Apple's Mac Pro to Be Assembled by Flextronics in Fort Worth, Texas?

[milo]

Logic and Glenn Beck don't get along, so that name is definitely out.

Yeah, he's a Cubase guy.

 

[ctone]

Based on what? Since it says up to 6 gigs of video ram, that sounds like more than one option. Why would they say "up to" if they all had 6 gigs? Same with up to 12 cores of CPU.

I guess the info online is purposely ambiguous. They state that ALL Mac Pro's will have the dual AMD FirePro workstation GPU's, which I thought, perhaps mistakenly, would be very expensive, even at a base level. You are correct that it states clearly that there will be various VRAM options.c

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It is somewhat unusual for Apple to sneak peek anything without a definite launch date/month

Now we know what Tim Cook meant when he said "later next year"!

 

[milo]

They state that ALL Mac Pro's will have the dual AMD FirePro workstation GPU's

Yep. Everyone has been pointing out the $3000 version of that card and ignoring the $450 version (and some even cheaper than that, but I'm guessing that's the lowest they'd go).

 

[nikto70]

Yeah, he's a Cubase guy.

Good one.

 

[dcmurrin]

Factory Location

I saw this news report about the assembly site on our local news a few weeks ago. Who knew Apple would be part of this.

http://www.nbcdfw.com/news/business...cturing-Facility-in-Fort-Worth-209473411.html

 

[wilhoitm]

The AMD GPUs are going to be of the newer 8000 series I would imagine (same arch anyway), so we'll see higher specs at lower prices.

But even the current Fire Pro W8000s sell for $1500 a piece. And the new W8000 specs would have to be upgraded quite a bit to match what is on Apple's web site!

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814195117

So I don't think the Mac Pro is going to be cheap or at least not in the $3000 range!

 

[tcgjeukens]

You need a job

Why should I pay more for goods when it can be built overseas cheaper?

Because YOU first need a job to be able to pay for goods.
What's the fun of only being able to look at nicely prices overseas made products. Jobs, products and production: a small ecosystem.

Coen

 

[wilhoitm]

The RAM, VRAM and Flash chips, the PCIe SSD-controller chip, the wireless chips and the GPUs are manufactured outside the US by Samsung's and TSMC's fabs in Korea and Taiwan. All of Intel's stuff are manufactured and designed in the US. I see no reason why manufacturing and packaging of everything else wouldn't be made in the US too, and if they are highly automated then there'd be no more expensive than if it were manufactured outside of the US.

When it comes to price, I think that most estimates are vastly exaggerated. The Xeon Ivy Bridge E5 V2 processor, won't be more expensive than the ones that is in the current model, and the list price of them is around $1500 dollars. The list price of a Radeon HD 7990 is $1000. 32 GB of 1866 GHz DDR3 RAM cost $300. 512 GB of FusionIO-SSDs are $2000. It's be absurd to think that Apple would pay list price for those components so why this computer would cost $6000 I can't understand. A off the shelf PC, built to match the specs would, but I think Apple will undercut the list price by something like a half. The new Mac Pro would, even if it is a "flop" generate volumes AMD and FusionIO would only dream of. So.. $3000. That's my guess.

The new Mac Pro will not have cheap consumer Radeon GPUs, we are talking AMD/ATI's professional Fire Pro GPUs!

http://www.amd.com/us/products/workstation/graphics/ati-firepro-3d/Pages/ati-firepro-3d.aspx

The only current Fire Pro that matches the specs on Apple's Mac Pro web site is the S9000 or the W9000!

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814105004

The Fire Pro S9000 sells for about $2000 each! Dual cards would be $4000!

Unless Apple is using a custom chip or something but even with some kind of custom FirePro chip the specs and prices do not add up.

So I am not sure where you guys are getting a $3000 price tag for the new Mac Pro? Don't get your hopes up for a $3000 Mac Pro!

 

[Larry-K]

Having lived in Texas all my life, I tell you don't believe anything. We are all rednecks and hillbillies and this is a horrible place to live so please don't move to Texas. Don't even come visit.

(Seriously, Texas is a great state and all of the stereotypes promoted by the media are wrong, but we don't need anyone else moving here - the state is too crowded already.)

Guess I was just there in an off year.

 

[xVeinx]

But even the current Fire Pro W8000s sell for $1500 a piece. And the new W8000 specs would have to be upgraded quite a bit to match what is on Apple's web site!

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814195117

So I don't think the Mac Pro is going to be cheap or at least not in the $3000 range!

