The new iMacs released yesterday have some extremely impressive CPUs at the high end. The Sandy Bridge architecture in these iMacs, and the recent MacBook Pros, is so good that they’re competitive with the Mac Pro in some benchmarks.
So why buy a Mac Pro instead of an iMac or MacBook Pro?
That’s a great question and one that is increasingly complex.
The Mac Pro used to be the obvious choice for anyone who needed power or expandability. It really was a no brainer. If you need brawn, Apple’s only tower was the only choice.
Clearly, the first factor has become less of a differentiator as iMacs have become increasingly powerful. There are very few things that an iMac can’t do smoothly at this point. While some still need all 12 cores that the muscular Mac Pro offers, the Sandy Bridge chipset in Apple’s all-in-one is enough horsepower for just about everyone. People that just barely needed a Mac Pro for the power would be fine getting an iMac now. The new desktop can even support two displays out, something that only the Mac Pro could boast until this week.
Expandability is still the Mac Pro’s biggest selling point. It is the only Mac that can take PCI Express cards, multiple internal hard drives and more than 16 GB of RAM. With Thunderbolt on the horizon, external drives should gain tons of speed, making the additional slots in the Mac Pro less vital for some users. However, the Mac Pro’s ability to address more than 16GB of RAM and its PCI Express slots are vital to those in the professional realm. Other features like dual Ethernet ports and loads of USB and FireWire 800 ports are just bonuses. There is simply no equal anywhere else in Apple’s lineup for those who need to hook up audio or video interfaces to their machines.
While the Mac Pro is expandable, it’s not super upgradeable. There are few options for video cards, and the processors can’t be swapped out for better, faster chips.
I can see a future in which Apple streamlines the Mac Pro line, losing the low-end, cheaper models. This would allow Apple to focus on the niche users who need loads of power, and have loads of cash to spend. Those who are torn between the iMac and the Mac Pro would have the decision made for them, if the low-end Mac Pro were to go away.
Now, I’m not sure Apple would ever pigeonhole the Mac Pro by leaving just the super powerful one available for sale. But is is something to think about.