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The "Waiting for Nehalem Mac Pros" thread

TennisandMusic said:
Why not? Mac pros are expandable.
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Seven graphics cards. That sure is expandable.

Let's leave the Mac Pro and MacBook Air out of this next bit: You can replace everything in every Mac except the processor and GPU.

With the Mac Pro, you gain the ability to change processors (to something in the same line, either faster or slower) and graphics cards (to one of the other six cards). You can also change the CPU in the iMac and Mac Mini.

You want expandability, but OS X doesn't have the drivers for it. Why doesn't OS X have the drivers for it? Talk to ATI and nVidia.
 
Tallest Skil said:
Seven graphics cards. That sure is expandable.

Let's leave the Mac Pro and MacBook Air out of this next bit: You can replace everything in every Mac except the processor and GPU.

With the Mac Pro, you gain the ability to change processors (to something in the same line, either faster or slower) and graphics cards (to one of the other six cards). You can also change the CPU in the iMac and Mac Mini.

You want expandability, but OS X doesn't have the drivers for it. Why doesn't OS X have the drivers for it? Talk to ATI and nVidia.
Click to expand...

Do you think Apple does anything misguided out of curiosity? How many people want to open a Mac Mini or even worse, the iMac to change their CPU? The mac pro allows you to change video cards and use internal hard drives and cpu's as you said, and you can do so pretty easily on that machine. The iMac allows you to easily upgrade...what...the ram? You can change other parts if you're "daring." There should be more to ease of expansion than just memory. I also don't want to be forced to use external USB drives if I want 3 terabytes of storage in my machine. Or what if I want to change out the sole internal drive...I have to disassemble my entire machine? I also don't really want a desktop that uses laptop parts.

This isn't rocket science. An Apple branded "xMac" would likely do fantastic. I work in the "industry" and Apple's lack of a decent mid offering is somewhat of a joke among my colleagues.

I'm just puzzled by people who defend every move of Apple, as if those who criticize their obvious blunders are fools. Do you think Apple's 8-10% market share is also some great victory? I very much enjoy OSX and several Apple apps, but come on...

Anyway back to the Mac Pro discussion.
 
Waiting for Mac Pro... Need something now... Will MacBook Pro do the job...

Waiting for Mac Pro... Need something now... Will MacBook Pro do the job in respect to Final Cut Studio, CS4... especially After Effects? When complemented by the 30" Apple Display?

I have always used a PowerMac or MacPro... I have never used a portable for editing and post production. Will the 15" or 17" do the job?
 
TennisandMusic said:
This isn't rocket science. An Apple branded "xMac" would likely do fantastic. I work in the "industry" and Apple's lack of a decent mid offering is somewhat of a joke among my colleagues.
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An xMac would take away sales from the high margin desktops that Apple sell. For an xMac to have similar margins it wouldn't be competitive against competitors like Dell and HP. People always say such systems would sell well, but such systems have tiny margins compared to other products computer manufacturers sell.

I'm just puzzled by people who defend every move of Apple, as if those who criticize their obvious blunders are fools. Do you think Apple's 8-10% market share is also some great victory? I very much enjoy OSX and several Apple apps, but come on...
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I don't actually think anyone doesn't want Apple to make such a Mac, although as Tallest Skill pointed out one problem is everyone has their own idea of the system that would sell really well and increase Apple's market share. Some of us just try to explain why we think Apple won't do certain things based on their history and the current state of things. While I'm sure Apple aren't opposed to more marketshare, the don't seem to care if they only get it by using their "elite" branding. Not every business has to be huge and sprawling with their fingers in every pie to be successful.
 
Umbongo said:
An xMac would take away sales from the high margin desktops that Apple sell. For an xMac to have similar margins it wouldn't be competitive against competitors like Dell and HP. People always say such systems would sell well, but such systems have tiny margins compared to other products computer manufacturers sell.



I don't actually think anyone doesn't want Apple to make such a Mac, although as Tallest Skill pointed out one problem is everyone has their own idea of the system that would sell really well and increase Apple's market share. Some of us just try to explain why we think Apple won't do certain things based on their history and the current state of things. While I'm sure Apple aren't opposed to more marketshare, the don't seem to care if they only get it by using their "elite" branding. Not every business has to be huge and sprawling with their fingers in every pie to be successful.
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Of course I understand those points, but the fact of the matter is you're either buying a laptop, in essence, or an incredible workstation if you want an Apple. This really makes no sense. Why can't Apple make the same margins on a standard type desktop? It's the same thing! They charge a huge premium for their laptops. Are those competitive against Dell and HP? Why is that situation different?

All of the main offerings from Apple feature a large price premium. A standard desktop would not have to be any different. You don't think a Core i7 desktop box with a few video card offerings and the ability to easily throw in another hard drive or two and more ram would do incredibly well? Apple can do what they want obviously, but the blind defense is still silly. The PC world is so far ahead of what Apple is offering (in the hardware area) it's getting embarrassing.
 
Tallest Skil said:
Bingo.



Now I want apple pie. Thanks. :mad::p
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Right...less people would buy iMacs because some of those people might buy the xMac. Then on the other hand, a number of people might buy an xMac that would never consider the iMac because of the nature of that machine. There is no reason an xMac could not be "high margin."
 
