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justperry

macrumors G5
Aug 10, 2007
12,558
9,750
I'm a rolling stone.
I know it's wishful thinking, but I would like them to redesign the case and bring out a product that's between the mini and the pro, i.e. a desktop that doesn't have a built-in screen and where I can add my own drives.

I have a Mini and a Drobo, mainly because I want to use my monitor for more than one computer on occasions, but a taller version of the mini, with some drive bays would be great. I don't need a high-end graphics card (although I wouldn't say no if it were possible), but a core i7, lots of memory and space for a few drives would be perfect.

Why change the design, its still very much up to date and beautiful as it is.

People are asking a tower like that for a long long long time, its not going to happen.
 

pwhitehead

macrumors 6502
Jul 19, 2011
342
100
new jersey
I would love to drop 4g's on one of these bad ass machines for a media server. Although apple should of never discontinued the xserve; one of those machines would looked bad ass.
 

subsonix

macrumors 68040
Feb 2, 2008
3,551
79
I have a Mini and a Drobo, mainly because I want to use my monitor for more than one computer on occasions, but a taller version of the mini, with some drive bays would be great. I don't need a high-end graphics card (although I wouldn't say no if it were possible), but a core i7, lots of memory and space for a few drives would be perfect.

The server version has 2 drives and a quad core i7, and can take 16Gb of ram (unofficially).
 

MacFanJeff

macrumors regular
Jan 28, 2008
220
3
IL, USA
All of the PC workstations that use Xeon (Lenovo and HP z series) are waiting for the next Xeon rev, not just the Mac Pro.

And I would disagree with your premise that "many are leaving". If anything, I'm under the impression that Mac Book Pro's with Parallels is a popular choice for a PC workstation replacement, providing you don't need a Quadro or FirePro graphics card.

You would be wrong in your assessment then regarding the Mac Book Pro. This statement shows how little knowledge you have about computer hardware in general.

First, you can not run anything at all in a virtual machine because you must have native support for speed and other issues. This can be done on a Mac Pro using a dedicated separate hard drive like some of us now do, but never on something non native. Second, anything that is a laptop, iMac, etc. is an absolute joke as for being usable by any one that is a PRO user. While the Mac Pro can be a serviceable workstation, people like me need multiple computers that are part of a "render farm". We go WAY beyond what most people not in the 3D art, CAD or video field use and must have those types of systems. Third, most people I know in the field either have already left Apple or will be doing so due to them being more consumer based now. You can't invest thousands in software alone without knowing there is a very firm commitment to the platform for years to come. What Apple makes is fine for those that are not serious programmers, artists or designers which is the target market for them now.

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I'd like a statement on their commitment to delivering worthwhile Quadro drivers and better professional graphics support overall. I don't care who's fault it is now, there is no excuse for the crap we have now.

speaking of 3D modeling, why are there still Mac users? the Quadro 4000, while a big improvement over previous Quadros, still isn't really better than a GTX 285. worse yet, it's not even stable. Dave Girard at Ars Technica still recommends a 5870 for Maya because it can outperform the 4000 just from pure horsepower...but it doesn't support all the features the Quadro can, and it's still not as fast as doing everything in Windows.

I'm glad there's still support for Mac, and AutoCAD was finally ported back over and Rhino has a beta version out, but I'm surprised everyone hasn't moved over to Windows by now for increased productivity.

Precisely, I have held on for as long as I can and am nearing time to do some upgrades/updates of my 3D software. That will be a sizable commitment and one that is likely forcing Windows for my future needs. As you point out, graphics cards are VERY important for such things and you just can't get this from Apple now.
 

mBox

macrumors 68020
Jun 26, 2002
2,361
86
I would love to drop 4g's on one of these bad ass machines for a media server. Although apple should of never discontinued the xserve; one of those machines would looked bad ass.
We have a few.
Even though it looks bad-ass, its a pain to set-up physically due to the deep body chassis.
But once its in, you never have to take out...hopefully :)
 

Keebler

macrumors 68030
Jun 20, 2005
2,960
207
Canada
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_0_1 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9A405 Safari/7534.48.3)

The Mac DDS said:
Yeah, so they say that a beta version of 10.7.3 contains drivers for a GPU with the code name "Tahiti", which apparently is or will be the Radeon 7950 desktop GPU.

