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I remember buying the first cheese grater Mac Pro years ago and I paid like $2400. They started at $1999 if I recall correctly. Why are they $6,000 now? Are they really that much better than a comparable Windows PC?

The price is comparable to a PC with the same specs. Also not sure how the price of your Mac Pro like 10 years ago is relevant to the price of a completely different computer today.
 
1) maybe Noctua is doing a similar thing on the fans, 2) the whole solution was being discussed, not just the fans, but the creation of air tunnels to increase the cooling.

Neither of those things are new or unique in the PC industry.

Which isn't a slam against Apple. This is great news that they've taken what the rest of the world already knows about cooling and implementing similar design into their beast.

Nobody should be slamming Apple for using a robust cooling design that's been proven successful elsewhere. This is one of those cases where I say good on Apple for not trying to re-invent the wheel with some insanely proprietary solution that cannot do the job it needs to (A la trashcan Mac, iMacs, MacBook Pros)

I honestly have no doubts that the Mac Pro here will not suffer from Thermal restrictions.
 
I’m curious, since it’s so needy of air flow and a new design. What happens when a client allows a dust build up on the cheese grater? Will there be an alert on heat or air flow?
Clean it once a year you’ll be fine with dust. Seems easy enough to clean.
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Initial reports from the youtube influencers who received mac pro's from Apple said it was quiet. BUT... what was their ambient room temperature? How does the mac pro and the monitor perform when ambient temperature is 35C? I'm sure 4 fans will cool it adequately but it won't be quiet.
Do you normally work with a desktop computer in almost 100 degree temperatures?
 
The price is comparable to a PC with the same specs. Also not sure how the price of your Mac Pro like 10 years ago is relevant to the price of a completely different computer today.
The lowest end Mac Pro is ridiculously priced in comparison to equally performant computers you can build today

However, once you start scaling into the upper configurations, that margin does decrease.

I believe it's related to the motherboard they've designed here. Probably costs a ridiculous amount for the lower volume of sales that are expected for this device.

That means that on the low end side of performance tier, that motherboard is likely a massive bulk of the actual costs as a percentage. But as you upgrade, that cost stays the same while the other components make up larger percentage of the price tag.

I haven't yet done a full blown comparison of all the Mac Pro sku's and what you could buy similarly, but I'd wager the point that this actually is in line is about midway up the upgrade path.
 
...couldn't Apple have went towards liquid cooling?

Some G5 Power Macs had liquid cooling... and liquid leaks. After seeing the corrosive results of that and the many spills of DIY liquid cooling enthusiasts I can see why Apple chose the reliability and simplicity of air cooling.
 
How does the mac pro and the monitor perform when ambient temperature is 35C? I'm sure 4 fans will cool it adequately but it won't be quiet.
THIS!!!!
Whenever I’m doing high-end video production for a new blockbuster film, I’m almost never in a 20C air-conditioned workplace... I’m generally on a 35C beach & my main concern is fan noise interrupting the pleasant sounds of the seagulls!!!

.......said nobody ever.
 
Now, you have a new set of problems. You have a warm liquid, that tends to do one of two things; become a bio-broth of bacteria, algae, fungus and clog up the system; or a highly toxic broth that may corrode the materials through which it flows. The warm liquid will flow across dissimilar metals, plastics, silicon based seals and likely come in contact with air.

Propylene Glycol. Used in safe antifreeze and food. And also used in many industrial cooling loops for things like HVAC. Combine that with distilled water and maybe a touch of biocide and it will work fine. Think about car cooling systems. Most go 100k without any kind of maintenance and that environment is much worse than a computer.

I've run both in the same PC. Liquid is a little louder but transfers heat much better. Air was good but takes up a lot of space.
 
Heat rises.

Beat me to it.

The joke is getting old. There's not even a horse there anymore, just a pile of bone shards and dust.

For those that remember the old G5 quad, and the fiasco that was it's liquid cooling, keeping a workstation cool and quiet is difficult. Glad Apple found a solution that works.

And as for the price, again, we're still talking about a single core Xeon. The Dell 7920 can take TWO 28C chips for the low low price of $43k.
 
With the amount of emphasis and design philosophy structured towards avoiding LOUD NOISE at all cost...couldn't Apple have went towards liquid cooling? I'll never understand Apple's love for silence at the cost of adequate/bad cooling in all of their machines.a

Liquid cooling is not likely going to yield any different cooling results than air in this particular build.

Interesting facts. Water cooling is not the upgrade that it once was for cooling. Air solutions, fans, and cooling blocks have advanced tremendously in the last half dozen years. To the point that $40 air coolers can perform equally in a well ventilated case as a $150 all in one water cooler.

