Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Mac Pro WWDC ?
- Thread starter Washac
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
I think we will get a preview, just as we did with the current Mac Pro at WWDC 2013.
As for what it is, I think principles are more important than specs for it to be viable long term. I'm hoping for:
Any component can be replaced easily. In a professional environment, it is important that a breakdown can be fixed as quickly as possible to minimise down time.
Very flexible in component specification and price. The more people it suits, the more are sold, so there is more incentive for Apple to update it more often than every six years or so.
As for what it is, I think principles are more important than specs for it to be viable long term. I'm hoping for:
Any component can be replaced easily. In a professional environment, it is important that a breakdown can be fixed as quickly as possible to minimise down time.
Very flexible in component specification and price. The more people it suits, the more are sold, so there is more incentive for Apple to update it more often than every six years or so.
No way. They will lose 90% of their pro(!) customers if they did that. It has to start at around 3 grand. If it exists at all.
I agree, too many are expecting it to start somewhere around the cost of a loaded iMac Pro. That is not how you need to look at it, the modular Mac Pro IS going to be a fresh version of the iMac Pro, minus monitor / facetime camera / mic / speakers / keyboard / mouse.
You take all that away from a base iMac Pro, you are left with about 3500 bucks of goods.
So I expect the new modular Mac Pro to start somewhere between the $3K of the current outdated Mac Pro & the adjusted $3.5K of the base iMac Pro as outlined above...
They did bump the price of the Mac mini when it was finally refreshed, so maybe they will go the full $3.5K for the base modular Mac Pro...
The BTO pricing to upgrade the GPU in the iMac Pro is ridiculous, I really hope we get the ability to use off the shelf reference model GPUs, even if the pool of qualified cards is slim...
Same with the BTO options for CPU, RAM & storage; all of these need to be end-user upgradable with standard PC parts...
CPU socket / 8 DIMM slots / T2 system SSD / two x4 NVMe 2280 M.2 SSD slots for secondary storage / two x16, one x8 PCIe slots / 1200W PSU
I would argue I’d agree with this, but on the other hand Apple could target really high end pros only and then just tell you to buy an iMac Pro for anything else, which lets be fair is pretty powerful.
It long though till we find out?
Sure they could, but an iMac can't substitute a Mac Pro. But actually I am 99% sure Apple won't only target the high-end market.
I was honestly expecting a reveal this morning since Apple has been clearing the hardware deck before events lately.
EDIT: This is to say if we get a reveal at all.
EDIT: This is to say if we get a reveal at all.
I'm skeptical that we'll see anything Mac Pro related.
I *want* to see it but I don't think we will at this point.
I *want* to see it but I don't think we will at this point.
Why do you think it will start at $5k? Neither of HP's Z series (6 & 8) start nearly that high, and they can both be configured well above and below the MP's price range. It makes zero sense if you think about it.
The trashcan started around 3000$ at the same time the imac started at 1700$
The Imac pro 2017 started around 5000$
And the new MacPro should start ... around 8823$ ?
I bet Apple have got wise to users buying the base product and updating it themselves which means Apple miss out on the $$$$$$.
The cMP is a great example. Other than the initial cost I have spent thousands over the years on 3rd party hard drives, graphics cards, usb3 cards, 10gbe card, bluray drive.......not a penny of that went to Apple.
the new modular Mac Pro will be modular, but user upgradable with off the shelf components like the the cMP I doubt it, but I hope I'm wrong!
$4,000 might be more accurate. The lowest end MP now costs $3,000, and adjusted for inflation, a MP 10 years ago would've cost just under $4,000. But with Apple's tendency to increase price, $4,000 seems possible. Also, I doubt they will offer a powerhouse for a price less than the iMac Pro. It would totally wreck the sales of it.
On the other hand, by this time prior to the WWDC 2013 some significant aspects of the system had leaked. There is a decent amount of non super specific "stuff" floating around now, but much of it looks like "echo chamber" originals of non Apple "concepts" that are bouncing around the Internet rumor channels.
If it gets to Sunday and nothing separates from the flotsam as being creditable, then that's an indicator to rein in expectations. There was an report a couple of months ago in Bloomberg that Apple was considering whether or not to present the Mac Pro at WWDC. Alot folks ran with that as though they "have to present". 'Considering' fundamentally means it wasn't sufficiently done and they were uncertain it would be sufficiently ready to show. If that didn't get resolved in the mean time, then they probably won't. That's why it wasn't locked in previously.
Approaching the Mac Pro with the mindset of some Forumla 1 pit crew isn't going to happen. Folks are winding themselves up for deep expectation mismatch with "any component". Some components? Sure. All or Almost all of them. Probably not. Not even true in Forumla 1. If blow a major component of the engine then your done. For the parts that more often wear out and/or fail sure. Some core components that are not likely fail won't be "pit stop" optimized.
Yeah, I don't think there is any way the new Mac Pro will be MORE configurable than the cheese grater. Not only that, but the CPU in the cheese graters were not actually user serviceable if I remember right. So we're probably looking at replaceable RAM, GPU, disks, and maybe CPUs for those who don't mind going in deeper. And that's probably being generous.
The CPU is/are actually rather easy to replace in the cheesegrater, its the 2013 trashcan mac pro that has to be completely disassembled to replace the CPU
I'd love to see Apple go with AMD Threadripper... Since we didn't see a preview at computex from AMD about threadripper 3k series it would make sense to preview with Mac Pro. Lower TDP of 7nm and higher core count than intel parts. There were thunderbolt motherboards by Asrock and we have seen hackintoshes with Ryzen chips. If they didn't use AMD what Xeon chip would they use that's different from the iMac Pro? What video card would they use from AMD? Navi?
But that's if the hardware is only receiving internal updates. This is a major overhaul. They wouldn't do this in a press release or silent update.
Yes, its pretty easy to do, but you don't have Apple's blessing to replace them. None of the manuals explain the procedure.
If you have to stick to a (most probably pretty short and incomplete) list of allowed hardware, why bother purchasing it yourself? If Apple would tame itself in price markups (just as thought experiment
, you may even get the hardware cheaper by buying directly from Apple, thus profiting from Apple’s economy-of-scale prices ...IIRC the MP1,1 back then was cheaper to buy from Apple than getting the components individually and putting them together.