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Concept Imagines What a Modular Mac Pro Might Look Like
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Unfortunately, if you read the interview with Phil Schiller and co, it sounds like Apple's definition of "modular" is just "has an external display":
If Apple had the "courage" to do something "boring" like produce the "official hackintosh" that would satisfy the majority of Pros, power-users and hobbyists who want a pick-up truck rather than a sports coupe, then they could have had it in the shops for Xmas.
They've clearly acknowledged some specific issues with the Mac Pro but I'm not sure they've accepted the underlying problems: it was over-designed and expected users to change their workflows to fit the machine rather than vice-versa.
THIS may be the troubling truth here. While I'm sure whatever they come up with will be better in some regards, I'm worried they'll still pull some cutesy design move that make a whole lot of us go 'what the ****?!?'
Great idea: alienate budget conscious customers whilst restricting the power users; a work of genius, no less!
Yeah... no.
I would also caution against the wisdom of a zero bezel monitor (with screen running to the edge). In my professional work space, I actually find having a nice bezel (a la Apple Cinema Display Aluminium) helps separate the work space (the screen) from all the peripheral stuff that you don't want interfering with your visual perspective. Reducing the bezel to zero is not a good user-interface design, in my opinion.
That's what I thought as well, but admittedly I didn't for confirmation. I didn't even notice it spelled out on the drawing until this other person pointed it out, and now I'm not sure if they were talking about the GPU only and left the actual RAM of the machine out.
All in all I get the feeling that a lot of the folks to create these drawing know even less than I do when it comes to PC internals and specs.
"GDDR5, an abbreviation for double data rate type five synchronous graphics random-access memory, is a modern type of synchronous graphics random-access memory (SGRAM) with a high bandwidth ("double data rate") interface designed for use in graphics cards, game consoles, and high-performance computation."
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GDDR5_SDRAM
I never had a Mac but always liked the tower design they had of what you call the cheese grater. I hope they could do something similar with maybe to different cases that snaps together. One tower for the computer, one or even multiple ones added on top for expansion. More storage and maybe external gpus through thunderbolt 3 in an extra chassi. I won't get it but I'm not the target group either. I like the power and design but I just dont need it. The old servers were beautiful but putting in rack servers for the pro users is unlikely.
Think outside the box.... if it's a modular design then this is entirely possible. And besides, the market for desktops has been shrinking and Apple likes to simplify it's line to reduce manufacturing complexity. Most of the cost isn't in a case, it's in storage, graphics card, RAM and CPU choice.
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I think you meant to say "Think INSIDE the box..."
I actually tried emailing to Tim Cook during the first hiatus of Mac Pro updates before the trashcan finally came out...saying it would be cool if it was REALLY modular...meaning a motherboard that daughter boards plugged in so new tech could be replaced without a completely new machine (ie: processor card, io card, pcie/whatever comes next, storage interfaces...etc)--except in a cool Mac way that's simple/smart/stylish... Eh, dreamers can dream 
Form follows function. Follow: Standard-Size NVIDIA-GPUs, 6x Standard-Size-PCe-Slots, Standard-Size-RAM-slots, Standard-Size-GPUs (yes two for some cases), Standard-Size-SSD-Slots etc.. Don`t scare me with that Design-Suggestions, I`d rather take a big box without any nifty features as long as it is expandable, runs OSX and Apple takes care about the drivers. Don't spend so much money and time on the design please, components will be expensive anyhow and I am waiting too long now.
[doublepost=1492980152][/doublepost]please Apple, read the comments!!!!!
[doublepost=1492980152][/doublepost]please Apple, read the comments!!!!!
kzoojason76, That was my first thought.
[doublepost=1493005558][/doublepost]
Why does it need to be 1/4 the size of the cheesegrater? I'm tired of everything from Apple needing to be made thinner and thinner. There is absolutely no reason why the iMac should be so thin. How about letting function be more important than form for a positive change. Look at the iMac for example, it is a desktop computer with laptop parts. Why? That is just stupid. Desktop components are generally more powerful and less expensive. And why in the name of God, did they need to remove the optical drive from a desktop computer. Sorry to rant and rumble...I'm going to go lie down now.Meh... Bring back the Cheesegrater chassis. 1/4 the size of the original G5 and no stinking touchbar.
Gads. Ever since Steve died, no is around to reign in Johnny's crazy ideas. Even the worlds best engineers are at the mercy of physics.
