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Apple Offers Sneak Peek of Completely Redesigned Mac Pro
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I've been waiting silently to see what they've been teasing at for so long now. I thought for sure that with Steve gone, they'd finally release a modest, modular "xMac" after all these years.
Instead, they release a MacMini Pro.
For years, I've been hoping for a simple desktop from Apple that would grow with my needs. I've never needed a workstation, but occasionally I like to replace my graphics card, or throw in an extra hard drive. I've needed a Mac Pro Lite. Apple consistently refused to deliver.
I've tried hackintoshes for the past 8 years, but they're always too much work to maintain, and too unstable. Eventually I just gave up.
And I didn't end up settling for an iMac, a Mac Pro, or a Mac Mini.
After DECADES of being an Apple fanboy - believing in the company when no one else did (much to the ridicule of all my friends) - Apple has made a Windows user out of me.
I would've never believed it to be possible.
Hate on me all you want. You are no longer my people.
-Clive
Instead, they release a MacMini Pro.
For years, I've been hoping for a simple desktop from Apple that would grow with my needs. I've never needed a workstation, but occasionally I like to replace my graphics card, or throw in an extra hard drive. I've needed a Mac Pro Lite. Apple consistently refused to deliver.
I've tried hackintoshes for the past 8 years, but they're always too much work to maintain, and too unstable. Eventually I just gave up.
And I didn't end up settling for an iMac, a Mac Pro, or a Mac Mini.
After DECADES of being an Apple fanboy - believing in the company when no one else did (much to the ridicule of all my friends) - Apple has made a Windows user out of me.
I would've never believed it to be possible.
Hate on me all you want. You are no longer my people.
-Clive
Not enough graphics grunt for games. Can't upgrade the graphics card. Can't even do the RAM anymore. Can't fit the 27" model in my desk.
This isn't the XMac I wanted. But maybe I can work with it.
I'm glad that Apple is finally deciding to do something substantial to the Mac Pro line. I guess time will tell if it is a stud or dud.
The design kind of throws me off. It looks almost a step back in the direction of the candy iMacs and G4 cubes. Interesting for sure but didn't expect it at all.
The design kind of throws me off. It looks almost a step back in the direction of the candy iMacs and G4 cubes. Interesting for sure but didn't expect it at all.
There are already thunderbolt expansion chassises in development that allow you to plug in PCI-EX graphics cards, so installing a new graphic card should be possible. Although it remains to be seen how much of a performance impact there will be. Although the Mac Pro may even let you change out the GPU like a lot of high end Windows laptops do now.
Thunderbolt expansion Chasis:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=MBOfIm3HQtI
But as everyone is saying, it will be interesting to see how much this thing costs as most will probably need to spend at least $1000 on thunderbolt expansion.
Thunderbolt expansion Chasis:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=MBOfIm3HQtI
But as everyone is saying, it will be interesting to see how much this thing costs as most will probably need to spend at least $1000 on thunderbolt expansion.
I think they should've updated the internals of the old Mac Pro as well as offered this new one.
It's a tough pill to swallow when you have 4 hard drives to rehouse or a ton of extra storage to buy to replace the old drives. I also have a FW400 audio interface that would need an adapter. Also a DVD burner.
A VERY Apple move.
It won't offer enough bandwidth for graphics cards.
They announce a much smaller Mac Pro but forgot to tell people that you're going to have to buy multiple chassis, install PCI-E cards into them and plug all the bandwidth intensive devices into the same port. Instead of one large workstation that I can tuck away I'll end up with multiple chassis spread across my desk.
This is an idiotic move.
Hooo... I was WRONG...
So guess I have to claim pleasantly surprised, an entirely new box - available later in the fall... Helllooooo Intel. Processors much?
Scorecard... bye bye optical, firewire. Called it.
Thunderbolt (2!), SSD Tech. Check
No internal expandability.. HELLO.
Not quite sure what to make of it yet. But the wee(!) beastie IS different.
Tomorrows Developer Preview should be DAMN interesting.
At least the line is still alive and not EOL'd.
... banzai.
