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derbothaus

macrumors 601
Original poster
Jul 17, 2010
4,093
30
I am quite sick of the cheese grater. Going on, what, 7 Years now. I think a redesign is in order. I will be slightly peeved if all they do is the internals, again. Anyone else?
 
Well, we know the side it going to look like this:

macpro_apple.jpg


Classic Apple Logo, FTW!
 
And, this was a picture of my own artists conception (but you can count the Blu-Ray out because that is never going to happen!!):

newmacpro.jpg
 
I am quite sick of the cheese grater. Going on, what, 7 Years now. I think a redesign is in order. I will be slightly peeved if all they do is the internals, again.

Other than "I am bored with the look" what is wrong with it. What aspects are functionally deficient ? What doesn't it do well ?
 
Just make the apple logo black to differentiate it. Maybe black glass for the optical drive doors.
 
Other than "I am bored with the look" what is wrong with it. What aspects are functionally deficient ? What doesn't it do well ?

There is nothing wrong with it functionally. I could go for 4-Full 16x PCI slots, eSATA, HDMI and a single 6-core choice with 8 memory slots nothing else dumbed down either. Keep the same part but clock it higher as apps still can't seem to use 80% of the 8-cores anyway. It could be much smaller. They could tool the handles so they don't cut into your hands. 5/6-Drive bays would be nice. I love the current rack implementation btw.
It is a nice machine (inside).
But I guess I am thinking something a little more in line with the rest of Apples line-up. Some black trim or a black anodized cheese grater. I don't know. You nailed it. I am sick of seeing it. Looked great right after the G4 MDD's and in line with the aluminum Powerbooks. But that time has passed. It looks out of place to me. Not in a good way like "classic" or anything. Just unimaginative. So everyone is expecting the same, updated procs (6-core), low-mid range video cards (if you are lucky), same DDR3 memory. Seems like an afterthought.
 
(but you can count the Blu-Ray out because that is never going to happen!!):

there are a several internal Mac Pro Blu-Ray kits that you can buy.

http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/optical-drives/superdrives/blu-ray


For the other mac models may have point, but this is trivially done since there is an empty drive bay provided.

[ Sure you can't play movies, but you can use the drive for data. In terms of "looks" it matches the picture only no exterior non apple logo ... which isn't happening for anybody or anything so that isn't new. ]
 
there are a several internal Mac Pro Blu-Ray kits that you can buy.

http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/optical-drives/superdrives/blu-ray


For the other mac models may have point, but this is trivially done since there is an empty drive bay provided.

[ Sure you can't play movies, but you can use the drive for data. In terms of "looks" it matches the picture only no exterior non apple logo ... which isn't happening for anybody or anything so that isn't new. ]
I'm pretty sure he meant full Blu-ray functionality... not just for data Read/Write.
 
I'm pretty sure he meant full Blu-ray functionality... not just for data Read/Write.

That's why I put the parenthetical quote in there. However, it might help nudge Apple along if folks didn't make a big issue out of the movie playing part and bigger issue out of not having the read/write capability.

Apple doesn't need to open a "big bang of hurt" to put a blu-ray data drive in. In fact, I'm pretty sure the OS supports them right now. It just isn't part of the configs they sell. [ Yeah sure there will be folks who will ask how come movie doesn't work. Just point them to a big bag of hurt video and clearly denote it in the tech specs and marketing. ]


One thing that is probably helping prop up Apple's resistance is that Blu-ray drives still cost a bit more than DVD RW combo drives. If the price point of Blu-ray read + Combo everything else drives went down below $100 and closer to the the $50-70 slot loaders that Apple, they'd look increasingly goofy saying can't do it. Apple isn't going to tilt the whole blu-ray drive market prices but incremental adoption helps. The adoption rate is heavily influenced on price. Second on folks getting disks to use.



Take the movie stuff off the table. Apple has conflicts with that. Could possibly make them focus on loosing out on not selling CTO options that folks would select in profitable numbers.

Until SDXC flash drive cards get to be as cheap as Blu-ray disks ( $5-8), it makes sense for sneaker net data transfers and small essential data backups. (yeah sure you need to rotate media but all of them have that problem.) Or at least put the problem of the next "give away" level pricing storage medium that isn't optical to Apple. What is the better 21st century version of the floppy disk that is better than Blu-ray data ?

People complain about the Mac Pro case. The "SuperDrive" was "super" before the current case model. It is even older.
 
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