SpiceWare's Blog

Yeah… they got a purty face.

 

 

Just don't go lookin' too close at their backsides...

 

Nice setup -- feeling just a little jealous, even though I've sworn myself off the desktop Macs for now in favor of the 15" MBP. The allure of having 6 cores and 2 GPUs in a sleek little package is making me reconsider (though not seriously at this point) my decision

 

The stock config isn't too shabby -- 16GB, 256GB SSD. But ouch, that price But enjoy it -- that is a serious step up from a 2008 MacBook Pro and any Mac mini that Apple may or may not come out with anytime soon.

Nice room! Yeah the cables definitely detract, but wireless isn't fast enough yet to eliminate them. Plus that many systems in the same room would probably cause lots of wireless collisions, slowing the transfer rate even further.

The 6 cores isn't as much faster as I'd have expected - converting DVDs on my MacBook Pro was 31 fps while the mini jumped 91. I did a test conversion of an MKV file (ripped blu-ray) the mini came in at 59 fps while the Mac Pro was 103. There was a noticeable change in system noise - the fans on the mini cranked up so much I could hear them in the kitchen (probably 20 feet away). I didn't notice the fans at all on the Mac Pro and it's about 4 feet from me.

 

Of course the jump in years was 4 for the DVD but only 1 for the Blu-ray test - MacBook Pro was from 2008, mini from 2012 and Pro from 2013.

When I played StarCraft 2 on the MacBook Pro all the graphic settings were at the lowest option. I migrated it over last night and when it detected the new graphics card it changed them all to the highest. Purty is an understatement for how good that look I never tried it on the Mini as its home theater keyboard/trackpad is not going to cut it for gaming.

 

Yeah, it's a lot of money but I'm fairly sure I'll be keeping it for a long time. I do wish they'd have had the 512GB SSDs as an option at the store - it'd have been easy enough for them to swap it out on site.

And of course, the day after you buy one...

 

http://www.macrumors.com/2014/09/25/refurbished-mac-pro-now-available/

but of course!

 

Was planning to head up to Fry's during lunch to get the longer cables, but then remembered your comment about monoprice. So instead I headed up to the store and picked up some weed killer and cloths line. I'm going to get some other cables from mono price, so I can rearrange some items in my office, and will use the cloths line to figure out what lengths I'll need to order (much easier to snake it around the room than the steel measuring tape).

My order from monoprice arrived yesterday. For just under $50 (and that's with shipping) I got:

• 3x 15' USB cables
• 2x 15' mini display port to DVI cables
• 1x 15' DVI cable
• 1x 15' USB extension cable

I rearranged a few things in my office and am pleased with the results. They were use for:

 

1 USB cable - goes from the Shared USB port on the KVM to my laser printer. On the KVM if you press and release a button the active computer will change, if you hold the button (until a beep occurs) the Shared USB port will switch to that computer. I use it to share my printer between my Mac and work computer. My work systems are on a separate network, done so if company is over I don't have to worry about anyone accidentally getting access to confidential information.

 

1 USB cable and 1 mini display port go from the Mac Pro to the KVM.

 

1 mini display port goes from the Mac Pro directly to the second monitor. The work PC connects via VGA so I use the monitor's input selection when switching between my work PC and the Mac Pro.

 

1 USB cable and DVI cable go from the "install test" work computer to the KVM. When working I use Remote Desktop to connect to most of my other work systems, but when testing our software I need to set Display to 125% and 150% to make sure the forms scale correctly. For some reason that setting doesn't work over Remote Desktop.

 

USB extension cable is used to position the receiver for the mini keyboard I use with my Mac mini closer to the couch. I've had times where the keyboard and trackpad response wasn't up to snuff and hope this will help.

I recently placed an order with Monoprice for over $700.

We use a lot of cables here.

Not holding out for the new mini turned out to be just fine. One of my plans for next year is to replace the two 24" 1080p monitors with a couple 28" (give or take) 4K displays. From the tech specs for the mini:

 

Support for up to two displays at 2560 by 1600 pixels, both at millions of colors

Both of the mini DisplayPort to DVI cables went bad. I was experiencing monitor glitches where the display would frequently blink off then back on, while on occasion it would change to multi-color static. The static required me to switch to another video input and back to clear up. Then one day one of the monitors wasn't recognized when I powered up the Mac Pro. When I checked the cable connections, the the DVI end of the cable it was very hot - never a good sign.

For now I've got the Mac Pro connected using a couple mini DisplayPort to DVI adaptors with the DVI cables that I had in storage (the ones I originally used as seen in the top photo)

Was going to send them back to monoprice but then I saw a great deal on Amazon for the 4K monitors I've been wanting to get, so ordered a couple of them as well as the different cables (also from Amazon) it needs as the new monitors support DisplayPort, mini DisplayPort and HDMI, but not DVI.

 

Only minor issue for now is KVMs that support 4K are crazy expensive, so I'll be using the existing KVM just as a K-M and use the monitor's input selector for the -V- for when I switch between the Mac Pro and my work PCs.

 

Single monitor 4K KVM $949.99

 

Dual monitor 4K KVM $1399.99