The controversy is served, the Cupertino (Apple) company yesterday presented a new revolution in its range of desktop computers, we are talking about the iMac Pro, the fusion between the iMac and the Mac Pro that many had dreamed of. Here it is, and of course it wasn't going to be cheap. There is no shortage of rises to the fore in which the defenders of the PC argue that a PC with the same characteristics costs much less, the main object for which this type of user can opt for a modular PC over the company's products. Cupertino, whose customization we already know, is quite limited. Nevertheless… What is the truth that a PC is much cheaper than the iMac Pro? Let's check it out with these comparisons.
On this occasion we want to face all possible points of view with regard to the purchase of a computer of these characteristics, as well as its alternatives, so that you form your own opinion about it, not getting carried away neither by the clichés, nor by the advertising entertainments. If you want to know a specific option, you can take advantage of the index to get there as quickly as possible.
Do we buy it done or do we do it ourselves?
Here we have the first of the question, Apple is not the only company that takes the bull by the horns when it comes to offering this type of alternatives for professionals. HP, for example, has its own section, and the Z840 model with similar characteristics and starting at approximately € 4.300, and of course, in this situation we do not have peripherals, or UBS-C, and to be honest, HP is not offering even the penultimate version of Windows with these workstations, as you hear it, you can get this model accompanied by Windows 7 Professional 64, although without being truthful, the totally free update to Windows P10 Pro 64 is available.
In short, if at those € 4.300 (or € 3.300 aprx if we get the immediately lower version, the Z640) we would have to add a monitor with Apple's characteristics, that is, with 5K resolution, as well as the rest of the peripherals, and even then we would not have some advantages, such as that it is not All-in-One. In short, getting a workstation, for example HP, does not seem attractive enough to compare it with the iMac Pro.
As an advantage, this type of workstations have a very high repairability, we are not going to discuss the technical services of each company, it is something that Apple can boast of, but HP is not far behind in this type of products, which also have a three-year warranty. Definitely… Is it interesting to purchase an HP-assembled workstation with these features? You will have to debate it for yourself.
How much would we have to invest to mount an equal PC?
We have another alternative we can build a PC with almost better features, to our liking, giving our confidence to the company that we ourselves want. We go there with some simple calculations (it goes without saying that there are indeed cheaper and more expensive products than the ones I have selected, I have tried to be as faithful as possible to the iMac Pro).
- 5K Monitor HP Z27q - 995 euros at Amazon
- Intel Xeon E5-2630V4 2.2 GHz BOX - € 735 in PC Components
- AMD Radeon Pro Vega 56 - (without official price) Approximately € 1.500
- Kingston KVR21L15Q4 - 32GB ECC DDR4 296,49€
- Samsung 850 EVO - 1TB SSD 322,92€
- Logitech 920C WebCam - € 74 (on sale) at Amazon
- MSI x99A SLI PLUS Motherboard - € 219 in PC Components
- PCI-E with 2 USB-C UGREEN - € 50,99 at Amazon
- Thermaltake Water 3.0 Extreme S - 109 € in PC Components
- Corsair HX1000i 1000W 80 Plus Platinum Modular - 233 € in PC Components
TOTAL: € 4.535
Indeed, The good thing about assembling the PC on our own is that we could avoid quite a few components, starting with the PCI-e of the USB-C, following the WebCam with FullHD resolution and much more, but once again we would not be faithful to the product we want to compare, the iMac Pro. However, these types of computers respond to a series of needs that we must cover, so it is true that a product of these characteristics could be more suitable for the user in question, even without certain components and expanding on others.
Why is an iMac Pro better than a PC with these characteristics?
Needless to say, on this budget We have not included a 10Gb Ethernet connection, nor the keyboard, nor the mouse that Apple includes in the box (Magic Keyboard 2 and Magic Mouse 2). Of course, the iMac also has WiFi 802.11ac and Bluetooth 4.2.
Nor have we included in the price of the composite PC the appropriate version of Windows 10 that would have to be purchased for the corresponding price, however, macOS is already included completely free with the iMac Pro. All this means that the PC has the same characteristics that the iMac Pro might not be profitable. A highlight of the iMac Pro is that we are facing an All-in-One, This means that we have the monitor and the rest of the hardware integrated, so the space it will occupy is minimal. Another quite remarkable point of the iMac Pro is that it ensures a fairly high performance with very little noise, the Cupertino company has always stood out for making quite silent devices thanks to its engineers and the ventilation systems that they provide.
IMac Pro is built in 7000 aluminum in space gray color, which gives it a sober touch, the design is also part of the price, without a doubt. The problem comes when the design on the specifications, something that has occurred in the latest model of the Mac Pro and that Apple has wanted to solve by unifying it with the iMac range.
Another strong point of Apple is its SAT, the Cupertino company has always been famous for its after-sales service and the way it entertains its customers. A problem with an iMac Pro, or even an iPod, will be solved surprisingly quickly at the Apple Store. It is known that Apple's technical service is not exquisite in the selection, in many cases they opt for the complete replacement of the product, and even their technicians have experience and dedicated knowledge for their catalog in particular, nobody will know more and better a product with the apple screen printed that they themselves.
Last macOS, It is true that the incompatibility arises (less and less) with certain programs that run on Windows, however, in a professional environment it is true that the operating system of the Cupertino company has a lot of content, the programs or applications work on macOS with a astonishing stability, in fact, this is the reason why so many photography, design and music professionals choose Mac as their platform, the constant updates from Apple, improvements in safety and an almost perennial stability have given it a deserved fame. Although certain Microsoft programs such as Office work much better on Windows than on macOS, on the other hand, if your needs go through office automation, you don't need this type of computer.
Why is a PC to parts better than an iMac Pro?
We will also see the other side of the movie. As we have said, mounting a PC by ourselves has advantages, many of them also, the first and perhaps most relevant is that we can select the components that we want, dispensing with some and providing more in others, thus achieving the correct stability. The main advantage of this type of product is that we can vary it to our liking, when we want and how we want, we own each of the components.
On the other hand, Apple chooses to solder most of the components to the motherboard (except the SSD, almost everything), which causes almost negligible component variability. It is true that it is necessary in order to get better space and ventilation, however, needing more RAM does not always mean needing a more powerful processor, and if you want to change components of this style in your iMac Pro, you will have no choice but to buy another complete. Definitely, The freedom of change in parts that a PC assembled to parts brings is never granted by a computer from the Cupertino company.
On the other hand, Windows lends itself much more to the variation of software productsWe already know that compatibility is not a problem in Windows, it is prepared for almost everything, it is the most widely used platform in the world and without a doubt the one with the most programming behind it. Also, Microsoft's work with Windows 10 has been pretty good, and the public is responding to it. On the other side of the table we have the gaming, without a doubt a PC with these characteristics with Windows will lend itself to moving the best and the latest in the world of video games, with spectacular results, something that we can never do with the iMac Pro, mainly due to the lack of video games for the platform.
I hope this comparison and set-up of opinions has served you to forge a slight idea of how many advantages and disadvantages it can have to get an iMac Pro or opt for a PC with parts with the same characteristics, now it is you who decides, do not let anyone decide for you.