MP 7,1 For those having received their MP7,1 what are your thoughts - good or bad ?

[bxs]

Subject: For those having received their MP7,1 what are your thoughts - good or bad ?

We have yet to receive our 16-core, 1x Afterburner, 1x Radeon Veg II, 32GB RAM, 1TB SSD, and Wheeled MP7,1 and expect to be impressed with it when we start using it.

We will immediately upgrade it as follows...

Promise Pegasus J2i with 1x 8TB and 1x 16TB HDD
12x 32GB R-DIMMs (placing the stock 4x 8GB on shelf)
Sonnet/Samsung PCIe x16 card with 4x Samsung blades set up as HFS+ RAID-0

Our expectation for adding the above items is that we will have zero issues.

We have no high expectations for the Afterburner (AB) benefits as we use Adobe software exclusively, but our hope is that in time (maybe over following year) the AB will become beneficial.

We expect the J2i will behave itself.

We expect the Sonnet/Samsung card will behave itself and provide Very fast i/o in the range of 4 to 6 GB/sec.

Should our exceptions be realized ?

For others who have any of the above upgrades to their MP7,1, are you satisfied with their performance and reliability ?

If you were to reorder (purchase things differently) would you do it again or do something else ?

I know we are only into the MP7,1 offering by no more than two months, so the issue of reliability is a bit unrealistic to quote.

Thanks...

I've now had the MP7,1 for 3 weeks. It's been used every day with zero problems. It is manually shutdown each evening and manually restarted each morning. However, it now has been configured to auto start each day at 5 AM, and this is working flawlessly.

All of the 3rd party components have been working without issues, and are performing as I had expected.

The first few days, the MP7,1 underwent 'torture' testing and that past with flying colors. After this the 3rd party goodies were installed, one by one and tested.

Production software was installed; Fluid Dynamics code, Adobe CC 2020, FCPX, and so on. Each piece of code has been tested and seen to work very well. Our only concern is playing 8K footage with Adobe that we were expecting to be smooth and without any stuttering, but alas, there was some very slight stuttering. This is being looked into. No matter, the use is very much better that our iMac Pro 10-core and a huge difference from our MP6,1s in the office... especially for the 8K footage.

Later this week (waiting for it to arrive from Germany) I will be adding the Aquacomputer KryoM.2 Evo PCIe 3.0 x4 Adapter for M.2 NGFF PCIe SSD, M-Key with Passive Heatsink, and installing a 2TB Samsung 970 EVO Plus blade in it. This 2TB will be split logically into two APFS Containers to hold a cloned image of the Apple's internal 1TB SSD and a boot image for testing new things.

One minor and somewhat annoying issue: I had intended to use an already owned 2TB OWC TB3 Envoy Pro EX but found it unstable (inoperative) when connected to any of the MP7,1's TB3 ports when trying to boot from it using the Option key Startups. This was reported to Apple for their investigation. I found the only way to use this OWC device is to have it attached to an already owned OWC TB3 Dock and for the dock to be connected to any one of the MP7,1's TB3 ports. However, I don't like this solution and Opted to go with the KryoM.2 adapter as that's internal and quite likely a lot faster compared to the external Envoy.

The MP7,1 is configured to easily facilitate rental gigs, and not having any external devices was an important aspect. Most offsite locations have displays so wheeling a MP7,1 onto the set was considered the way to go.

So after 3 weeks using the MP7,1 without a single serious complaint or hardware issue I rate it as AAA+. 👍 👍 👍

 

[RyanFlynn]

I’ve now had mine for two months, I’ve never been happier with a computer. It truly feels limitless.

16c, vega ii, 385gb, 2tb and a Pro Display XDR

 

[Snow Tiger]

My MP7,1 .

Things I like :

1 ) Finally , a powerful new workstation from Apple .

2 ) TB3 . I don't buy a lot of new Apple products , so this is my first personal Mac with TB3 .

3 ) Much more user upgradable than the previous version , MP6,1 .

4 ) A big , fat power supply .

5 ) in-silicon mitigation of malware , so not as many software patches are required .

6 ) massive main system memory support ( 2 TB ) .

7 ) It's quiet , even under load . It basically has a nice cooling system .

8 ) It is effortless to install Windows 10 Pro Workstation .

9 ) love those big , solid handles . Not even Godzilla can bend them .


Things I don't like :

1 ) Why does the factory packaging weigh so much ? It weighs more than the product .