This "concept" does not solve any of the problems that the Mac Pro 2013 has with regards to the shortcomings a subset of "pro" users have with the Mac Pro 2013. In many regards, the Mac Pro 2013 would be superior to this machine…. the only thing this would give you is a place to put the card, but unfortunately none of the space needed to cool a super massive single GPU.
The niche that Apple was abandoning (until Microsoft started trying to poach) is the creatives that need either/or real internal expansion — without the cost or the complication of having a nest of attached boxes of different shapes and sizes. What they need is everything that they lost going forward from around 2010. Now the 2008 and the 2010 Mac Pro would not the most expandable computers either – regardless of having internal expansion …. in that when you have two GPUboards you were left with one inferior PCIe slot which would not be able to handle the bandwidth of anything that could use it (i.e. high end SAS controller, etc.).
What the computer has to be is a computer for all those that do not fit into the masses that have no problems with the other computers, a computer that you can make to fit each of those sub-niches.
The computer does not need internal hard drive slots, they would be best handled in an external case anyways because of mechanical drives causing vibration issues etc. — but putting a SAS/DAS controller in the main computer and reducing the cost of the addon hard drive enclosures would be nice.
The computer has to scale up to a dual-Xeon processor (high end - workstation; double the expansion bandwidth), or a single Xeon (mid-workstation) with a doubling of the expansion bandwidth (or a single Xeon); and hopefully with a "non pro" intel 7700K version of the Mac [larger than a mini, not a pro machine - those that don't need a costly Xeon workstation].
It has to have U.2 slots for putting more SSDs internally instead just a few on the motherboard with inherent heat and throttling that may come from it. (instead of hard drive slots).
The workstation class has to scale up with more memory, with the potential of adding Optane in.
The workstation class has to have enough for two massive GPUs of whatever they customer feels they need, with several PCIe slots for additional expansion.
Ideally the "tower" / modular model would be of sufficient length that it could be unmounted from the stand (solid) and turned on it's side and slotted in a rack (maybe even having the option of getting an Apple styled short rack). That way you could rack mount the Mac Pro and then rack a separate hard drive enclosure with 4, 8, 12 or even 24 drives.
It needs at least 5GBase-T (potentially a 10GBase-T option).
If they want a non-expandable trashcan mac -- it would be better suited for the "non-pro" intel 7700K model.
Ideally the Mac Mini line would consist of both the Macbook pro 13" based specs (dual-core, no external GPU) to the Macbook pro 15" inch based specs (i.e. quad-core, external laptop level GPU).
The flexibility this lineup of headless stations would cover the complete gamit of pro/power and data-centre requirements for Mac based hardware which can fairly easily be bumped regularly and give every reason for those in the pro camp to remain with Apple. No more playing games this time -- it is really a do or die situation with a class of users that I thought Apple was fine with abandoning. Trying to be cute and missing the mark is not an option. This concept is trying too hard to be cute and completely misses the reason for this state of emergency that caused Apple to call a meeting with media talking head types.
The niche that Apple was abandoning (until Microsoft started trying to poach) is the creatives that need either/or real internal expansion — without the cost or the complication of having a nest of attached boxes of different shapes and sizes. What they need is everything that they lost going forward from around 2010. Now the 2008 and the 2010 Mac Pro would not the most expandable computers either – regardless of having internal expansion …. in that when you have two GPUboards you were left with one inferior PCIe slot which would not be able to handle the bandwidth of anything that could use it (i.e. high end SAS controller, etc.).
What the computer has to be is a computer for all those that do not fit into the masses that have no problems with the other computers, a computer that you can make to fit each of those sub-niches.
The computer does not need internal hard drive slots, they would be best handled in an external case anyways because of mechanical drives causing vibration issues etc. — but putting a SAS/DAS controller in the main computer and reducing the cost of the addon hard drive enclosures would be nice.
The computer has to scale up to a dual-Xeon processor (high end - workstation; double the expansion bandwidth), or a single Xeon (mid-workstation) with a doubling of the expansion bandwidth (or a single Xeon); and hopefully with a "non pro" intel 7700K version of the Mac [larger than a mini, not a pro machine - those that don't need a costly Xeon workstation].
It has to have U.2 slots for putting more SSDs internally instead just a few on the motherboard with inherent heat and throttling that may come from it. (instead of hard drive slots).
