Apple Envisioned New Mac Pro's 'Cheese Grater' Design Years Ago

[DJMarty]

This design is over 15 years old and still looks better...

Lemme guess.... you drive a new Mustang or Camaro right?

 

[Unity451]

What we're actually looking at here is a PR stunt of Apple flexing their muscles trying to show their relevance in an industry that they're slowly loosing grasp of.

 

[1BadManVan]

This machine is for workloads that simply cannot be farmed-out to a cloud-server (or a server in a server-room in the basement).
There aren't many, but some exist and they will not go away any time soon.
Same with the display.

Using this to surf the web and post on macrumors forums and reddit would be the definition of "waste".

Waste!?! How dare you, how could I ever lose a macrumors argument again with such a machine

 

[MauiPa]

So this is how Apple is justifying that unconscionable pricing.

Audience: gasps & murmurs of disapproval.
Apple: "No, this is actually cheap!"

Look if you don't need a computer with a Xeon, and a reference monitor, just say so. Facts do matter, I did check some devices with comparable specs, and a computer with an older Xeon with similar specs priced out around $8000. So your "unconscionable" pricing claim is simply that you don't need a Xeon based machine. I get it, I don't need one either.

But don't make stuff up that is to true, "use the Google Luke"

 

[ElectricPotato]

Thou for a stand?

Doubt thou the stars are fire?

 

[lcseds]

I'm convinced the iMac Pro was the Mac Pro replacement. When that seemingly was received with a loud thud, they went back to the drawing board. This is roughly the time they saw everything on the hardware side slipping with more and more users and critics getting vocal about design in a most negative way.

Now you have this new one. The "creative" types that squawked so much have what they clamored for, cost be damned. Wouldn't kill them to make something like this scaled down a bit for the masses. But I doubt that will happen. In my opinion, so much of their computer line needs a swift kick in the drawers. So this is a good start.

 

[mytdave]

I'm concerned with airflow and dust accumulation

My guess is that Apple will not offer water cooling? In that case (no pun intended), you want to allow for as much hot air exhaust as possible. The top doesn't seem to allow for fans, so that leaves the front (2 or 3 fans?) and the rear fan. Not enough airflow, IMO. Unless there will be other case configuration options. Anyway, maintaining positive air pressure is a must.

Also, dust filters? Pretty stand feature on cases these days. I would hope there is a full length filter behind that cheesegrater front panel, and the bottom (if there are bottom air intakes).

Check out the video. 4 fans. 3 on front, one internal. Front to rear air flow only. Clever design.

Dust will accumulate in the front 'mesh' simply from the air passing through - if you pay proper attention to maintenance, all you should have to do is vacuum the front grille occasionally, in theory.

 

[MauiPa]

“Just finance it! The stand is no more expensive than a cup of coffee a day!” That’s how they justified a grand for a phone right?

Yah, I know right, did you see that Samsung wants like $2000 for the Galaxy Crinkle?
[doublepost=1559666086][/doublepost]

It's not that bad man. The monitor stand's a eye-gouger, but these sort of prices are pretty consistent with workstations capable of this power. Price up the equivalent HP workstation and you'll be surprised.

Remember that "Pro" has lots of different meanings. You could be a professional music producer but in most instances, even a base iMac Pro would chew through anything you can throw at it through Logic.

This is for a different sort of Pro who are doing ridiculous calculations or renders that eat up memory and VRAM.

Ultimately, Apple have delivered what people wanted: a product for any professional regardless of their profession, rather than the 2013 "Pro" machine that they thought people wanted based on how Apple's professionals use a Mac (LPX & FCPX).

and no mention yet of what cards will be supported in the PCIE slots.

 

[ksz]

The design is in homage to mid-century modern buildings. I've seen that sort of design on the facade of some buildings somewhere.

...

Edit: I believe a building that looks like this is on the West Side of NYC, south of midtown. I'm not sure how far down it is, but it's on the river.

It actually reminds me of the "beehive" building in Seoul.

http://pds.joins.com/jmnet/koreajoongangdaily/_data/photo/2009/11/23220945.jpg

 

[x34]

This design is over 15 years old and still looks better...

apple lost it design wise. i can only assume it was steve jobs who was the driving force for an ultra clean, pure design language in the sense of german braun/ bauhaus/ hochschule für gestaltung/ sony

 

[borntrouble]

I really like that skeuomorphic design. What I like even more is the fact that they eventually went with "function over form" this time.

 

[ElectricPotato]

if you pay proper attention to maintenance, all you should have to do is vacuum the front grille occasionally

If you can afford one of these then your cleaning staff will handle that.

 

[iReality85]

Check out the video. 4 fans. 3 on front, one internal. Front to rear air flow only. Clever design.