Umbongo said:
Why do you think Apple don't have the xMac for sale? Let's say something like a Dell XPS.
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Apple has a long history of foolish, misguided, bad decisions, as well as an established "greed" factor. Again, it would be reasonable to pay a premium for a "better" desktop. 12+ months between refreshed hardware, outdated right out of the gate, is paying extra for what exactly?

The "Apple doesn't care" argument does not stand. It was not too long ago Apple was looking rather desperate. Now they stand to lose even more, with hundreds of Apple Stores throughout the world, they must aggressively continue to increase their market share.

A smaller margin in a new market is still a +margin and profit. I am forced to upgrade every 3-4 years to a new tower, if a cheaper minitower were offered I assure you I would be upgrading to a new one every 2 years.

In its history, Apple went for 100% of the PC market share down to 2%, based on bad decisions. Don't rely on them to get it right all the time.
 
Voltaic said:
Apple has a long history of foolish, misguided, bad decisions, as well as an established "greed" factor. Again, it would be reasonable to pay a premium for a "better" desktop. 12+ months between refreshed hardware, outdated right out of the gate, is paying extra for what exactly?

The "Apple doesn't care" argument does not stand. It was not too long ago Apple was looking rather desperate. Now they stand to lose even more, with hundreds of Apple Stores throughout the world, they must aggressively continue to increase their market share.

A smaller margin in a new market is still a +margin and profit. I am forced to upgrade every 3-4 years to a new tower, if a cheaper minitower were offered I assure you I would be upgrading to a new one every 2 years.

In its history, Apple went for 100% of the PC market share down to 2%, based on bad decisions. Don't rely on them to get it right all the time.
Click to expand...

A perfectly acceptable theory. Not one I buy in to personally, but then none of us know the real reasons. I think it is probably a combination of the numbers not making it worth pursuing (declining desktop sales, cutting in to other product ranges, the competition in the market, the audience for such systems) together with Apple (read: Steve Jobs) not wanting to for personal beliefs of what home computers should be.

Whatever the reasons I think we can all agree that it a. sucks and b. probably won't change any time soon.
 
Umbongo said:
A perfectly acceptable theory. Not one I buy in to personally, but then none of us know the real reasons. I think it is probably a combination of the numbers not making it worth pursuing (declining desktop sales, cutting in to other product ranges, the competition in the market, the audience for such systems) together with Apple (read: Steve Jobs) not wanting to for personal beliefs of what home computers should be.

Whatever the reasons I think we can all agree that it a. sucks and b. probably won't change any time soon.
Click to expand...

IMO there is your answer. And it's misguided IMO as well.
 
Recently, I have been rendering and playing a lot with 1080p contents and I am eager for the Nehalem Mac Pro to be released.

I would get the 2.8ghz 8 core again but its so close for the Mac Pros to be updated again + my 24" LED ACD wont work with it as well... *sigh*.
 
MacBook Pro and 1080p

I shoot 1080p with a Sony EX1... Would a MBP + 30" display be able to handle working with video? Will it crawl? I need something soon... though I will probably make another purchase when the new Mac Pros come around. What are your thoughts about the MBP and 1080p?
 
Umbongo said:
Yeah. There is talk that Intel want all unreleased Nehalem products pushed back as far as they can due to high DDR3 pricing which could cause adoption problems.
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I don't believe that. These are all high end parts, price is not the first thing on your mind. Besides that, DDR3 has really come down. You can get 6GB triple channel kits of performance memory for $160! We're way past the $100/GB from a year ago.

In addition if you've been paying any attention to memory companies you'll notice that they have a massive surplus of inventory. The recession might be ruining their year, but boy has it made mine. Memory of all kinds is absolutely dirt cheap compared to its average price from a year ago.
 
m1stake said:
I don't believe that. These are all high end parts, price is not the first thing on your mind. Besides that, DDR3 has really come down. You can get 6GB triple channel kits of performance memory for $160! We're way past the $100/GB from a year ago.

In addition if you've been paying any attention to memory companies you'll notice that they have a massive surplus of inventory. The recession might be ruining their year, but boy has it made mine. Memory of all kinds is absolutely dirt cheap compared to its average price from a year ago.
Click to expand...

Is that ECC ram? Where did you get that figure from? On Crucial it appears that 16 gigs of ECC DDR3 is 2 grand.
 
m1stake said:
I don't believe that.
Click to expand...

The Tech Report are saying it is down to motherboard makers having surplus due to the economic downturn (regarding Core i5) and other sources have been saying for a while it was due to Intel being happy with sales of Penryn products and a lack of competition.

I figure all those things are factors and Intel just don't need to be in a hurry.
 
TennisandMusic said:
Is that ECC ram? Where did you get that figure from? On Crucial it appears that 16 gigs of ECC DDR3 is 2 grand.
Click to expand...

No, it's not. As I said it's just regular high end DDR3. Obviously the ECC is more expensive, that's just how it goes. However, I'd be willing to bet that the price of that same 16GB kit would have required you to take out a second mortgage on your (now ridiculously devalued) house if you tried buying the same kit last year.

You're correct that the current price of $630 for 4 x 4GB (OWC) sticks certainly undercuts Crucial's $2000 asking price. Who knows.
 
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