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The 2009 (Gainestown) Mac Pro: Everything We Know

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Tallest Skil said:
So... you're saying all four CPUs, with the 8-core 2.66 being equivalent to the 4-core option now?
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Basically.

I think the first Mac Pro had 2.67 GHz as base and 2.0 GHz as a cheaper BTO.

Tallest Skil said:
I thought by reading my Blu-ray section you'd get that. I'd better put it in the list...
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I did. I was pointing out that it should be in the list as well.

Tallest Skil said:
You'd think so, but no, it isn't. Someone needs to tell those TV manufacturers that they're building them wrong. I'm serious; they're doing the resolution I stated. Oh, but I also said "half-Super Hi-Vision", didn't I... Yeah, it's not "half", but there's no name for it and that's what they're doing, so...
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That is just weird. :confused: And the aspect ratio is 256:135 (1.896:1). :confused:

Tallest Skil said:
Thought about it, given the last "Tuesday before" Mac Pro release, but that was because MacWorld was a consumer conference (yes, they did the PowerMac G5 then...), and they released the first one AT WWDC, remember?
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They did release the Santa Rosa MacBook Pro the week before WWDC 2007, although it's debatable whether or not the MacBook Pro is as "pro" as the Mac Pro. And there's a good possibility that most of WWDC 2009 will be iPhone-related anyway.

Does anybody think that Apple will use a 9800 GPU instead of the GTX 260?
 
Tallest Skil said:
Yeah, but that was still only three clocks. They've only ever had three clock speeds at once.
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That's true. And 2.93 GHz as the base model or a 400 MHz gap between the 2.8 GHz and the 3.2 GHz doesn't make much sense. Apple could cut corners elsewhere, but that isn't the best thing either.

Tallest Skil said:
Do you think they would change, or can the 2.8 be run with only one processor? Would it be cheaper/better to do a 4-core 2.8 or an 8-core 2.66?
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We might consider that the Early 2008 Mac Pro had 4 speed grades (as opposed to clock speeds), one more than the previous Mac Pro. Apple would then keep the 4 grades and use the 4 CPUs. I don't know if only one Gainestown can be put in the motherboard, although if it is, then Apple has an easy way to give a -$1000 or so BTO option (as opposed to -$400 or so by using 2x 2.66). Might alleviate some of the price concerns. :p
 
Fiber Channel is typically used to connect to SANs. So I am not sure if that is really all that useful for a Mac Pro. It has the capability of doing 10Gbps much like 10 Gig E.

Has SIG updated the PCIe spec to allow for more than 32 PCIe lanes?
 
diamond.g said:
Fiber Channel is typically used to connect to SANs. So I am not sure if that is really all that useful for a Mac Pro. It has the capability of doing 10Gbps much like 10 Gig E.
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It may not be useful, but they offer one now. I'm just curious about the speed provided by the current one, so that I can judge if they'll think that putting 10G Ethernet in the Mac Pro is justified or if they'll just say, "Oh, they can buy our fiber card for that."

PCIe in Tylersburg is up to 36 lanes per I/O board, and there are two I/O boards. I cover this in my first post.
 
Tallest Skil said:
It may not be useful, but they offer one now. I'm just curious about the speed provided by the current one, so that I can judge if they'll think that putting 10G Ethernet in the Mac Pro is justified or if they'll just say, "Oh, they can buy our fiber card for that."

PCIe in Tylersburg is up to 36 lanes per I/O board, and there are two I/O boards. I cover this in my first post.
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I believe the FC in the MP is 1Gbps. Ah, okay on the PCIe lanes. I think that would be an interesting feat wiring wise for Apple to pull off (8+ layer mainboard?).
 
Tallest Skil said:
It may not be useful, but they offer one now. I'm just curious about the speed provided by the current one, so that I can judge if they'll think that putting 10G Ethernet in the Mac Pro is justified or if they'll just say, "Oh, they can buy our fiber card for that."

PCIe in Tylersburg is up to 36 lanes per I/O board, and there are two I/O boards. I cover this in my first post.
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Its 4 Gb.
 
Tallest Skil said:
It may not be useful, but they offer one now. I'm just curious about the speed provided by the current one, so that I can judge if they'll think that putting 10G Ethernet in the Mac Pro is justified or if they'll just say, "Oh, they can buy our fiber card for that."

PCIe in Tylersburg is up to 36 lanes per I/O board, and there are two I/O boards. I cover this in my first post.
Click to expand...

The problem with 10Gbps SAN is that it tends to cost quite a bit.
Depending on needs, there are options available that are much more cost effective such as ATA over Ethernet (you could build a 10Gbps local storage for less than $1k + the cost of SATA disks).

IMO, 10Gbps ethernet should be a BTO option for an updated Mac Pro.
For most uses, a couple of gigabit links will do just fine, keeping in mind that a gigabit is roughly 100MB/sec actual throughput (keeping in mind that 10-20% is typically TCP/IP overhead).

Saturating a gigabit pipe is relatively easy.
A 10Gbps pipe? Well, with a Enterpricey SAN, not a problem.
With ATA-over-Ethernet? Not much of a problem there either.

It has its uses, but the audience is still quite small for it.
 
Ok....the case. I have some ideas....

1: Drop the PSU down to the bottom. The top-mount is a relic from the days when cases didn't have dedicated exhaust fans. It now only serves to pump out heat near the CPUs, and bring the machine's center of gravity way higher than it needs to be. Not that kicking a tower over is that big of a deal anyway, but putting the PSU in the bottom changes tipping it over from "maybe, if it got ran into by someone..." to "You'd have to be trying on purpose"

2. Move the CPU tunnel up to the middle. Then, the cards go up top, where you can install some top fans to add airflow to those. Since you no longer need a fan in front of the cards, you can put the optical drives there, then shuffle the HDDs to bottom, where there'd be room for 6-8 of them.


