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Sonnet Announces New 4U Enclosure to Rack Mount Two Mac Pros

Michaelgtrusa said:
But it hides that good looking machine.
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What good looking machine? When the Mac Pro finally appeared at my local Apple Store, I went down to check it out. The color of black wasn't black black but silverly black, the case was larger than I expected, and it didn't look as good when Apple first announced the Mac Pro last year. The only bright spot was a security lock connector.

If I were to get a Mac Pro, shoving it into a 4U case seems ideal.
 
Osnabrueck said:
I do motion/video/fx for large productions and travel with my gear all the time.

There's a great practical utility around the MacPro's form factor. For the first time I can easily pack my rig into a carry-on bag. This is a huge deal for me since I'm often asked to render AfterEffects projects on location just hours before showtime.

I'm in the minority, but for me the new Pro has opened up a ton of options for what I can execute while on the road without the hassle of checking in my gear in a tuff case.

Add to that - this rack mount solution is a good approach. We always use redundant machines on location, in case one goes down during a performance.
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Wait? Are you me? :D Maybe not because I use Motion more than After Effects… I just got my nMacPro and think it's a little heavy for me to heave over my head as a carryon. Right now, when I carry on my roller bag with two 17" MacBookPros and all the accessories I have trouble heaving it into the overhead bin.
 
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Two Mac Pros from Apple, 1TB drives, best GPU. Least RAM, weakest CPU: $9,598.00

Two OWC upgrades for 128GB RAM and fastest CPU: $10,473.98

4U rack with extra Mac Pro slot: $800.00

Total for a friggin' sweet Minecraft or Facebook machine: $20,871.98
 
MacRumors said:
There are no rear Thunderbolt ports because, Sonnet says, there are no panel-mount Thunderbolt connectors available.
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In short, "We're using off the shelf parts and don't want to spend the extra money on custom parts. That would reduce our profit margin."

If you have the skills to work with sheet metal, it might be cheaper to take a generic 4U box for $80 and modify it for the Mac Pro.

http://www.racksolutions.com/rackmount-box.html
 
I thought one of the 'features' of the new Mac Pro design was its thermal cooling design around the heat rising from the central core of the system. Does mounting these things on their side provide cooling issues that will affect performance and/or lifetime?
 
Very nice. I could definitely see myself using this on tour in the next couple of years when I upgrade.
 
Similar to what I asked for

I actually like the idea of the new pro being the core to tower like the old mac pro. Slide it in, and you can have a variety of sata devices and expansion slots connected to thunderbolt. Take it out, and you have portable workstation.

Unfortunately, no one has really done thunderbolt peripherals well/reasonably priced.
 
Osnabrueck said:
I do motion/video/fx for large productions and travel with my gear all the time.

There's a great practical utility around the MacPro's form factor.
Click to expand...

Don't understand why so many deride the cylinder. It's based on cooling principles.

Also, the rack-mount is for traveling engineers and touring artists.

Everything Apple does starts from practical solutions to less obvious problems that engineers typically ignore. The aesthetics are refinements to those novel solutions.
 
Ceebler said:
I thought one of the 'features' of the new Mac Pro design was its thermal cooling design around the heat rising from the central core of the system. Does mounting these things on their side provide cooling issues that will affect performance and/or lifetime?
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From what I read, the cylinder Mac Pro works fine on its side. Since rack cases are typically installed inside closets or data centers, the case may have an extra fan or two to assist with cooling.
 
KdParker said:
Looks like the start of HAL.
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I prefer udev myself, but to each their own. :D

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Xenomorph said:
Two Mac Pros from Apple, 1TB drives, best GPU. Least RAM, weakest CPU: $9,598.00

Two OWC upgrades for 128GB RAM and fastest CPU: $10,473.98

4U rack with extra Mac Pro slot: $800.00

Total for 2 friggin' sweet Minecraft or Facebook machines: $20,871.98
Click to expand...

