2013 Mac Pro Announced at WWDC

[aberracus]

You just don't get it, think outside of the Beige box man, why the video cards in the new Mac Pro are not upgradeable? they are not PC cards, in the sense that doesn't connect by the classic PCIe connector to the motherboard, but I'm sure that proprietary slot at the bottom of the cylinder is a PCIe. The cards are the same cards but routed differently to fit the Mac Pro, they will be more expensive, yes, they will not be a lot of video cards like in the PC world, obviously. The cards will be approved by Apple, so thats new?, the video cards by the look of it are probably user upgradeable.


So don't **** in my barrel please...

 

[Kris404]

I for one, am happy that they are releasing a Xeon machine.

I'm sure the Dual GPUs could be swapped even if they are not in the standard PCIe form factor.

For expansion storage and capture cards, TB2 bandwidth should be more than sufficient.

 

[seekrtz]

The cylinder design is ugly and dated looking IMHO; I really wish they had made it a triangular tower shape instead since sharp edges are much more eye catching.

I also wish they gave more details on the power supply design inside this thing, it seems like that would be the greatest challenge IMO. Lastly, I have a bad feeling that this small form factor is unable to actually cool efficiently enough if the CPU/GPU/RAM are all stressed to 100% on all available threads at the same time like most laptops. I have not seen the inside of the "thermal core" as it is called, but I seriously doubt it can balance the air flow needed with the heat sink area required to adequately dissipate heat away from the hardware in such a small space unless they made its ability to auto down-clock itself extra sensitive during heavy loads to avoid a "meltdown".

 

[dddirtman]

intersting the similarities of these to the new mac pro
also

Finally, keen eyes at ​

The Mac Observer

have ​

noted

the new Mac Pro's similarity to the cylindrical entrance of Apple's Shanghai retail store. The diminutive desktop also looks somewhat like a scaled-down Cray I supercomputer. The ​

Observer

post notes that Cray I buyers would have paid $8.8 million back in 1976 for its 160 megaflops (floating operations per second) of power, whereas the Mac Pro will cost in the thousands of dollars, delivering 7.5 teraflops of computational power, about 47,000 times faster.​

​

 

[Midphase]

Perhaps my favorite thing about this computer is that it is going to be made in the USA.

Hrm...that would be "assembled" in the USA actually...big difference.

 

[Midphase]

I'm sure the Dual GPUs could be swapped even if they are not in the standard PCIe form factor.

What makes you so sure?

Looking at the information and pics that Apple provides, it appears that those GPUS (maybe also the CPU) are soldered straight to the mobo. I also assume that there is some sort of proprietary thermal conductor between the chips and the thermal core to provide maximum cooling despite the passive technique...so I suspect disassembling the machine isn't going to be desirable.

Also, regarding the small non-standard PCIe port on the bottom...that's where the system drive goes, if one is even able to replace it with a custom graphics card (doubtful...have you seen how big the latest gen. of cards are?) where would the system drive go (would kinda suck to make that external as well).

 

[pinkmouse]

A little disappointed. I like the design, and the features seem well thought out. However the choice of GPU is the killer. I built my G5 hack mainly to run Lightwave 3D, and the Mac version of the S/W is already a poor relation to the PC version in regards to plugin availability for stuff like lanscape modelling, fluid dynamics and external rendering. All these plugins use CUDA heavily, and frankly, I can't see the developers supporting the AMD cards for what is a relatively small market, so options are going to get even more limited.

 

[scorza]

Pretty cool article about Pixar and The Foundry testing the new Mac Pro blind:
http://www.tuaw.com/2013/06/14/apple-let-developers-from-the-foundry-and-pixar-test-out-the-new/

I'm definitely intrigued. I reckon price will make or break this thing, both for me personally and market in general.

 

[aberracus]

What makes you so sure?

Looking at the information and pics that Apple provides, it appears that those GPUS (maybe also the CPU) are soldered straight to the mobo. I also assume that there is some sort of proprietary thermal conductor between the chips and the thermal core to provide maximum cooling despite the passive technique...so I suspect disassembling the machine isn't going to be desirable.

Also, regarding the small non-standard PCIe port on the bottom...that's where the system drive goes, if one is even able to replace it with a custom graphics card (doubtful...have you seen how big the latest gen. of cards are?) where would the system drive go (would kinda suck to make that external as well).

The main board is only on one side, the one with the memory slots.

The other 2 sides are graphic cards not mainboard, and they are not soldered into anything they got screws in the top and proprietary pci express in the bottom.

The custom graphic cards will not be PC Cards, but equivalent series designed to fit. Much of the size of a video card is cooling alone, this thing is a cooler the case is the cooler.

The system drive is ssd directly fitted in the pcie port. And will still be there if you change the video card, because the other video card will have been designed to accommodate it.

Stop thinking in PC terms!

Cooling is not gonna be a problem, do you thinks this guys are amateur?

 

[Midphase]

Stop thinking in PC terms!

It's not about thinking in PC terms, it's dealing with the realities of what are likely going to be available options for us in the foreseeable future.

Apple is known to overcharge for expansions and accessories, particularly graphics cards. If this new Mac "Pro" utilizes even more obscure and proprietary connectivity internally, it's likely going to mean that Apple will be the only retailer which will sell those GPU upgrades, and they will charge a lot for them.

This Hackintosh site is populated with users who still very much enjoy OS X but are growing a bit tired of Apple's shenanigans. We can all agree that Apple products are worth a certain premium, but there is a limit to how much we're willing to be taken advantage of.

IMHO, the saving grace for this machine would be if Apple prices it in a relatively affordable range (i.e. below $2k) so that the limited expandability or expensive upgrades are mitigated by a lower entry fee. Unfortunately, I get the feeling that this puppy will be pricey. Considering that right now, an aging 12 core Mac Pro with no solid state drive and an outdated GPU can't be had for less than $3800, I can't imagine that the 12-core dual GPU new Mac Pro will sell for less than that...which leads me to ask, who was this computer designed for exactly?