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Apple Pulls Mac Pro Stocks from Most Retail Stores Ahead of WWDC
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You have no idea what professionals want.
And if you think a Mac Pro is too large you obviously haven't seen many workstations. It might be heavy but it's still one of the smallest footprints out there.
In one hand, I find it very hard for Apple to continue selling a product that is for a very very very small niche use case and thus an audience would would buy it.
On the other hand, Apple may want to keep their ultra-Mac loyal fans happy. So why not keep it alive by throwing in a new CPU, some more RAM support, brag about Thunderbolt, and charge the normal crazy fee of $2500+ for the base model with no monitor and make a hefty profit/margin. Apple certainly has the time and money to "upgrade" the Pro...it wouldn't take much R&D work at all to throw a new motherboard/cpu into it.
I wish Apple would return to (in addition to the Macs they have), some quality boxes for around $700 including kb and mouse. The Mini is an ok desktop but it's barely upgradeable...it's designed to be very small and appeal to folks with small work space...and you need to spend another $150+ on a kb/mouse.
The common sense approach to what WWDC will bring is obvious isn't it?
Lots of talk about iOS 6
Lot's of talk about the next OSX
The new MacBook PRO
The new Mac PRO
That's it, they will update the 'none' Pro models at other times, or they will give the iMac and the Mac Mini spec bumps.
But a new iPhone would be nice as I would buy one, although I will most likely want a new MB Pro at some point in time too
Lots of talk about iOS 6
Lot's of talk about the next OSX
The new MacBook PRO
The new Mac PRO
That's it, they will update the 'none' Pro models at other times, or they will give the iMac and the Mac Mini spec bumps.
But a new iPhone would be nice as I would buy one, although I will most likely want a new MB Pro at some point in time too
Barefeats did a few benchmark tests wIth the Promax One.
A system based on 2 x 3.1Ghz 8 core Sandybridge Xeons. This is what the high end Mac Pro should be. 16 RAM slots, 6 x 3.5" 6Gb/s SATA bays, 4 x 2.5" 6Gb/s SATA bays, 6 PCI-e slots... If the Mac Pro has half those drive bays and RAM slots with a single 8 core at the low end with various configurations inbetween and redesigned drive bays it would be fantastic for a lot of people.
A system based on 2 x 3.1Ghz 8 core Sandybridge Xeons. This is what the high end Mac Pro should be. 16 RAM slots, 6 x 3.5" 6Gb/s SATA bays, 4 x 2.5" 6Gb/s SATA bays, 6 PCI-e slots... If the Mac Pro has half those drive bays and RAM slots with a single 8 core at the low end with various configurations inbetween and redesigned drive bays it would be fantastic for a lot of people.
I'm always amused by comments whining about "Apple's outrageously high-priced" pro-level workstations.
In 1992, my first Mac was a IIfx. It had a 40MHz Motorola processor, with (I think) about 20Mb RAM. It cost me $10,000.
Now, the base pro-model is orders of magnitude more powerful, for a quarter of the price.
Bah! Kids these days.
In 1992, my first Mac was a IIfx. It had a 40MHz Motorola processor, with (I think) about 20Mb RAM. It cost me $10,000.
Now, the base pro-model is orders of magnitude more powerful, for a quarter of the price.
Bah! Kids these days.
Um yeah, all my ram slots, drive bays and several pci slots are filled on my 2008 Mac Pro. PROFESSIONALS need all that power and capacity.
Form Factor
I'm betting either they won't change the form factor much at all - just a spec bump - or they'll go wild and replace it with a blade-like device and an optional external Thunderbolt cage for extra drives, graphics cards and whatnot.
Although to support all of that would require that the blade-like MacPro sport multiple external Tbolt ports, and that the cage be capable of accepting multiple incoming and outgiong Tbolt connections. Pricey, although arguably a more flexible and elegant solution than forcing everyone to buy a ginormous box if all they're really after is CPU / graphics power.
I'm betting either they won't change the form factor much at all - just a spec bump - or they'll go wild and replace it with a blade-like device and an optional external Thunderbolt cage for extra drives, graphics cards and whatnot.
