Generic Mac Pro 2013 chatter.

[Lyons]

Considering I've done a lot of work inside the gaming industry... I can tell you for a fact that 99% of games are made on Windows PC's that are higher end than this Mac Pro and run on server farms.  Hell, Pixar doesn't even use Mac/OSX.  They use custom built workstations from PC components and run Linux Ubuntu on everything.  Don't believe me?  Try to buy their animation software.   :)

 

Sigh -.- It's for people how NEED OSX. Duh. Read my other posts in this thread.

[AraSarkisyan]

I would honestly just get a top end iMac

[orangecat]

A PC motherboard could easily be that small, but it would then not be upgradeable. Personally I'm happy with mini-ITX and pico-ITX as far as small computing is concerned. Mini-ITX works nicely for my home server.

 

Source? Reason for believing this?

The ony thing you really need to change is your CPU and ram and have one slot for a GPU that coudl easly make it smaller if they redesigned the form factor.

[NeoZeon]

Source? Reason for believing this?

 

It is the only thing that makes sense.

[w_km]

On the CNET stream they did mention that it will have dual CPUs (2 x 6 core Xeons).  I'd assume dual CPU is an optional upgrade.

 

Apple website: "With configurations offering up to 12 cores of processing power, up to 40GB/s of PCI Express gen 3 bandwidth, and 256-bit-wide floating-point instructions, you’ll never be at a loss for speed."

 

I personally think the design is both brilliant and stupid.  The cooling system is a welcome refresh, but the 'Darth Vader trash can' form-factor makes no sense. Sure, Apple has superb designs and the hardware to match, but the desktop PC space just isn't the best place to do non-upgradable parts.  Major advancements on the PC side of things would render this design severely under-powered (although 6 x Thunderbolt 2 = 2 years of pwnage).  The fact is that people with money and not enough care to spend it efficiently will buy millions of these. That is all that matters to Apple.  In short, PC manufacturers must push the boundary of PCIe SSD speeds if they want to compete.  I'm more interested in the new 4K iMac design.

[Lyons]

It is the only thing that makes sense.

 

I fail to see how.

[SMURG]

On the CNET stream they did mention that it will have dual CPUs (2 x 6 core Xeons).  I'd assume dual CPU is an optional upgrade.

 

Apple website: "With configurations offering up to 12 cores of processing power, up to 40GB/s of PCI Express gen 3 bandwidth, and 256-bit-wide floating-point instructions, you’ll never be at a loss for speed."

 

I personally think the design is both brilliant and stupid.  The cooling system is a welcome refresh, but the 'Darth Vader trash can' form-factor makes no sense. Sure, Apple has superb designs and the hardware to match, but the desktop PC space just isn't the best place to do non-upgradable parts.  Major advancements on the PC side of things would render this design severely under-powered (although 6 x Thunderbolt 2 = 2 years of pwnage).  The fact is that people with money and not enough care to spend it efficiently will buy millions of these. That is all that matters to Apple.  In short, PC manufacturers must push the boundary of PCIe SSD speeds if they want to compete.  I'm more interested in the new 4K iMac design.

I really can't see how they'd fit two 2011 xeons into that design... I mean, I don't think there's even enough physical space given the size of the PCBs and the size of the LGA 2011 die, plus all the other stuff they have on them already. It would be truly remarkable if they managed to cram two CPUs and two GPUs, along with the SSD and RAM all onto those 3 PCBs, and then cool all of it effectively with that single heatsink.

[ccaian]

Id just like to remind everyone apple charges 750$ for a 512gb ssd and 250$ for a 5770.

 

 

 

 

Also you can see how much they charge for RAM too...

[Tomislav Matic]

Why can't a PC motherboard be that small? itx is pretty small but you get so little they packed a ton of stuff onto a tiny board and put in dual GPUs... pc manufactures need to innovate more.

 

(Jesus facepalm) You did not seriously said that ? PC manufacturers destroyed Apple! They innovate so fast that it's hard to follow. Apple buys stuff from PC manufacturers! What PC manufactures don't innovate? Apple doesn't produce their own processors  ,or GPU's. what: motherboards? Check what ASUS is doing there, also check what they are doing with sound too. Seriously after Wozinak they didn't invent anything. Just aesthetics. And PC manufacturers now make beautiful stuff too. 

