Here's my Mac Pro order and rationale. First, I admit that I have no real rationale for the purchase except that I've waited too long for another Mac Pro (my old one, now retired, was a 3,1), and because it's so shiny. Hence, I was somewhat restrained in the options; I didn't load up with cores or RAM, etc. The config:
- 12 core - for faster single-thread performance and the faster memory speeds that come with it. Plus, on principle, it has to have more cores than my Linux box (9900k) or there's no fun at all. I didn't feel that yet another $1000 for 16 cores would be very cost effective, and some years down the road I'm sure I could find a cheap chip to pop in if I wanted.
- 48GB RAM - to fill up all 6 channels for slightly faster performance. No worries down the road since there are six slots left.
- Vega II - because my other box has a 2080ti and I can't allow this mac to feel too embarrassed. Plus, it has decent compute performance (should I move some work from my linux box), and with an excessive 32 GB of very fast memory, this thing shouldn't run into bottlenecks.
- 1 TB SSD - fills both flash slots for slightly faster speeds. No need for more since I will also get a four-blade SSD card, populated with 8TB in RAID.
- Mouse+trackpad - they both have their uses.
- The damned $400 wheels - for easy mobility, to avoid the "duck feet" look, and for down-hill racing.
- Pro App bundle - for stuff I might want to try (e.g., I'm a big photographer but thus far a minimal videographer).
- Applecare - because it's a bargain when buying such an expensive machine, and one would be foolish to skip it. I wish it could be extended to 5+ years, even.
I will probably get an XDR display later. I'm a little worried about the fact that it has two fans, as I can't stand electronic noise. Indeed, my linux box and NAS are actually in a separate room for that reason. I hear that Corning and perhaps others will come out with long Thunderbolt-3 optical cables sometime soon, at which point hiding the new, shiny, Pro in the other room becomes possible too (I hope it supports 6k). That leaves only the display to be a potential noise maker. Actually, I'd prefer an OLED display, but of course those are of no to minimal availability in desktop sizes or resolutions.
