Intel Preparing to Launch New Xeon Processors for Potential Mac Pro Upgrade

[WardC]

In other words, a dying paradigm that consumers have little interest in.

What computer nerds need to understand (and I'm one of them) is that nerd needs != consumer needs.

Well...I will tell you...all this 'hype' over iPhone and iPad -- My iPad sits in a drawer most days, and my iPhone...well I paid off my contract and cancelled the service...now it's sitting in the box. I spend 60% of my waking hours in front of my iMac on the Internet. That's just me...I am a Mac guy through and through. Probably will always be.

 

[69Mustang]

I have a feeling there's a reason Apple has been silent on Mac Mini. I wouldn't be surprised if we get something new in that space beyond just a spec bump. Apple easily could have released a spec bumped Mac mini by now.

This is literally, and I do mean literally, the only thing I want Apple to do. Give me a new mini with some umph. Like some others, AIO's are not my cup of tea.

 

[WardC]

I think Apple will release a PCIe Flash based Mini which is a much smaller form factor than the current Mac Mini. I can see Apple slimming down the size of the device, making it thinner, sleeker, and reducing the form factor, while making it more powerful and efficient at the same time.

 

[Macs4u]

In other words, a dying paradigm that consumers have little interest in.

What computer nerds need to understand (and I'm one of them) is that nerd needs != consumer needs.

Your generalising everybody. Im a consumer and i have a BIG interest in that. Also the whole Hackintosh community (which isn't small) also obviously has a big interest.

 

[NT1440]

Well...I will tell you...all this 'hype' over iPhone and iPad -- My iPad sits in a drawer most days, and my iPhone...well I paid off my contract and cancelled the service...now it's sitting in the box. I spend 60% of my waking hours in front of my iMac on the Internet. That's just me...I am a Mac guy through and through. Probably will always be.

Don't get me wrong, my MBP is my daily driver, but I use my iPad mini constantly for reading or accessing my call tickets for work.

 

[koyoot]

I think Apple will release a PCIe Flash based Mini which is a much smaller form factor than the current Mac Mini. I can see Apple slimming down the size of the device, making it thinner, sleeker, and reducing the form factor, while making it more powerful and efficient at the same time.

NUC form will be reserved for AppleTV. Guess why Intel released 4.5W TDP Dual Core CPU's? Tablets and smartphones, and NUC computers.

New Mac Mini will indeed have PCi-Ex Flash storage, but will look like Mac Pro. Only 3/4 of Mac Pro, to fit SO-Dimm Memory, Dual GPU's and quad Core CPU.

You have filling for your hackintosh gap .

 

[NT1440]

Your generalising everybody. Im a consumer and i have a BIG interest in that. Also the whole Hackintosh community (which isn't small) also obviously has a big interest.

Yes, it is VERY small.

Even if you're talking about a few hundred thousand people, why is that important when macs move 20+ MILLION per quarter?

Keep in mind I'm talking about consumers, whom from working in retail, clearly have no ****ing clue about technology and will never need something like a hackintosh.

 

[koban4max]

Apple: And sir how will you be paying for this?

cash my friend...straight cash...or just get it with apple gift card.

 

[AZREOSpecialist]

There used to be a time when Apple announced updated Mac Pros before Intel announced upgraded processors. There was a time when Intel provided Apple with shipments of CPUs in advance of Intel's own announcement, giving Apple a one-up marketing coup.

I suppose now there is nobody at Apple who cares as much. To say that a multi billion collar company like Apple can only focus on one product announcement in a month is ridiculous, and if true, Apple should be ashamed of itself. It used to be that Apple announced products when they were ready, but this lousy article implies that Apple's PR is more important. CPUs that are being announced in just one month, according to the nonsense article, aren't going to find their way into the Mac Pro until next year because the company is focused on iPhone?

Well, I suppose that's all pro users need to hear, right?

 

[simsaladimbamba]

Even if you're talking about a few hundred thousand people, why is that important when macs move 20+ MILLION per quarter?

You wish, Apple only sells about 4 million Macs per quarter, in the past quarter 4.413 million Macs have been sold.

While the Hackintosh community is not small, it is probably a community Apple has its eyes on to see where they are going. But Apple is not that focused on the Mac anyway, thus 100 million USD or something like that is not really a profit to look forward to.

 

[NT1440]

You wish, Apple only sells about 4 million Macs per quarter, in the past quarter 4.413 million Macs have been sold.

While the Hackintosh community is not small, it is probably a community Apple has its eyes on to see where they are going. But Apple is not that focused on the Mac anyway, thus 100 million USD or something like that is not really a profit to look forward to.