A couple of points: they know their clientele well enough that they aren't going o price themselves out of the market. Importantly, the Mac Pro being shown off has the best graphics chips included. The graphics can be configured along with the processors and memory, so don't assume that the only option is to spend $6000 on a machine. They'll have a machine in the $2500 (or less) range...

 

[0488568]

Is the Mac Pro made of plastic? No.

You know something I don't? An yes the previous mac pros where made out of aluminium. Your garbage can here looks like plastic.

Thanks going to look awesome in a rack room...

 

[wilhoitm]

You know something I don't? An yes the previous mac pros where made out of aluminium. Your garbage can here looks like plastic.

Thanks going to look awesome in a rack room...

fabricom, it is not made out of plastic!

It is made out of machined aluminum using a refined impact extrusion process.

Dude, you did not check the facts and you are totally busted! Can you talk about something more constructive?

Also, beauty is in the eye of the beholder! I think it looks kick ass!

 

[Macyourdayy]

Later this year ... meaning the end of December...
...and it will costs 3X more because of being built in the USA

EDIT: only 2X more, since it will be made by robots

I think the entry model will be $1999. Obviously with a smallish SSD, well maybe $2499. Onwards and upwards from there. The on board drive only has to deal with the system and some apps. Remember this is a pro model so won't be full of crapware. Does it have room for more than one SSD and what form factor? 2.5" or card format like the airs?

 

[xSinghx]

I don't think they need any help.

Perhaps lower tax attracts business? Perhaps then businesses provide jobs? No, that doesn't make any sense at all. I know, lets tax the heck out of businesses and then wonder why they don't set up shop in our state. Or country for that matter. Then, when people aren't working because busineses choose to go elsewhere and we don't have enough money to provide for all the nanny state plans we have, lets just tax those that do work even more. Then when they leave to move to texas, lets ask the federal govt for aid.

Ah yes, if only everything were as simple as Fox News and right wing dogma tell us it is.

Some reading for you - assuming you do that kind of thing.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/25/opinion/25krugman.html?_r=0

http://www.amazon.com/Perfectly-Leg...=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1371167298&sr=1-3

As Oliver Wendell Holmes said - taxes are the price we pay for civilization.

 

[ender78]

I expect the FirePro is a very low volume product. Apple's first batch order could eclipse all previous sales combined. Given it is a niche product, Apple could see very significant discounts based on volume versus retail prices of QTY 1 at NewEgg.

Apple has to offer a GPU config that is non bleeding edge. If the W9000 is the only available platform, the MacPro becomes out of reach for a significant portion of the current user base. AMD must have sweetened the deal for Apple otherwise I dont believe that the Dual GPU would have been necessary as a standard option. There are many MacPro users who will not benefit from the top end GPUs and Apple would be stupid to ignore that market.

 

[waydeepinit]

Mac Pros will be built at the Austin, TX Flextronics site. By "built" I mean from surface mount, testing, diagnostics to final assembly and test. Very similar to what they do for Cisco Systems and others. This new relationship has been in the making for since last fall but they want to keep it quiet because of the Foxconn etc. Think about how convenent it is to be located less than a mile from the booming Apple campus. They can develop, prototype and build. Very cool things to come.

 

[Tech198]

no other its only got an Ivy Bridge chip....

Must be due to price i bet (which Apple still hasn't announced)..... May be things would been different if Foxconn did it. How many here will get one, regardless?

But. its "limiting" Pro users.... How is this exactly innovative, apart from being a new design and all.....

From a performance point of view, I can see its great, but users who buy this will need to get a new Mac pro when Apple next updates it next year or two anyway. (if Apple wants to update the Mac Pro more than like 8 year period)

I'm kinda disappointed in this, and wondering what Apple were even thing, when Haswell only came out last week.... Instead of using the "latest chip" they do wit instead to the MBA .... (which in itself is great too).

 

[MrNomNoms]

There are market forces at play besides Chinese currency. Looking more closely at labor

In China they have this thing called mattress culture. Workers work until they're burnt out then they knock out on a mattress under their desk. Nobody in the US is willing to live like this. The US graduates something like 180,000 engineers a year vs China graduating a million. A million new engineers willing to work for way less in a country that's okay with half a million people dying from work exhaustion each year. This is what US companies are fighting. The discrepency is what Jobs was referring to when he lobbied the government to create more low level tech education. On top of this, at the graduate level, the US is becoming an education exporter - people from China and India go to grad school here, get an engineering MS, then return back to their own countries.

