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The next Mac Pro should have..................

ildondeigiocchi

ildondeigiocchi

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Dec 30, 2007
695
0
Montreal
What should the next Mac Pro have....

In my opinion....

1. 8X Blu Ray Drives
2. An NVIDIA GTX 295 (nothing less for the high end)
3. 64 GB DDR3 RAM :eek:
4. New design ... though the current one is really nice Apple must surprise the World with something truly jaw dropping.
5. SSD as BTO option
6. MORE PCI Power connectors that ARE STANDARD!!!
 
Oh... I've been serious all night. Thank you very much for that laugh. :D:cool: I appreciated that! *thumbs up*

Want to know the funniest thing? They already support FAR more RAM than you've put there; the DIMMs just don't exist yet! :D

1. No Blu-ray until 2015.
2. _____ (low-end), GTX 260, Quadro FX 5800
3. Covered.
4. WHY?
5. That's a given.
6. As opposed to the NON-standard ones that they use... yeah, no one uses PCIe... :rolleyes:
 
The short answer, mostly no.

The long answer:

  1. Steve has already shared his thoughts about BluRay as a viable solution for distributing digital media. Plain and simply he said, "It's a bag of hurt".
  2. The high-end card would be an actual high-end card for professionals and not for gaming. It seems that a new Mac Pro might have support for the following cards based on the RV730 chip: ATI FirePro V5700 (device-id 949E) and perhaps Radeon HD 4670 (as it also is based on RV730).
  3. The current Mac Pro can already address up to 128GB of memory (although officially only 32GB because of the astronomical price of higher than 4GB Fully-Buffered modules).
  4. A new design seems plausible, radical or not. That is how Apple rolls after all.
  5. It only makes sense to include a Solid-State Drive as an upgrade option.
  6. The PCI-Express power connectors in the Mac Pro are, surprisingly, standard. Everyone can buy those molex connectors.
 
ildondeigiocchi said:
2. An NVIDIA GTX 295 (nothing less for the high end)
Click to expand...

Apple won't go with the highest end in the top tier of graphics cards because the price increases a lot for minimal gains over the second best card.

3. 64 GB DDR3 RAM :eek:
Click to expand...

It will probably have 12 memory slots and officially support 4GB DIMMs, but 8GB and 16GB DIMMs are comming according to Intel.
 
1. No. They won't. Not to mention I cringe at the thought of what Apple would charge for a user-replaceable part that costs $400 just for a 3rd party bare drive.

2. Maybe, there just might with Apple's new Nvidia friendly-ness, and hte occasional anecdoatal allegations of SLI in Snow Leopard. Then again, maybe they won't. In which case you will get a 3650, a GTX 260, or a Quadro FX 5800. HEY WAIT: Pressure, did I miss something? Where did those IDs come from?

3. Already been replied too.

4. Yes, they will redesign it, if for no other reason than it and the Mini are the last two Macs that still have a PPC-era design.

5. In a 3.5"? Maybe...

6. Wut?
 
A RAID card that had more features and a lower price? I don't know how or why they settled on that garbage part.

EFI 2.1

Realistic DIMM prices.
 
all I want is the Nehalem Xeon's

I mean, really 32GB of ram max is plenty for me, even if it is possible to add more. Not fussed about SSD as BTO because they would probably end up being cheaper to add in afterwards. New graphics cards are surely a certainty but again to be honest I'm not that fussed as long as they are mid-high level current generation.

What I need is pure rendering power. For that, the Nehalem Xeon's will be such a big step up. I've had the money for 2 months and will wait another 2 or 3 until the new mac pro is out. Hopefully sooner rather than later.

edit- also I think a computer of the mac pro's calibre should have basic hardware raid built in as standard
 
Non-incremental upgrade

If they really want to go into new directions and significantly bump up specialist application performance, maybe they should add a Xeon socket and stick in a Virtex-5 [1] :D

I'm not too sure on where developments are on multi-FPGA modules for Intel sockets, but it was quite a while ago that people demonstrated tri-FPGA ones [2]. Of course, the time between prototype and production is a radically varying thing.

[1] http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer...l-opens-up-its-front-side-bus-to-the-worlddog
[2] http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/920/1021920/fpgas-grow-xeons
 
Want real speed gains without the cost of SSD?

Provide a SAS option, even SAS RAID. Maybe make SAS standard.
 
m1stake said:
A RAID card that had more features and a lower price? I don't know how or why they settled on that garbage part.

EFI 2.1

Realistic DIMM prices.
Click to expand...

