Generic Mac Pro 2013 chatter.

[Xin]

Reminds me of the black trashcan I just saw outside Starbucks :P

 

My friend just sent me this (he's pretty disappointed)

 

That was the first thought that came to mind when I saw the picture... Second was my old vacuum cleaner. :lol:

[Salmiakbal]

I gotta say this looks pretty nice.

I don't get why they sperm over the heatsink though. I mean it's cool and all that but it's not better than a regular heatsink other than the fact that this one is shared between multiple processors. If all the stuff in there is on 100% load it's gonna get really hot and loud. There's not that much surface area.

Also why did they go with Firepro's? Everyone knows Nvidia and cuda stuff is much better for people that use a Mac Pro.

Also the lack of harddrives is going to be painful, unless they manage to cram 2TB worth of SSD in that thing, which is not going to happen (for an acceptable price at least)

[SMURG]

depends where you live, here in the EU they are totally legal.

 

Apple may not want you to do that but they can't make it illegal.

 

EULA's are not the law...every company in the world would love that very much

Yeah, here in the UK there are companies who actually sell Hackintoshes. EU law says that if you buy a software license then you can use that software however you see fit so long as you only use a single copy per license.

[SMURG]

I gotta say this looks pretty nice.

I don't get why they sperm over the heatsink though. I mean it's cool and all that but it's not better than a regular heatsink other than the fact that this one is shared between multiple processors. If all the stuff in there is on 100% load it's gonna get really hot and loud. There's not that much surface area.

Also why did they go with Firepro's? Everyone knows Nvidia and cuda stuff is much better for people that use a Mac Pro.

Also the lack of harddrives is going to be painful, unless they manage to cram 2TB worth of SSD in that thing, which is not going to happen (for an acceptable price at least)

The heatsink design looks like it's just going to burn you if you put your hand near the top tbh. The CPU is gonna have a TDP of 130W, and each GPU is gonna be putting out a similar amount, all into that one cooling solution.

The firepros are the AMD version of the 'professional grade' GPUs and are optimised for displayport (which Thunderbolt is based on). Apple's main reason for using the fire pros, and for soldering them to the board, was to get Thunderbolt working on the LGA 2011 platform which would ordinarily never have supported it. My guess is the fire pros were the easiest way to get Thunderbolt onto LGA 2011.

The lack of hard drives is just a way for Apple to push Thunderbolt. "Don't worry guys, you can just spend a few hundred dollars on an external thunderbolt enclosure! It's a much more elegant and innovative solution than internal drives!"

[PoeFlorin]

[Giac]

Apple branding or Looks?

looks ;)

[Cosmos_i7]

I find it laughable that people make fun of people who buy apple products because they don't know tech. Well lets see half of you configure MPI, something that is really easy to do but most of you will need to google. People Legitimately like working in OSX over Windows, and this is the most powerful computer they can get to do it. I hardly ever see windows computers used in field like Physics, Geoscience, and Chemistry. 

 

Most people who buy computers/build computers on this website use their computer to play videogames. Most people who buy Mac Pros use it to do graphic design, run models/science simulations, and interface with redhat. All these things are infinitely easier within the OSX ecosystem.  

 

Here is the larger point. Most of the posts here seem like a gut reaction, what I would call our default settings. But perhaps, like everything in life, words sound and are read better when there is perspective behind them. I once read that the power of education isn't that it teaches you how to think, but shows you what to think about. Maybe its time that some of you think about things other than through the lens of yourself.

 

That is a really good way of looking at it. I also believe people need to look at more important things and understand that people prefer other things and not everyone is a gamer. OS X is far superior to windows in those categories. The only reason windows is better at games is because of support not necessarily because of technology. In some cases Open GL runs better than Direct X.

 

I really hope more people share your view and understand the truth and the bigger picture.

[Rhotis]

What I don't get is that people that don't like what Apple does, take this thread, which was about a legitimate question about a technical solution, and turns it in to yet another arena for expressing their feelings about Apple. The way I see it, the only reason one would have to complain about the price of the thing is that one really wants a Mac Pro, but can't afford it.

 

Another thing guys, this is a pro-level product. Comparing Xeon CPUs and FirePro graphics to anything with Core-series CPUs and GeForce/Radeon series GPUs is really a pointless exercise, because if you need the former, the latter will never stack up.

 

As for the pricing, I don't know what it'll cost, but with the previous Mac Pro, I did a little experiment with Apple and Dells product configuration tools, and guess what, same system specs was actually more expensive from Dell 

 

I agree the people looking at this and criticizing it are really generally not the target audience for these products.  This is not a gaming rig.  Its a high end workstation meant for professional users.  

 

Not sure about the pricing you did though.  I did a similar experiment but I priced components myself of the mac pros about a month ago .  I would build a system better than their packed dual processor for half the price they were charging.... read that as about 4k cheaper for a system that would have knocked its doors off mainly because Apple has been way behind on updating the mac pro and the graphic cards were disgusting on what you could configure on their site.  

 

Pricing on this expect to be a bit more than what the previous mac pros were simply because of all that engineering they had to pay for to build this unique of a system.  So expect 3grand on the low end and 11grand on the high.  

 

EDIT -  on th pricing I just saw the drive situation.  That might bring the unit cost itself down a little from what I listed but then you are going to have to buy separate drive enclosures likely apple approved at 3x the real price.  

