I mean, with the new Mac Pro out, surely the used trashcan would become much, much cheaper. But does it make any sense to get the trashcan vs a new Mac mini?
One question you have to ask yourself is āhow long before it becomes unsupportedā?
Another one is āwould a modern iMac (Pro?) be faster?ā
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I donāt like the iMac Pro mainly because it is an all-in-one. I already have a nice monitor and donāt have desk space for another one. A Mac mini or the trashcan will be able to sit comfortably on the desk. Your point on āunsupportedā is truly valid. I have a feeling it will not be able to survive next OS X version after Catalina.
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Thatās a flaw in Appleās (current) lineup, indeed. The main - or should I say only - reason for me to buy an MBP was so I would be able to use an external (32", 4K) monitor. That would have been possible with a Mac Mini too, but that machine is less powerful. Iāve owned several iMacās and even an eMac (horrible computer) over the years and donāt like the all-in-one principle. Besides, I wanted a bigger screen than 27".
Since the trash can was for sale (if Iām not mistaken) until a few days ago, I would think it would be supported like any other Mac - maybe five years?
I think this is an under served market that one day Apple will realize and made a Mac Mini Proā¦ we need to have hope that it will come, soonā¦ like 2H 2020 soon!
I would consider getting a beefed up mac mini before buying an obsolete Mac Pro.
You can speck the miniās up all the way these days.
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Probably not. Better price/performance with a new iMac Pro than a 2017-update of a 2013-design trashcan Mac. One speed-test comparison here:
I replaced a 2013 Mac Pro with a beefed up 2018 Mac Mini.
Except for number of Thunderbolt busses, the Mini is a categorically better machine for my uses.
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Sure you can get service (and parts) for five years, but that doesnāt mean it will be supported by the next five years of versions of macOS.
I have a beefed up Mac mini I bought last year.
I went for the highest spec cpu and 512gb drive and upgraded the ram to 32gb myself which save a fortune.
On the whole really happy with it. The only issues I have is if I have my egpu connect with an external monitor it will not boot to the login screen. Think it is related to me using an encrypted boot drive.
Also Bluetooth can play up occasionally, not on the whole very happy.
Other than that, how is the eGPU experience? Iāve not tried it myself.
Haha, just go a newsletter with āsalesā from a local chain here in Germany. 
But āFree Shippingā 
You didnāt ask me, but I have a Mac Mini with the Blackmagic eGPU and my wife has one with a different enclosure. We love the extra power it affords us. I do some 4k video editing and she does a lot of photo editing. The difference is noticeable. Itās very seamless except for boot up. Itās also annoying to remember to go into āget infoā of new apps and click āprefer external gpu.ā
If I have to force a shut down, the login screen never shows up. The monitor will not be woken up. I have to unplug the thunderbolt cable from the egpu and plug it back in to work. Most the time it works if the computer is shut down normally.