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Apple Offers Sneak Peek of Completely Redesigned Mac Pro

Chances are, if you're hating on this you either never owned a mac pro, or owned a mac pro but used it for nonsense.

Wah, my drives are on the outside and I don't like the way it looks. I never knew that a computers performance was based on subjective artistic interpretations. It is not a fembot…actually….

Anyone who has had to move a Mac Pro(s) around can attest to, this will save a lot of effort and pain.

As a long time Mac Pro user, I'm amped about this. Looks extremely powerful.

Cant wait to see the Mari demo. All you people complaining about this mac pro, I have about 7 old ones ill sell you with gusto.
 
laurenr said:
Am I the only one that sees a tribute here?:

From a purely aesthetic point of view, I look at that sleek black cylinder, and I see that signature black Turtleneck.............:eek:
Click to expand...

Yes. So obvious.

steve-jobs-1copy_zps907f82ab.jpg
 
Rossatron said:
hmmm, why do you say it can't be upgraded? i mean, looking at the memory (as an example), what stops you from upgrading it? don't you just need to get pcie card that will fit (no fan)? anyway, that's what i got from their website http://www.apple.com/mac-pro/ i guess i'm missing something here, and would appreciate explanation :eek:
Click to expand...

2 Slots per channel, 4 slots total. That puts you into the high density DIMMs that are always more expensive than the lower density DIMMs. Imagine 32g with 8 slots, and then with 4. Price that out and see. Oh, plus that means removing memory to do the upgrade, rather than just adding on to what you have, again a rather expensive proposition. I like systems with lots of slots. It gets you flexibility... It gets you affordable upgrades...

My Mac Pro has 8 memory slots. Flexibility...
 
MachineGirl said:
I really like it. As for external storage, it won't be long before we see circular drives which stack up underneath it, and fit into the design seamlessly. It would make sense in that case to include some sort of connecting pins on the underside, which would eliminate the use of cables.
Click to expand...

Yes...

I was thinking similarly regarding the external enclosure, though there are a few practical considerations. For one, drives themselves can get hot, and it's probably not OK to simply pipe the heat up through the Mac Pro. An enclosure like that would have to have it's own thermal management that did not interfere with the Mac Pro (though if you don't actually put the Pro and drives under load at the same time you could probably get away with a lot.

Also, standard drives are sold in rectangular form. Maybe the Mac Pro will inspire a new cylindrical form factor -- especially practical for traditional spinning drives -- but it might take a while (well, OK, it will probably never happen, but hey.)

Not to mention you don't do away with the cable issue altogether since the enclosure may need external power.

In the mean time, here's what I'm thinking for the cable-phobes:

A mini tower enclosure with, let's say, 4 TB2 connections. It comes with a combo cable that connects all 4 TB2 ports on the Mac with the 4 ports on the enclosure (there could be a way to use less ports, too). The cable is a foot long (could be options for other lengths) so the mini tower sits right next to the Pro.
The mini tower has a power supply, thermal management and as many drive bays and PCI slots as you want. OK, there might be different towers for different needs. It (or they) has a handle, is in proportion to the golden ratio and looks nice, so it doesn't offend your aesthetic senses when you put it next to the Pro (or maybe the cable is 2m long and you are expected to hide the ugly thing under your desk -- either way). It's OK if it's rectilinear -- that doesn't necessarily look bad next to the Pro.
 
laurenr said:
Looking at it, I totally see Steve Jobs as having inspired it...

Am I the only one that sees a tribute here?:

From a purely aesthetic point of view, I look at that sleek black cylinder, and I see that signature black Turtleneck...
Click to expand...

Actually, coupled with the look of the new Airport Extreme, and the Time Capsule, I see a designer fixated on his 'Johnson' and being very 'Phallic'... :eek:

Ive is getting older... Cialis? Viagra? ED on his mind? :D:rolleyes:
 
I know three pro users who render heavy-duty 3D video and graphics as their livelihoods - people who really are *pro* users and push hardware to its limits every day of the year...

All three are incredibly excited about this Mac Pro.

Myself? I am not a pro user. An iPad is enough for me. But this is one sexy design, and the thermal core is one of those ideas that is so good it seems completely obvious... All of the best ideas seem like they should have existed all along....

This thing is nice. And with 6 thunderbolt2 ports, 2 gigabit ethernet ports, Bluetooth 4, and 4 USB3 ports it is also INCREDIBLY flexible and customizable.

In addition it looks like other parts are modular and will be upgradable over time. We don't know the details yet.
 
Statement industrial design

What an impressive statement to go in ives design portfolio. Its a lesson in single minded boiling-down of an idea. For the people it suits it will give the premium feeling of ownership. Like the last cube

The last mac pro was pretty good though. The real pro needs to make doing stuff easier, by being reasonably flexible. Anyone taking on the new one will have to have the right work to hide the compromises. Not ideal.

I love a design gimmick, but for me the illuminated ports are too much of an indulgence. Initial revving of the fan however, thats always cool!

