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Apple Planning 'Something Really Different' for New Mac Pro

I don't think it will have an optical drive, nor do I think it will house spinning hard drives (unfortunately)

I have something like 8TB inside my MP, and close to 30TB spread out over different units on my desk + a NAS 12TB in the basement.

It's cable he'll, and it doesn't sound like the new MP will help me improve my mess ;-)
 
DanTheAppleMan said:
Oh I do hope they don't scrap the optical drive in the only machine that doesn't need to be made thinner and lighter...

Fair enough, CD's are going out of fashion as software is becoming more download-able. I like the concept. But what about media producers who need to burn discs, and would like to do so conveniently and directly on their Mac Pro ?

'£65 and you can have your (external) superdrive back!'...
Click to expand...

People made similar arguments when Apple removed the internal modem from the original MBP. There comes a time when old tech still in use has to be transitioned out. And you can buy an external drive for much less than Apple's £65. It may not be slot load or have an Apple logo, but works just as well.

Most pros these days don't burn discs. They either upload to the cloud, to a tablet, or put on a USB drive. It's silly for Apple to design an all-new machine with old tech and make everyone who doesn't use it pay for it. Better to make those who do still use it buy it separately.
 
Alumeenium said:
my guess is distributed cube computing
need more horsepower add a couple more nodes
Click to expand...

There's a good chance, I think.

Small, low-power front end. (Could even be ARM powered for all it matters, to keep idle workstations super efficient.)

Modular, networkable/Thunderbolt satellites for expansion GPUs, storage, even CPU clusters. Jobs distributed by next-gen Xgrid.

Desktops are so out of style that this is a great time to do something really focused and interesting.
 
poe diddley said:
No internal expandability=Mac mini pro. Which, I'm sorry, is effing lame if it happens.
If the Mac Pro ends up being like this, apple will officially not be a real computer company anymore and finally complete its transformation into a peddler of expensive, stylish toys.
Click to expand...

Bigger always better?
 
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.
Click to expand...

You can laugh at me all you want whether I'm right or wrong.

Ultimately you still have configurable box. Options for memory, speed, graphics cards, etc. The fact that it might be external or handled some other way doesn't excite me (personally). Like I said - not much can really be "really different" when it's all said and done.
 
yoak said:
I don't think it will have an optical drive, nor do I think it will house spinning hard drives (unfortunately)
Click to expand...

If that is the case then Apple better have its own ext TB drives ready to ship or it will be a flop. SSDs are great but they are not complete HD replacements yet if only b/c of storage and $ limitations. The current lot of ext TB drives are less than desirable for one reason or another.
 
something Different

Something different eh ?

Its gonna be slimmer ?

glueing could be a good option, but i think many people will see 'red'

First it was "There will be something For Mac Pro users" last year, or whenever it was, now, its "something different",,

Either way, there not telling us WHAT, which could also imply this as "There isn't one"

(This could actually be a good April Fools joke) ... but sadly, thats gone too.. :0

oh well.
 
I'm wondering whether they'll go for a modular system with third parties able/licensed to sell modules that can be added according to need. You want an optical drive? Buy an external thunderbolt drive or a third party optical module that stacks on top/below. Or buy an Apple upgrade module with empty bays that can have HDD/SSD etc from a list of third party licensed options inserted by user.
 
I'm starting to think that maybe Peter Zigich was onto something with his modular Mac Pro concept. It would make the current rumors (basically "no expandability" and "plenty of expandability") make a lot more sense.
 
The modular workstation idea was the thing that killed SGI, in a fit of similar hubris. The final version of their Origin/Onyx line was a set of bricks you'd combine to get the system you wanted: CPU boxes, GPU boxes, memory boxes, and I/O or storage boxes. They were all linked by a high-performance external bus (Numalink) that operated almost as fast as the internal bus.

It came out too late after the previous generation, and followed significant amounts of marketing hype that turned out to mostly be bogus. Ordering was complicated and expensive, and most of the potential customers opted for products from other companies.

Afterwards, SGI turned into an indistinguishable vendor of over-designed Linux boxes, in an era when most shops buying linux systems only cared about the price tag.

Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.
 
thepowerofnone said:
"... and no optical drive."

AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. This is so excellent. A tower with no optical drive. I realise that the optical drive doesn't have the same importance that it once had, but its still an essential feature for plenty of people, not least because plenty of professionals buy very expensive software that they can't afford to update every year and still have on disk.

(snip)
Click to expand...

Not if they're Adobe users.
 
yoak said:
I don't think it will have an optical drive, nor do I think it will house spinning hard drives (unfortunately)

I have something like 8TB inside my MP, and close to 30TB spread out over different units on my desk + a NAS 12TB in the basement.

It's cable he'll, and it doesn't sound like the new MP will help me improve my mess ;-)
Click to expand...

apple doesn't like cables. I would expect the modules to be stackable or something.
 
Actually really looking forward to this take on the desktop design. I reckon it'll have a lot of people up in arms. Banking on it being of modular design, multiple unit, with thunderbolt to link the devices. Cool, but expensive?
 
Moccasin said:
I'm wondering whether they'll go for a modular system with third parties able/licensed to sell modules that can be added according to need. You want an optical drive? Buy an external thunderbolt drive or a third party optical module that stacks on top/below. Or buy an Apple upgrade module with empty bays that can have HDD/SSD etc from a list of third party licensed options inserted by user.
Click to expand...

Third parties? :eek:

I'm not sure Steve Jobs is that dead.
 
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.
Click to expand...

do you see it being user friendly stackable like a bunch of mac-mini form factors?

.
 
i can confirm. my friend's cousin's uncle is a janitor at apple, and he said the same thing.
 
Dekema2 said:
Will they find a way to combine business-level computing with iOS style simplicity?
Click to expand...

Tell me you're joking. Uhmm, no, please NO!

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.
Click to expand...

That sounds like a very plausible idea. The ultimate in configurability!

Boris A said:
Sounds like a small powerful machine with support for external GPUs and HDDs via Thunderbolt.
Click to expand...

Yes, I also believe TB will figure heavily in this new MacPro.
 
it will be the fastest Pro machine Apple ever produced with SSD,Thunderbolt best graphic card and the thinnest lightest design yet i'm definitely sure come this fall all the "Pro" users of this board will bitch and moan about not being able to change or expand blah blah

let's hope Apple include a few stickers from 1996 to shut them up.
 
What's wrong with the current Mac Pro? I guess it doesn't have thunderbolt. Apple has been working on this for awhile, I'm sure it's going to be nice. It's a pro machine, they're not going to make it impossible to upgrade. I expect a much smaller design. No optical. Thunderbolt 2.0. What else is there to say? It's just going to be a new design, nothing else is really different, unless they add quad ARM chip for touchscreen display or something crazy.

Maybe they can have on board memory to save space, and have 4 open slots to add. They need to do something to slim it down, but that's hard to do with 8 ram slots.
 
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