Trust me, you don't want to make anything like that out of pure aluminium :P

 

Anyways, considering the size of the Mac Pro, I'd be very impressed if anyone could put together a better PC package with a similar size without using custom hardware

I was sarcastic. I know it must be an alloy and I know how much aluminium costs.

 

10k PC?

 

E5 xeon 2687W  1935 USD

Asus P9X79-E WS  500USD

64gig wintec ECC ddr3 1600 (8 dimms) 610USD

Silverstone TJ 11 case  580USD

Corsair H80I  -  87 USD

Samsung 840 pro 512gig 470USD

3x WD RE 3TB drives  960 USD

x2 Nvidia K4000   1600USD

Nvidia Tesla K20 -  3400USD

 

Grand total 10,142.  

 

Thats a pretty boss machine for 10k lol.  

but can it run Crysis 3 on a 4K monitor on ultra settings?  :D  just kidding, you just proved my point, and you even didn't go all the way up!

[KaareKanin]

...

I was sarcastic. I know it must be an alloy and I know how much aluminium costs.

 

but can it run Crysis 3 on a 4K monitor on ultra settings?  :D  just kidding, you just proved my point, and you even didn't go all the way up!

 

I was just being stupid. I actually thought you meant something like machining it out of solid aluminium. :P

 

anyway, breaking the 10k barrier is easy, all you need to do is getting one of these puppies http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816118202

[SMURG]

I was just being stupid. I actually thought you meant something like machining it out of solid aluminium. :P

 

anyway, breaking the 10k barrier is easy, all you need to do is getting one of these puppies http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816118202

Or an E7 xeon lol

Honestly not 100% sure what that LSI card is though... 800GB SSD? What makes it $12000?

[Tomislav Matic]

It's for large servers, I actually don't see what would you do with it at home or on a workstation.This is not exactly a consumer grade product. 

[LividPanda]

Quick questions that I can't find answers to. How many PCI-E buses does this have? Obviously two for the graphic cards, but it has 6 Thunderbolt ports. How does that work with the third 4k display, which according to Anandtech depending on the refresh rate uses 15Gbps. Do these 6 thunderbolt ports share a PCI-E bus? Are they split into groups and share multiple buses? Then the PCI-E SSD as well. I don't understand. 

[SMURG]

Quick questions that I can't find answers to. How many PCI-E buses does this have? Obviously two for the graphic cards, but it has 6 Thunderbolt ports. How does that work with the third 4k display, which according to Anandtech depending on the refresh rate uses 15Gbps. Do these 6 thunderbolt ports share a PCI-E bus? Are they split into groups and share multiple buses? Then the PCI-E SSD as well. I don't understand.

Socket 2011 has 40 PCIe lanes to use, and Ivybridge-E is supposed to have native PCIe 3.0, ergo it will have 40 x 985MB/s of PCIe bandwidth, which is 394GB/s or 3152Gb/s total PCIe bandwidth. Let's say the GPUs are using 16 lanes each total (which is pretty generous tbh), the speeds quoted by Apple for the PCIe SSD use just over 1 lane (so call it 2), and then for the thunderbolt ports you have 6 x 20Gb/s = 120Gb/s = 15GB/s which is barely even worth using a single PCIe 3.0 lane for. All in all, Apple have roughly 35 lanes of PCIe in use, with 5 spare by my reckoning.

As far as I know, all 40 of the lanes on socket 2011 are from the same PCIe bus.