DIMM can be bought for realistic prices at OWC. I don't care to give Apple any more money than I already do.

Blu-ray would be nice but Apple has already expressed their stance on this so we'll keep waiting.

Redesign the case? The case is clearly timeless. Seriously, how many years has it been this design? I wouldn't change it after all these years.

More RAM? 64GB? Possible, probable, but I have 10 gb right now and life is good. But then again my needs do not involve video editing for YouTube.

SSD as BTO? Ok fine, but since I never move around with my MP much the HDD is fine by me. More space less money ... at least for now.

However the RAID card is indeed something they need to change. To charge the price they charge for that POS is beyond me.

I am quite happy with my MP and intend to keep it for as long as possible.
 
You would think that the smart people at Apple could write drivers and work just as well, if not better than the graphics card manufacturers.

We all know that ATI and nVidia are known for excellent driver support. :rolleyes:
 
ggg05a said:
You would think that the smart people at Apple could write drivers and work just as well, if not better than the graphics card manufacturers.

We all know that ATI and nVidia are known for excellent driver support. :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

They actually are.

Making a driver for a piece of hardware requires intimate knowledge of said hardware and thus Apple cannot just make a driver.
 
ggg05a said:
You would think that the smart people at Apple could write drivers and work just as well, if not better than the graphics card manufacturers.
Click to expand...

Pressure said:
Making a driver for a piece of hardware requires intimate knowledge of said hardware and thus Apple cannot just make a driver.
Click to expand...

Then why was Apple forced to write the 8800GT EFI32 driver to make it backwards compatible with the first Mac Pro?

Because nVidia sucks at what they do.
 
m1stake said:
A RAID card that had more features and a lower price? I don't know how or why they settled on that garbage part.

EFI 2.1

Realistic DIMM prices.
Click to expand...
I hear you. :D
jessica. said:
DIMM can be bought for realistic prices at OWC. I don't care to give Apple any more money than I already do.

However the RAID card is indeed something they need to change. To charge the price they charge for that POS is beyond me.

I am quite happy with my MP and intend to keep it for as long as possible.
Click to expand...
I think he was thinking in terms of FB-DIMM vs. standard DDR2. Add the little AMB chip, and different heat sinks, and the price goes nuts comparitively speaking. Especially when it's first introduced. The added cost to make them would make you sick. :eek: ;)
ggg05a said:
You would think that the smart people at Apple could write drivers and work just as well, if not better than the graphics card manufacturers.

We all know that ATI and nVidia are known for excellent driver support. :rolleyes:
Click to expand...
Hmm....Currently, Apple writes the Nvidia drivers, and ATI writes their own for Macs. Given the performance of the graphics cards on a Mac, ATI does a better job than Apple. :eek: Numerous posts and reviews available seem to back this up.

So would you care to re-evaluate that comment? ;) :p
 
jessica. said:
DIMM can be bought for realistic prices at OWC. I don't care to give Apple any more money than I already do.
Click to expand...

Why should Apple's memory be double the price of other retailers and e-tailers? OWC caters to a need that shouldn't exist.
 
m1stake said:
Why should Apple's memory be double the price of other retailers and e-tailers? OWC caters to a need that shouldn't exist.
Click to expand...

Apple aren't in the memory business so they are always going to charge more for memory even if they started adjusting prices over the products lifetime. OWC cater to a market that has to exist.
 
Tallest Skil said:
In truth, it doesn't HAVE to exist (Apple could be nice with prices, but then again, they're a business and they like not being bankrupt anymore), but I'm sure glad that it does, I'll tell you... :cool:
Click to expand...

Someone will always under cut Apple's memory prices, especially in the world of online stores.
 
J the Ninja said:
Those aint cheap :eek:

Hey, don't they share a socket with the new Itaniums? OMG, APPLE IS GOING TO SWITCH AGAIN!!! :eek: :p :D
Click to expand...

Yeah, I agree. If Apple would fill that freakin Apple Gaping Lineup Hole there would not be the hunormus jump between a core2 dual core and an eight core Xeon.
:eek:
 
m1stake said:
Why should Apple's memory be double the price of other retailers and e-tailers? OWC caters to a need that shouldn't exist.
Click to expand...

Ahh... You were referring to Apple's pricing vs. 3rd party. :eek:

Yeah, it doesn't make sense that Apple sells at the prices they do. I would think they would not only increase their sales, but the profits associated would increase, even at a lower margin. Assuming the sales volume was high enough. Given most people seem to go 3rd party, I'd think it would work out in Apple's favor.

At least there are 3rd party options. :D ;)
 
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