I bought an iMac Pro

So yeah, I bought an iMac Pro and to be honest I haven’t been this excited about buying a computer since I bought a Mac Pro in 2008. For me, the Mac Pro I bought in 2008 really cemented me into the Apple ecosystem, it was then that I started using macOS (OS X at the time) as my full-time operating system.

I loved my 2008 Mac Pro—it was such an incredible machine. Obviously the one major advantage of the 2008 Mac Pro versus the 2017 iMac Pro is that the 2008 Mac Pro was easily upgradable. In fact, I upgraded various parts in the machine over the course of time from the RAM to the hard drives (as well as adding SSD’s) to even upgrading the video card. I know Apple is working on a new Mac Pro with a supposedly more upgradeable design but the iMac Pro, in my opinion, offers real value for pro users with its incredible specs and the fact that it also comes with arguably the best display (for the majority of people) built right into the computer itself.

So what iMac Pro specs did I go with?

CPU: 10-Core, 3.0GHz Intel Xeon W, Turbo Boost up to 4.5GHz

RAM: 64GB of 2666MHz DDR4 ECC memory

Storage: 1TB SSD

GPU: Radeon Pro Vega 64 graphics processor with 16GB of HBM2 memory

I went with the 10-core model because I feel it offers the best bang for my buck. It has the highest CPU clock speed and what I believe to be just the right amount of cores for someone like me.

I opted for the 64GB of RAM for two key reasons, one, I like to run virtual machines. The second is because the RAM on the iMac Pro isn’t really user upgradable. According to Apple if you want to upgrade the RAM (without voiding the warranty) you will need to bring it into an Apple Store and have them do it. I’d rather not have to go through that at some point in the future so I guess you can say I’m future-proofing my purchase a bit.

The choice to stick with the default 1TB SSD is because I store most of my data on a 20TB LaCie Thunderbolt 3 external drive. The 1TB SSD will be perfect for when I’m editing video but I really don’t need anything bigger.

And lastly, I went for the Vega 64 GPU solely because it will benefit me when editing videos.

I can’t wait for this beast to show up! In fact, I just got the shipping notification and it seems it should be here before the new year. I’ll likely do an unboxing video as well, so stay tuned for that!