"So I am not expecting anything at all at WWDC for us Pros. On the other hand, pessimists tend to have pleasant surprises instead of crushing disappointment." - [ Posted at MacWorld ]
So guess I have to claim pleasantly surprised, an entirely new box - available later in the fall... Helllooooo Intel. Processors much?
Scorecard... bye bye optical, firewire. Called it.
Thunderbolt (2!), SSD Tech. Check
No internal expandability.. HELLO.
Not quite sure what to make of it yet. But the wee(!) beastie IS different.
Tomorrows Developer Preview should be DAMN interesting.
At least the line is still alive and not EOL'd.
... banzai.
Perhaps i'm missing something here, but what can you expand in the old that you can't in the new? thunderbolt opens up a lot options.
For everyone here complaining...
...did you not see this?
If those two companies are behind it maybe everyone should just calm down until its released and then judge.
I also hope that since The Foundry is there Mari on Mac is now a possibility...
...did you not see this?
If those two companies are behind it maybe everyone should just calm down until its released and then judge.
I also hope that since The Foundry is there Mari on Mac is now a possibility...
I'm pretty excited about this, actually. I know others will be disappointed because there's no internal storage, but with a machine that small I can fit an external HDD enclosure and the new MP right where my current MP is.
A couple questions:
1) I currently have an ATI 5770 in my MP. I'm assuming a pair of AMD Fire Pros will outperform that significantly?
2) I imagine someone will make an enclosure that enables legacy MP users to put their HDDs and/or SSDs in?
A couple questions:
1) I currently have an ATI 5770 in my MP. I'm assuming a pair of AMD Fire Pros will outperform that significantly?
2) I imagine someone will make an enclosure that enables legacy MP users to put their HDDs and/or SSDs in?
Pro Me...
I dont care what the tower looks like or what its made of. So many PC towers today can run the gambit of looking like an alien, to my grandmothers jewelry box. What matters is what's inside. That chip, memory, and now support for 4k displays....I'm in!!
I dont care what the tower looks like or what its made of. So many PC towers today can run the gambit of looking like an alien, to my grandmothers jewelry box. What matters is what's inside. That chip, memory, and now support for 4k displays....I'm in!!
The current generation thunderbolt is not good enough for some of the really bandwidth intensive devices that professionals (especially in media production) can often use.
Ultimately I think this is a terrible design move that seems to appeal to the prosumers more than anyone else. I can understand why they're continuing down that direction but god damn if this doesn't feel like a slap in the face.
We understand expandability as we've being doing it for a very long time. Now we've been forced (if we migrated to the new devices) to spread that expandability across our work areas.
You also won't be able to upgrade the graphics cards. Oh, but expandability you say! Unless they come out with a new generation thunderbolt cable that dramatically increases the bandwidth capacity then you're not going to be using a top of the range card with these machines.
There is a reason why they kept the graphics cards inside the machine.
Is there actually a one pro user on this thread?
a unified system handling 4K out of the box is... an issue? a problem? too costly? plastic? looks like a trash can (that takes the suburban cherry award)? Can't stick in those POS buggy cards mom gave you money for?
WTF, who are you people?
a unified system handling 4K out of the box is... an issue? a problem? too costly? plastic? looks like a trash can (that takes the suburban cherry award)? Can't stick in those POS buggy cards mom gave you money for?
WTF, who are you people?
wohooooooo
cant wait for all the cable mess from external storage. Sweet stuff.
Cant see the GPU's being upgradable, but we will see about that.
Also I doubt it will run as cool as the old one, there is no space in there for sufficient amount of fans and airflow. Hope its not going to be a loud machine under load.
Sigh, they should kept it simple I think.
Great to see they finally have done something new though
cant wait for all the cable mess from external storage. Sweet stuff.
Cant see the GPU's being upgradable, but we will see about that.
Also I doubt it will run as cool as the old one, there is no space in there for sufficient amount of fans and airflow. Hope its not going to be a loud machine under load.
Sigh, they should kept it simple I think.
Great to see they finally have done something new though
It's early days, I'm not going to hate on it just yet. Anyway, it's Thunderbolt 2, not 1 - and there's 6 ports on the thing.
For professionals, it's down to price. This machine will not do its job out of the box. Factoring in expansion cost could kill the new Mac Pro for many.