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Apple Allowed Developers to Test a Prerelease Mac Pro Hidden Inside a Metal Box
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True.
I have a rMBP w/ 16GB RAM, a Thinkpad w/ 16GB RAM, a Linux tower w/ 32GB RAM, and a few small rack servers w/ 32-64GB RAM.
They're all connected to external storage arrays. My mac to Thunderbolt and the others via eSATA.
They all run 3 displays. My Retina Macbook can run a 30" and two more 24" inch displays. It is almost as fast as my i7-3770k (13,5000 vs 16,000 geekbench).
The new MacPro may be fine for my needs. As long as I can run three 2560x1600 displays. 4K would be nice.
I much prefer Thunderbolt because it is actually cheaper than a SAS RAID. eSATA blows chunks due to the speed and iSCSI SANs are pretty limited to the speed I need. I move 30-60GB VMs all day long.
32-128GB of RAM would be awesome but considering anything over 32GB usually has problems. And if you go over 32GB, you start paying licensing. ESXi is no longer free at that point.
Anything over 32GB for me, I prefer to run off a headless whitebox server. I can build a ESXi vsphere w/ 32GB ram and host 30 VMs for $300. Storage is handle by iSCSI and that is how it should be done so you can do vMotion and live migration.
I am really digging the 6 thunderbolt ports. It will come in handy adding multiple nics, displays and storage. I can use the same gear on my Macbook and iMac.
As someone else mentioned... (See the second place finisher)
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/workstation-graphics-card-gaming,3425-9.html
The didn't say it runs faster. It runs faaaaaaaaster.
On stage, they gave examples where instead of waiting 12 hours for some rendering to apply changes, they could make changes in real time.
If all you want is faster, then if you still have a Macintosh G5, you need to upgrade to an iPad 4
Those wringing their hands over a price increase (that they are only speculating) are really not being serious IMO. If this thing really does rip through tasks as you mentioned above, a couple thousand here and there is a no brainer for professionals. That said, if a competitor brings something to the table that challenges the Mac Pro in price and performance, then heck yeah, weigh the trade offs, and try to save some cash if you can.
I think we're just seeing the final step in the commoditization of the "workstation". Some perspective is needed.
Sometime before the mid-90s, there was a bright dividing line between a "personal computer" and a "workstation". Virtually everything about a workstation was alien to a PC - multiple CPUs, networking, high end graphics, etc. And all those components were incredibly expensive.
Eventually the workstation features began to creep into the PC, and they became very inexpensive commodities. Fast forward to today, and the PC now is the workstation of days gone by. All that's left are a couple things like workstation graphics and SANs, and those are poised to become cheap consumer goods now. I think the new Mac Pro represents the commoditization of the workstation GPU.
You could still be right, if this thing launches with a markedly higher price tag, but I doubt it.
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Highly encouraging. Will have to keep fingers crossed on the Mac drivers, though.
Well.... don't expect the price to be a "bargain" or even "reasonably priced". Why? Because it will be "Made in the Expensive States of America" rather than in the "People's Republic of Cheaply Manufactured Goods China".
There is a price for American patriotism. But how about all those people last year screaming insults at Apple for being a sell-out for doing too much manufacturing overseas? Will they come to Apple's defense now when they realize that manufacturing hardware in the USA will likely come at a higher cost? Of course, Apple is hardly the only company that outsourced manufacturing overseas. But the biased media sure made it sound like Apple was the only one guilty of that.
Any word from Audio developers? I guess Not.
Any words on Logic Pro X. I guess Not.
Does Apple even listen to the Audio community. My guess is NO!
they make toys now
It's going to be made in a non-union state, by a fairly small number of workers and lots of robots. It's a high margin product that can more easily absorb the increases.
Calm down.
So Apple will address something based on an article by a user who has never even demo'd the machine nor has the technical and engineering skills to pass judgement on the technology Apple employing or in Apple's design decisions.
Yawn
Settle down there. It's only assembled. That's kind of a big difference between made and assembled. When automation is done with it, the labor will probably barely factor into the price.
EDIT: Ya beat me to it Harvey! ^_^
This is Apple we're talking about. Macs are great, but face it, their over priced for what you get. But I'll reserve judgement on the Mac Pro until we know it's price point.
You're right. Such folks would get an iMac then.
I was talking to this engineer guy who seemed to know some inner-workings at apple and he talked a lot. I don't know him well, we met at a party, but he did say that apple would start building products in the USA around this time. but the reason why is because they were working on robotic assembly, cutting out the human workforce so in turn it would be cheaper than outsourcing to china. anyway, that's what the guy said, he said they have been looking into fully automized production and assemble to make it cheap enough to bring manufacturing back to the usa. it's not like an American Fender guitar type thing.
