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Do you think the mMP should have an optical drive bay?

Do you think the mMP should have an 5.25" optical drive bay?

  • Yes, two bays, just like the cMP.

    Votes: 9 9.2%

  • Yes, but one bay is fine these days.

    Votes: 9 9.2%

  • Yes, but use a slim, slot-loading drive so the case can be smaller.

    Votes: 10 10.2%

  • Yes, but only for the space--I'm going to mount other stuff in there.

    Votes: 2 2.0%

  • No, use an external drive if you need to.

    Votes: 36 36.7%

  • No. What is this, 1990?

    Votes: 32 32.7%
  • Total voters
    98
  • Poll closed .
Warning: what follows below is my opinion

I despise optical media.
I despise storing optical media.
I despise their demoralizingly meager capacity (yes, dual layer blu-ray, I'm looking at you)
I despise their embarassment of countless formats going in and out of vogue
I despise their excruciatingly slow write speeds
I despise the infuriatingly slow spin-up and read speeds
I despise the insultingly high failure rate of their drives
I despise the ease of which they can be rendered unusable
I despise the disgusting waste after a disk's data is no longer needed, or better yet, after making a coaster
I despise optical media.
 
GSPice said:
Warning: what follows below is my opinion

I despise optical media.
I despise storing optical media.
I despise their demoralizingly meager capacity (yes, dual layer blu-ray, I'm looking at you)
I despise their embarassment of countless formats going in and out of vogue
I despise their excruciatingly slow write speeds
I despise the infuriatingly slow spin-up and read speeds
I despise the insultingly high failure rate of their drives
I despise the ease of which they can be rendered unusable
I despise the disgusting waste after a disk's data is no longer needed, or better yet, after making a coaster
I despise optical media.
Click to expand...

I take it that you voted "Yes, 2 bays".

Because only someone who extensively uses optical discs could know all that. ;)
 
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GSPice said:
Warning: what follows below is my opinion

I despise optical media.
I despise storing optical media.
I despise their demoralizingly meager capacity (yes, dual layer blu-ray, I'm looking at you)
I despise their embarassment of countless formats going in and out of vogue
I despise their excruciatingly slow write speeds
I despise the infuriatingly slow spin-up and read speeds
I despise the insultingly high failure rate of their drives
I despise the ease of which they can be rendered unusable
I despise the disgusting waste after a disk's data is no longer needed, or better yet, after making a coaster
I despise optical media.
Click to expand...

Now tell us what you really mean:rolleyes:

Lou
 
I'd still like an option to run one for the occasional CD or DVD rip although I'm happy for it to be external. I'm also far happier with a tray loading full sized one as they seem to be much more reliable and faster than the slot loaders.
 
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AidenShaw said:
Let's not say "cMP" and "nMP" in this context. One doesn't have to be a "new cheesegrater", and the other doesn't need to be a "new trashcan". And why not three models - small form factor (SFF), mid-tower, and large tower.

Many people love the nMP because it's quiet and small. The SFF mMP is the "Mac Mini Pro" - no hardware needs to be shared with the nMP or mMP (and hopefully that gawd-awful thermal core idea is sent to the bottom of the ocean).

The SFF is the xMac. albeit with external expansion. Much cheaper, because it will be single GPU in the base config, Core i7 (or whatever is current at the time that it ships). Probably doesn't need more than one standard PCIe slot.

The mid-tower is single socket with 12 DIMM slots. Four PCIe slots, supporting dual SLI (double spaced slots - no slot wasted because of wide GPUs). Nice rack of ports, 4 to 6 NVMe SSD slots, and three or four 3.5" spinner slots.

The large tower takes the mid-tower motherboard, and connects an expansion board to the QPI with a second socket, 12 more DIMM slots, 40 more lanes of PCIe.

This is more or less what you can buy today from HP/Dell/Lenovo/Supermicro/.... (Although I don't think any of them put the second socket on an expansion board anymore.)
Click to expand...

Although it would certainly be very nice to have different versions of "Pro" models, the probability is next to non-existent. The Apple "Pro" market is just not large enough to support 2, let alone, 3 wholly different form factors. Not to mention the difficulty for Apple to price the different configurations sufficiently that would not put one model at a disadvantage or cannibalize sales from another model.

Apple already tried that approach long, long ago with the Quadra 700/800/900 and then the Power Macintosh 7500-7600/8500-8600/9500-9600.

The marketshare just isn't there for Apple to diverge into multiple specialized form factors.
 
I personally DO use a DVD drive, on a semi regular basis. I'm a luddite and love the physical stuff. Plus I do backups of all my stuff regularly, including some downloads, purchased music files, etc. I've got 2 drives in my cMP. But do I think Apple will put space for an optical drive in the mMP? No way. Would I like one- yes. Do I really need it?- No, I can get by with a single external drive. But I do so like having it integrated in the computer. If I were Apple design director, I'd have them design a space for it with a nice faceplate that could be detached for all the internal drive users.
And no way would I ever accept the slot style drives - those are crap! Too likely to fail, eat a disc, scratch a disc IMO. Coffee cup holders or nothing!
 
Whether we want one or not is largely irrelevant - anyone who thinks there is any chance of getting one in a new Mac is hugely delusional!
 
There's one thing I really like about optical media - I can send 'read only' files to a client. If they mess them up once they get them ingested, I still have the real thing on a disc in their office that they can restore from. A year later, when they've iterated six times and really broken things, they can load that 'final' version again from the optical media.

I don't like optical media enough to insist on it everywhere, but I sure do like having a machine that can create it.
 
Sharky II said:
Whether we want one or not is largely irrelevant - anyone who thinks there is any chance of getting one in a new Mac is hugely delusional!
Click to expand...

Yes, Apple stated that they are going to take a step back and concede on expandibility and upgradability, but I think an optical drive is simply too far back for them.
 
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There's no way Apple is putting an internal drive in the next Mac Pro. And it would make little sense too. 10 years ago we *needed* these, I mean even OS X came on DVDs, there was no other option... But large applications took hours to install sometimes and were a giant pain (18 or more disks for some sample libraries...). Optical drives are an extra these days, not a requirement. And they're slllllooowwww... I use my external Blu-ray drive occasionally myself, but my superdrive is just collecting the dust rejected from the fans these days.;)
 
I would say yes but I doubt Apple will put DVD or Blu Ray drives in any new box they want you to buy media from them!
 
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