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

[UK-MacAddict]

Wheres Jony Ive’s comments on the design? Also why didn’t Phil Schiller show off the product?

Are they both on their way out of Apple?

 

[AZREOSpecialist]

Stunning design and performance from Apple, bravo! Those who criticize the design are clearly not familiar with midcentury modern aesthetic. Apple took a tower form factor and turned it into something artistic and sculptural. This is the Mac I've been waiting for!

 

[Niklas_nick]

Looks like a great design from the standpoint of base power and cooling. And with the concomitant announcement of the display, it is clear that a primary use case is video. With only two slots for SSD internally, it also seems clear this machine would often be used with massive external storage. The one thing I had hoped for was a place for perhaps a dozen M.2 NVMe cards. That said, I suppose one could put in cards with this storage on it. I'm not a professional video editor, so can't justify it for me.

I think maybe there might be something coming in the future. There is a big empty space behind the CPU cooler, with some ports right above the PCIe lanes and a removable part in the top frame; so maybe there can be a box for SSDs in the future.

 

[DaveRivera]

Stunning design and performance from Apple, bravo! Those who criticize the design are clearly not familiar with midcentury modern aesthetic. Apple took a tower form factor and turned it into something artistic and sculptural. This is the Mac I've been waiting for!

I agree. Its beautiful. I likely won't be able to get one, its just out of my price range, but I may try to finagle it...its one beautiful beast!

 

[bluespark]

I think that's an intentional and playful nod to the past, knowing previous Mac Pro owners affectionally referred to their computers as cheese graters. No other company would engage in such whimsy.

I give Apple a ton of credit and respect for the grate design.

Yes, this is clearly intentional. Guys, this is what design is all about: creating something that is extremely simple, almost elemental, and where every part of the design is interwoven with the functionality. A cheese grater itself is great design because there is no separation between its appearance and its functionality. Its look speaks exactly to what it does and imparts no superfluous information in the process. So too with this Mac, and that's the beauty. This is an absolute home-run from a design perspective.

 

[lkrupp]

So this is how Apple is justifying that unconscionable pricing.

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

Do some price checks before opening your mouth. A 31” Sony 4K HDR studio reference model lists for $30,000.00. The 32” Apple 6K XDR will sell for $5000.00. So yes, the new monitor is cheap compared to monitors of similar specs.

 

[Albatrossflyer]

I'm interested to see how this beast performs in a primarily intensive compute environment running large scale Mathematica or Matlab problems that don't need high end graphics.

 

[code-m]

It's actually not bad except they could've made the legs more elegant. Feels like they spent all their time on the rest of the case then rushed the legs.

The legs were designed to mount wheels, its a better solution than having it sit in a wheeled cart. Though I have a feeling that the additional wheel accessory will cost as much as a cart.

If the 2019 MP was offered in SpaceGrey with the stainless steel accents for the handles and legs, this thing would look iconic. Same things should be done with the XDR Display.

Hope the next iMac borrows design cues from the XDR Display minimal bezels.

 

[nwcs]

???

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

Many of the people making comments like that didn’t do more than read a single line of an article and look at a picture.

 

[EdT]

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".

But sir, you don’t understand....I WANT it more than they do.

 

[Mousse]

???

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

I take it you've never opened up a Power Mac G4 Grey/Blue or Power Mac G5 Mirror Door/Cheese Grater before. Back when I fixed Macs for a living, I could have the memory upgraded before the client finished filling out the check in form. Under 15 seconds easy. I could replace a HD in 2 minutes, 5 mins on a bad day. It was that easy to open.

 

[Stairway]

I'm not too clear on something with this new Mac Pro ---- is the system "open" as in you can load the PCIe slots with any appropriate card, RAM slots with RAM sticks of your choosing, etc.? Or are you limited to Apple provided RAM modules, GPU (and other PCIe peripheral) modules?

 

[code-m]

“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?

I still don't understand how that stand is now considered an accessory, do people sit their Pro displays on the table or mount it to the wall or desk mounted arm. I believe Apple may be trying to encourage people to purchase 3rd party options, yet they still get you with the mount.

However having six of these XDR Displays as a max configuration is
[doublepost=1559668292][/doublepost]

I'm not too clear on something with this new Mac Pro ---- is the system "open" as in you can load the PCIe slots with any appropriate card, RAM slots with RAM sticks of your choosing, etc.? Or are you limited to Apple provided RAM modules, GPU (and other PCIe peripheral) modules?

You can load it with any third-party PCI-e peripherals as long as drivers are available for macOS. The Apple collaborated designed GPU is an added option.

 

[AZREOSpecialist]

It's a very mediocre Pro machine.

Not even close.

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.

The target market for Mac Pro isn't the scientific computing and machine learning crowd. Did you miss the Keynote?

I agree. Its beautiful. I likely won't be able to get one, its just out of my price range, but I may try to finagle it...its one beautiful beast!

I may start a video shooting business simply to justify buying this thing! lol

 

[code-m]

I take it you've never opened up a Power Mac G4 Grey/Blue or Power Mac G5 Mirror Door/Cheese Grater before. Back when I fixed Macs for a living, I could have the memory upgraded before the client finished filling out the check in form. Under 15 seconds easy. I could replace a HD in 2 minutes, 5 mins on a bad day. It was that easy to open.

Got to love the quick access door, it was simpler than what was available on PC at the time to unscrew the back and slide the case off, kinda reminds me of this 2019 MP, twist the locking mechanism and slide over. If the metal case gets bent, go ahead buy another one.

 

[Eorlas]

So this is how Apple is justifying that unconscionable pricing.

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

This is an inaccurate re-telling of exactly what happened:

the audience applauded the display pricing, they disapproved of the stand pricing.

It seems the professionals are quite understanding of the display, but no one cares for the part where the price doesn't include anything to mount it with.

 

[bernuli]

Gorgeous. My wallet is ready.

My wallet is not ready, but it will be!

 

[partsofspeech]

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

The new one is very un-Apple.

 

[jonnyb098]

So this is how Apple is justifying that unconscionable pricing.

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

If you know anything about the HIGH END pro market, the pricing means almost nothing when every hour counts and time = money. These new Mac Pros are monster machines that now have the ability to be upgraded by the user for years for a small fraction of the machine cost.

These machines aren't for people living in mommys basement playing warcraft. These are for professionals who are making major coin to crank out amazing work to meet tight deadlines where millions of dollars are potentially in play.

For many middle road pro users thats why the iMac Pro exists.

 

[idktbh]

5 sec work

 

[ArrayDecay]

Years ago, as in right after the trashcan's debut?

 

[mytdave]

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....

I would hope so, although with the Intel platform and the standard PCIe slot design, you can install any GPU you want... However, support for that GPU in the OS is a different question.

 

[timber]

I do like the design but I feel that Apple have once again designed another extremely over engineered and absurdly expensive machine that will disappoint a lot of its traditional users.

 

[bernuli]

Just for reference, this is the sort of monitors the new Apple Pro Display XDR is set to compete with:
https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/prod...m_318g_31_1_true_4k_monitor_4096x2160_10.html

They will sell these to entertainment studios mainly and these won't care about having to pay for a stand for $999, they will probably get the VESA adapter or maybe even get custom adapters to fit exactly what they need so the all outrage about the stand price is ridiculous when you put things in context.

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.

If this monitor is vesa compat, then can't the studios just get the Apple vesa adapter and use the stand or mount already in place?

 

[chatin]

This where the trashcan sales were in the trash instead of building an installed base. I would have recommended the new design in 2013. Instead of being a driving force away from Mac, I would have convinced hundreds or thousands to stay in the fold.