- The new Mac Pro has expensive, professional graphics cards not made for gaming. Unlike the previous Mac Pro, a user cannot replace those cards with ones more appropriate.
- Being able to expand the capabilities of your computer and not having to pick up several external components when you move it are not mutually exclusive. I know consumer-types who are scared to open their computer may not realize that, but it is possible to increase the abilities of your machine beyond how it was when you bought it, without having to take it to a repair place and pay someone $25-50/hour plus parts costs.
- Some people want a powerful machine but the freedom to choose not to buy an Apple monitor.
The fact one has to buy such an expensive machine to do these doesn't seem to register as "wrong" with anyone here. This is the brain-washed "kool-aid" syndrome you so hate being accused of.
The old Mac Pro fulfilled these three desires, but did it in an overkill way.
The new Mac Pro fulfills only the last of these desires.
There is even MORE argument to be made for an xMac now.
I personally like being able to expand my computer and still pick up a single box when I move it.
Apple wants everything to be external now. I guess they really have forgotten themselves...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dz0F5cLlazk
No of course not. I've referred to the design and engineering excellence of the new Mac Pro in previous posts. I was referring to a possible change in Apple's Mac design philosophy from silver to black devices. You don't think that is significant? Ok I disagree. Apple products have always been about what they look like as much as how they perform.
Yes ok I was referring to a change to taller devices. I was simply suggesting that the next Mac Mini MIGHT mimic the new Mac Pro design with a taller, slimmer device. I never suggested they would definately do anything. It was an observation rather than an assumption.
I would also absolutely disagree with your assertion that one cannot gleam possible design changes from new products. Apple often brings out a new or modified designed product and then applies the same design ideas to their other products over time. Jony Ive likes to display a common design ethos across Apple products.
As I understand the actual hardware in those cards isn't much different from the comparable gaming card; the main difference is that they have drivers optimised for their more specialist market, and much better support if you have any problems. Apple will presumably handle support as it already does, and may also write its own drivers, and they also won't be paying consumer prices for the hardware either, so the cost should be a lot lower overall.
I'm not saying cheap of course, and I expect the pair of 6gb cards will be build-to-order only and will re-mortgaging your house, but the entry level machine needn't be massively expensive.
On the issue of American assembly; I think most people expected that it'd be the Mac Pros being assembled in the US, as it's always been the machine with the biggest markup and therefore the best able to absorb the cost. The cost to produce the machine overall is hopefully a lot lower thanks to less internal parts (fans etc.), fewer materials (the case is tiny compared to a current Pro), and from all the internal shots it doesn't look too complex either, so it should be pretty easy to build. Remember, although the previous Mac Pros were a more standard form-factor its not like it was using that many off the shelf parts; Apple still customised a lot of the internals, but this new Pro has what, 1/6th the number of fans, 1/8th the amount of aluminium and so-on.
While it might not be enough of a saving in total to pay for the US production costs, it should mean it's less of a blow for Apple to just absorb from their profit on each unit. Plus I think it makes a lot of sense for Apple to aim to have a lower priced entry level Mac Pro, as the jump from a Mac Mini is way too large; a more reasonable entry level Mac Pro might entice more desktop users that have no need for an all-in-one (already have a good monitor on another machine for example).
https://forums.macrumors.com/posts/17426641/
I find it laughable that people still think the only difference between workstation cards and gamer cards is drivers and support.
$100 extra for building the product makes a big difference with an iPhone. It makes no difference with this MacPro. When you add 64 GB RAM for $2,100 it doesn't matter if the person plugging it in gets paid $0.20 or $2.00 for the job.
Apple has not forgotten themselves at all regarding this commercial. The current iMac in fact goes further - it has a single power cord and no other wires.
With the new Mac Pro, Apple is betting on a workstation future that looks different. More reliance on SANs and cloud storage. GPUs powerful enough on day one that they're probably good enough to last the useful life of the machine.
I don't see the new Mac Pro leading to a mess of cords and external expansion any more than we already are seeing with current Mac Pros. The only real negative for me is the lack of multiple internal SSD connectors for redundant RAID configurations. But SSDs don't fail as often as HDDs anyway.
So if iOS app devs don't need so much power, then why don't they just buy an iMac?
I developed iOS apps on an iMac, with another monitor daisy chained to it, and I had no issues at all.
What is missing from the iMac that you need a lower version of the Mac Pro?
No, probably not. It was truly silly of me to wonder that out loud. Sorry to make you yawn. Although, he seems to have the required technical skills and knowledge to voice valid concerns. Are you saying one must be an actual computer engineer to have valid criticism?
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I'm sorry, but that's way too rational.
No, I don't think the color of the new Mac Pro has much significance. I do think the Mac Pro is a beautiful computer, though!