The workstation class has to scale up with more memory, with the potential of adding Optane in.
The workstation class has to have enough for two massive GPUs of whatever they customer feels they need, with several PCIe slots for additional expansion.
Ideally the "tower" / modular model would be of sufficient length that it could be unmounted from the stand (solid) and turned on it's side and slotted in a rack (maybe even having the option of getting an Apple styled short rack). That way you could rack mount the Mac Pro and then rack a separate hard drive enclosure with 4, 8, 12 or even 24 drives.
It needs at least 5GBase-T (potentially a 10GBase-T option).
If they want a non-expandable trashcan mac -- it would be better suited for the "non-pro" intel 7700K model.
Ideally the Mac Mini line would consist of both the Macbook pro 13" based specs (dual-core, no external GPU) to the Macbook pro 15" inch based specs (i.e. quad-core, external laptop level GPU).
The flexibility this lineup of headless stations would cover the complete gamit of pro/power and data-centre requirements for Mac based hardware which can fairly easily be bumped regularly and give every reason for those in the pro camp to remain with Apple. No more playing games this time -- it is really a do or die situation with a class of users that I thought Apple was fine with abandoning. Trying to be cute and missing the mark is not an option. This concept is trying too hard to be cute and completely misses the reason for this state of emergency that caused Apple to call a meeting with media talking head types.
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Get real people, here's what modular Mac Pro would be like:
P.S. Original pictures does now show $ 297 Apple Monitor Anti-Flipping Support System, sold separately.
P.S. Original pictures does now show $ 297 Apple Monitor Anti-Flipping Support System, sold separately.
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Something along the lines of the Quadra 800 / Power Mac 8500 type systems, but in general I agree. Those old mini or mid-towers were excellent for their day and very good value for money.Dust off the Performa 6500 and give it a modern makeover. My first Mac. You never forget your first love.You can't go wrong with a tower design that can by opened by joyful geeks everywhere.
[doublepost=1498294765][/doublepost]That entire computer is the size of a single nVidia GTX 1080. And nVidia drivers are optimized for up to 4 simultaneous cards. Your computer needs to be at least 4 times as big. That isn’t counting the space you would need for any other type of internal expansion.
Last week, Apple executives announced that the company is working on an updated Mac Pro that features a revamped modular design to accommodate regular component upgrades.
The launch of the new modular Mac Pro is at least a year away as development has just started, so we have no idea what the machine will look like when it's finished, but that hasn't stopped designers at CURVED/labs from dreaming up a conceptual design that includes a simple Mac mini-style box and a matching Apple-branded display.
The imagined Mac Pro features a design that's entirely upgradeable, with two slots for full-sized graphics cards, rotating housing sides, and easily accessible sections for the processor, RAM, and storage.
Holes on the top are designed to allow hot air to escape, and there are added features like a Touch ID power button, a Touch Bar for accessing information on included components, and USB-C, USB-A, and HDMI ports, along with a microphone and a headphone jack.
Accompanying the imagined Mac Pro is a revamped 27-inch Apple "Cinema Display" with ultra thin bezels, an iMac-style stand, and and USB-C ports at the back.
Again, this is in no way representative of what the finished Mac Pro might look like, but it does imagine features that are in line with what Apple executives have said about the Mac Pro so far. It's going to be a high-end high-throughput machine that will facilitate regular upgrades to meet the needs of Apple's pro user base. And given its modular nature, it will ship with an Apple-branded "pro" display.
Apple is in the process of "completely rethinking" the Mac Pro and execs say it will take "longer than this year" to finish. What that means is not entirely clear, but one rumor has suggested it might not launch until 2019. Apple has a dedicated team working on the machine, which will serve the company's "most demanding pro customers."
Article Link: Concept Imagines What a Modular Mac Pro Might Look Like
Dumb. Not upgradeable enough. Not "modular" enough. We need a tower, room for expansion. If I can't put 5 internal hard drives in there then it's useless. If I can't put 128GB RAM in there then it's useless. Also, there's no Thunderbolt 3 in that design. Just USB-C and Thunderbolt 2. Apple wouldn't ever do that.
mini start price $1200-$1500 server / workstation 1P systems. or more like $1900-$2500 apple priceing.
The desktop cpu's don't have the pci-e lanes or ram channles to have mini and pro be the same.