2019 Mac Pro is Now Available at Apple.com

[pastrychef]

Sigh ... SSD Modules on New Mac Pro are still Apple proprietary and bound to T2 chip so not user replaceable :-
View attachment 440920
Still iFixit give it a score of 9 for repairability, it's just a shame about the SSD as that is probably one of the things that most owners would want to update themselves so having to pay the huge Apple TAX on their storage updates is unavailable ... nice one Apple.

View attachment 440921

Cheers
Jay

I think Apple has been using the same type of SSD on all recent vintage Macs with T2. Even before they started using the T2 as the SSD controller, their SSDs used proprietary connectors.

 

[pastrychef]

An average Prosumer doesn't need to play back 6 streams of 8K footage simultaneously.

That's exactly the point, this Mac Pro is most definitely not targeted at prosumers. It is targeted at the guys who need to playback all those streams.

Apple went out of their way to create a custom card in the Afterburner to enhance video production. They have all those double-wide slots for video cards with dual GPUs for the PRO video producers.

The strength of this Mac Pro is not just in its CPU horsepower, but in how well integrated video subsystem is. If it were just based on CPU horsepower, any Tom, Dick, Joe, and Harry can just go out and build a Threadripper system that will run circles around the Intel CPUs used in this Mac Pro.

These systems are not meant for the YouTubers, it's meant for the guys who will be making the next Star Wars movie. Sure, the YouTubers can use one but it's really overkill and there are other less expensive systems that fit their needs better while saving them a lot of money.

For a very long time, users have been clamoring Apple for a Prosumer headless Mac with PCI-e slots. When this thing was announced, many believed it to be what they had been hoping for. It is not. This is meant for real PROs.

To this day, Apple still hasn't made a headless Prosumer Mac with PCI-e slots since the MacPro5,1. We can certainly use this Mac Pro as such, but we would be under utilizing it and would be paying a massive premium for a lot of features that would never be used.

 

[AnAppleADay]

Here is the iFixit print version of their Mac Pro teardown.

One implication is that you can remove the feet if you want. No wheels, no feet.

 

[AnAppleADay]

I don't understand why motherboard makers have failed to evolve with the times... The vast majority of video cards now take up two and often three slots.

Do you think the rackmount motherboard will also be two-sided like this?

 

[trs96]

For a very long time, users have been clamoring Apple for a Prosumer headless Mac with PCI-e slots. When this thing was announced, many believed it to be what they had been hoping for. It is not. This is meant for real PROs.

I have to agree that Apple didn't give us what most here at tmx86 would want. There really isn't nearly as much profit to be made from the mythical mid-tower that is "Mac Pro like" has lots of PCIe slots and is fully upgradable. Hopefully what we can do here is help people get really good hacks at half the cost of official Apple Macs. For those with Swiss Cheese Mac Pro envy at least they can build something like the C621 Aorus Xtreme Hack Pro and put a 28 core Xeon in it. Running dual Radeon VIIs isn't going to be a bottleneck for most people here that edit 4 or 8K video. Just one would be way more than I would ever need.

 

[pastrychef]

Do you think the rackmount motherboard will also be two-sided like this?

My guess is yes. It wouldn't make much financial sense to have two different motherboards...

 

[AnAppleADay]

It's just insulting ... and users have no option but to pay it, it's clearly Apples way of kicking back against the right to repair, and they justify it by telling everyone its for security ...

I don’t really need a 4 TB boot volume, but I ordered 4 TB in my Mac Pro only because of what a pain these SSDs are.

 

[AnAppleADay]

My guess is yes. It wouldn't make much financial sense to have two different motherboards...

I completely agree. But that’s going to be one weird server with DIMMs falling on your head.

 

[pastrychef]

I have to agree that Apple didn't give us what most here at tmx86 would want. There really isn't nearly as much profit to be made from the mythical mid-tower that is "Mac Pro like" has lots of PCIe slots and is fully upgradable. Hopefully what we can do here is help people get really good hacks at half the cost of official Apple Macs. For those with Swiss Cheese Mac Pro envy at least they can build something like the C621 Aorus Xtreme Hack Pro and put a 28 core Xeon in it. Running dual Radeon VIIs isn't going to be a bottleneck for most people here that edit 4 or 8K video. Just one would be way more than I would ever need.

Yes, I think that the hackintosh community fills the void left by the lack of the prosumer machine.

In retrospect, I think Apple should have included the Afterburner card in all the Mac Pros, made the Vega II as standard and priced it even higher to remove any confusion as to what this machine is for and who it's meant for.

 

[jaymonkey]

I have to agree that Apple didn't give us what most here at tmx86 would want. There really isn't nearly as much profit to be made from the mythical mid-tower that is "Mac Pro like" has lots of PCIe slots and is fully upgradable.

@trs96,

Even if they did give us a Mid Tower, prosumer device with PCIe slots, I think it's clear that Apple would still lock users out of updating some components such as the SDD's with a T2 Chip thus keeping the price (and profit) margins high.

Don't get me wrong I think Apple have done an incredible engineering job with the new Mac Pro, it's probably one of the best designed and engineered computers on the market (in its class) ... although i bet at least half of that 6K is the cost of the case.

Cheers
Jay