Looking forward to seeing keyboard, mouse changes to suit. Looks like we are back to black again
 
iSee said:
Yes...

I was thinking similarly regarding the external enclosure, though there are a few practical considerations. For one, drives themselves can get hot, and it's probably not OK to simply pipe the heat up through the Mac Pro. An enclosure like that would have to have it's own thermal management that did not interfere with the Mac Pro (though if you don't actually put the Pro and drives under load at the same time you could probably get away with a lot.

Also, standard drives are sold in rectangular form. Maybe the Mac Pro will inspire a new cylindrical form factor -- especially practical for traditional spinning drives -- but it might take a while (well, OK, it will probably never happen, but hey.)

Not to mention you don't do away with the cable issue altogether since the enclosure may need external power.

In the mean time, here's what I'm thinking for the cable-phobes:

A mini tower enclosure with, let's say, 4 TB2 connections. It comes with a combo cable that connects all 4 TB2 ports on the Mac with the 4 ports on the enclosure (there could be a way to use less ports, too). The cable is a foot long (could be options for other lengths) so the mini tower sits right next to the Pro.
The mini tower has a power supply, thermal management and as many drive bays and PCI slots as you want. OK, there might be different towers for different needs. It (or they) has a handle, is in proportion to the golden ratio and looks nice, so it doesn't offend your aesthetic senses when you put it next to the Pro (or maybe the cable is 2m long and you are expected to hide the ugly thing under your desk -- either way). It's OK if it's rectilinear -- that doesn't necessarily look bad next to the Pro.
Click to expand...

Cylindrical hard drives? Actually they tried that early on in the history of drive development. It functioned like the belt on an old dictograph, or the early recorders from Edison. They didn't work too well, which is why the industry went with platters, plus the reading mechanism would be unwieldy over time. I just measured a hard drive, and if someone used the small notebook sized SAS drives, they could pull off some kind of rack system with the drive platters horizontal. The more traditional half-height drives would have to be mounted vertically to get any number of them in an enclosure, and that wouldn't be very many without going really high, or much wider.

I guess someone could make an enclosure with an indentation in the top to hold the Mac Pro, which would help somewhat with the proliferation of cables I've feared. It's too bad they didn't develop a connector in the bottom of the Mac Pro to allow for vertical expansion. Maybe some third party manufacturer can come up with a 'dock' attachment and the ability to stack add-on accessories... Who knows...

----------
derboy said:
Looking forward to seeing keyboard, mouse changes to suit. Looks like we are back to black again
Click to expand...

I'm lusting for an illuminated plug-in keyboard! They have them built-in for the notebooks, why not one that plugs in? Come on Apple! Release an illuminated wired keyboard! Please...
 
lol

nick_elt said:
I thought Mac Pro users would understand the lastest tech and how to expand. I was wrong.
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Dude,do you really think AMD GPU and DDR3 RAM is a high technology? The problem here is these guys are suffering,they don't know what to do,they hate MS and windows and they really don't like stupid buggy ML or new Apple's product.They are confused just like me.Think people ,think.What we can do about it? JUST OPEN IT AND LET THEM DO IT NICELY.
 
manghangson said:
Anyone who has had to move a Mac Pro(s) around can attest to, this will save a lot of effort and pain.
Click to expand...

Anyone thinking like this hasn't had to move a Windows based engineering system around with the plethora of cords and cables. It's like a gaggle of Octopuses being dragged around. Cables, cables, cables... YIKES!!!

You do realize that you are talking about *everything* being added externally. DVD drive, expansion cage, etc... With their power cables and assorted cables...

Throw in a few external drives, a DVD drive, printer, scanner, keyboard/mouse... Cables!!!

Whatever...
 
Any idea why there is no ad card slot? Something really small and likely even used more then optical drives because people may have cameras for their work. Personally I just use my iPhone and drop box, however I doubt that works for everyone. Oh yeah, more adapters, this thing will be covered in adapters, cables and externals for many people depending on their needs.
 
Digital Skunk said:
Totally agree. Even if we excuse the Rev A of this new design, and new model of Mac Pro that Apple has you are so very right about the . . . . "tower" being something of a decade early and $1000 too much.

I am interested in the machine, but don't want to pay a premium for a tower that I'll undoubtedly have to kick out another $1500 or so for the periphs to use it as more than just a really fast box.

And that additional $1500 starts to shrink the more the machine pushes into workstation class price territory. This "box" . . . . cylinder priced at $2000 base (6 core) makes a better argument. At $1799 base (4 core) it's almost . . . . almost worth the price for that headless power house many have asked for . . . . even without the expansion.

If it costs $2500 and up, one might as well get a much more versatile HP or Dell workstation if one doesn't need Mac only software.
Click to expand...
It really is the computer of the future, today. They didn't update the Mac Pro for 1,000 days and it'll take another 1,000 when this is available to be viable. Thunderbolt 2 isn't out en masse until next year and the delicious ASUS 4K displays at 60 Hz is $4,000 a piece. Guess what, the Mac Pro can now run more than one. Isn't that great?!

