A Closer Look at Apple's Mac Pro Production Process

[adamneer]

as a person who spends a ton of time perfecting minor details, and someone who, as a professional carpenter, sacrificed a lot of extra time to create what was my uncompromised best even if it meant i would destroy my per hour earnings, I can very much appreciate the effort and design that goes into this computer.

but as a professional video editor and animator, I have to say that some of the money that goes into the design and manufacturing of these machines would be much more valuable to me in hardware that will make my job easier and faster. i'm not saying that they could have put out a plastic box that had a 128gb ram and a 16 core chip, but i would have been happy with an aluminum casing, slightly nicer than the current Mac Mini, with the money saved either making a lower priced machine, or going towards a base model with higher specs.

i also still cannot figure out if this thing is black or chrome because of the marketing materials thus far. i don't know much about powder coating, but in any other finishing, polishing first would ruin the adhesion of the finish. i don't get it.

 

[Veinticinco]

At last, something as droolworthy in both aesthetic design and tech hardware as the G4 Cube. Only took them 12 years. Not as catchy as "At last, something beautiful you can truly own" admittedly but hey

Oh and about this US manufacturing thing, one of the things I liked about my Cube was that it was made in god's own country, Ireland (not China).

 

[ElectronGuru]

i also still cannot figure out if this thing is black or chrome because of the marketing materials thus far. i don't know much about powder coating, but in any other finishing, polishing first would ruin the adhesion of the finish. i don't get it.

Applied coatings (including the best pants) don't work well on aluminum, because it's to soft to provide a good base. Anodize is grown from the metal itself:

https://forums.macrumors.com/posts/17854214/

 

[brdeveloper]

Love the "Assembled in the USA" part at the end

Are the minor parts like ICs, circuit boards, case-painting also made in USA? Just a question... I presume only the big parts are assembled in US...

 

[pearvsapple]

The most advanced trashcan in the world.

 

[kobalap]

shows the difference between apple design and the common pc that is a steel case battered into shape with a rock :d

rotflmao

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I watched the Pencil ad and thought at first they were going to switch from pencil to iPad and then, right near the end, realized they were hiding the iPad. Just awesome.
How will Microsoft and Nokia compete?

I have an idea.. what if we take a tablet and make it like a laptop? And then, we can take a laptop and make it like a tablet. And if that doesn't work, we can make our all-in-one desktop like a tablet.

If we think hard enough, maybe we can even make the X-box like a tablet.

One of these ideas is bound to catch on, right?

 

[CFreymarc]

Flex getting the job for this makes sense.

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The most advanced trashcan in the world.

Jealous you can't afford one?

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as a person who spends a ton of time perfecting minor details, and someone who, as a professional carpenter, sacrificed a lot of extra time to create what was my uncompromised best even if it meant i would destroy my per hour earnings, I can very much appreciate the effort and design that goes into this computer.

but as a professional video editor and animator, I have to say that some of the money that goes into the design and manufacturing of these machines would be much more valuable to me in hardware that will make my job easier and faster. i'm not saying that they could have put out a plastic box that had a 128gb ram and a 16 core chip, but i would have been happy with an aluminum casing, slightly nicer than the current Mac Mini, with the money saved either making a lower priced machine, or going towards a base model with higher specs.

i also still cannot figure out if this thing is black or chrome because of the marketing materials thus far. i don't know much about powder coating, but in any other finishing, polishing first would ruin the adhesion of the finish. i don't get it.

Enclosure and finish becomes less and less of the overall cost of equipment as the price of it rises. Typically the tilting point is around a $1000 for state-of-the-art electronics equipment to where a good looking enclosure is not much of the total cost.

I have seen way too many ingenious designs of specialized equipment costing north of $10,000 shipped to a customer enclosed in a cheap looking box "just to save money" by some manufacturing managers that never lifted a solder iron nor wrote a line of code in their life. If it looks cheap, a customer will treat it that way. If it has some class to it, even the most bitter SOB will pause to take a look at it.

When you have a high performance piece of equipment, a good marketing exec will drop a few dimes giving it a sexy enclosure. Many consider that equipment on site with your company name it is the most powerful marketing statement made. Have the container look good and professional and it will get attention.

While you can bitch about IBM in many ways, they know this well and from their early PCs to their multimillion dollar mainframes, they had a very pronounced professional finish with their upward rectangular "IBM" chrome badge on all of their equipment.

Personally, I loved how Apple showed the laser etching of the product name and subtitle lettering on the Mac Pro toward the end of the video. I know what I'm getting for Christmas!

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Love the "Assembled in the USA" part at the end

Same here. American manufacturing is not dead. It has moved into the most sophisticated, automated and complex manufacturing in the world. Typically manufacturing moves overseas when the product line is established and not much innovation occurs.

Then you can hire people who only do what they are told to do and culturally can't speak up to their managers. America of all things is the big "F$%# Y@#!" to upper leadership letting them know they are no better than the rest of us.

When I see a manufacturing line moved overseas that was first in the USA, I see a company that is very concerned about margin on a mass market scale or not innovating and falling behind the market curve.

 

[D.T.]

