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Apple Planning 'Something Really Different' for New Mac Pro

Based on Apples current trends the new Mac Pro will be smaller, sealed to prevent user upgrades and cost $200.00 more than current models.
 
BeauPaul said:
in this day and age you really don't need a tower!

Something smaller and more powerful is on the way!
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You're projecting your needs into this. There are plenty of users out there who benefit from a tower.

Smaller and more powerful? How are you dissipating all that heat?


anomie said:
What you want is a faster horse.. You lack vision.
Realize that Apple never listens to its customers, which made Apple so successful in the past.
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No, what he wants is a machine that will get his work done faster and more efficiently. Maybe an all new design will provide that.

That quote is old and tired. I also think you're delusional if you really believe Apple has never listened to their customers.
 
How great is the design of the Mac Pro that it has lasted this long?! Seriously, I feel like Apple could just update the inards and everybody would be excited.
 
iSee said:
Can we quote you and laugh at you if they do release something really different:p;)

Here's my wild prediction:

The "Mac Pro" isn't a single desktop machine at all. Instead it comes in a series of modular units what connect together via thunderbolt (hopefully, they click together like lego).

You pick a CPU module, a "base" module (w/the basic platform: mobo, power supply, 1 drive bay), one or more graphics card modules, extra storage modules, etc. You might even be able to click multiple machines together that with automatically configure themselves into a grid.
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Most people seem to be predicting this but how are components that sit or click together going to be any more attractive than than the current workstation with its sleek unified design and almost unibody case (sans door and front/back plates)? Just think of all the ugly lines everywhere! For me the great beauty of the Mac Pro is that everything is internal and I don't need component this and mismatching box that. For a 10 year old design it's remarkable how beautiful and modern it still looks!

If Apple do manage to pull something like a modular design off and and still have it look as good I would be mightily impressed but I just don't see how it's possible.

Of course, advances in IO and wireless speeds do make a modular design technically far more plausible than it's ever been. Hopefully Thunderbolt 2 and 802.11ac make it.

Ultimately advances in power and IO will make me want to upgrade.

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ibadukefan said:
How great is the design of the Mac Pro that it has lasted this long?! Seriously, I feel like Apple could just update the inards and everybody would be excited.
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Haha, you just beat me to it!
 
Hahaha.... I remember reading the exact same thing about Final Cut Pro before it's release. Oh yes, here it is:

https://www.macrumors.com/2010/05/1...t-pro-jobs-says-next-release-will-be-awesome/

Steve Jobs was recently questioned about the fate of Final Cut Pro. MacSoda sent an email to Jobs asking about layoffs and the future of the application. Jobs replied:

We certainly do [care about Pro apps]. Folks who left were in support, not engineering. Next release will be awesome.
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I'll believe it when I see it.
 
For decades, Apple has been eliminating legacy hardware just to annoy old f*rts. So they have to get rid of the optical drive to maintain tradition. This, of course, will lead to increased sales.

But since there is a session about OpenCL on the schedule for next weeks WWDC, my bet is that there will be room inside for one, possibly more, really fast graphic accelerator cards.

On my wish list would be sideways rackmountability, but I'm not holding my breath.
 
inlandtange said:
As somebody said elsewhere on this topic, "pros don't need something different, they need something capable". What really scares me is that something similar to Brook's comments were made prior to FCPX being released a couple of years back. Now, while I still remain in the naysayer camp on X I think even fanboys would admit it was released way too early, not at all capable of doing what its predecessor did.

To me the release of X meant nothing really, but when they simultaneously dropped support and upgrades for 7 it was like a kick in the throat. Typical of Apple's self-important "we know better than the user". Now while you might get away with that with a consumer, them's fighting words for a pro.

The timing is really bizarre too. Many in the video industry, thanks to FCPX or the lack of a new macpro or both, have given up on Apple and moved on, in both hardware and software areas. The horse has largely bolted yet as the dust fades on the horizon they now seek to try and bring us back! Weird. It would want to be a lot better than "something really different" Mr. Brooks. it had better be something that "really works". We are in the business of smoke and mirrors every day of our lives, don't try that tactic on us with the new macpro.
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I don't mean to take this further off topic, but I like the cautious tone here in looking back at how Apple handled the launch of FCPX.

FCP X launch didn't mean that much to me either. I actually have both Final Cut Studio and FCP X installed on my machines. What's funny is that I haven't been using Final Cut Studio since I started using FCP X.

