
'iHac Pro' vs. iMac Pro - esthor
https://medium.com/unhype/ihac-pro-vs-imac-pro-1047fa1ea206
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dkuntz2
They bought hardware that doesn't even compare. There's a reason the iMac Pro
went with the actual professional grade hardware, because that's their target.
Using consumer grade and saying "look they're similar" is misleading and not a
valid comparison.

Yes, the iMac Pro costs a lot of money. But if you buy the same components
you're going to end up with a desktop that costs a similar amount of money,
and doesn't officially run MacOS.

Of course not everyone needs the power of the iMac Pro, and most people
lusting over it would probably be fine with the standard iMac. A better
comparison would be with the standard iMac.

Configuring the 27" iMac with as similar specs as I can ends up being $3700.
It's more expensive, the graphics card is nowhere near as good, and the CPU is
a little faster, but only has 4 cores. CPU with similar speeds is -$200. It's
still more expensive, but it comes much closer to the specs you chose to build
the "iHac Pro" on, and uses a similar same grade of hardware.

You can also handwave away some of that price difference on the included
keyboard and mouse, which your build doesn't include.

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esthor
Hi, author here.

Thank you for the comments!

I was originally trying to go for benchmark or spec comparison (which
unfortunately there isn't much out yet for many of the iMac Pro components)
without having to pick the same parts. Clearly I've missed some core
components, and features and performance along with those for many workstation
use cases.

I will definitely take your points in to the re-write of this article. I think
you, and many of the others here have shown me a lot of what I missed in
clarifying and in comparing. I really appreciate your passion and criticism!

Also, as far as the iMac (non-pro) goes, since that came out I've thought that
has been a steal on pricing, especially for that screen (bought a 5k one last
year).

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megy
This is ridiculous. You buy hardware that is clearly not as good, and call it
a win? So your point is that you can but hardware not as powerful for less?
Does anyone not know that.

At least compare like with like, and you will have to wait until you
understand what the mac has to do that.

Why post an article so wrong? Why waste everyone's time? Just to be the first?

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james-skemp
Harsh, but while reading this I thought something similar. Too many unknowns
so it just struck me as too soon for this piece.

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atonse
I love how he handwaves the difference between Xeon and non-Xeon, and ECC vs
non-ECC memory. That and 4K vs 5k accounts for most of the price.

Why not do an apples to apples comparison?

This happens way too often with people who decide that Mac Pro hardware is
overpriced.

~~~
rubatuga
Also completely ignores the all-in-one design of the iMac Pro.

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andy_ppp
Well to be fair he states his preference for expandability. I personally
prefer the sleekness, the lack of investment in building it, the warranty, the
5k screen, the ECC, the testing of everything done at the factory, the perfect
match of OS and hardware as well as the time I saved by not having to figure
out all those weird issues. Makes me actually think the new iMac Pro (at least
the base model) is pretty reasonable.

~~~
jjeaff
Why do you prefer ecc? I can't think of any uses for it in a Mac that isn't a
server.

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mikestew
Why is it that nearly every “I can build a better Mac Pro than Apple for less”
article just hand-waves away the Xeon part. What, never occurred to anyone
that Xeons might cost more for a reason? “I don’t need a Xeon.” Then you don’t
a professional version of an Apple desktop.

~~~
jjeaff
Xeons are more expensive for partially the same reasons apple is more
expensive. Branding. I can't think of any reason to need Xeon or ECC on a
workstation. And the legitimate usecase for needing them would have to make up
less than 1% of those actually purchasing an iMac pro.

~~~
thesmallestcat
It's unreal that these will move at 5000. Assuming you don't need Xeon (which
requires ECC) you can build a machine just as good for half that, easily.

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mtmail
It's more an on-paper iHac Pro, because it hasn't been build yet and it's
unclear if MacOS will boot. Looking forward to hear if/when somebody builds
it.

~~~
esthor
Hi, author here.

You're absolutely right that it's an 'on-paper' build. I did make sure to
check each component, that they have been used successfully in other
Hackintosh community builds, with High Sierra.

~~~
rubatuga
I'm curious, what were your intentions? To show that Apple is overpriced? Or
to encourage people to build their own hackintoshes? Furthermore, people who
are considering buying the iMac Pro are not likely to be interested in
building their own PC. Also, people who are buying a workstation usually want
ECC ram, because bit errors in 3d rendering, or scientific computing can be a
show-stopper.

~~~
esthor
I wasn't intending to be that cliche "Apple is overpriced" guy. I think they
make great products, of which I own many. It was more the latter, to encourage
people to build custom to their needs and awareness that there is another
option out there. I made 3 Hackintosh computers over the years and really
enjoyed the experience and the system. Re:ECC - I'm going to definitely revise
that part, since a lot of people are bringing that up.

~~~
rubatuga
I agree there are some people who may believe that they need the iMac Pro,
even though they clearly do not. But these people are not the type of people
who are building hackintoshes. If they are ready to spend $5000 on an Apple
product, then they are likely going to buy it. It seems like you are targeting
those who want the iMac Pro but don't want to spend money, because the other
potential target, those who need a workstation, are likely professionals that
also don't want to build a hackintosh without a warranty, or without ECC etc.
In that case, you need to wonder what it is about the iMac Pro that those who
don't want to spend money like about it. Maybe it's the design, or the status
symbol, which are things your iHac Pro does not satisfy.

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KaoruAoiShiho
You can just buy the display though, isn't this the display:
[https://www.apple.com/shop/product/HKN62LL/A/lg-
ultrafine-5k...](https://www.apple.com/shop/product/HKN62LL/A/lg-
ultrafine-5k-display)

Why not just include ECC and a Xeon? It'll make the comparison make sense.

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TheDong
Because then it would cost more than the iMac.

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nvahalik
The hardware comparison is fun and all but aren’t the hackintoshes an absolute
bear to keep working after the initial install?

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exidy
It's pretty easy these days, mainly thanks to Clover[1] getting so good at
pretending to be a real Mac. Even to the point of doing major OS upgrades
(e.g. 10.12 -> 10.13) using only the native installer.

[1]
[https://sourceforge.net/projects/cloverefiboot/](https://sourceforge.net/projects/cloverefiboot/)

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vvdcect
Would you get the same development experience using a hackintosh or iHac? From
my understanding these types of builds would only be suitable for home use.