Although to support all of that would require that the blade-like MacPro sport multiple external Tbolt ports, and that the cage be capable of accepting multiple incoming and outgiong Tbolt connections. Pricey, although arguably a more flexible and elegant solution than forcing everyone to buy a ginormous box if all they're really after is CPU / graphics power.
I've got a 2006 model Pro - one of the original Mac Pro 1,1's. It's been a solid, reliable machine and part of the reason for that is that I've been able to throw more RAM and HD's in there as I've needed them. It's only in the last few months that I've realised that software and OS updates mean that this faithful box is nearing end of life (e.g. CS6). I doubt an iMac would've lasted this long.
I understand that Mountain Lion requires your machine to boot in to a 64-bit Kernel, something early Mac Pro's can't do despite having a 64-bit CPU. This is reason enough for me to consider upgrading.
Anyway - the bottom line here is BRING IT ON!!!! I was seriously starting to worry that the Mac Pro was dead. Dare I believe that a new one is on the way?
My credit card is ready and I'm already preparing excuse number 42 for 'er indoors.
I understand that Mountain Lion requires your machine to boot in to a 64-bit Kernel, something early Mac Pro's can't do despite having a 64-bit CPU. This is reason enough for me to consider upgrading.
Anyway - the bottom line here is BRING IT ON!!!! I was seriously starting to worry that the Mac Pro was dead. Dare I believe that a new one is on the way?
My credit card is ready and I'm already preparing excuse number 42 for 'er indoors.
I was mainly talking about DVD drives.
The Macbook Air doesn't have a DVD drive... and I bet Apple will continue the trend in future models. You can always get an external DVD drive if you must have one... which is what I was referring to.
But yeah... Macs have never had Blu-Ray support. How do Mac users handle the lack of Blu-Ray?
Or would you say the #1 reason people buy Windows machines is because of Blu-Ray?
What purpose would that serve? I only have a small office and it's still smaller than my AV Receiver
Not getting the point of the MacPro are you.. I use all 4 drive bays and have added 2 SDD's in one of the optical spaces...
Using this
All Filled. 32GB Ram - after effects needs 2GB min per Thread... the current 12 cores run dual threaded... so need 48gb ram.
A mac Cube?
What floor models? Not one retail Apple Store in the greater Phoenix area even has a Mac Pro on the floor. At the retail Apple Store, the Mac Pro has not existed for a few years now.
OK I love bluray quality... but it also needs a large screen... a bit pointless on 27" or less. It's a dead format of course - all opticals are. would much rather have a thinner machine or bigger battery.
I've used my DVD drive in my 2008 macbook about twice. And I think that was to install 10.6, and an old printer driver I couldn't find online. A USB stick/SD card with 16gb now cost about $8 and is way more useful than a DVD.
Why? It's actually an odd form factor now. Th Mac Pro's small size compared to other towers limits the full potential of Intel's platform. The current/old Mac Pros have limitations in cooling, memory expansion, internal storage and internal expansion cards. With memory slots, storage needs and PCI-E lanes all increasing with the C600 series chipsets a small Mac Pro enclosure just means limited features over other workstations.
Another theory is what if they gave the Mac Pro flash storage for boot up!! I mean we think the new MB Pro's will get it, so imagine dual Xeons and flash! I think they really need to up the graphics options too big time.
And retina cinema display's?
And retina cinema display's?
If I had to make up a wish list (for a product I would never actually buy), I would hope for more of a tower server construction, with (4) hot-swap drive bays, redundant power supplies, and plenty of space for expansion.
It is a shame they don't have a product that can be used as a server today.
It is a shame they don't have a product that can be used as a server today.
I was just at the Lincoln Road Apple Store (Miami Beach, FL) this past weekend, and they had a Mac Pro there.
And this is Miami Beach, which is tourist-central, the last place you'd expect to find a good market for a professional level workstation that you ain't gonna be carrying onto the plane home!
I know of two Apple stores in my area that have a Mac Pro on the floor. Just because the Apple stores in your area don't doesn't mean that the others around the country/world won't either.