The article goes on speculating that this will be the GPU in the next Mac Pro, given that all other apple computers use mobile GPUs. They say that a Mac Pro update is expected early 2012, mention the Xeon E5 as CPU and the possibility to have up to 16 cores (2x8), and say that possible other upgrades could be Thunderbolt (obvious), Bluetooth 4.0 and USB 3.0.

Well of course the new MPs will be here shortly. I just purchased my mid-2010 MP. Typically, Apple releases the newer version a month after my purchase. ;)

The same thing happened after two of my iMac purchases.

I did too. Should have 12 core 2.66 tomorrow but its going to be a bitchin machine so im not worried. New ones wont blow it away too much me thinks Plus i need it now
 

shaunp

Cancelled
Nov 5, 2010
1,811
1,395
True

The server version has 2 drives and a quad core i7, and can take 16Gb of ram (unofficially).

I know mate, I did consider that but I prefer hot-swap, or at least easily removable, drives for data. That's the main thing that I dislike about the mini- access to the drives.
 

RichardBeer

macrumors regular
Jul 11, 2009
226
1
England
Hmm interesting. So as it stands at the moment, it seems that Apple may stick with the AMD solution for 2012. I'd love for Apple to offer a more consumer level Mac Pro but that's not the kind of market that Apple are currently focused on.

I'm liking what AMD have been doing these past two years.
 

hayesk

macrumors 65816
May 20, 2003
1,460
101
We don't actually know when Mac Pros will hit final production, what will happen when they will, or it might never happen and the line will get a serious redesign or whole re-thinking. But you can bet all your Apple gear that Mac Pros are way down the priority list for Apple. The line doesn't mean half as much as it used to, primarily because the market has changed.

Prosumers are the big market now.

That's irrelevant. The point that started your conversation was that it's not dead, not where on the priority list it was or will be. If it gets updates, it's not dead. That's it. End of story.
 

Ryth

macrumors 68000
Apr 21, 2011
1,591
157
Design is Probably going to stay the same. You need all that room... for drives, memory, pro Cards - audio breakout etc. and still better than every other desktop design perhaps apart from that porsche/level 10 $800 case!

Not necessarily.

You could get by without the 2 optical drives easily. Most video and graphic assets won't even fit on a DVD drive anymore...all of our clients use portable HDs to transfer assets to us other then over the net. (I work at the largest Post facility on the East Coast). If you need to burn to Blu-Ray, then you're going to be using an external burner most likely anyway. So right there, 2 drive bays gone and about 5" of height. In terms of restore, or anything else, Lion moved to a USB restore.

In terms of the memory slots and cards, they can still design a small enclosure and still fit all of those things.

I bet the new Mac Pro comes in at around 12 inches in height and and tad slimmer and not as deep.

Hmm interesting. So as it stands at the moment, it seems that Apple may stick with the AMD solution for 2012. I'd love for Apple to offer a more consumer level Mac Pro but that's not the kind of market that Apple are currently focused on.

You never know. They know that the prosumer market is getting larger and that many of them want something more powerful then an iMac but don't need the whole monster of a MPro.
 
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milo

macrumors 604
Sep 23, 2003
6,891
523
In addition to the improvements people have mentioned (including SATA III), I'd love to see a MP update include SSD mounting hardware for every bay including the second optical bay (for two or more SSD in each bay).

Almost certainly won't have USB 3.0, they're touting Thunderbolt as the interconnection of choice, I bet it'll just have USB 2.0 ports, like all the devices of 2011.

I don't agree with that reasoning, even if Apple would prefer people use TB instead of USB we're at a point where it doesn't cost them any more to use 3 over 2 and they have to include USB anyway. Apple is just tweaking intel designs, if they include USB 3 support why take it out?