Air cooling can also overall be tweaked to be quieter. A watercooling pump has it's own form of noise, and unlike air cooling, the pump strentgh and it's noise will have far less customization.

With Air cooling, you can tweak the fans to run different speeds, or even off depending on the temperatures. As an example, I am currently running an AMD R7 1700 @ 3.9Ghz, in a MiniITX case with only 3 fans. temperatures do not exceed 60c. it does not thermal throttle. When Idle. 1 fan is on at low and pulls air through the case and the through the CPU block before exhausting it. this is enough for day to day activities with only 1 super quiet fan. If I went water, I'd have a pump and a fan making noise.

Water, especially closed AIO loops really don't provide the massive boost to cooling that one would expect.
 
I have cautious optimism despite Apple's marketing of the cooling system. I remember the marketing hype surrounding the "unified thermal core". That thermal core didn't quite live up to the accompanied hype.

I'm fairly certain they learned their lesson with that one, but the somewhat self-congratulatory pat on the back tone (could be MR's fault) seems a bit pre-mature considering they were just as proud of the thermal design of the 2013 MP.

They claim they've created geometries that can handle debris getting inside. Let's hope that turns out to be the case.
 
How innovative is it really? It's cooling fans... I never hear my Noctua's either.....
I mean, you are comparing it to the gold-standard for case fan design here...

Which at the price is totally fair. I don't think there's anything particularly innovative, but it does sound like they spared no expense on ensuring they were using the best possible fan design. Much like Noctua.
 
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Didn’t this technology originate with jet fan blade design in aircraft engines?

[EDIT] Answer is sort of, but Apple added modulating the size to the fan blades to broaden the noise profile so it isn’t as grating. That’s actually some really cool thinking outside the box creativity to lessen an annoyance.
 
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I mean, you are comparing it to the gold-standard for case fan design here...

Which at the price is totally fair. I don't think there's anything particularly innovative, but it does sound like they spared no expense on ensuring they were using the best possible fan design. Much like Noctua.

most of the article from Apple is pure marketing spin. They do this a lot when they use standard tech from other companies.

I still remember when Ive was talking about the Apple watch's display. He did everything he could to resist calling it OLED display. He used a lot of words to describe the process of OLED display and that Apple was now using a new screen type they've never used before, and it was completely innovative.

A lot of Apple's mareting over it's life has been to differentiate itself from it's competition. Somehow "better". Just calling it the same thing as everyone else doesn't help that.
 
According to Apple, the reworked "cheese grater" look achieves around 20 percent more airflow compared to the Power Mac G5 that preceded it.

And 20% more dust.
 
Rotated vertically shouldn’t matter with heat. There is no venting on top of the screen just back. Sides are all the same closed off. Turning it won’t change the way heat escapes the back.

The fins would be rotated causing a turbulent airflow fighting the upwards draw. Would still cool, just not as effectively.
 
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I remember buying the first cheese grater Mac Pro years ago and I paid like $2400. They started at $1999 if I recall correctly. Why are they $6,000 now? Are they really that much better than a comparable Windows PC?
Because Apple’s a huge company, with $3 billion per month in operating expenses alone. They’ve got to cover the costs of 500 stores, 140,000 employees and $1.5 billion per month in R&D expenses.

Apple’s net profit is about 20% of sales; costs are about 80%. That means for every $6,000 in sales price, there’s $4,800 in costs—twice what you paid for your old Mac Pro—at which point Apple just covers their costs (and make zero profit). The other 20% ($1,200) ensures the company can thrive and attract investors.

re: the cost of PCs, Apple’s pricing compare very favorably to Lenovo, Dell and HP. Prices can exceed $100,000 for Xeon workstations.
 
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The fins would be rotated causing a turbulent airflow fighting the upwards draw. Would still cool, just not as effectively.
The outside cutouts and inside cutouts are symmetric. If you look directly behind it the way it’s turned won’t make a difference as far as the cutouts go. Apple has a switch that allows it to rotate 90 degrees. I see the way it vents won’t make any lick of difference. But they look the same turned as they do horizontal.
 
Rotated vertically shouldn’t matter with heat. There is no venting on top of the screen just back. Sides are all the same closed off. Turning it won’t change the way heat escapes the back.
The fins run in parallel in one direction. If vertical, then heat rises through them. If horizontal, not so much.
 
With the amount of emphasis and design philosophy structured towards avoiding LOUD NOISE at all cost...couldn't Apple have went towards liquid cooling? I'll never understand Apple's love for silence at the cost of adequate/bad cooling in all of their machines.a
Is it just water in liquid cooling or are there any sort of chemicals involved? If so I guess that’s the reason. Apple is obsessed with the enjoyment - for which I’m glad.
 
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