I apologize, I wrote quarter when I meant year

Can you provide me a source on the underlined? Whenever I looked into building my own, I constantly just saw talk about how much money these people saved by going the hackintosh route...which begs the question why would apple chase penny pinchers?

 

[wizard]

Don't know why but your post had me wondering if the new Intel chips supply anymore PCI Express lanes on these variants. The idea of course is to populate the other GPU card with an SSD slot. This to allow two SSD blades in the machine.

Now don't be posting something like this the day my order ships that I placed 2 days ago for a 6-core 1TB D700.

I assume this will be a minor update, like a 5-10% boost? Would be early for a graphic card update.

Still looking forward to get the one I ordered next week and actually use it immediately.

 

[Piggie]

You can, in fact, plug PC graphics cards into the previous model of Mac Pro. (And they will even work. As long as you don't mind not having the boot screen.)

--Eric

Oh yeah, I know (well I don't know exactly which ones) But I know the old proper Mac Pro's could accept any/many proper graphics cards, so you were, as a professional, not tied just to what Apple told you you must have.

 

[wizard]

I know this will sound stupid to most but, what if Apple released a "gaming edition" of the Mac Pro with nvidia gpu's? I would wager their sales would sky rocket!

Normal people don't give a damn about gaming on a Mac.

 

[RickInHouston]

game changer.

What game specifically are you talking about?

 

[WardC]

I apologize, I wrote quarter when I meant year

Can you provide me a source on the underlined? Whenever I looked into building my own, I constantly just saw talk about how much money these people saved by going the hackintosh route...which begs the question why would apple chase penny pinchers?

There is void in big-box ultra-expandable xeon pro computer that can accept PCI cards and Internal 3.5" form-factor HDs, that was left by the discontinuation of the former "tank" Mac Pro form factor. Now to have that size form factor Macintosh, with Thunderbolt ports, and the internal exapandability, and the latest Xeon processors, your ONLY option is to Hackintosh.

So...there is a viable Hackintosh need/community, and Apple is not supporting it, nor have they ever. They want to sell you a little non-expandable 12-core cylinder with ZERO internal expandability for 4x as much as going the Hackintosh route and having ultimate internal expandability.

The attraction of doing this is pretty great if you want such a computer, a Mac computer, and Apple isn't offering the hardware solution in their lineup.

 

[wizard]

Your generalising everybody. Im a consumer and i have a BIG interest in that. Also the whole Hackintosh community (which isn't small) also obviously has a big interest.

Believe me the hackintosh community is small. The RaspberryPie and BeagleBoard communities are huge in comparison.

 

[thekev]

Haswell-EP is not backwards compatible with X79 systems.

It's probably a mechanical fit but not electrically compatible.

Now don't be posting something like this the day my order ships that I placed 2 days ago for a 6-core 1TB D700.

I assume this will be a minor update, like a 5-10% boost? Would be early for a graphic card update.

Still looking forward to get the one I ordered next week and actually use it immediately.

You won't see these in a shipping mac pro until next year. Part of the reason is that intel's releases tend to be slow rollouts with these cpus. The lineup is also missing a 12 core. One rumor that apparently turned out not to be true was that Haswell EP would go to 6 cores rather than 4 for the base model. I haven't looked into available gpu updates, but these would require a new logic board design. Apple can normally get 2 cpu generations out of a logic board design. In this case Ivy Bridge was the second generation, and Haswell EP will no longer be electrically compatible, even if the pins match.

 

[simsaladimbamba]

I apologize, I wrote quarter when I meant year

Can you provide me a source on the underlined? Whenever I looked into building my own, I constantly just saw talk about how much money these people saved by going the hackintosh route...which begs the question why would apple chase penny pinchers?

I cannot give you any source, it is just my assumption, since Apple is probably not blind about the things done with their OS and such.
TonyMac and InsanelyMac are quite popular compared to AI, thus I presume Apple having an eye or two on them, maybe even for legal reasons, though I doubt that.

The Hackintosh market is too small to exploit anyway, though it would be nice for Apple to take some pointers (X-Mac).

 

[kingtj]

re: gaming edition?

Actually, that idea doesn't sound stupid to me at all. But doing it right would require a more than just a contract to build a custom nVidia video card in the right form-factor to plug into a new Mac Pro's motherboard.

You'd also want to do things to make it appeal more to gamers, IMO. Perhaps sell it in a bundle where you get several top tier OS X versions of games at a big discount? (I'm thinking Bioshock 3, CoD Modern Warfare 3 and Tomb Raider might make a great combo, or get Batman: Arkham Asylum in the mix somewhere.)

Additionally, you'd really almost need to sell it so it's pre-configured with Boot Camp allowing dual boot into Windows 8.1. That's something Apple will *strongly* resist, but it's a key for most gamers considering a switch to Mac. There's still simply too much stuff released for Windows only that you'd want to be able to play.

