Sorry, pretty bad days lately, nightmares and sleep deprivation doesn't mix very well. This prism + copy-cat fan drove me nuts
. Guess I over reacted ....
I mean, it isn't as if there aren't stark similarities, it's just that beyond the relative shape/size and the "prism" orientation of components, almost everything else was executed pretty differently.
Honestly, I think that the best argument for calling the Vortex distinct from the Mac Pro is to show how ugly and inelegant the inside (and outside, IMO, though aesthetics are highly subjective) of the Vortex is. Instead of Apple's unified thermal core that actively cools everything, the board and graphics have independent heatsinks that bloat the case and provide substantially less area for the top fan to channel air through. The plastic construction belies the $4,000+ price point, even as Apple's US-made all-aluminum case is 33% less expensive. Cables are strewn everywhere internally, and they took no care in trying to make the inside look remotely presentable. They've even had to mount most of the components off-axis and at awkward or unusual angles, presumably to try to compensate for all the metal and hardware that has to exist on the outside of the "prism". And all of this compromise, for no real practical benefit to the end user - in practice, none of this hardware is going to be replaceable, that already isn't in the Mac Pro.
They did all those things because they wanted to save money, bluntly. You can argue that they "invested" those savings in more powerful components in comparison to the Mac Pro, but they're also asking for $1,000 more, and that's a comparison to a machine that was last updated
in 2013. Hardly a benchmark to be comparing a 2016 machine to.
IMO, the only reason to buy this right now is because the hardware in the Mac Pro is so dated (
especially the graphics), and because some folks who want the best won't miss $4,000. But that disparity is likely not going to be the case come June, and in almost every other way - price, component quality, build and materials quality, size, and compatibility (can run all the OS's), the Mac Pro is objectively better. Even for a PC diehard that would never use OS X, I can't see a compelling reason to recommend a base Vortex over an updated Mac Pro running Windows, whenever that arrives.
(Unless MSI slashes the price, of course, which they might, and I
really hope they do.)