The big slip up that Apple made when launching FCP X was the simultaneous discontinuance of Final Cut Studio. Had they called FCP X something else completely and kept Final Cut Studio going as-is, I don't think there would have been much commotion.

I disagree that the consumers won't react the same way as the "Pros" - case in point, look at the Apple Maps debacle.

I think what you see here is that the "Consumer" market is so much bigger than the "Pro" market that Apple is much more public in the handling of mistakes in the "Consumer" market than they are in the "Pro" market.

To bring this back to topic, it is my absolute hope and wish that the reason for the long delay in the introduction of the new Mac Pro is because Apple did learn from these mistakes and is making sure that the new design will in fact meet and hopefully exceed our pent up expectations.
 
Xiroteus said:
The only time I could see an external being somewhat okay if someone had several systems that were streamed lined and just used one external optical drive for all the systems when it came up.
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Sometimes you just need storage. I've got a Mac Pro with two CD/DVD burners, all four bays filled, and three external 2-drive enclosures hooked up to it.
 
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You speak the truth...compare a $60k Cadillac vs $60k Lexus. No comparison,

ma2ha3 said:
No i dun want the new mac pro to be build in USA, USA are famous for unreliability of their product. This is not USA 50 years ago, where their products are build to last.

The only reason apple build in usa is to prevent problem from years of tax avoidance.

so apple not building there because it is the best, but for politic. This does not help any consumer at all.

I would rather they build in japan. That will give me much confidence in the product.
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Apple forgot the non pro's!

In my opinion one of the biggest mistakes Apple made with the Mac Pro was pricing it at a point were only 'the pro' or very wealthy could afford to own one.
There are many 'non pro' users who use 'pro' equipment on a regular basis in all sorts of products from software to cameras, from cutlery to golf clubs.
By making the Mac Pro a high end workstation they effectively made it a niche product out of the range of many who might like a tower.
I love my Mac Pro but I'm not a 'pro' either.
However I am an extremely dedicated enthusiast and have used an Apple desktop as my main computer since they started making them.
So for me a tower is a natural choice.
My Mac Pro purchases since the introduction of the Intel machines have mostly been ex demo or refurbs as they were simply too much to buy new - especially considering that they used to come without bluetooth and wireless cards - surely 'pros' need them too! :)
So the thing I'd most like to see from Apple is an affordable 'pro' machine aimed at the aspiring professional who is currently a 'non pro'.
Something around the £1399 ($1999) price point.
I grew up using Apple towers, something that a whole generation of 'serious' enthusiasts or 'non pros' will have done and we need a way to get back on the ladder.
The iMac is great but not for everyone.
I write and record music and do my own video's, so having 4 internal HD's and two internal optical drives is great. Not to mention being able to use my preferred screens, add a load of RAM and extra USB ports for dongles, interfaces and external storage. It's not only 'pros' who want these options.
Apple needs to realise that not all 'pro' products are used exclusively by 'pros'.
The reason they (wrongly) believe users no longer want them, is they've become so prohibitively expensive, that a lot of their potential customers couldn't afford them and were forced to go for iMacs or PC's.
So come on Apple...an affordable Mac Pro please!!! :)
 
Some of this sounds great.... but, "he heard the new professional Mac would be "heavily reliant on Thunderbolt" with "no internal expandability", and would have support for dual-GPU's and no FireWire or optical drive", that worries me...
:confused:
 
ma2ha3 said:
No i dun want the new mac pro to be build in USA, USA are famous for unreliability of their product. This is not USA 50 years ago, where their products are build to last.

The only reason apple build in usa is to prevent problem from years of tax avoidance.

so apple not building there because it is the best, but for politic. This does not help any consumer at all.

I would rather they build in japan. That will give me much confidence in the product.
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I'm an American and I build my own PCs.

It's not really too difficult... I've been doing it for years.

But should I find a Japanese kid to do it for me?
 
Radiating said:
Please make this real. Now.
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I love the idea of the 'modular' based Mac Pro system, but surely there'd be issues with cooling and keeping the system quiet?

The fans on the basic system surely couldn't keep a 3 tier system cool too?
Or at least not without revving up and being noisy.

So then each module would probably need its own cooling system which would make it a trick proposition to keep quiet.

Still, if anyone is going to come up with a solution to it Apple will, but I doubt the new Mac Pro will be modular.
 