Fixed that for you.
 
Scarpad said:
Kinda kills the point of them looking unique, No ?

Which begs the question did they ever need to look that way. The individual or company that needs the power of the pro don't need it to look like a work of art, they just need it functional.
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How do you know?

Many artistic people use Mac Pro's and is it unreasonable to think they may, in part, choose items that match what they do in life?

Like a nature lover choosing wood furniture over steel and glass.
 
Ceebler said:
I thought one of the 'features' of the new Mac Pro design was its thermal cooling design around the heat rising from the central core of the system. Does mounting these things on their side provide cooling issues that will affect performance and/or lifetime?
Click to expand...

Exactly. Sonnet's a good company and I'm sure they did testing, but the whole airflow design depends on them being upright.
 
For those that are questioning the existence of this, obviously it is not for you.
These are for data centers and production studios. Not for the average joe who happened to buy 1 or 2 mac pros.
 
phillipduran said:
How do you know?

Many artistic people use Mac Pro's and is it unreasonable to think they may, in part, choose items that match what they do in life?

Like a nature lover choosing wood furniture over steel and glass.
Click to expand...

I bought it primarily for the power to do my job. The looks are the cherry on the top. It's not like we have a choice if we prefer the Mac. If it had come in the old chassis I would have been fine with that, too, but I love to have a smaller form factor that makes it a viable option to carry it with me to the job. The fact that it looks cool and calls attention to itself (and to me, to be perfectly honest) is a bonus that has always existed with Apple products so I would expect nothing less. Not the primary reason to buy an Apple product, a bonus. I'd still buy it if it were ugly.
 
Xenomorph said:
Two Mac Pros from Apple, 1TB drives, best GPU. Least RAM, weakest CPU: $9,598.00

Two OWC upgrades for 128GB RAM and fastest CPU: $10,473.98

4U rack with extra Mac Pro slot: $800.00

Total for a friggin' sweet Minecraft or Facebook machine: $20,871.98
Click to expand...

When I worked at Google in 2008, a typical Mac Pro hardware request was $40,000 each for a maxed out configuration and a pair of Apple monitors.
 
H2SO4 said:
So called 'Professionals' are more fickle than you think and so are the consultants that showcase new products for them. Lots of people that need something to enable them to make a living care about aesthetics. I can't fathom why it's thought that these Pros are above mundane things such as what something looks like. It may not be the be all and end all but lets stop the patronising yes?

Looks and basically what someone just wants are often major factors in a lot of purchase decisions, be that consumer or professional.
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I didn't say Professionals I said the market and people who require this setup. Professionals is a highly misused term these days anyway

It's clear to me, and should be to you and everyone else, that Sonnet intends this in a rack setup. I know very few people or companies, over years of being in IT, that would choose a server or high end machine for aesthetics over power or any multitude of other items a high end machine like this would typically be used for.

My point being Sonnet has a very specific use for this, and the people who are interested will likely not care what it looks like as long as it performs to their expectation and is convenient, in this case, for them to mount. For the small percentage who may feel otherwise, Apple designed a machine just for you and you don't need to post in here to complain about it being the way you wanted it to be anyway. :eek:
 
I see this as a mean to turn the uber-powerful Mac Pros into servers/render farms since the Xserve is long-dead and nothing else replaced it.

The annoying bit however is that massive storage is automatically external with this model, but TB/NAS solutions are available.
 
I like sonnet's gear, but I just can't see the point of this. Just "shelve" the Pros. side by side. Easier access.
Seems like this would be much less efficient at uniform cooling (if not downright detrimental).
If nothing else, eventually over time those fans are going to start to get off balance and get noisy.
Just like me.
 
What does mounting two Mac Pros sideways in a single case do to their heat dissipation?

And I agree, it is a shame they did away with the Mac servers. Not enough of a market I guess. Though, the Mac Pro market isn't that big either.
 
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