Report: Mac Pro To See Redesign

[50548]

Mid range tower: Dual or quad core, mid to high power requirements (65-130ish Watts) Conroe/Kentsfield compatible chipset. This means very fast bus speeds, and a few extremely fast cores 2x 3.2Ghz or 4x 2.67Ghz. Very cheap parts. If I remember, a 2.4Ghz Conroe is roughly half the cost of a 2.33Ghz Merom. Cheaper CPU, RAM, motherboard, etc than either Merom or Woodie compatible chipsets.

So... Mid range mac would be cheap. Very cheap. Much cheaper than an iMac, which should enable Apple to put in a better CPU, and would also enable the use of a really decent graphics card. If the rumours are true, and Apple will use their custom cooled X2800XTX GPUs, there would be every likelyhood one (or two, as the rumour also states) would find its way into a mini tower. Personally, I still think we will have to wait at least until Penryn to see the mini tower, if not Nehalem.

And the headless Mac rumors never die...incredible...

Going a bit off-topic...am I the only one who thinks those Intel MOBO/chip codenames are simply ridiculous? Yonah, Merom, Clovertown, Penryn and now what...Nehalem? What's next? Noah? Chanukkah? Bah...

 

[decksnap]

This one is very sweet here is a link and playing the 2001 theme or Enya one is really cool. Radiator G5 metal box was a let down for sure after viewing this design.http://digitalstudios.geneva-link.com/index2.html

That is serously hideous. Not to mention the screen would fall over if you breathed on it.

 

[Dont Hurt Me]

That is serously hideous. Not to mention the screen would fall over if you breathed on it.

Hideous was G5 Powermac, that was Hideous. The "Bank Vault" design is super cool and futuristic. you need to look again and just admit you are mistaken. I would rather have the Quicksilver,Cube, or whatever over the space heater aluminum radiator look of the 50s.

 

[decksnap]

Hideous was G5 Powermac, that was Hideous. The "Bank Vault" design is super cool and futuristic. you need to look again and just admit you are mistaken. I would rather have the Quicksilver,Cube, or whatever over the space heater aluminum radiator look of the 50s.

So you don't have one then? The G5 powermac/macpro is the best looking yet. If you put it next to a Quicksilver, the Quicksilver looks cheap. Although they were pretty much all good for their time.

I don't understand what part of that fake design is supposed to be good looking. It looks like an oversized cube knockoff, except badly done.

 

[Paul Turpin]

I could also do with more than 3 slots.

I run Pro tools HD, I am doing more and more high sample rate sessions and surround mixing which uses masses of DSP. If I am running a sesion at 192kHz I promise you those surround reverbs use up most of 1 entire DSP card! I currently have 5 cards with some in an expansion chassis, but it would be great to have them all internal.

I remember the days when I had a 6 slot rack-mounted 9600...

Yeah - it's because I am also a ProTools guy. Not only would I like to run more than three Digidesign cards inside - many people would like to add a Universal audio card for plug-in specific DSP. Especially lately - the expansion chassis options suck. What sucks even more is trying to offload an out of date expansion chassis - yuck!

Think the CPU can handle all the processing itself? - think again. As soon as it does handle 200 tracks at 192kHz all in real time all with buttloads of processing, all in surround - then I promise you us audio guys will be wanting to do it with DSD or something else (which uses a 2.8224 MHz sampling rate) requiring even more speed. Also - we want to use tons of software instruments at once. The newer instruments (like Native Instruments Massive) use insane amounts of CPU power. Its not like graphics and movies where you can do your work then send it off to some render farm - it all needs to done in real time. Some companies are addressing this better than others - Fairlight has a nice new solution, but that involves switching systems, and I digress....

It is also not only about internal power, its really about external connectivity. I use 48 seperate audio inputs and outputs on my system - some people need much more than that. Providing connectivity for these ins and outs is a primary need for more slots regardless of how powerful the cpu is.

I know we are in the minority here - but I was discussing what I preferred - not what I thought I'd get.

 

[Dont Hurt Me]

So you don't have one then? The G5 powermac/macpro is the best looking yet. If you put it next to a Quicksilver, the Quicksilver looks cheap. Although they were pretty much all good for their time.

I don't understand what part of that fake design is supposed to be good looking. It looks like an oversized cube knockoff, except badly done.

Many here at rumors would say Quicksilver was the cleanest design Apple ever did and Perhaps the Cube as the coolest. I think Apple can do better then MacPro and no I dont have one nor a need for a workstation. It will be iinteresting to see what Apple does this year, wish they would make a cool Consumer Tower but I doubt it.

 

[g3ski]

Of course they can. For 20 years I have marvelled how Porsche can continue to make a BETTER 911, when the old and current 911s are sooooo fracking cool. If Porsche can do it, Ives/Apple can do it. Show me something new and cool.

