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The 2009 (Gainestown) Mac Pro: Everything We Know

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Tallest Skil said:
Handles it is, then. Anyone with their own ideas is free to post them, of course. No jokes, please; don't be posting Dell towers.
Click to expand...

Aside from the internals, the current case design is pretty much a uni-body design. I think it would be simplified further to continue with their uni-body approach. Also ditch the tray loading SuperDrive for a slot loading like all the other Macs including Xserve.
 
That idea of bringing some G3/4 design elements to the G5/Pro case just got me thinking. It could work one way or the other. I agree that a little more "rounded" look would make it fit into the lineup, and that could be one way to achieve it.

Just a quick try...
 

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chaosbunny said:
That idea of bringing some G3/4 design elements to the G5/Pro case just got me thinking. It could work one way or the other. I agree that a little more "rounded" look would make it fit into the lineup, and that could be one way to achieve it.

Just a quick try...
Click to expand...

Too wobbly.
How about the Apple logo?
The stem is the handlebar for it, the chewed off part is where the SuperDrive is, and the bottom is just flat.

Note: not a ball-like case, but an apple with the sides cut off.

Not only would it be an insanely powerful machine, but it would also be a work of art ;)
 
Pressure said:
Device-ID 949E based on RV730 = FireGL V5700.
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Huh? Are you talking about something you've seen in a point update of OS X?

Here's a glimpse of where I'm going with the design. I think that I can do good things with it.

Minus the giant knob, of course. And I had to cut the resolution a little, but it still looks good.
 

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Tallest Skil said:
Huh? Are you talking about something you've seen in a point update of OS X?

Here's a glimpse of where I'm going with the design. I think that I can do good things with it.

Minus the giant knob, of course. And I had to cut the resolution a little, but it still looks good.
Click to expand...

Mac Pro Wheel? ;-)
 
rylin said:
Mac Pro Wheel? ;-)
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Ugh... :p

Now, Phizz at AppleInsider (reposted here by suneohair, but he's banned...) has the theme down, just not the execution.

I'm going to teach myself how to use Photoshop so that I can have a decent-looking mockup... This could take a fair amount of time. Until then, I ask that we go back to discussing hardware; there are still some ports to be decided upon and GPUs to lock down...
 

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JesterJJZ said:
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.
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The 7x 5.25" drive bays gives you some options, especially for RAID. Just drop in either 3.5" or 2.5" backplanes.
  • 4x 3.5" drive backplane that fit into 3x 5.25" bays (horizontal orientation).
  • 5x 3.5" drive backplane that also fits into 3x 5.25" drive bays (vertical orientation).
  • 4x 2.5" drive backplane that only consumes a single 5.25" bay.
So if you really needed a lot of drives, you use 1x 5.25" for an optical drive, the other 6 for 2.5" backplanes, and the 8x 3.5" mounts internally, to give space for 32 HDD's! :eek: :D

There's enough extra space you could find room for at least another 3x 3.5" drives (empty PSU space alone, if available). Perfect for separate OS drives. ;)
 
Tallest Skil said:
No, no, no, no, no... Tray-loading. These things need to be upgradable. You can't do that if you're forced to buy laptop drives.
Click to expand...

I gotta side with Tallest Skil on this - no laptop slot loaders in a Pro desktop please. They are relatively slow and discs can get jammed much more easily. Lets have a nice SATA tray loading DVD-R drive (Black) that is very quiet. Noise is by far the biggest issue with the current drives. The latest drives all come out as desktop tray loading mechanisms first as well so it is important that you can just add one of these to a Mac Pro as new tech arrives.
 
Apple should shoot for the GT300 core (possible GTX 350). Slap 2 of those bad boys in a MP. Or even better yet a GTX 350 GX2 model. With Open CL and Grand Central that would be yummy. More likely would be whatever Nvidia calls the GT200b.


Also why couldn't Apple use Beckton? Jump from a measly dual quad to a more likable dual octo. Ah well one can dream..
 
Tallest Skil said:
Yah, ah, ah! :eek: Do you WANT the base model to cost $4,500?!

Dream on your own budget. :p

The GTX300 series won't be out until Q3/4 this year. The Mac Pro will be out before that. Thus, no 300 series.
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Well it would be the first 32 core workstation (4 CPU). Plus it would kinda force an upgrade to the XServe.
 
nanofrog said:
Absolutely. :D Provided one could afford a quad Beckton based system.

Hmm...Can we say $15k Mac Pro? :eek: :p
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Tallest Skil said:
Stop. Making. Me. Think. :mad: :p

Beckton... BECKTON... with Snow Leopard.

A Gainestown Mac Pro and a Beckton XServe, both with Snow Leopard...

*river of drool, short circuiting my Penryn MacBook Pro*
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What better way to show off Grand Central and Open CL than with a 32 Core quad GPU rig?
 
Hmm, I wonder what wattage PSU Apple is going to use. And will it have all the needed PCIe 8/6 pin power plugs on it (at least 2 per x16 slot).
 
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