2 ) T2 - I would like the opportunity to disable it . But , I'm forced to accept it .

3 ) Processor is difficult to upgrade . And only a small fraction of processors ( the W Xeons ) that will fit the socket are actually compatible . No Skylakes or any other Cascade Lake Xeons are compatible .

4 ) I am restricted to installing only macOS Catalina and Windows 10 . No other OSes , like Linux , are installable .

5 ) When that factory nand drive goes south , the Mac becomes a forty pound door stop . The boot ROM is on that drive and it is not user replaceable . It requires an Apple authorized technician to replace .

6 ) The power supply is actually not the biggest Apple could have used . They could have installed a 1600 W 120V PSU . Apple gave us a 1280 W 120V model .

7 ) It would have been just awesome to have had a redundant PSU option .

8 ) No publicly available repair manual .

9 ) No third party Apple authorized GPUs available , yet .

10 ) No diagnostic LEDs . I can't help it - I'm a geek .

11 ) I keep forgetting to remove all the attached cables before lifting the housing . This is a new design .

12 ) The Mac doesn't start up without the housing in place . I guess there is a clever work around ...

13 ) No start up chime . There is no permanent work around , either .

14 ) A third party fan utility is required to help keep higher end configurations cool enough under load , for enhanced durability .

Overall , I'd give it a 9 out of 10 and I hope Apple retains this chassis form factor for the next decade .

 

[Herbert123]

My MP7,1 .

Things I like :

[..]


Things I don't like :

[..]

Overall , I'd give it a 9 out of 10 and I hope Apple retains this chassis form factor for the next decade .

Interesting. Based on 17/18 out of 23 points that you list, I'd say you'd be the perfect candidate for a self-built Hackintosh

 

[Coyote2006]

edit: fixed the Pegasus installation

 

[Adult80HD]

1 big minus: $6500 + $400 for the Pegasus and no f***** screwdriver. I have 2 sets of PC screwdrivers but none of them fits. This is really a big joke Apple.

I recently bought a $12 SSD carrier and they delivered it with a heatsink and a screwdriver...

For the Pegasus? I haven't used a screwdriver for anything I've installed in my MP.

 

[Snow Tiger]

Interesting. Based on 17/18 out of 23 points that you list, I'd say you'd be the perfect candidate for a self-built Hackintosh

Things I don't like about Hackintoshes :

1 ) Apple's army of lawyers .

2 ) ...

 

[OkiRun]

The 7.1 is a fun machine to use professionally, update, and generally enjoy playing around with. Its a nice bridge from an older iMac. However, its just a computer. It doesn't come along with the office staff to drink at night.

 

[Adult80HD]

The 7.1 is a fun machine to use professionally, update, and generally enjoy playing around with. Its a nice bridge from an older iMac. However, its just a computer. It doesn't come along with the office staff to drink at night.

That leaves more drinks for the rest of us!

 

[s66]

Our best macs yet (by far).
Sold our MP6,1s second hand

No regrets whatsoever.

There is however the Apple silliness of requiring a wired keyboard /mouse to be able to get into diagnostics, recovery or boot options.

That's not true: works with their wireless keyboard and mouse just as well: just press and hold while powering up.

 

[Coyote2006]

Our best macs yet (by far).
Sold our MP6,1s second hand

No regrets whatsoever.




That's not true: works with their wireless keyboard and mouse just as well: just press and hold while powering up.

Actually booting into recovery isn't working with wireless keyboard for me neither...

 

[skippermonkey]

Bought the 24-core, pretty happy so far – between 2 and 3 times faster than my old MP. Added an extra 32GB RAM for 64GB, plus Pegasus J2i so have lots of onboard storage plus Time Machine backup. Am basically waiting for improved drivers and for Octane/Redshift on Metal. Had some weird behaviour with a 5700XT GPU, but hopefully this can be solved with future Catalina updates. At some pint I'm going have to bite the bullet and upgrade my monitor; wish Apple did something other than the XDR Pro display.

 

[jerrygladh]

My working computer and works as expected. Used it for a month.
Overpriced but does the job for my 4k video Resolve workflow much smoother then my old Trashcan.
Adobe suite a little snappier.
Handles 3 Eizo displays and some Video I/O stuff.
Gives me an option to upgrade if GPU-based workflow gets heavier.
No big deal...overpriced but affordable.

