News Apple teases new Mac Pro, with stunning new design

First thing I thought when I saw the pic.

 

As mentioned by GulleAcoustic, my main question as a music producer is "Where the hell will my Pro Tools HD cards go?"

Nice work, Apple. I knew this was going to happen.

BUT - it's a lovely piece of design engineering, and probably a very lovely machine all in. Problem is, it no longer does what I want!

 

Yup, and you'll have to buy a thunderbolt external drive that supports RAID ... because I do not see any serious professionnal working directly on a single SSD (or HDD). I wouldn't like a failing drive to force me to redo a recording session or any creative work --> 500€ for 2x 2TB (so 2TB in mirroring setup ... pretty expensive)

IMHO, works file MUST be stored directly on a RAID storage that permits for the lose of at least 1 drive ...

 

Not one to miss an opportunity, are you?

 

Storage seems like an issue for smaller companies and one-man bands due to the cost of buying external units over internal drives. RAIDs that run over GbE or Thunderbolt are available at prices to suit small companies, larger companies (like mine) can use Windows servers with AFP compatibility middleware and whatever back-end storage is appropriate.

As long as RAM upgrades are easy, I'll be happy - nothing else in any of the Mac Pros or iMacs on the studio floor warrants an upgrade, ever (except perhaps SSDs)

 

That too. Oh great. Used Mac Pro ahoy...

 

Next thing is they said it will have a 12 core CPU, but in there pictures they only show one processor bracket so Intel's biggest CPU is Xeon E7 with 10 cores. Ether Intel is set to release a 12 core Xeon or apple is using funny numbers and it is only a 6 core with 12 threads. As I don't see them fitting 2 CPUs in that thing.

 

I've seen some more pictures on other sites of this thing and I'm really tempted, as I can set it off my taxes anyways

There's six Thunderbolt-ports on the back in addition to six USB 3.0 ports, two GBitE ports and a single HDMI 1.4.

For the HDDs... A SATA3 HDD via Thunderbolt manages ~200MB/s and is basically just as fast as it was connected directly to a SATA3-port. Thunderbolt-NAS' are not really cheap I know, but they're coming down in prices aswell.
Western Digital offers a 2x2TB Thunderbolt-NAS for $450 for example.

 

I think this is an attempt by Apple to kick Thunderbolt adoption up a notch. The video industry currently relies on PCIe capture cards - but if they can force a move to Thunderbolt, Apple gains compatibility with both the Mac Pro and MacBook Pro for high end equipment - exactly in the fashion of the music industry moving to Firewire.

In addition, selling the Mac Pro with only Thunderbolt for mass storage is going to ensure a greater number of drives, rather than just the hugely expensive Promise solutions. WD, Seagate etc are all going to have to step up a gear.

 

I knew it was only a matter of time before these started appearing…

 

Only 4 USB 3.0 ... and since it has only 1 HDMI, then you have to sacrifice TB connector to plug multi monitors setup.

I'm not keen about the no HDD bay. Having a slik minimalistic design has no meaning if it is mantatory to have external storage.

 

you mean you don't use a NAS or a file server to save your work and rely on a box plugged into the usb slot? we have a NAS in my house - laptops + pcs+ tablets +phones (and the odd console) all access it

 

Exactly. Alot of people use a NAS anyways, as they have multiple machines accessing it, and it's safer for data aswell when paired with a UPS.

 

Internally, it's gorgeous from an engineering standpoint. Outside, not so much, as Pliqu3011 said, it looks like an urn. Why not, aluminum, carbon fiber, a nice fabric... Something other than just black.


To those who say cooling will be problematic, I used a similar approach to my mini cube file server (which was based on the Mac Cube) and it works quite well actually. A normal case, you need lots of fans for coverage because much of it is completely wasted flowing through empty space. In this case and my mini, air goes right where it needs to go and not towards empty space. As for dust, everything is oriented vertically, there is very little for it to sit on. So long as you don't smoke around it and coat everything with sticky tar, it will work perfect for a very long time.

 

You and me both...

 

What the hell, it's in the other thread so why not here as well...

 

Once again Apple s**ts all over business and education and focuses only on the consumer.

This is going to be a nightmare for security (of the machine itself) and of what will be the numerous A/V peripherals which will all be sat on the desk with it, asking to be disconnected and removed, instead of being securely locked away inside a big aluminium box.

What exactly IS the point of having a "beautiful" (which I personally don't think it is) small form factor computer is you then have to have half a dozen cables trailing out from it to the various devices you're using it with (and please don't say "bluetooth" is the answer...you can't run Pro Tools over BT, or render motion graphics with it).

 

Cooling will be problematic. The Mac pro will house 2 firepro, rated at 294W per unit for the desktop ones. Add the 12 core Ivy-Bridge E .... This is going to end around 700W. I guess they will reduce the fequencies, but I don't see anywhere below 500W. This is the case I think since a single W9000 has a 4TFlops FP32 capabilities. Here, the 2 GPUs are capables of 7TFlops (i/o 8), which is a 12.5% reduction.

About the price, a single W9000 cost 3500€ and the cpu will be easily over 2000€ as the current 8-cores xeon retales at 1100€ (for 8x 2.0GHz / 95W) and 1800€ (8x 3.1GHz / 150W). Add the SSD and the ECC ram ..... Estimated final price, with the Apple special premium : 10k€ .... And you'll still have to add the TB mass storage, a TB pcie chassis to use expansion cards ...

At the era where we are trying to get rid of cables, even internal cables are hidden, Apple is bringing cables back. It is easy to build a small case if you externalize everything.

 

Sorry Guille, but I'm designing my cases exactly the same way. Optical drives and mass-storage have no place in my PCs. In my Define Mini for example there's no optical and no 3.5" HDDs allthough there's room for them, just a SSD and a 2.5"@7200RPM, both installed in the upper 5.1/4" bay so that no HDD-cages restrict airflow.

For my next hardware (the successor to Haswell) I'll simply install these two 2.5"-drives on the back of the mITX-board-tray and I'll most likely opt for a halfheight GPU like a 7750 if any GPU at all. Sound is best by using USB anyways instead of onboard or PCIe, and mass-storage for videos and stuff (i.e. the files you're not currently working with) is done with a NAS.

Two 20x20x20cm cubes is all that's needed really. One for the PC and the other for the ODD/HDDs, connected via a single Thunderbolt-cable. That's only one additional short cable not messing up anything.

And like said allready, they sure have tested the cooling to great extend before announcing this piece of hardware.

 

No Optical drive and no HDD and no expansion are fine for a mini computer, but the make pro isn't suppose to be a mini computer, the Mac Mini is, the Mac Pro is suppose to be that big power hose that is able to handle any thing you through at it all in one case, neat and tidy.

Now it is a tin can asking you to plug every thing in and mess up your desk and buy a new one then a slightly better version comes out in 6 months.

Apple's design teem has lost there minds here.