"It's timeless..." yes, but this is Apple. It wouldn't be the first time they re-did a Mac's chassis for just for the sake of a new look. A lot of people said the old MBP/PBG4 case was timeless and couldn't be topped/shouldn't be replaced.

3. It needs to be bigger. If they pulled it out to about 24" deep, there would be a room for at least one more HDD without even changing anything else. The current machine is 20"x19"x8". That is big for the family desktop, but what's claimed to have "tons of room to upgrade" and be "fastest ever"....IMO 24"x24"x10" is better for a "tower of power.

Ex:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811133056

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119138

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119103

4: Too many hard angles, too much silver. It's starting to not look like it belongs with the other Macs. You can tell there's been some changes to it's siblings that it hasn't had yet. The "new Mac look" is rounded corners, black accents, tapered edges, etc.

5: Everyone else is doing it! Well, more seriously, the Macbook (iBook), MacBook Pro (Powerbook) and iMac all went Intel keeping their PPC looks, but were later updated. Apple did this for all 5 machines to help show "It's the same Mac, just faster". Now that everyone was accepted the "Intel Mac" as being a "real Mac", they started freshening up the designs. The iMac went first, we saw black, aluminum shell, glass where applicable, and very, very few hard angles. A lot of curves. Then the MacBook Air came out, all tapered and with black keys. Then we got the unibody notebooks, more tapering, same black keys. The new ACD, same thing. The new Mini is probably going to look like a small, fat (closed) MacBook. That leaves just the Pro looking like the PPC version. It wouldn't fit.

I really have no ideas on what the exterior could look like, but those are my thoughts on that.
 
J the Ninja said:
Ok....the case. I have some ideas....

5: The iMac went first, we saw black, aluminum shell, glass where applicable, and very, very few hard angles. A lot of curves. Then the MacBook Air came out, all tapered and with black keys. Then we got the unibody notebooks, more tapering, same black keys. The new ACD, same thing. The new Mini is probably going to look like a small, fat (closed) MacBook. That leaves just the Pro looking like the PPC version. It wouldn't fit.

I really have no ideas on what the exterior could look like, but those are my thoughts on that.
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Fortunately, I do... ;) I was originally going to reject my idea for a newer design, but I'll throw out one hint right now:

Handles. Does the design still need them? Your response will be the determining factor in whether or not I keep up with this drawing or go with something else. So... will Apple keep the PowerMac G3 theme?
 
Tallest Skil said:
Fortunately, I do... ;) I was originally going to reject my idea for a newer design, but I'll throw out one hint right now:

Handles. Does the design still need them? Your response will be the determining factor in whether or not I keep up with this drawing or go with something else. So... will Apple keep the PowerMac G3 theme?
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Yes, they are a design trademark.

Also, maybe tilt them outward somewhat, like the G4? Honestly, what I had envisioned was basically an Aluminum silhouette of the graphite G4 case, but with some of those MBP-style laser cut holes on the top and front for vents (dust problem?), and some rounded off corners. (kinda uncreative, hence why I didn't post it)
 
Drop the handles... Stop trying to make it portable.
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I was thinking about getting the new Macpro, but if it doesn't have handles, how else will I work out in the morning?! Great for curls and a handicap running up and down the stairs. Already lost 12 lbs. on the G5. :p

Anyways, I think a portable desktop would be needed for some professions where a Macbook Pro would not be enough in terms of gHz/portability. And I (personally) like the handles. They seperate it out from every other desktop I've seen for sale.
 
Dr.Pants said:
I was thinking about getting the new Macpro, but if it doesn't have handles, how else will I work out in the morning?! Great for curls and a handicap running up and down the stairs. Already lost 12 lbs. on the G5. :p

Anyways, I think a portable desktop would be needed for some professions where a Macbook Pro would not be enough in terms of gHz/portability. And I (personally) like the handles. They seperate it out from every other desktop I've seen for sale.
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Wait.. no love handles?!?
 
nanofrog said:
I thought those were handy for a significant other to hang on to? :eek: :p

Take a look at Lian Li Full tower server cases.

I have the PC-V2010A (Silver). All aluminum, well laid out, and plenty of room. :D
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Well that is a little nicer looking. I understand having space for hard drives, 8 hard drive bays in a MacPro would be awesome, but why so many 5.25'' bays? I think anything more than 3 is a waste. One or two Optical, maybe a tape backup?

Granted, I'd love to have one of these in the front of the MacPro.

http://www.cooldrives.com/quswsamorafo.html
cooldrives_2036_48498783
 
iMacmatician said:
That's true. And 2.93 GHz as the base model or a 400 MHz gap between the 2.8 GHz and the 3.2 GHz doesn't make much sense. Apple could cut corners elsewhere, but that isn't the best thing either.
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You think Apple might cut corners with the cache monies!
 
i say keep the handles... in less safe areas, you can put a bike lock around the handles to make it harder to steal, better than a little kensington lock..
 
Tallest Skil said:
Fortunately, I do... ;) I was originally going to reject my idea for a newer design, but I'll throw out one hint right now:

Handles. Does the design still need them? Your response will be the determining factor in whether or not I keep up with this drawing or go with something else. So... will Apple keep the PowerMac G3 theme?
Click to expand...

I like the handles and I think they are here to stay. I like the fact it raises the system +1 inch off the surface which makes the case look light. When you have RAM loaded on every slot and each of the 4 HD bays utilised, you will appreciate the handles at the top.

Think of the MP as a basket filled with yummy Apples and the handles are there for you to carry your yummy apples around. You wouldn't carry a heavy basket load of apples in your arms would ya?

STAFF_IMAGE.JPG
 
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