When is the next release. Is the darth Vader trash can going to be replaced with a Mac Pro which can house all peripherals and be expandable without looking like an octopus?
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Mac Pro - new design
- Thread starter sparkie7
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Thunderbolts not that bad imo, the bad part is non upgradable graphics cards. If they can do a redesign to use off the shelf gfx then I would be happy. I'm perfectly okay with using Thunderbolt for everything else.
If the four amigos swallow their pride, admit that the MP6,1 was a nice upgrade to the Mac Mini but utterly failed to meet the needs of pros, and bring back PCIe slots for off-the-shelf graphics -- it makes little sense not to have PCIe slots available for industry standard expansion cards. I have workstations with PCIe 10GbE and SAS cards that work very well.
I wouldn't want the T-Bolt 3 option to disappear, but let me choose between a $300 server class dual-port 10 GbE card and a $500 single port T-Bolt 10GbE dongle. And for my 16 lane 12 Gbps SAS controller card (theoretical 192 Gbps) card, don't even consider a T-Bolt connection.
I think it's looking more towards a redesign, and I k ow people won't agree with me, but I'd like to see a modular approach to how the MacPro is designed. The older MacPro is a beautiful design but it's not really forward thinking and I really wouldn't want it to go back to that.
Apple could keep the MacPro trash can design for the "brains of the computer" but have a secondary storage stack for graphics cards and peripheral PCIe devices so that everything could be replaced separately.
It could keep the trashcan size down and make it much cheaper, less parts, people might upgrade quicker and we would have more choice to upgrade our video cards, sound cards, broadcast cards etc
Not sure how the second box could be connected but not thunderbolt 3 some sort of PCIe extender cable
Apple could keep the MacPro trash can design for the "brains of the computer" but have a secondary storage stack for graphics cards and peripheral PCIe devices so that everything could be replaced separately.
It could keep the trashcan size down and make it much cheaper, less parts, people might upgrade quicker and we would have more choice to upgrade our video cards, sound cards, broadcast cards etc
Not sure how the second box could be connected but not thunderbolt 3 some sort of PCIe extender cable
I have no doubt that the newest Mac Pro is totally wrong.
None upgradable parts like graphic card, only one CPU, 4 RAM slots only, useless TB 2 ports, unreliable hardware, not expandable, worse cooling system, more...
There are no reasons to keep current Mac Pro design unless they make it into a cheap desktop computer. As a workstation, it's not worth it. Apple IS abandoning Pro market but guess what? Focusing only on consumer market is not a good idea since Minolta had done that before and then fell apart.
Dont underestimate pro users Apple.
None upgradable parts like graphic card, only one CPU, 4 RAM slots only, useless TB 2 ports, unreliable hardware, not expandable, worse cooling system, more...
There are no reasons to keep current Mac Pro design unless they make it into a cheap desktop computer. As a workstation, it's not worth it. Apple IS abandoning Pro market but guess what? Focusing only on consumer market is not a good idea since Minolta had done that before and then fell apart.
Dont underestimate pro users Apple.
Thunderbolt, and now USB-C are the problems with a traditional form factor. laptops, all-in-one's and desktops that use integrated graphics (and have all the components on the system board) make it easy to fold the video signal into the Thunderbolt/USB stream. doing that with traditional PCIe card with the ports on the back offers no elegant solution.
that is how we got the proprietary card form that Apple put in the nMP. now we don't know what did or is happening, but what needs to happen is a new industry standard for internal desktop graphics cards that has no ports on the back. that routes all the outputs through the edge connector (and into the computer) so they can be sent out with the Thunderbolt 3/USB-3 port (that needs a better name: TU3?). that I guess also means a new (with more contacts) card connector standard.
if such a card system existed, then Apple can use an industry standard in what ever shape box (sphere, or...) they want to make and we go back to being able to stick whatever card we want into that box. additionally, once the new standard is adopted universally, the cost for those parts (and the R&D) no longer needs to be borne entirely by the rather small Mac buying group.
with this, Apple can stick eight TU3 ports and 1 HDMI port on the nnMP. and other manufacturers can do whatever they want, but the upside is that we are back to a universal form for graphics cards that makes wider adoption of TU3 possible.
that is how we got the proprietary card form that Apple put in the nMP. now we don't know what did or is happening, but what needs to happen is a new industry standard for internal desktop graphics cards that has no ports on the back. that routes all the outputs through the edge connector (and into the computer) so they can be sent out with the Thunderbolt 3/USB-3 port (that needs a better name: TU3?). that I guess also means a new (with more contacts) card connector standard.
if such a card system existed, then Apple can use an industry standard in what ever shape box (sphere, or...) they want to make and we go back to being able to stick whatever card we want into that box. additionally, once the new standard is adopted universally, the cost for those parts (and the R&D) no longer needs to be borne entirely by the rather small Mac buying group.
with this, Apple can stick eight TU3 ports and 1 HDMI port on the nnMP. and other manufacturers can do whatever they want, but the upside is that we are back to a universal form for graphics cards that makes wider adoption of TU3 possible.
