Apple Offers Sneak Peek of Completely Redesigned Mac Pro

[Shivetya]

Anyone else think it's ugly...

I was looking for the Dyson label

 

[hleewell]

Why a cylinder?

 

[cppguy]

That's called an iMac.

Except you can't even replace the RAM without disassembling the entire LCD panel. And it only comes in 21" and 27" size, when 24" is the sweet spot for most people. And I don't want to buy a new display every year.

 

[ikir]

My dreams come true

 

[HelveticaRoman]

Alright, time to buy a current gen Mac Pro.
I want 4 HDD bays and multiple PCI slots.

According to Apple, no you don't.

 

[AdamSeen]

- Single CPU, instead of dual CPU, skipping a generation allowed them to "double the performance"
- 4 channel ram, so most likely up to 64gb max (4 x 16gb) imposed by using a xeon. I doubt we'll get much bigger than 16gb DDR3 sticks, I would expect that single stick 32gb to appear in next gen DDR4.
- Super fast internal hard drive (that thing looks unbelievable!)
- Massive expansion via thunderbolt (and external PCI-E chassis)
- Dual gigabit ethernet.
- High compute GPUs, but probably not super for gaming - so unlikely to be great for the pro gamers (The iMac 27" 680mx is pretty damn awesome, already.)

It looks great for animators and CAD'ers. In the long run it should make the mac pro cheaper (no extra xeon CPU at $1200). And once you buy your external thunderbolt kit you can reuse on subsequent generations.

Shame there's no interchangeable graphics card for gaming, that would have been awesome with the new OS X Maverick OpenGL 4 - gaming could have finally got a massive boost on OS X.

 

[iBug2]

I'm so ready to buy one of this, time to change my 2008 Mac Pro already. I hope the GPU's are upgradeable though.

 

[violst]

Bottom line is it's about time. This is going to be a great little beast.

I can't wait to get my hands on it.

Long live the Mac Pro.

 

[portishead]

I think this Mac Pro looks amazing, but I'm curious to see if I get priced out. 4 RAM slots as I predicted. I'm wondering how expensive the PCIe SSD is going to be. I don't mind having to use external storage, but I'd at least like to have a TB or 2 internal, but that's going to be expensive.

I might be interested in a lower cost single processor with a small SSD if they keep the price low. I'm just thinking this is going to get expensive quickly.

 

[kemal]

Phil Schiller mentioned Expandability through external storage

This will drive sales up and reduce price on Thunderbolt drive enclosures. I will miss being able to slam a SATA drive into the sled and into my old Pro. But then, a Thunderbolt sled shaped like a Coke can should be nice.

 

[ikir]

Why a cylinder?

Because of the thermal system.... cmon is easy just read, there a re few lines and big images ;-P

 

[addicted44]

I wish they would have used the old design. I see no room for expanding hard drive space and I'm curious if the GPU will be upgradable.

You can upgrade HDs using the Thunderbolt or USB3 connectors.

And as someone on Twitter pointed out, if you want the old design, simply stick the new Mac Pro INSIDE an old Mac Pro, and voila, internal upgrade everything.

 

[kk08053]

What more do you guys want???

I swear, some of you guys are amazing. You complain about no new Mac Pro until you get a thoroughly rethought Mac Pro and then complain about that. On top of commenting about things you obviously didn't bother reading about through the specs (plastic, fan noise, etc., etc. ) I think most of you simply want to complain for the sake of complaining. Read through the full description of the hardware and compare it to what you are using now and what else is available. This is a pretty amazing bit of hardware. If your big complaint is having to connect a couple of external drives for your specialized set up (which you're complaining you don't have what you want now either) then I think you're just out of touch. If PIXAR sees the promise of this hardware with they way they push the limits of media, I think you'll be fine.

 

[macpro2000]

I think it looks cool...just need to own up to the fact that it won't last anyone 7 years like my MP 1,1 has.

 

[HurryKayne]

I wish they would have used the old design. I see no room for expanding hard drive space and I'm curious if the GPU will be upgradable.

Don't think so...

 

[chuckles:)]

Not that far a stretch. I think the cube started at $2300. If the new Mac Pro does have a plastic skin, it wouldn't surprise me that Apple would charge that much. Sadly, it's in its history.

Website says extruded polished aluminium.

 

[Philter]

It's like an April Fools joke, except they're serious. Hilarious and awful at the same time.

 

[MrXiro]

a unified system handling 4K out of the box is... an issue? a problem? too costly? plastic? looks like a trash can (that takes the suburban cherry award)? Can't stick in those POS buggy cards mom gave you money for?

WTF, who are you people?

Welcome to MacComplainers.com

 

[iMouse]

Aluminum (probably anodized)

Made out of plastic? Seriously? Spend $1299 and get a nice aluminum iMac. $2499 gets me a plastic Mac Pro(predicting cost of the new Mac Pro)? Screw that.....

Nah, aluminum. Check out the assembly bullet point.

http://www.apple.com/mac-pro/

 

[Larry-K]

The g4 cube stills looks impressive today with its floating design.
Hopefully better in person,
but now the new pro looks like a Dyson Air freshener or a trash bin?

I know, the three with dead motherboards I have on the shelf, look very nice.

 

[macgeek88]

Seems like Cube 2.0 to me.. It's a cool look, but will have to see one in person and use it before I'd ever get one. I do think expandability is an issue for high end content creators but if external storage works for them, maybe not.

 

[CausticPuppy]

That was an awkward few seconds when they focused on Woz during the reveal.....

 

[alvindarkness]

I'm specifically thinking about the need to supplement the GPU for the purposes of rendering motion graphics.

Having internal expandability means that I can swap out the GPU and replace it with something that fits my requirements. [I also assume that] The RAM is also locked in that little cylindrical device so I can't replace it to increase the resources for After Effects.

I prefer options, which Apple has decided not to give me.

Apart from having two ridiculously impressive GPU's internally, 20GB/s thunderbolt 2 ports for additional OpenCL/CUDA/etc performance is ample.

The RAM is upgradable - its shown on apples site. Infact even the internal flash is upgradable.

I can understand the appearance of not giving options. And I can understand people not wanting external boxes. But I dont think this thing is as bad as it first appears.

 

[DisMyMac]

Why a cylinder?

There's just one big fan, and it goes 'round in a circle. IIRC, a cylinder is a projection of that.

 

[Nightarchaon]

This is not the Mac Pro you are looking for, move along...

Seriously, the ONLY reason id buy this is if it was kitted out to look like R2D2