16c, 3rd party 192gbram, 1TB, 580x+2xRadeon VII

Jerry

 

[OkiRun]

Actually booting into recovery isn't working with wireless keyboard for me neither...

Sorry to hear that. It's strange. The Japanese wireless keyboard does fine with this. No issues.

 

[Adult80HD]

Sorry to hear that. It's strange. The Japanese wireless keyboard does fine with this. No issues.

Works fine here as well, and has with all of the Macs I've had in the past.

 

[ARBORIOSTUDIO]

After moving to a BOXX Windows 10 workstation for several years I jumped back into Apple with the Mac Pro. The BOXX was super fast but sounded like an airplane waiting on the runway. I bought the 16 core Mac Pro with a 2TB drive, base graphics, and upgraded the ram to 6x16gb for now. No regrets on the decision to move back to Mac but I hope that Otoy and Apple follow through with their plans to bring Octane X to Metal this year.

What would I do differently if I reordered? The base graphics card is awful so I wish I bought the Vega Duo at the time of purchase. I was planning on going with the Radeon Pro W5700X when it comes out but seeing how the Vegas are still unavailable on the Apple site I am having doubts that I will see the W5700X card anytime soon. I bought the MP from a 3rd party to save $$$ on tax and it was drop shipped directly from Apple so I couldn't order the Magic Trackpad 2 to match. I know that is a minor issue but hey, after spending all of this $$$ is should be perfect. I considered returning and reordering with the Vega Duo (and silver and black Magic Trackpad 2) but with shipping costs etc it will be too much trouble and I will get hit with almost $1,500 in tax ordering directly from Apple.

If anyone has any recommendations on a graphics card to hold me over that won't become trash when I finally get the MPX versions let me know. I heard that replacing the MPX module can cause startup issues with the apple logo but I'm not sure if that is a valid issue.

 

[Adult80HD]

After moving to a BOXX Windows 10 workstation for several years I jumped back into Apple with the Mac Pro. The BOXX was super fast but sounded like an airplane waiting on the runway. I bought the 16 core Mac Pro with a 2TB drive, base graphics, and upgraded the ram to 6x16gb for now. No regrets on the decision to move back to Mac but I hope that Otoy and Apple follow through with their plans to bring Octane X to Metal this year.

What would I do differently if I reordered? The base graphics card is awful so I wish I bought the Vega Duo at the time of purchase. I was planning on going with the Radeon Pro W5700X when it comes out but seeing how the Vegas are still unavailable on the Apple site I am having doubts that I will see the W5700X card anytime soon. I bought the MP from a 3rd party to save $$$ on tax and it was drop shipped directly from Apple so I couldn't order the Magic Trackpad 2 to match. I know that is a minor issue but hey, after spending all of this $$$ is should be perfect. I considered returning and reordering with the Vega Duo (and silver and black Magic Trackpad 2) but with shipping costs etc it will be too much trouble and I will get hit with almost $1,500 in tax ordering directly from Apple.

If anyone has any recommendations on a graphics card to hold me over that won't become trash when I finally get the MPX versions let me know. I heard that replacing the MPX module can cause startup issues with the apple logo but I'm not sure if that is a valid issue.

I can't recommend an alternative but I do know that with the latest MacOS updates the Apple logo appears as normal with most 3rd party cards. I'm sure some can chime in and recommend some options.

 

[Snow Tiger]

.

I can't recommend an alternative but I do know that with the latest MacOS updates the Apple logo appears as normal with most 3rd party cards. I'm sure some can chime in and recommend some options.

But is that Apple logo indicative of EFI feature list support with that GPU ?

 

[kelvin.lau]

I had it for a 2 weeks and returned mine. Got 16-core and Radeon Pro Vega II Duo. I'm a software engineer and the only reason why I made the decision to return it was because compilation was slower on the Mac Pro than a MBP.

That to me is a deal breaker; I didn't buy the Mac Pro to be outperformed by the much cheaper MBP. I understand this is a software problem with Xcode, but these results are enough for me to make the return.

I've instead spent the budget on 3 XDR displays. Love them.

 

[defjam]

Things I don't like about Hackintoshes :

1 ) Apple's army of lawyers .

2 ) ...

While I am no advocate of hackintoshes this doesn't seem to be something to worry about. I am not aware that Apple has ever pursued an individual building a hackintosh for their own use. IMO there are many other reasons not to build a hackintosh.

 

[sage73]

My MP7,1 .

