“While I still run into people from time to time who believe that Macs are sophisticated consumer computers and not suited for professional work, I’m sure most of you know that isn’t correct,” Gene Steinberg writes for The Tech Night Owl. “Regardless, over the years, it was generally assumed that an all-in-one Mac was useful for small business or consumers, while a Mac tower was the work machine that the content creators craved.”
“That, however, changed in late 2009, when a new lineup of iMacs came out with quad-core processors, reasonably speedy graphics, and expansive hard drives,” Steinberg writes. “As development of the Mac Pro appeared to have slowed, an tricked out iMac, customized with extra RAM and the more powerful processor and graphics chips offered by Apple, actually met or exceeded many Mac Pro benchmarks. Yes, I understand that having extra processor cores counts in some apps, but not in most.”
“After Tim Cook promised a great Mac Pro upgrade in 2013, there was a lot of anticipation and suggestions on how Apple might change the form factor, assuming there was going to be much of a change. The fashionably small black cylinder without much external expansion probably came as a surprise to most, although it may make sense for some that didn’t find the internal expansion to be sufficient,” Steinberg writes. “No matter. It appears the Mac Pro has taken off quite nicely, still backordered for several weeks on even the two standard configurations… But if you examine Mac performance up and down the line, you’ll see that most any model is capable of terrific performance, even a Mac mini. For serious business use, an iMac is a powerful beast, and should be taken seriously.”
Much more in the full article here.