OTOH - produce the best computer out there at a reasonalbe price (they just did it recently) and I don't care that much what it looks like.

 

[DeepIn2U]

Oooh, maybe two versions:
1. Expensive Mac Pro models with Xeon processors.
2. Headless iMac models with Core 2 Duo processors starting at $899 to fill in the gap between the Mac Pros and the Minis...

Oh, I soiled myself just thinking about it!!!

I've ALWAYS love this design!

DUDE anyone have the original like (larger size) to this? And whom gets credit fo r the design?

HDD's mounted vertically isn't a very good idea. Generating more heat for more work or seek/write times.

Optical for read speeds is not a sound idea as well.

I love the current tower .... VERY STRONG presence ... states that due to its image theirs real power involved in using it and within

 

[iMacZealot]

Is it just me, or did the increase the size of the holes in the Mac Pro from the G5? I went to the Mac Outlet yesterday (essentially a museum of every mac, only you can buy them) and the G5 I saw looked like it had smaller holes....

(P.S. Who likes the new Leopard avatar?)

 

[0007776]

Is it just me, or did the increase the size of the holes in the Mac Pro from the G5? I went to the Mac Outlet yesterday (essentially a museum of every mac, only you can buy them) and the G5 I saw looked like it had smaller holes....

(P.S. Who likes the new Leopard avatar?)

Now that I think about it I think that they may have, but my time using the Mac pro was only a few minutes at a store.

P.S. I like your new avatar.

 

[AppleMan101]

Many here at rumors would say Quicksilver was the cleanest design Apple ever did and Perhaps the Cube as the coolest. I think Apple can do better then MacPro and no I dont have one nor a need for a workstation. It will be iinteresting to see what Apple does this year, wish they would make a cool Consumer Tower but I doubt it.

Anyone who prefers that aesthetic-monstrosity has no taste.

 

[swiftybilko]

Maybe if they stuffed more cpus in the case than you could imagine it would be so HOT that any spilled liquids would instantly evaporate.

Wouldn't matter where the vents were then, would it?

Just an idea. (If you're listening Mr Ive, you can have that one for free)

 

[TBi]

Maybe if they stuffed more cpus in the case than you could imagine it would be so HOT that any spilled liquids would instantly evaporate.

Wouldn't matter where the vents were then, would it?

Just an idea. (If you're listening Mr Ive, you can have that one for free)

Well considering the Dual Core's in the MP give out less heat than the single core G5's, and the fact that the quad cores give out the same heat as the dual cores... i don't think the liquid will evaporate any faster...

 

[swiftybilko]

Well considering the Dual Core's in the MP give out less heat than the single core G5's, and the fact that the quad cores give out the same heat as the dual cores... i don't think the liquid will evaporate any faster...

Aw, don't let the facts get in the way of a good joke!!

 

[DMann]

Mac Pro Case design

I've never liked the G5/mac pro cases, not even when I owned one. It looks like an industrial cheese grater. A lot of people say they like it, but IMO if it were a PC case, they'd hate it - just can't divorce the innards from the outards. (the inside is fantastic though.) A redesign would be great.

Now, that's the reason Apple switched to Intel in the first place;
their roadmap to cooler chips running at 45nm and less. The
present design was absolutely brilliant at the time in that the
form housed the twin turbo (hot) G5 monster chips in an aesthetic
way as possible. Now that we have cooler Cloverton's, I'll bet Jon Ive
is having lots of fun designing new towers, with fewer fans, water tubes,
and much less cheese grating. With Hard and optical drives shrinking on
a monthly basis, it is likely the towers will be a bit smaller as well as more
attractive.

 

[BenRoethig]

I wouldn't count on seeing a smaller case. For a multi-processor workstation, it's one of the smaller ones out there. The G3s and G4s could get away with a smaller case because they were in the desktop category.

 

[JeffDM]

The handles are VERY handy. When I do upgrade work on my PowerMac G5 I have to take it out of my office and I work on it in the dining room for the open space. If I didn't have those handles it would be such a bear to get out of its cubby and then down the hallway.

I end up having to use gloves, towels or a dolly because the edges of the metal "handles" are hard on my hand. The rounded corners on the bottom made me nervous because it would sway on carpet, so I made aluminum stabilizer bars for it.

Is it just me, or did the increase the size of the holes in the Mac Pro from the G5? I went to the Mac Outlet yesterday (essentially a museum of every mac, only you can buy them) and the G5 I saw looked like it had smaller holes....

I have an original PMG5 and a Mac Pro and the hole sizes didn't seem any different to me.

