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Mac Pro Models Now Available From Apple's Online Refurbished Store
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Well, apart from the storage, RAM and CPU I suppose
Storage? Are you kidding me. Okay, go spend another $1500 on a bigger PCI-e SSD. Or if you don't go that route, go spend hundreds, if not thousands, on 'thunderdud' enclosures. Enjoy.
I guess I should be grateful for RAM upgradeability in the trash can, considering a lot of Mac models have their memory soldered in.
As far as CPU upgradability goes - yeah, great...bloody expensive, not for the novice, and who knows what thermal implications it will have on the computer, especially since it doesn't have fans.
And the biggest problem with the new Mac Pro is GPU upgradability. Most older Mac Pro's can still hold there own in terms of CPU horsepower, but where they have always lacked is in GPU performance. At least with the classic models you can put a wide range of high end GPU's that have CUDA support. The new Mac Pro shipped last year with old GPU technology, and now you're stuck with it...FOREVER.
TB enclosures aren't cheap (although certainly not "thousands") but they also offer a big speed boost over the fastest available SATA as well as any other external ports. And if you need the space but not the speed, just get external USB3. It's not like it's slower than the old SATA II the previous mac pros had.
Not any of the desktops.
It has one, it's just extremely quiet.
Old?
You can easily boot from an external drive though. I have a 2013 rMBP and I need Mountain Lion to run Final Cut 7 for certain projects, my old drive boots and runs fine over USB3 and everything acts like it should.
That's true, depends on the model. They can usually run the OS that was shipping when that model first came out. 10.9 came out in late 2013 so some macs shipped that year with 10.8 then they switched to 10.9 when it was available. Once a new revision of the hardware came out it would generally only be able to run whatever OS was out then. Hardware updates that were just a spec bump might be able to keep using the last one.
They're not for sale, these are refurbished models, either returns or repaired units. They are cheaper because they are essentially used computers instead of new ones. And typically it's available for most mac hardware, it's just a matter of time.
I just got done migrating my entire pro photography workflow to be on external drives and picked up a 4-bay Thunderbolt enclosure for $350 from OWC. It's fantastic.
The only thing I need an internal drive for is OS, apps, and scratch work. A 256GB SSD is plenty.
Space isn’t an issue for me.
Like it or not, TB support in the original from factor would yield massively more expandability than the nMP has.
I’ve got the original one but my expandability goes;
3.5mm Jack
USB
USB
FW400
FW800
USB
USB
USB
FW400
FW800
Optical in
Optical out
Audio out
Mic In
Ethernet x 2
4 x PCI
That, is what I call expandability. That doesn’t mention the 4 drives and two optical drive slots with spare mobo connectors inside the unit. The more recent models may have more. None of this prevents me buying external enclosures.
Bear in mind that 3 of the PCI slots can yield further expansion………...
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nMP and 2013-2014 MBA's and MBP's have the same connector. I'm pretty sure I have even seen reports of people swapping the SSD in the nMP with one from a 2013 MBP. There might be a slight shape change, but ultimately it should reduce costs...
I know that OWC have used a MacPro SSD in a MBP.
Im waiting for a fully tested alternative before I decide on pushing the button on one of these, (along with updated HDMI, etc etc).
Can you explain what you mean by shape change? Are other components going to have to be adjusted to make it fit?
I thought I read that the only difference was in length of the SSDs (slight variance) and the screw holes. I could be wrong though....