[SSOB]

Smart design , it's kind of a wind turbine , but i don't expect you can upgrade like anything and it'll probably be so expensive you will have to sell your house , car and all your family members

[qwertywarrior]

I really can't see how they'd fit two 2011 xeons into that design... I mean, I don't think there's even enough physical space given the size of the PCBs and the size of the LGA 2011 die, plus all the other stuff they have on them already. It would be truly remarkable if they managed to cram two CPUs and two GPUs, along with the SSD and RAM all onto those 3 PCBs, and then cool all of it effectively with that single heatsink.

you and many other people keep saying TWO Xeons

when i first saw this i knew it was just one Xeon cpu

the new xeon Ivybridge  CPUs have configuration up to 12 cores

Xeon E5-2692 v2 Xeon E5-2695 v2 Xeon E5-2697 v2

[qwertywarrior]

if they made it square

a bit taller

and dark grey aluminum it would look great

 

not a plastic trashcan

 

 

i would love to know the temperatures at full load

that heatsink design is strange

 cant wait for the reviews

[NeoZeon]

if they made it square

a bit taller

and dark grey aluminum it would look great

 

not a plastic trashcan

 

 

i would love to know the temperatures at full load

that heatsink design is strange

 cant wait for the reviews

 

 

Its aluminum not plastic.

[qwertywarrior]

Its aluminum not plastic.

hmmm

the reflectiveness fooled me

http://rack.1.mshcdn.com/media/ZgkyMDEzLzA2LzE3LzcxL1A2MTAwMDA0LmM5MzBmLmpwZwpwCXRodW1iCTEyMDB4OTYwMD4/35616e7c/fc0/P6100004.jpg

[Electronics Wizardy]

So, there are 3 pcbs, 2gpu and 1cpu. But why the heck is there flash memory installed on the gpu? o.O

Also, why the heck dual gpu? apple goes crazy, again.

um there are accually 2 6 cores cpus

[Electronics Wizardy]

 

you and many other people keep saying TWO Xeons

when i first saw this i knew it was just one Xeon cpu

the new xeon Ivybridge  CPUs have configuration up to 12 cores

Xeon E5-2692 v2 Xeon E5-2695 v2 Xeon E5-2697 v2

 

on apples website is says "new-generation Xeon processors, s

showing that it has 2 6 cores

[KaareKanin]

on apples website is says "new-generation Xeon processors, s

showing that it has 2 6 cores

That wording reflects that it will be available with different choices of processors ;-)

[mr moose]

An interesting discussion,  Last time I checked not liking something is not proof that you don't understand it or are not the target group.  I appreciate all technology, however I see apple as a fashion company not so much a technology company.  You could easily take all of the arguments from both sides of this discussion and apply them to clothing. 

 

I like the concept, however like most concepts it may only be good on paper. A Computer that can do everything but is not cheaply upgraded is a short term investment and thus the price tag should reflect that.  Regardless if you are a business or private user how a system looks is no substitute for value or future usability. I am kinda put in mind of the old Prescott CPUs when I look at this, all bling and speed but all that heat in one area of the case?  I am no thermal engineer but it will be interesting to see long term results from this.

[Scia]

It's nice to see some design innovation, yet it still looks like a japanese trashcan ^^

I still think Apple is ripping you off, since you can probably build that system yourself for 1/4 of the price [at least with the last maxed out Mac Pro you could].

But I like the idea of radically changing the formfactor, even if it looks like I put my tissues in there.

[Scia]

An interesting discussion,  Last time I checked not liking something is not proof that you don't understand it or are not the target group.  I appreciate all technology, however I see apple as a fashion company not so much a technology company.  You could easily take all of the arguments from both sides of this discussion and apply them to clothing. 

 

I like the concept, however like most concepts it may only be good on paper. A Computer that can do everything but is not cheaply upgraded is a short term investment and thus the price tag should reflect that.  Regardless if you are a business or private user how a system looks is no substitute for value or future usability. I am kinda put in mind of the old Prescott CPUs when I look at this, all bling and speed but all that heat in one area of the case?  I am no thermal engineer but it will be interesting to see long term results from this.

 

The Mac pros, like the really maxed out ones around 25'000$ are bought by companies that actually take advantage of them and used as long as possible, then trash them and restock. Or that's usually how it works. ^^ So I don't think they care much for the upgradeability.

Some companies actually prefer Mac OS over Windows / Linux, but many simply use Mac OS because it's basically impossible to break for the morons that they have employed ^^