 

[eXan]

I end up having to use gloves, towels or a dolly because the edges of the metal "handles" are hard on my hand. The rounded corners on the bottom made me nervous because it would sway on carpet, so I made aluminum stabilizer bars for it.

lol you must have very sensitive and thin-skinned hands

 

[JeffDM]

lol you must have very sensitive and thin-skinned hands

Not really, just that 60lb is a lot to carry on such an edge. Other computers at least have folded edges on the sheet metal, even if it's only 1/8" hem, it's a lot more tolerable.

 

[JeffDM]

I completely agree. Not to mention the freedom of dust to settle in the case and cause heating problems over time. I have a G5 case, and for the most part, there is quite a bit of extra room in there. I'm not as familiar with the newer Mac Pros, but surely they could make it a tad smaller (and lighter....I'm a college student and the case kills me on move in day ) and still keep the storage and processor capacity high.

If I had to re-do the college experience, I would have just done the notebook thing, just that notebooks weren't really viable or affordable enough at the time.

Jobs claimed the G5 was done with major open areas because of its cooling needs. The chips ran very hot and needed plenty of air flow and still be reasonably quiet. The Mac Pro really doesn't have much by the way of open space but it does very well on packing things in there and still being the quietest tower I've personally come across.

The case size really isn't out of line with standard workstations. Mac Pro isn't really a consumer desktop type computer anyway, it shouldn't be considered one or compared to them without keeping its intended use in mind.

 

[JeffDM]

I'd really like to see the Mac Pro have user installable external 5.25" drive bays like PCs to add DVD burners. Installing hard drives look easy enough w/ the Mac Pro. Adding/replacing the DVD drive looks pretty hard.

No, you just have the wrong impression. It's not hard at all, I think it's a little easier to install an internal optical drive on the Mac Pro than any other computer. The optical drive cage pulls out by hand, mount the new drive, connect the cable that's already right there, and click it back in. The door panel latch locks it into place.

This is due to the tiny marketshare and nothing to attract 3rd partys to the platform, but over on the Pc side of things there are all kinds of PCI cards,Video cards,Tv tuners,sound cards even physics cards and more. On the Apple side? Again this problem was of Apples doing sort of like having only 1 machine that uses a special video card(PowerMac G5) then wondering why no one makes video cards for Mac? Apple needs to start over with hardware.

It also doesn't help that people here and other places have advocated ripping off the firmware and flashing another brand's card for their video upgrades. As such, I just don't understand why ATI bothered offering upgrade cards. It costs money to develop and test the firmware for Macs and there are so few potential sales that can make up for it, so obviously it's going to be more expensive. That's what you get when you chose a niche product.

I do agree that more models should have add-in cards. Save for video, the need for add-in cards is decreasing but I think Apple rushed a little too quickly to get rid of them on consumer computers. The TV tuner doesn't have to be internal anymore though, Elgato has one that's a little larger than an iPod shuffle, and there is another rebrand that uses the stick under Windows. I expect that the physics card will quickly go away either when ATI & nVidia put such processing in their chips, or when game engines start using extra cores for that task.

Audio is a bit of an issue though. If you want good surround, the analog is only stereo and I don't think the optical out supports uncompressed PCM surround, and pre-compressing DD or DTS for reciever decoding adds considerable lag. Firewire surround output devices are far too expensive to be viable other than for pro use.

 

[Peligro]

I just bought my mac pro in January. I really like the design. I love that it has weight to it. I love that it feels indestructible. A new design could be neat but this one seems perfect.

 

[Plumbstone]

8-cores Leopard only?

Does anyone have any idea if the 8-core MacPros will be Leopard only or will they be able to run tiger too?

I really hope both as otherwise we are in for a bit of a wait for software to catch up.

 

[Erasmus]

And the headless Mac rumors never die...incredible...

Going a bit off-topic...am I the only one who thinks those Intel MOBO/chip codenames are simply ridiculous? Yonah, Merom, Clovertown, Penryn and now what...Nehalem? What's next? Noah? Chanukkah? Bah...

No. The headless mac rumors will never die. The Mini Mac Pro is immortalised in the hearts of people like me.

And yes, I do think the names are stupid. I mean compare "Clovertown" with "Dragonshead", the codename for ATI/AMD's R600 XTX version. Now you would expect that if you put a clovertown in your computer, your computer would run cool, like a river running through a meadow. What would be the point in putting a heat sink or any cooling system on something with a name like Clovertown? You certainly would not expect your computer to start burning. Conversely, the name Dragonshead gives you an insight as to what you're getting yourself into if you put one in your computer.

 

[Erasmus]

Does anyone have any idea if the 8-core MacPros will be Leopard only or will they be able to run tiger too?

I really hope both as otherwise we are in for a bit of a wait for software to catch up.

An 8-core Mac Pro will run Tiger. even if Apple has to release an update to allow the system to recognise 8 cores, they will, although I doubt they will have to. Of course, why you would want to, I don't know. The 8-core Mac Pro will no doubt come out with Leopard installed.