I’d like to see the same case, but with less costly components (i.e. consumer grade), like an iMac-in-a-tube … user accessible HDD/SSD, RAM, maybe a more desktop grade GPU … just supply your own monitor

 

[tmroper]

Shows the difference between Apple design and the common PC that is a steel case battered into shape with a rock

Sometime I do miss the sense of accomplishment, though, that comes with things like taking a hacksaw to the end of a PCI bracket so it'll fit into the mis-sized hole in the case. But I don't miss it that much.
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[munakib]

70% of the time was spent on the shell/dearth vaders helmet? :S

 

[DeepIn2U]

I'm getting one just so I can paint it "Minion Yellow".

Good choice!

Maybe for those feeling a bit ostentatious maybe IronMan Red & Gold

Oh wait ... use specklestone paint so it looks like its a grab from Space on your desk

 

[erwcw]

Amazingly beautiful!

 

[DeepIn2U]

Deleting post of possible offensive perception - being mature about this, was stupid to post in the first place.

 

[NewbieCanada]

Mark my words...

The next big thing will be skins for the Mac Pro.

Still waiting for the TARDIS skin for the new Time Capsule.

 

[NewbieCanada]

I really want one of these just because it's so amazing. I'd feel cheated without a 4K display to connect it to though.

It will come as soon as 4K doesn't also refer to the price.

 

[DeepIn2U]

Has anyone else notice the absolute LACK of rumors regarding the new Mac Pro? No mention of third party Thunderbolt displays or hubs. No mention of PCI expansion boxes. We, the public, have talked about them in the forums, but NOT a SINGLE 3rd party manufacturer has.

That implies to me that every 3rd party manufacturer is working with Apple on this and have not only signed the requisite NDAs, but have a sizeable contract negotiated with Apple for selling their 3rd party products. Because if I were Apple, I would make it a top priority to get Thunderbolt accessories ready to attach to the new Mac Pro BEFORE I release the Mac Pro because the Mac Pro will be nothing without the promised 4K displays and Thunderbolt accessories.

Just my 2 cents...since a dollar doesn't buy that much any more.

Well said Blu ... I hope Apple and these 3rd party manufacturers actually do what you propose. The cup half full perception in me keeps thinking maybe their gearing up for USB4 which is supposed to compete with TB2 ... I recall FW800 struggling vs USB2 even with the latter taking 2yrs later to compete. Yes I'm aware their different in terms of use - currently but they will overlap and very quickly.

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Rack mount chassis, but the concern is the ventilation, it will change.

There may no longer be a NEED for rack mounts at least not in the traditional senses for having it except one: more computing power in the same volume or tight volume of space. Power requirements are coming down QUITE cheaply as well as cooling.

Let's joke about this and say the rack mounts will change ... similar to those canisters of chemical ware far those "engineers" have stored in the ship in the movie Prometheus!

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I watched the Pencil ad and thought at first they were going to switch from pencil to iPad and then, right near the end, realized they were hiding the iPad. Just awesome.
How will Microsoft and Nokia compete?

When I saw that ad ... at the beginning I knew what they where going to do ... yet after the unveil I realized just how POWERFUL the INTENT was!!

The pencil shows the legacy of teaching tools in the classroom, and that education is being revolutionized by Apple (iPad, iTunes U, iBooks & iBooks Developer, iCloud, QuickTime Pro, and administration tools, etc.

THIS over time will really begin to sync in. Is there such a thing as visually subliminal suggestion in advertising? hmm.

 

[groovyd]

new rig

got a mbp which i will keep as a travel machine (or perhaps exchange for an air) and get one of these for my desktop and sell my current display port cinema display and pick up 2 of the 4k displays when they come out. should be a solid piece of computing kits for many years to come... virtualizing a dozen different windows installations all at once for video game development and testing... lol. if you gotta wade in the windows trenches you might as well work in style

 

[Fried Chicken]

The person at 1:40 is unbelievably ugly.

It might just be the contrast with the Mac Pro though.

 

[rGiskard]

Too bad all that attention to detail and high tech manufacturing didn't result in a more practical enclosure. It's insipidly pretty, but like the beauty pagent winner who can't speak in complete sentences, once you settle down with this Mac Pro it's beauty will wear thin.

First off, this pretty lady will demand you throw out all your PCIe hardware for the latest designer Thunderbolt accessories. She'll turn downright ugly the moment that 256GB SSD fills up. If she were hot you could just buy another SSD and slip it into her open slot, but this slattern will demand a $40 TB cable with an overpriced TB external drive enclosure. And once those GPUs start to show their age, well, she'll be akin to the beauty pagent winner at age 40 with with a beer paunch and teats that flop against her knees.

 

[Larry-K]

Good choice! Maybe for those feeling a bit ostentatious maybe IronMan Red & Gold

There's an idea, maybe a Green Lantern Approach might work. It ain't stayin' black, that's for sure.

 

[MacMulti]

Incredible. Love those line ups, resemble robot heads.

 

[MrRez]

I am abit worried about the amount or lack of cooler this design might have. But I guess we will have to wait for Anandtech to work their magic.

 

[Free fall]

Reminds me of a video on Kickstarter.

 

[macs4nw]

A shiny polished one without the black anodization, as shown at ~50sec into the video, would be sooo cool!

 

[dollystereo]

They should keep the tower and make this beautiful machine with the imac internals.
So it will be just the mini Mac pro.
This computer cannot compete for professional users against a HP z820 or even the 2010 mac pro, it's just to expensive. i work in applied maths, in a 700 persons facility. We buy regularly workstations, fully loaded. this is just to expensive and underperforming.
Sad =(.
$3000 for 256gb and quad core.....pffff