others can stock up on weapons you do, too? Is it like an arms race?

    I don't know what to make of that 😂
    Not criticism intended, I'm just puzzled.

    Also what distros do you use as your daily drivers, since you mentioned that earlier I think?

    @HiFiWiFiSciFi

    Seems like you like to spend a lot of 💰 on not that good of a value. You can get better hardware for less money, as lots of ppl already told you. My piece of advice, don't do it (at least until your taxes are done). But I can relate to your twitching fingers wanting to place the order of sth. you just want. How many rounds are 800 bucks (approx.)?
  • 0
    @jay91
    They sell civilian semi-auto of basically everything. I buy them because we already have them, and I don't trust the people who love them. It's not like an arms race, it *is* an arms race.

    tldr
    Something about not bringing knives to gunfights :p
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