And lastly? You might want to offer 3rd. party accessories for it that are tailored to the gamer crowd. Many people don't seem to realize, for example, that Logitech still makes a USB game-pad (looks like a PS3 gamepad knock-off, more or less) that works great with a number of OS X titles. Apple would need to offer this "gamer Mac Pro" in such a way where it was easy to check-mark options to add that stuff to a purchase while configuring the system.

I know this will sound stupid to most but, what if Apple released a "gaming edition" of the Mac Pro with nvidia gpu's? I would wager their sales would sky rocket!

 

[wizard]

There used to be a time when Apple announced updated Mac Pros before Intel announced upgraded processors. There was a time when Intel provided Apple with shipments of CPUs in advance of Intel's own announcement, giving Apple a one-up marketing coup.

I suppose now there is nobody at Apple who cares as much.

They care. They care that they don't get unwanted investigations from the FTC and the justice department. You need to remember Intel operates under restrictions as to its marketing practices.

To say that a multi billion collar company like Apple can only focus on one product announcement in a month is ridiculous, and if true, Apple should be ashamed of itself. It used to be that Apple announced products when they were ready, but this lousy article implies that Apple's PR is more important. CPUs that are being announced in just one month, according to the nonsense article, aren't going to find their way into the Mac Pro until next year because the company is focused on iPhone?

Well, I suppose that's all pro users need to hear, right?

They will find their way into a new Mac Pro when the entire platform is ready for the upgrade. That means CPU's, support chips, GPUs, SSD cards and even the power supply. Intel release of a chip by itself means nothing, the entire box needs to be ready to go.

 

[MagnusVonMagnum]

Never in my life have I heard of a PC gamer who didn't build his own system, or order one pre-assembled to his specs. And since gaming PC = windows PC, why would you want to pay the Apple tax and then suffer the sub-par bootcamp drivers?

Why would you want to buy TWO computers when ONE would do nicely (i.e. some of us want a Mac but do play games and PC ones at that). In other words, I'm a PERSON who sometimes games, not a "gamer".

I have a feeling there's a reason Apple has been silent on Mac Mini. I wouldn't be surprised if we get something new in that space beyond just a spec bump. Apple easily could have released a spec bumped Mac mini by now.

It's too bad, really because Intel's newer integrated graphics are still a big improvement over the ones from 2012, over doubling the potential frame rates, making much newer games available to casual gamers in the process. Really, their improvements in graphics are far outpacing their CPU increases. They might eventually have a chipset that isn't a total joke compared to the NVidia and AMD.

 

[NT1440]

There is void in big-box ultra-expandable xeon pro computer that can accept PCI cards and Internal 3.5" form-factor HDs, that was left by the discontinuation of the former "tank" Mac Pro form factor. Now to have that size form factor Macintosh, with Thunderbolt ports, and the internal exapandability, and the latest Xeon processors, your ONLY option is to Hackintosh.

So...there is a viable Hackintosh need/community, and Apple is not supporting it, nor have they ever. They want to sell you a little non-expandable 12-core cylinder with ZERO internal expandability for 4x as much as going the Hackintosh route and having ultimate internal expandability.

The attraction of doing this is pretty great if you want such a computer, a Mac computer, and Apple isn't offering the hardware solution in their lineup.

Only fools chase low margin electronics as an audience. It's short term business strategies that leave the PC industry in the state that it's in. I'd never want to sell a product for the ludicrously low profits that kind of strategy entails.

 

[wizard]

Ok let's see a bill of material where you can build a work station class machine matching the Mac Pro for one fourth the cost! That means using workstation class GPU card, Intel XEON processors and the like.

Frankly you are posting BS here and are either trolling or so deficient in mental capacity that you don't understand what a Mac Pro is.

There is void in big-box ultra-expandable xeon pro computer that can accept PCI cards and Internal 3.5" form-factor HDs, that was left by the discontinuation of the former "tank" Mac Pro form factor. Now to have that size form factor Macintosh, with Thunderbolt ports, and the internal exapandability, and the latest Xeon processors, your ONLY option is to Hackintosh.

So...there is a viable Hackintosh need/community, and Apple is not supporting it, nor have they ever. They want to sell you a little non-expandable 12-core cylinder with ZERO internal expandability for 4x as much as going the Hackintosh route and having ultimate internal expandability.

The attraction of doing this is pretty great if you want such a computer, a Mac computer, and Apple isn't offering the hardware solution in their lineup.

 

[PocketSand11]

Why don't they put more than one Xeon processor chip in each? I thought the whole point of Xeon, besides supporting ECC RAM, was that you could put them in parallel. Otherwise, i7 is much cheaper and still good.