Dust will accumulate in the front 'mesh' simply from the air passing through - if you pay proper attention to maintenance, all you should have to do is vacuum the front grille occasionally, in theory.

Okay, so 3 in, 1 out. My meager i7 build at home has that. With the kind of heat these will be generating, I would have expected more.

Dust will accumulate and cake the whole inside if there are no dust filters. Positive air pressure doesn't eliminate the need for filters, but does help.

 

[WinstonRumfoord]

It's like Sunday drivers feeking outraged at the price price of Formula 1 tyres as if they could use the Formula 1 to its full potential in the first place.

Yeah, these people should just buy the $699 "Average consumer" Apple monitor instead, or the $1299 "slightly-pro" monitor they offer. Bunch of whiners!

 

[TheGenerous]

I liked the trash can better...
...Well, I might buy another 3 Mac Pros this year and sit them along my 4 Surface Pro Studio machines. #iLoveThisCompany

 

[redheeler]

For those who missed the news, Apple is planning a rack-mounted version of the Mac Pro with a different chassis appropriate for a data center. Apple says this version will be available in the fall.

So does this mean the return of the Xserve and a renewed focus on server or data center uses for the Mac? The hardware may be there again, but the software isn't.

 

[quatermass]

If I were Apple I would have tried to pilfer employees from Fractal and Phanteks. People that actually know good computer case design.

Seriously? I've had a look at their websites (which are terrible, BTW) and I can't find anything that approaches 'Good case design'. Adequate, predictable, uninspired, obvious, ordinary, yes.
Step away from the Mac Pro, sir - it's not for you.

 

[iReality85]

Seriously? I've had a look at their websites (which are terrible, BTW) and I can't find anything that approaches 'Good case design'. Adequate, predictable, uninspired, obvious, ordinary, yes.
Step away from the Mac Pro, sir - it's not for you.

If you had to go visit their websites because you've never heard of either before (or of the quality that goes into their products- both aesthetically or functionally), I wouldn't trust your judgment.

But I will take your recommendation that the cheesegrater is not for me.

 

[satchmo]

I think it's a bolder interpretation of the old cheese grater. Back in the 2010's, Apple's design language was more understated. Frankly, both look good to me.

I just wished there was a more affordable Mac Pro (mini-tower) that was targeted at smaller and medium size businesses.

 

[jayducharme]

I liked Fried's casual quote at the end of his video: "I don't think we'll be seeing many people buying this for their home." I guess the next closest "Pro" machine that Apple sells would be the iMac Pro at nearly the same price (but arguably including a display, though very little is upgradable). The new Mac Mini would be a good option if it weren't for the poor graphics chip built in. I guess I'll be sticking with my 2013 Pro for now.

 

[Albatrossflyer]

The $64,000 question is: In 2 or 3 yrs will apple offer new graphics "cards" with the latest and greatest GPU chipsets or CPU modules to replace the current ones or not? If they don't why bother with the modular design....

 

[Mousse]

Ugh. I don't know how much simpler I can explain this. What made the Cheese Grater G5 awesome wasn't the cheese grater grill in the front. It's the ease of opening the chassis for upgrading. Say it with me, Apple. Modular, that's the word of the day.

This is just another sealed box with a holes in the front.

Form should follow function.

 

[Smartass]

Thanks to Apple, i can now make my own nacho cheese tortillas right on my desk! First i take the new Mac Pro and grind all the cheddar cheese i want, and then to melt it, i just place it on my Macbook pro, and run Crisis on full graphics. Boom, instant nacho.

 

[DaveRivera]

Ugh. I don't know how much simpler I can explain this. What made the Cheese Grater G5 awesome wasn't the cheese grater grill in the front. It's the ease of opening the chassis for upgrading. This is just another sealed box with a holes in the front.

Form should follow function.

???

I don't think I've ever seen a chassis easier to open than this one...

 

[konqerror]

When Apple finally delivered an actual pro machine for pro prices the people waiting for consumer grade parts in an expandable tower style consumer product were disappointed. Maybe, someday, this will happen. At least Apple finally acknowledges a tower or rack machine is necessary for some applications.

It's a very mediocre Pro machine. It's a one socket Intel Purley platform, which is about 2 years old now. It's equivalent to an HP Z6 G4, which Apple used as a comparison. However HPs are notoriously overpriced. You can get this same machine with an extra processor socket from Lenovo as a ThinkStation P920 with a starting price of $1279.

The huge thing though is all of the PC workstation manufacturers know many domains like scientific computing and machine learning need NVidia, not Apple's proprietary compute on mediocre AMD GPUs.

Unless you need MacOS for your pro application, PCs are simply more attractive.