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News Apple teases new Mac Pro, with stunning new design

Discussion in 'Article Discussion' started by Meanmotion, 10 Jun 2013.

  1. Meanmotion

    Meanmotion bleh Moderator

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  2. Nexxo

    Nexxo * Prefab Sprout – The King of Rock 'n' Roll

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    Stunningly beautiful, but an upgrade nightmare.
     
  3. ./^\.Ace./^\.

    ./^\.Ace./^\. What's a Dremel?

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    One 12 core CPU and Two GPUs sharing one aluminum heat sink, sounds like a cooling could be a problem I wonder if they had to under clock any of the components.
     
  4. FullThrottleRic

    FullThrottleRic What's a Dremel?

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    Looks awful to me.
    I like the idea of a single fan cooling a vertically aligned heatsink (efficient), but they've crammed it in too tightly for the sake of it - it just looks stupid.

    I've found a perfect modding candidate if anyone wants to make a KIRF before the actual Mac Pro is released :p
    http://www.seton.co.uk/fireproof-waste-paper-bins-nonsignmc437.html
     
  5. RedFlames

    RedFlames ...is not a Belgian football team

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    Don;t forget the PSU is crammed in there too...

    As i've said elsewhere... it's an impressive technical achievement... but i don't like the look of it...
     
  6. Cheapskate

    Cheapskate Insane? or just stupid?

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    "Apple tech support, how can I help you?" "Yes, my Mac keeps rolling off the desk..."

    It's a neat design, but how many people would put their cigarette out in one in a day? -Some because they don't know it's a Mac, and some because they do. I can see chewing gum buildup being a problem too.
     
  7. jrs77

    jrs77 Modder

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    Totally awesome desing imho. As I'm playing less and less games anyways and only do graphics and music I'm really tempted by this one running only OSX.

    The triangle-cooler won't have any problems cooling two GPUs and the CPU, as it's a massive piece of aluminum actually (135mm wide on the longer side) with a 200mm fan sucking air through the fins.
    And I'm quiet sure they tested this cooling-solution quiet extensively.
     
  8. Yslen

    Yslen Lord of the Twenty-Seventh Circle

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    Interesting, certainly, but I personally don't think it looks nice. The old Mac Pro was a very attractive beast.
     
  9. Pliqu3011

    Pliqu3011 all flowers in time bend towards the sun

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    Interesting heatsink…Would really like to see some temperatures.
     
  10. Sub-particle 0.76

    Sub-particle 0.76 What's a Dremel?

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    Yes... the rolling off the floor problem - it won't exist if the user actually have some cables attached to it.

    I'm pretty sure they tested the heat dissipation right to the single degree but interesting thing for me is the PCIe-based flash with external Thunderbolt 2 storage and 3x 4K monitor. I'm in the wrong job (and pay scale)!
     
  11. r3loaded

    r3loaded Minimodder

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    Complete overkill for my needs but I want one lol. However "made in the USA" won't come cheap.

    Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 4 Beta
     
  12. barny2767

    barny2767 What's a Dremel?

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    Looks like a big black coke can to me. I think I have a 10inch tall coke can money box somewhere that just needs spraying black.
     
  13. Phil Rhodes

    Phil Rhodes Hypernobber

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    Surely this defeats the object of a Mac Pro, inasmuch as you'd want to use it for "pro" work requiring things like extra hard disk space. I mean, upgrading the old Mac Pro was absurdly inconvenient, with space for only four more disks in that massive case, but this is just... silly.

    Yes, yes, I know, thunderbolt solves everything - but it's only the equivalent of a single PCIe lane, so no, actually, it really doesn't, certainly not for high-end work.

    Decision not to go Apple for desktops is confirmed again, I fear.
     
  14. ModSquid

    ModSquid Multimodder

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  15. GuilleAcoustic

    GuilleAcoustic Ook ? Ook !

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    Does it sharpen your penceils too ?

    [​IMG]

    I see several design issues there :

    - Cleaning issue :
    Dust is going to accumulate between boards and the heatsink. Retimming is going to be a nightmare.​
    - Upgradability :
    Everything is proprietary, even the SSD form factor (same as macbook air)​
    The SSD connector is on ont of the a GPUs board ? So everything is really proprietary​
    No expexnsion slot, every single hardware has to be external (aquisition, sound, etc..)​
    - No HDD bay :
    3D artists are going to have storage issues. Textures and rendering are rarely made in compressed format ... gonna have some performance issue with storage if you have to save over the USB or ethernet while rendering 3D animation (all frames are generaly rendered in TGA and then assembled in softwares like premiere) ... the SSD gonna be light for that purpose.

    Musician aren't going to work in MP3's, same issue there, phototgraphs too.​

    At least, RAM is not soldered onto the mainboard, I've had a hard time finding the ram sticks in the pictures.

    This is anice piece of engineering, but the lack of upgradability (all being proprietary and no expansion slot), as well as the lack of at least 2x 2.5" HDD in RAID are major issue to me.
     
  16. Guinevere

    Guinevere Mega Mom

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    Are you sure?

    Apple say:

     
  17. Guinevere

    Guinevere Mega Mom

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    Why want dual 2.5" drives when a larger SSD will perform the same benefit? Just cost?

    You're right there isn't an expansion slots, they're going with four thunderbolt 2 ports to allow devices to be used externally. It's different rather than a major problem.
     
  18. Guest-16

    Guest-16 Guest

    NGFF can either use the SATA bus or SATA Express bus. It has a maximum bandwidth of PCIe 4x.

    All HDD mass storage will be via Thunderbolt 2. You'll only store the essential items on the Mac itself.

    Plus you can buy one of our 4K displays to connect to it. Thanks for pointing out it's 4K ready, Apple :cooldude:

    Not sure what they are doing for sound. I suppose they expect most people will use a DAC (does it still have Firewire?)

    It's an Apple - no one who buys this is concerned about temperatures or future upgrades or re-timming/de-dusting. They just want it to work, be quiet, look pretty and for the Apple store to clean it for them. If you want to upgrade your workstation, I know a company who makes motherboards ;)
     
    Last edited by a moderator: 11 Jun 2013
  19. Mister_Tad

    Mister_Tad Will work for nuts Super Moderator

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    The look doesn't do it for me, personally. From a technical point of view cramming that much in to a small package is impressive, but would have been even more-so if it wasn't all proprietary.

    I will be more impressed if they can keep it quiet under load, all the more important as it's clearly (over)designed to be a display piece.

    The whole minimalistic look isn't going to work when there's a few external HDDs and a sound interface or other peripherals sat next to it on the desk though.
     
  20. GuilleAcoustic

    GuilleAcoustic Ook ? Ook !

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    Yup, price of a 1TB SSD .... only for storage (rendered images, per instrument audio tracks, etc.)

    So .... they made a "design case", with no expansion or mass storage capability, that will need a cluster of peripheral connected to it, pretty fuggly. They are moving from the "Octocore MacPro" to the "Octopus Macpro" (with it's 8 arms).

    Musician mostly uses internal sound aquisition cards (Lynx, RME, Focusrite, etc.) .... or Firewire ones.

    I agree on this point. But if I was Apple, since they seam pretty proud of there triangular heatsink, I'd have made the whole case triangular like a kind of pyramid.
     
    Last edited: 11 Jun 2013
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