Starting to loose my patience with Apple. Been waiting for over a year now for a serious update to the Pro (as Aiden said it : last update was just a processor bump), not all of it Apple's fault of course (Intel was late too), but hey, we're a month into E5 now and 3 weeks into Keppler: where is that damned machine ?
Am getting a sample rendering machine (e5 based) from my local PC shop tomorrow to try out, would hate to drop OSX, but my patience is wearing really tin, and I have no doubt I'll like the PC for its performance as well. On top, as many said before, if I go the Windows way, might as well drop the rest of the Apple ecosystem too...
Crikey, sounds like it's all coming to an end for you. Let me get the first bit out the way, I am not a hardcore Apple lover!
Designing a new product, that needs to supersede it's previous near perfect design, is going to be bloody hard. I am sure they have been designing the new case (if one at all) for many years.
It's rather clear, that if you're hobby/business requires for you to have some additional horsepower (i.e you're not making as much money as you should be on an hourly rate because your machine isn't as quick as other specs on Windows) and the current MacPro with the appropriate setup for you cannot meet your needs (i.e not worth upgrading from your current setup), then by all means move to a Windows based platform.
If that doesn't work, then move back to mac.
I don't know your business requirements, so I cannot say that the current MacPro will meet your needs or not, but I doubt that for the majority of users the "hardware" might not meet your requirements. In fact, the majority* (not all) of the SW currently on the market, actually works better on a SP rather than a DP, hence why the 3.33 hex is the sweet spot for a lot of users (limitations on RAM though compared to the DP version, can cause problems for some)
Personally, I was a bit gutted the previous revision wasn't a change, but a speed bump, I was rather disappointed with the 2010 DP models I bought, they were much louder than the 2009 versions, speed bump was good but not amazing and the premium for the "upgrade" was quite a lot.
I really don't know and no Joe Bloggs does, if there will be a new MacPro, but I suggest you just hold tight, or buy yourself a Windows machine and sell it when the new MacPro comes out (if!!) and lose a large amount of money from it's resale.
I work in a Windows environment, Servers and all that sort of stuff, use Windows 7 at work and actually find it rather good. There are bits I really like about OSX and bits I really like about Windows 7, but don't love either. I do however, really like the Mac Engineering hardware wise and hence why I will always own them. The new MacPro if it ever comes, will be my hardcore desktop, for my virtual networks, using ESXi and what ever other tools. Sure, I could get a HP or Dell beast, but the price is the same if not, more, for the same spec and not nearly as nice next to my 30" ACD in my office
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Apologies for the ranting, but either way, best of luck
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