If they had just shaved off the four 3.5 HDD slots, and the dual 5.25 from the cMP they would have managed to shrink the Mac Pro considerably without sacrificing expansion options for the other components.
A little bit of redesign here and there was enough. The cMP chassis is still one of the better looking chassis' out there.
A little bit of redesign here and there was enough. The cMP chassis is still one of the better looking chassis' out there.
You're not a real pro. Real pros use their macs for facebook and editing their cat videos for youtube.
It's been 3 years since the Tube-advocates here have been proclaiming that Tbolt is just as good as PCIe (better, even!). Now we've finally got some readily available GPU breakout boxes and they take a 20-30% performance hit on top of the 10-20% performance hit for being limited to PCIe 3.0 4x (with top end cards). Plus they cost over $500 (PER CARD), barely work in OS X, and have their own power supply, power plug, etc. (more possible points of failure).
At least now you can get Tbolt replacements for the ubiquitous PCIe cards such as 10GbE and SAS.... you just pay several times as much and there's almost always a catch. Also, like OP pointed out, it's like an octopus.
I think they probably spend the last 20+ months trying a new form factor. Pretty obvious after the first year people were not happy with the trash can
I am afraid that you are right. Apple believe people don't like the mini Pro (6,1) form factor because it still not slim enough. So, they spend 20+ month to try the new nano pro form factor
biggest issue with the black cylinder is storage for me. i think only a single drive fits in there? a workstation needs a lot more than whatever apple's maximum SSD option is like, preferably several ones for redundancy and proper data separation and having boxes hang off cables with their own power supplies is not a great solution.
btw. when daisy-chaining thunderbolt - do you have to be mindful of the order to connect devices in? can a 'slow' device in the middle of a chain ruin performance for all the other parts? do all the devices have to be powered up at system start for everything to be recognized properly? are there strict limits on cable lengths, -quality (shielding) and different versions or else performance and reliability starts to suffer? it's not SCSI all over again, is it?
i'd like to see the cylinder stick around as a mid range solution though. not as the pro machine but as a more powerful alternative to the all-monitor imac. small, rather silent, could be good. oh well...
btw. when daisy-chaining thunderbolt - do you have to be mindful of the order to connect devices in? can a 'slow' device in the middle of a chain ruin performance for all the other parts? do all the devices have to be powered up at system start for everything to be recognized properly? are there strict limits on cable lengths, -quality (shielding) and different versions or else performance and reliability starts to suffer? it's not SCSI all over again, is it?
i'd like to see the cylinder stick around as a mid range solution though. not as the pro machine but as a more powerful alternative to the all-monitor imac. small, rather silent, could be good. oh well...
Apple will continue the trend they are on until enough customers give them the finger. If you say no they will just scrap the Mac Pro. If you say yes they will keep closing it up and reducing the ports. You won't be seeing a return to an upgradable Mac because it doesn't fit their design ideology.
That's fine because there are many PC options and it is still possible that macOS will be released into the wild. Not only does the OS show loading screen without a flashed card now, the chime has finally been killed off too.
That's fine because there are many PC options and it is still possible that macOS will be released into the wild. Not only does the OS show loading screen without a flashed card now, the chime has finally been killed off too.
yes, especially on the Mac Pro there are a lot of limitations, especially when connecting displays. The ports are paired up, so you have 3 controllers, each with 2 ports. if you connect a 4k display to one port, the port next to it (to the left or to the right) is crippled. There's an anantech (sp?) article from a million years ago that talks about this.
As far as TB cables, that's the one thing I'll give it that's cool: You can do optical and something like 300 feet if you have the cash. Running a TB -> hdmi/usb/whatever breakout box off of that and having your computer in the other room is actually really cool (linus tech tips has a video on this)... of course the point of having a Mac Pro Tube is to put it on your desk to show it off (as it's no good for ****-else).
I think there will be a new Mac Pro sometime in 2017. Maybe early 2017 or Spring of 2017...
Im not sure if it's gonna retain the same trash can shape. It might be a cube this time around. But, either shape or form, the shell will be semi transparent so the innards are kinda visible.
What warrants this semi tranparent shell is the material. Perhaps it is a kind of tough durable transparent ceramic material.
The octopus look will be somewhat diffused with Apple or third parties offering dock solutions. So, a dock for multipe HDD's, etc. A dock for external GPU's, etc... and so on and so forth.
Im not sure if it's gonna retain the same trash can shape. It might be a cube this time around. But, either shape or form, the shell will be semi transparent so the innards are kinda visible.
What warrants this semi tranparent shell is the material. Perhaps it is a kind of tough durable transparent ceramic material.
The octopus look will be somewhat diffused with Apple or third parties offering dock solutions. So, a dock for multipe HDD's, etc. A dock for external GPU's, etc... and so on and so forth.