I commend Apple for building a factory in Texas but they're really just fighting the inevitable. Manufacturing has long been offshored, and people are ignoring the fact white collar jobs have been following. All the call center jobs are now in India for example. Almost every job that you can reduce to a codified process and you don't have to physically be in the US to do it is in danger of disappearing.

Labour costs are significantly lower in China, even without an artificially low Yuan. The market is a lot less regulated, which ultimately also impacts costs. Regardless, rates are where they are and the issue is highly politically sensitive, so the economic reality is just that (manipulation or not). I can't see how companies shifting production back to the US right now is going to prove anything other than make them uncompetitive.

Both of you seem to ignore what I said in my original post:

yet sufficient to protect workers rights and the environment

People who herald 'competition' and 'the free market' seem to be people the same people who in Slashdot 15 years ago mocking blue collar workers losing their jobs in manufacturing whilst crowing that they should have gone into IT where apparently their jobs will never disappear. Fast forward to 2013 and it appears that we've got a whole new class of people who will soon lose their jobs whilst mocking those who are losing their jobs. The current system of 'competition' only works if you have a level playing field - in lieu of that level playing field I really have to ask what do we as a society give up when there is a race to the bottom and cause the disconnect between employees and consumers - as if some how the two are separate entities where what screws over the employee doesn't impact upon the consumer.

 

[X38]

Funny that it will be not too many miles away from the old Apple assembly plant in Carrollton:
http://articles.latimes.com/1985-06-15/business/fi-12519_1_macintosh

(Pretty sure the Apple ][+ we had when I was a kid came from that factory.)

Above link reminds me of the big deal they made about the automated Fremont plant when the Mac came out. Obviously Apple still has a ways to go in recovering their in-house manufacturing talent even with this move.

 

[xSinghx]

Corporations and marketing have created a system pushing mindless spending for things we don't need in order to grease its wheels...here freedom is an illusion served with apple pie and a side of ice cream.

The Adam Curtis documentary The Century of the Self, done for the BBC, is a great series that touches on this idea specifically.

Thought I'd post it if people are not familiar.

http://vimeo.com/61857758

 

[fullauto]

Looks like a jet turbine here. A lot better than a trash can, RDD2, champagne bucket... (did I miss any?)

Turbine was the first thing I thought of too..

 

[twigman08]

I love Mac Rumors, or well I should actually say the Internet because this happens everywhere. News posted about where the Mac Pros could be assembled and most of the thread turns into discussing the pros and cons of different states, stereotyping Texans, and the state of each different economy with some political mumbo jumbo thrown in.

Let's talk about the computer on a tech site and not political stuff. I get enough of those lies just by turning on my TV to a news station.

 

[henryonapple]

Sorry, my initial numbers were way off. I think the average minimum wage salary in China is around $200 per month, but they are rising. Those guys you spoke to are definitely on the high end from what I've been reading.

The maker was located in Dong Guan, and if assembly line workers there make 800 USD per month, workers at Foxconn probably make double that! Spoke with a lot of the HK executives and they all say the labor is being moved to Africa and India.

 

[Liquorpuki]

People who herald 'competition' and 'the free market' seem to be people the same people who in Slashdot 15 years ago mocking blue collar workers losing their jobs in manufacturing whilst crowing that they should have gone into IT where apparently their jobs will never disappear. Fast forward to 2013 and it appears that we've got a whole new class of people who will soon lose their jobs whilst mocking those who are losing their jobs. The current system of 'competition' only works if you have a level playing field - in lieu of that level playing field I really have to ask what do we as a society give up when there is a race to the bottom and cause the disconnect between employees and consumers - as if some how the two are separate entities where what screws over the employee doesn't impact upon the consumer.

I wasn't even replying to you and I didn't mock anyone. All I did was explain process commoditzation, whose primary cause is globalization, not capitalism.

You guys all worried about where things are being manufactured should know US manufacturing is long gone and it's the white collar jobs that are now in the process of being hit and sent overseas to the BRIC countries. Any white collar job that can be codified into a process is in danger of being offshored. Starting with call center jobs that used to be here, but are now in India being done by workers reciting codified scripts.

Putting moral labels on factories and complaining about unlevel playing fields is dumb and doesn't do anything.

 

[0488568]

fabricom, it is not made out of plastic!

It is made out of machined aluminum using a refined impact extrusion process.

Dude, you did not check the facts and you are totally busted! Can you talk about something more constructive?

Also, beauty is in the eye of the beholder! I think it looks kick ass!

The description talks about the inside being of aluminium but the outside shell is obviously plastic.