[Samdb]

Just saying

 

[arkon]

Just saying

 

 

[feteru]

At least they're addressing the performance market rather than hanging them out to dry. Also, some people like having a lot of performance in a small form factor. It's why I went mini-ITX, and it's understandable. Seriously, the design does look like a trash can, but it's an impressive piece of engineering for the people who really need a new mac pro, because the cost of the computer is much less than the cost for them to switch software.

[Samdb]

Is this a new feature?

[calebp123]

Is the new PCIe falsh storage actually 2.5x faster than solid state like their claiming it is?

[arkon]

Is this a new feature?

 

New! Mac Pro with extra iCoffee feature!

[Rhotis]

At least they're addressing the performance market rather than hanging them out to dry. Also, some people like having a lot of performance in a small form factor. It's why I went mini-ITX, and it's understandable. Seriously, the design does look like a trash can, but it's an impressive piece of engineering for the people who really need a new mac pro, because the cost of the computer is much less than the cost for them to switch software.

 

Yeah if you are in a design house that has been developing propriety software (many of them do) for OSX for the last 12 years you are not going to just switch to a PC to save a few grand per workstation.  

 

If you are a new design house that does not have that history though you might consider not using OSX and designing your software around Linux instead though because you will save a lot of money historically by using PCs over Macs

 

Just did a couple quick little runs with the current mac pros.  To max configure out a single CPU current gen mac pro is going to cost you about 5600USD not including monitors etc.  I configured a badass dual CPU xeon E5 2665 with a better SSD and 3TB more storage and a quadro k4000 with 64gigs of ECC ddr3 for 6000.  So for 500 bucks more you would have a system that completely smokes the mac in raw performance.  It would also smoke the pimped out dual cpu mac pro currently on the market and be nearly 4000USD less than that unit.  I imagine once the new mac pros are released they will more closely match the system I put together in performance however still its going to be at several thousand dollars more per workstation.  

 

Again if you are running proprietary OSX software that you have millions in dev costs the choice is obvious that you go with the mac pro even at twice the cost of an equil PC because its still cheaper than developing your software all over for windows or even linux.  

[SMURG]

Is the new PCIe falsh storage actually 2.5x faster than solid state like their claiming it is?

In the real world no, although PCIe is 2.5x faster than SATA III. I'd imagine you're looking at 1000MB/s speeds tops, and even then only in synthetic benchmarks where everything is in the drive's favour.

[calebp123]

In the real world no, although PCIe is 2.5x faster than SATA III. I'd imagine you're looking at 1000MB/s speeds tops, and even then only in synthetic benchmarks where everything is in the drive's favour.

I figured it wouldn't be that good I mean it is apple were talking about and they do like to hype up their products.

[ShiverMePenguins]

Exactly. Apple have created a market of people that want the brand and looks of a computer over the performance and functionality of it. There isn't exactly a problem with that, its just those people are stupid and being blindly lead and scammed by Apple.

 

Yeah, if they don't know about the tech side of computers then they don't need a $2000 computer. 

this isn't a desktop. seriously.

 

 

it is a workstation for media professionals. not toys for gaming enthusiasts and hardware junkies.

[SMURG]

this isn't a desktop. seriously.

it is a workstation for media professionals. not toys for gaming enthusiasts and hardware junkies.

Yeah, I remember how media professionals have no use for internal storage. I mean, it's not like they work with huge files and would probably appreciate the option to not have to blow several hundred unnecessary dollars on an external thunderbolt HDD enclosure, when they've already had to spend $1000 more than for a non-Apple solution with identical hardware for the mac OS already...

[ShiverMePenguins]

Yeah, I remember how media professionals have no use for internal storage. I mean, it's not like they work with huge files and would probably appreciate the option to not have to blow several hundred unnecessary dollars on an external thunderbolt HDD enclosure, when they've already had to spend $1000 more than for a non-Apple solution with identical hardware for the mac OS already...

as someone who works in the media industry, you really don't know what you're talking about.

 

mac is the most widely used platform, and if its not stored on a server it is usually stored in a external system anyway.

 

 

again. media professionals.

[Nexus]

I <3 the design. If only the cooling fan was at the bottom...

I would never buy one because i dont actually like osx and i would rather spend my money on a custom rig anyway, but i wouldn't mind owning one. It looks cool, has a unique thermal design and is a more than capable machine. All the haters should just accept that apple have actually done something new and interesting.

[aba]

The mac pro was shown off yesterday. Its a 9 inch tall cylinder. They say it can edit 4k video, while rendering effects in the background, while running 3 4k monitors simultaneously. (Basically its the FUTURE of workstations.

 

Is there currently a PC equivalent, or even something more powerful? RIGHT NOW? (i want to know just for the sake of shutting some snobby Mac owners up)

 

[extremescouter]

My guess is the base price of the Mac Pro will be around $5000, maybe more. For that amount of money, you can build some insane workstations. With that amount, you can get into dual processors, 64+ gb of RAM, maybe dual 780s. There are a lot of powerful options out there that will still probably outperform the Mac Pro. However, it will be hard to beat the form factor with the amount of performance it has. 

[threee6]

am i missing something here? that only has 1 HDMI so how can it run 3 monitors? 

[Legion]

They say a lot, but until you've seen it you shouldn't believe it as for doing all that work it'll want to be running some professional grade graphics cards not consumer based ones. Same with the CPU. Given lots of money yes you could build a desktop PC to do exactly the same, your not using consumer grade hardware with either.