FAQ! Do you think that the new iMac Pro is a huge ripoff?

Well, I don’t think you need 8/10/18 Cores and 32GB server grade 2666MHz ECC DDR4-RAM in your gaming PC, nor do you need to connect one 5K Retina Display plus 4*4K UHD displays and set all FIVE screens to show with full resolution & 60Hz refresh rate at the same time.

In short, it’s not a gaming PC, and it’s not targeting generic consumers like you.

Used PC Part Picker For This, In Respect to build GAMING PC!

MSI Aegis-216US

Well, let’s see:

1. CPU: unfortunately there is no latest Intel Xeon 8/10/18 cores in the list, so we pick the older (and cheaper OEM) generation, Intel Xeon E5-2640 8 core 2.6GHz instead, which is US$870.

2. Motherboard: Again, there is no suitable mother board for latest Intel Xeon. So we pick the one that can match with Xeon E5–2640 & DDR4 ECC, so we chose ASUS ROG X99, which is US$311.

3. Memory: there is no DDR-4 2666MHz server grade ECC RAM in the list. The CRUCIAL DDR-4 2666MHz ECC 32GB is US$335, so we pick something that is close in price, we choose Kingston 32G DDR4–2133 ECC, which is US$322.

4. Storage: iMac Pro offers 1TB PCI-E SSD. No special preference here so we choose something similar, Mushkin 960GB PCI-E SSD, which is US$834.

5. Video card: There is no standalone Radeon Pro Vega 56 /w 8GB HMB2 products on the market. Since Vega series is aiming for replacing the graphic workstation grade Radeon Fury X /w 4GB HMB memory, we can assume the price will fall into the same range, but a little bit higher for the extra 4GB memory; so we choose VisionTek R9 Furry X, which is US$700.

6. Monitor: iMac pro offers 27″ 5120×2880 billion color. There is only one monitor that similar in spec in the list: HP Z27q, which is US$910. This is kinda undervalued through.

7. Networking. iMac Pro offers 10GbE. No doubt. 10GbE. There are only two 10GbE adaptors in the list, one is Intel, with a whooping US$700+ price tag, the other is StarTech ST10000SPEX, which is US$233.

8. WiFi: iMac Pro has built-in WiFi. It’s not only a second network interface, it is in face the peer-to-peer (a.k.a. “WiFi Direct”) channel of AirDrop. Let’s not be so picky here, just get a normal 802.11a/b/g/n/ac WiFi adapter. We choose cheap TP-Link, which is US$37.

9. Case: seems ATX full tower is the only viable choice according to the PCPartPicker. No special preference here so we choose the US$150 Corsair. Plus US$25 Corsair case fan.

10. Power Supply: so far the total power is whooping 485W. Better pick a 850W power supply. We choose something in mid price range, SuperNova T2, which is US$199.

11. Thunderbold 3: Sadly there is no such fancy stuff in the category. So we manually add ASUS ThunderboltEX 3. US$65.

12. Mouse/Keyboard/Speaker: iMac offers bluetooth keyboard and built-in speaker. No special preference here so we choose Logitech, total US$185, since they have fair cost/performance ratio.

13. Operation system: Windows 10 Pro 64 bits OEM, what else can you have? US$133.

14. Optical drive & other: Omitted. When did you use CD/DVD last time ?

OK lets check all these items in our shopping cart. It’s…US$ 4974.

Wow! Just, Wow!

And the beast we’ve composed still lacks the ability to output 5 independent desktops to 5 UHD-4K monitors at the same time.

Now you should know why it’s so expensive; because it’s not a product for consumer market. All components in iMac Pro are workstation / server grade. It is designed for you to create 4K films or 3D modeling, not playing games. In fact, you can bet that you won’t get better FPS in Battlefield or Counter Strike under 1440P resolution on iMac Pro, since gaming softwares are not yet optimized for Radeon.

I have zero doubt that any one can compose a monster gaming machine under US$2000 so that you can play [place-any-game-here] in 60+ FPS under 1440P, but iMac Pro is NOT designed for that.

You won’t take Ferrari to race against a cargo trailer, would you ? So why insist to compare a gaming PC to a graphic workstation ?

Bottomline:

We Think, Absolutely not. The thing isn’t for gaming. You don’t need 8, 10, or 18 cores for gaming, and you also don’t need anywhere near the other specs. Plus, I would like to draw serious question to your gaming computer costing half of that having better specs in literally any area. Also, no, just because you have two GPUs doesn’t mean it has better specs. It means it has more graphics power.

However, for professional tasks, you could need anything from loads of cores to loads of memory to loads of single threaded power, in which case this wouldn’t actually be a good option.