It may be my opinion but I don't think every Mac Pro user uses all the space in their Mac pros, including 2 superdrives, all hard drive slots filled, all memory slots and all pci slots filled, I know some are modded ones of course like a 5th hard drive in the optical bay, etc, but here would be my suggestion take the same body, gut the whole thing and imagine it is shell you are looking at from the side in the top left corner where the optical bay is put a Mac mini like computer and with all the rest of the empty space let me plug in whatever I want to piggy back off that. If I want 13 hard drives no problem, if I want a 128gb of memory there is room, extra processors just plug them in. This would be the perfect scenario for a server that needs storage, a render farm than needs lots of memory or processing power, put in 5 or 6 pci cards. Etc, I think everyone can be happy with this kind of system for every pro user but at the same time make it so customizable that the possibilities are endless
 
Good news... i don't think they would have added a bunch of new drivers for video cards in the past couple of months if they weren't building something that couldn't use them....unless they were just trying to help the hackintosh community... the full size Nvidea 660 + 680 work great.. not just the mobile ones like in the iMac...

Perhaps a "Mac" as a mini-tower... . and a "Mac Pro" full size tower. Yeah i know its not gonna happen, but hopefully this is the last time i will have to type it....
 
Apple better not waste space on an optical drive!

You can always add an external burner if you need one. (who should be using USB sticks at this point in all cases anyways..)

If you don't need one an optical drive, you CAN'T just make the device smaller by removing it.

It becomes wasted space!
 
I would love to use a Mac as my primary computer at home, but I don't because the current Mac line up simply fails to cater to my needs.

-I want a desktop computer running an SSD (for my operating system), that I can then install additional hard drives in, as well as upgrade ram. However even the cheapest Mac Pro is out of my price range.

-The iMacs are in my price range, but don't allow additional harddrives to be installed internally, and I'm not interested in running a suite of external drives strewn around my desk.

Hence, Apple has failed to sell me a desktop computer.
 
JonBOY26 said:
I would love to use a Mac as my primary computer at home, but I don't because the current Mac line up simply fails to cater to my needs.

-I want a desktop computer running an SSD (for my operating system), that I can then install additional hard drives in, as well as upgrade ram. However even the cheapest Mac Pro is out of my price range.

-The iMacs are in my price range, but don't allow additional harddrives to be installed internally, and I'm not interested in running a suite of external drives strewn around my desk.

Hence, Apple has failed to sell me a desktop computer.
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Being a desktop a lot of people will try to get many years out of it and require the ability to upgrade parts, not too worried about that on a laptop yet it is a must on a desktop.

I wonder what the numbers are like for people not buying it because they keep moving to a model many do not like vs the "they made it an inch too big or it has an optical drive so I will never buy it" I feel the former would be a larger number.
 
Xiroteus said:
Why?

What possible reason would there be to remove an option for a optical drive bay on a PRO desktop machine? I may be letting up on laptops moving away from optical drives yet refuse to get an inch on a desktop, people should not have to add a external to a desktop, I would not even bother just based on how ridiculous it is.
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The Mac Pro isn't for anyone that decides to purchase it based on "ridiculousness."

You either need it or you don't.

Most pro users don't want to waste the extra space on their racks.

How much extra space is available in YOUR racks?

Xiroteus said:
No it's not. I refuse to use an external to a desktop, it is completely ridiculous.
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Yah, no one wants an internal optical drive anymore. It is largely useless. I'm sure you already know that. Apple is good at dropping support for these kinds of legacy products, with no market value.

You'll have to learn to use an external drive.

Apple should only include products that are actually used. You don't even use your optical drive 99% of the time. But your hard drive, cpu, power supply, memory, GPU - you use those 100% of the time.

Why should apple include a part in the box that is only used 1% of the time, when everything else is used 100% of the time?

It would be stupid for Apple to include that.
 
Michael Scrip said:
I'm an American and I build my own PCs.

It's not really too difficult... I've been doing it for years.

But should I find a Japanese kid to do it for me?
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Nah, go with the kid in China. His cost of living is much lower, and so requires significantly less pay to do the same work.

Oh, that's what we do now. ;)
 
This would be my 1st Mac Pro and I've finally decided to lean myself away from the iMac line.

I just wanted an upgraded Pro, with current CPU's, give me Thunderbolt, give me USB3 ports, give me a TB thin display and an 802.11ac Airport Extreme/or Time Capsule and I'll give you my money and I'm sure many others will as well.

I'm just hoping Monday will be a good (Apple) day overall.
 
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