Things I like :

1 ) Finally , a powerful new workstation from Apple .

2 ) TB3 . I don't buy a lot of new Apple products , so this is my first personal Mac with TB3 .

3 ) Much more user upgradable than the previous version , MP6,1 .

4 ) A big , fat power supply .

5 ) in-silicon mitigation of malware , so not as many software patches are required .

6 ) massive main system memory support ( 2 TB ) .

7 ) It's quiet , even under load . It basically has a nice cooling system .

8 ) It is effortless to install Windows 10 Pro Workstation .

9 ) love those big , solid handles . Not even Godzilla can bend them .


Things I don't like :

1 ) Why does the factory packaging weigh so much ? It weighs more than the product .

2 ) T2 - I would like the opportunity to disable it . But , I'm forced to accept it .

3 ) Processor is difficult to upgrade . And only a small fraction of processors ( the W Xeons ) that will fit the socket are actually compatible . No Skylakes or any other Cascade Lake Xeons are compatible .

4 ) I am restricted to installing only macOS Catalina and Windows 10 . No other OSes , like Linux , are installable .

5 ) When that factory nand drive goes south , the Mac becomes a forty pound door stop . The boot ROM is on that drive and it is not user replaceable . It requires an Apple authorized technician to replace .

6 ) The power supply is actually not the biggest Apple could have used . They could have installed a 1600 W 120V PSU . Apple gave us a 1280 W 120V model .

7 ) It would have been just awesome to have had a redundant PSU option .

8 ) No publicly available repair manual .

9 ) No third party Apple authorized GPUs available , yet .

10 ) No diagnostic LEDs . I can't help it - I'm a geek .

11 ) I keep forgetting to remove all the attached cables before lifting the housing . This is a new design .

12 ) The Mac doesn't start up without the housing in place . I guess there is a clever work around ...

13 ) No start up chime . There is no permanent work around , either .

14 ) A third party fan utility is required to help keep higher end configurations cool enough under load , for enhanced durability .

Overall , I'd give it a 9 out of 10 and I hope Apple retains this chassis form factor for the next decade .

#13 sudo nvram StartupMute=%00 (enable) (01 disable)

 

[Snow Tiger]

#13 sudo nvram StartupMute=%00 (enable) (01 disable)

Unfortunately , that little terminal trick isn't sticky . it disappears with a NVRAM reset ( PRAM ) .

 

[flowrider]

Since the 9100 provides all apple boot screens, and I believe is faster than the 580, I saw no point on keeping the 580 in the machine and yanked it. My 9100 is plugged into slot 4 and my HighPoint in slot 5. So the 2 MX slots (1 and 3) as well as slot 2 are all completely open.

I think the location of your 9100 is a mistake. Slots 1 & 3 go directly to the CPU. All the rest go through a PCI switch then to the CPU. My 5700XT sits in slot 1. Not only a direct shot to the CPU, but the shelf will provide support for your GPU. Also I believe the WX9100 has six & and eight pin power connectors. Slot 4 only has one six pin. Slot 1 and 3 have double eight pin power connectors:

Lou

 

[Coyote2006]

This is my 2nd day with it. I've added the Pegasus J2 and the Sonnet 4x with 4 1TB 970 Samsung (2 in a raid 0 for my work files). It's nice to have everything inside one box, which I wouldn't have with a MacMini, iMacPro or MBP. That was the main reason to get one. It's also very quite. I have it on my desk and do hear the fans a little bit but they are relly quite.

It's an extremly well buit machine. It could have been smaller and not that expensive, for example only with one MPX slot and no room for a pegasus 2J, but maybe Apple will release such a machine (my bad then).

 

[ZombiePhysicist]

I think the location of your 9100 is a mistake. Slots 1 & 3 go directly to the CPU. All the rest go through a PCI switch then to the CPU. My 5700XT sits in slot 1. Not only a direct shot to the CPU, but the shelf will provide support for your GPU. Also I believe the WX9100 has six & and eight pin power connectors. Slot 4 only has one six pin. Slot 1 and 3 have double eight pin power connectors:

View attachment 896335

Lou

It's been working great is the good news. But I didn't know the above, so thank you!

I'll re-config it. So slot 1 and 3 are the "turbo" slots. I wonder if I should throw my HighPoint controller card in slut 3 for now (right now those are my only 2 cards). In theory, it's a 16bit slot. In reality, I'm probably using only 1 4lane channel for my single drive.