In-store they make up less than 0.5% revenue

Seems to me that MP is more likely to be a BTO order for most users, and those users would be more likely to order online than drive to a store for a machine like that.


The MacPro has such a small percentage wise on overall Mac sales due to the not coming updates and the overall product specification. Why can't they just use normal desktop CPUs and not server class CPUs. A normal desktop "PC" spec would be great together with a much lower entry price.

They could use the consumer chips for the 4/6 core machines but for 8/12 the xeons are the only option (and some people still need that much power). And on the low end the consumer chips used to be much cheaper but now the corresponding xeons and i7s are about the same price anyway (and ram is pretty close as well). Really right now the quad machine is just way way overpriced for no good reason.
 

subsonix

macrumors 68040
Feb 2, 2008
3,551
79
But those are 2.5" drives, so you are limited to 2x1TB.

Yes, I'm just saying.

I know mate, I did consider that but I prefer hot-swap, or at least easily removable, drives for data. That's the main thing that I dislike about the mini- access to the drives.

A drive array of some sort is probably even better then a pro then. I'm lusting over getting a used Xserve raid with the promise fibre to TB converter. The fibre channel can be up to 100 meters (I think) so you could stick it in the garage and load it up with 14 2TB drives. :D I would set it up in jbod configuration with a ZFS pool.
 
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milo

macrumors 604
Sep 23, 2003
6,891
523
In size, internal expandability and quality? Yes. In performance - not really. The entry model has been surpassed in performance specs (CPU, GPU, RAM, HD size, Optical drives etc.) by consumer desktops costing < $1000.

True. The MP has been an odd product line for years - really the single and dual CPU models are completely different machines, they almost shouldn't be in the same product line. The quads are a dog and terrible value but the 8/12 core machines still blow away any i7 options if your software can use all the cores.

I'll say it for the nth time - apple should keep the high end and switch the quad machines to a more budget friendly midtower (remember when you could buy a G5 tower for $1599?). Yes, I brought up the infamous xMac.
 

sporadicMotion

macrumors 65816
Oct 18, 2008
1,111
23
Your girlfriends place
Wirelessly posted (iPhone 4: Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_0_1 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9A405 Safari/7534.48.3)

Finally. This better be right :)
 

wiz329

macrumors 6502a
Apr 19, 2010
509
96
Well of course the new MPs will be here shortly. I just purchased my mid-2010 MP. Typically, Apple releases the newer version a month after my purchase. ;)

The same thing happened after two of my iMac purchases.

The MP release cycles are fairly regular, they follow the schedule of the xeon chips. Its not that hard to predict. :confused:
 

bketchum

macrumors regular
Jan 15, 2003
190
14
Grand Portage, Minnesota
Just wondering...

Could these new desktop graphics cards be used in large LCD TVs? I was thinking... Perhaps Apple's move into the TV market will be with a machine that is a TV and an all-in-one computer.

By the way, I'm rooting for new Mac Pros.
 

wiz329

macrumors 6502a
Apr 19, 2010
509
96
Not necessarily.

You could get by without the 2 optical drives easily. Most video and graphic assets won't even fit on a DVD drive anymore...all of our clients use portable HDs to transfer assets to us other then over the net. (I work at the largest Post facility on the East Coast). If you need to burn to Blu-Ray, then you're going to be using an external burner most likely anyway. So right there, 2 drive bays gone and about 5" of height. In terms of restore, or anything else, Lion moved to a USB restore.

Some people can get by without 2 optical drives. Then again, some people use the extra slot for, say, a striped SSD boot.

In terms of the memory slots and cards, they can still design a small enclosure and still fit all of those things.

Flat out wrong. Not "in terms of" cooling 12 xeon cores. There isn't as much 'wasted space' in a mac pro as you think. Its gotta be able to handle some serious heat. Sounds to me like you want a small, loud, restricting PRO machine. Most professionals are willing to sacrifice those few inches to get greater expandability, power, and efficient cooling the mac pro brings.
 
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