It's starting to look like this.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/turbobox-na255a-pci-express,3430.html

At least there you get full PCIe 3.0 bandwidth.
 
Xiroteus said:
Any idea why there is no ad card slot? Something really small and likely even used more then optical drives because people may have cameras for their work. Personally I just use my iPhone and drop box, however I doubt that works for everyone. Oh yeah, more adapters, this thing will be covered in adapters, cables and externals for many people depending on their needs.
Click to expand...

most pro photog shoot w/ medium format camera usually have some cable backplane to their computer.

If they are dSLR shooting off site remote, they most likely have their Airs or Macbook Pros and dump into those and review at their photo-shoots. When they get back, they boot into Thunderbolt target disk mode on their laptops, connect cable and transfer 40 GB of photos in less than 2 minutes versus ....

This is how I see it being done now with Imac-Macbook workflows.
 
PinkyMacGodess said:
Anyone thinking like this hasn't had to move a Windows based engineering system around with the plethora of cords and cables. It's like a gaggle of Octopuses being dragged around. Cables, cables, cables... YIKES!!!

You do realize that you are talking about *everything* being added externally. DVD drive, expansion cage, etc... With their power cables and assorted cables...

Throw in a few external drives, a DVD drive, printer, scanner, keyboard/mouse... Cables!!!

Whatever...
Click to expand...

Not for nothing..

Printer? Wireless.
Scanner? PSC AIO, Wireless.
Keyboard? Wireless.
Mouse? Wireless.
Optical drive? If you need one, USB3, and slim.
A "Few" external drives"? really? Not knowing how much work you do on it, that could be paired down to perhaps a 3 or 4 TB SATA drive in a USB3 or Thunderbolt casing.

So you're looking at, at the minimum, 3 cables connected to the Pro (power cord, 2 USB3 or thunderbolt cables). You are already looking at that alone in the classic Mac Pro, just from the power cord, wired keyboard, and wired mouse.

Nothing more than you already have.

BL.
 
Any news about pricing?

August 2010...

At least I got FREE shipping :p
 

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Wild-Bill said:
Alas, you need a PCI-E x16 slot to hook that up to your machine. Not compatible with the iGarbageCan .
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It isn't niche enough. The entire thing screams of we have to NICHER. They're taking the Thunderbolt thing too far.

As a technology enthusiast and power user at heart, I want to LOVE Thunderbolt. Until you look at reality. Sadly technology in general has been boring the past few years and I blame Apple for directing the industry's energy toward phones and tablets.

The only gems I have left are Occulus Rift and Star Citizen. Another Future Tech I need to research at the end of the tree.
 
Phrygian said:
Cheap? I don't want to be ripped off.

Go Dell? Its called building a PC. Something real mac pro users know about.
Click to expand...

If this were the case, wouldn't real Mac Pro users not have paid the Apple tax, and instead have gone the Hackintosh route? I mean, to be honest, a Core i5-3570K, gigabyte motherboard, 1 SSD, a 3TB SATA III, Optical drive, BitFenix Prodigy, and decent RadeonHD 6950 or latest NVidia would have only set you back roughly $800 instead of the $3200 spent on on a PRE-BUILT Mac Pro.

Just sayin'.

BL.
 
blitzer09x87 said:
wow, compact and shiny black, pretty impressive, haven't seen anything like that before. i would love to buy it, i hope it's less than $1200(my budget).
Click to expand...


Dude. No...just no.

You will be able to buy a used 2008 Mac Pro for that price, perhaps including memory and a SSD upgrade.

A new Mac Pro? With the two AMD FirePros inside? The prices will probably be $3,299 and $3,999...and up.
 
bradl said:
Not for nothing..

Printer? Wireless.
Scanner? PSC AIO, Wireless.
Keyboard? Wireless.
Mouse? Wireless.
Optical drive? If you need one, USB3, and slim.
A "Few" external drives"? really? Not knowing how much work you do on it, that could be paired down to perhaps a 3 or 4 TB SATA drive in a USB3 or Thunderbolt casing.

So you're looking at, at the minimum, 3 cables connected to the Pro (power cord, 2 USB3 or thunderbolt cables). You are already looking at that alone in the classic Mac Pro, just from the power cord, wired keyboard, and wired mouse.

Nothing more than you already have.

BL.
Click to expand...

Actually very close to my current setup, exept I'm still dont have a :apple:pro.

Now Only devices I Ocassionaly Attach to my MBP are the CD/DVD drive (only 2 times since I have my mac ~ 18 month). and my TB Little Big Disk I use to have my 2nd TimeMachine backup (My Main TM Backup is my time Capsule).

When My New Mac Pro arrives (I Hope before Xmas) Only new h/w besides the Mac Pro I'll add is an 2-3 TB LittleBig disk In Raid 5. Ahh, and some 4K Monitor.
 
Reminds me of one of those wireless speakers. Looks kinda cool, probably won't look as good once you connect all the external drives to it.

Also, moving it around will be a pain.

Interesting idea though.
 
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