Buying an iMac Pro or iMac 5K + iMac Pro in Stock at B&H Photo
Related: 2017 iMac 5K, 4K and 5K display, computer display, deals, iMac, iMac 5K, iMac Pro, Mac Pro, memory, Other World Computing, Thunderbolt, Thunderbolt 3, weather events
Get OWC Thunderbolt 3 Dock at Macsales.com.
As I write this, there were 9 different iMac Pro models in stock at B&H Photo. B&H Photo does not charge sales tax for most states nd these have free expedited shipping.
Consider as an alternative the 2017 iMac 5K—it’s what I switched to back in November. I will soon know and publish my findings on whether the iMac Pro is worth the extra money.
The key things I recommend with the iMac Pro:
- A pricey machine like this deserves 64GB. Skip over the 32GB memory models.
- Unless you’re doing video or 3D/VR, the extra GPU memory is not likely to add value.
- I strongly recommend the 2TB SSD over 1TB. It is key to high speed I/O and the key to letting cores not be stalled when doing big jobs. Therefore, you need space for large Lightroom catalogs, scratch files, active projects, etc.
- 8 or 10 cores are the sweet spot. Photographers are not likely to gain (and might lose) with the 14 or 18 core.
Buying an iMac Pro or iMac 5K
Go in with eyes wide open—marketing hype is neither workflow efficiency, nor value.
Before spending for an iMac Pro, the following articles should be read, for plusses and minuses as as well as pending possibilities for whether the iMac Pro is upgradeable.
- iMac Pro posts and articles
- iMac Pro Models for Photographers
- iMac Pro: Pricing and Thoughts
- Why More CPU Cores Often Run no Faster, and Sometimes Slower than Fewer CPU Cores
- iMac Pro: Downclocked CPUs
- Turbo Boost and the Intel Xeon W CPUs in the Apple iMac Pro
- Using Two Thunderbolt 3 Ports to Build Out a System
Note: the Thunderbay 4 is a terrific solution (I have 5 of them) but a Thunderbolt 3 version should be out soon. Hard drives go into the Thunderbay 4 or an external enclosure.
