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New Mac Pro - what I would like to see

SmilesLots

SmilesLots

macrumors regular
Original poster
Apr 30, 2010
176
0
SW Virginia
If the Mac Pros get upgraded/updated anytime soon, I would sure like to see Thunderbolt (2) USB 3 (4) and 6.0 Gb sata 3 for hard drives, some MoBo extra sata's, built in blu-ray (wake up Stevo). Any chance for any of this?

I'm sure there are others who know lots more on CPU's and GPU's, so throw those in as well. Thks.
 
SmilesLots said:
If the Mac Pros get upgraded/updated anytime soon, I would sure like to see Thunderbolt (2) USB 3 (4) and 6.0 Gb sata 3 for hard drives, some MoBo extra sata's, built in blu-ray (wake up Stevo). Any chance for any of this?

I'm sure there are others who know lots more on CPU's and GPU's, so throw those in as well. Thks.
Click to expand...

yeah you will get t-bolt and sata 3 .

Built in blu- ray will not happen unless itunes starts to download in hdtv 1080p along with netflix in 1080p.
 
Neither USB 3 or Blu-ray are going to happen. We will get USB 3 next year, when Intel includes it in their chipsets, otherwise, we are stuck with USB 2.
 
The capabilities of the upcoming X79 chipset give us some clues...

intel-x79-chipset.jpg


However, Apple may choose not to implement all of these capabilities. For example, it's unlikely they will expose all 14 SATA ports and USB ports.

On the other hand, while there is no chipset support for USB 3.0 , that doesn't necessarily stop them from implementing it with additional silicon on the main board. However, given their commitment to Thunderbolt, it's safe to say that this will be their high-speed interconnect of choice in favor of USB3 on any new Mac Pro.

More info here: http://www.anandtech.com/show/4291/additional-details-on-sandy-bridgee-processors-x79-and-lga2011
 
VirtualRain said:
The capabilities of the upcoming X79 chipset give us some clues...
Click to expand...
Somehow, I'm not even sure they'd allow access to the RAID functionality, even though will be included on the X79 (Apple doesn't allow direct firmware access any longer <since the Intel switch>, and I'm not sure they'd create access as a new feature to Disk Utility either). :eek: :(
 
nanofrog said:
Somehow, I'm not even sure they'd allow access to the RAID functionality, even though will be included on the X79 (Apple doesn't allow direct firmware access any longer <since the Intel switch>, and I'm not sure they'd create access as a new feature to Disk Utility either). :eek: :(
Click to expand...

Sadly true... although for RAID0, 1 and 10, I'm not sure the Intel RAID is any better than OSX.

What's interesting is that Intel is advertising a new "Enterprise" RAID capability with RAID5 functionality in the X79. I wonder if that means the chipset will have hardware parity calculations on-die, perhaps borrowing from their IOP series?
 
VirtualRain said:
Sadly true... although for RAID0, 1 and 10, I'm not sure the Intel RAID is any better than OSX.

What's interesting is that Intel is advertising a new "Enterprise" RAID capability with RAID5 functionality in the X79. I wonder if that means the chipset will have hardware parity calculations on-die, perhaps borrowing from their IOP series?
Click to expand...
Nah, it won't matter for 0/1/10 (hardware can have an advantage due to the write cache, but that's it for a small number of disks; member count and disk P/N's being equal for both software and hardware testing), but hardware based level 5 support can add value to the system (not sure, but suspect it may only be the 4x SATA II ports rather than the 10x SATA III ports to keep it cheap; though if it does work on the SATA III ports, that will be beyond nice).

As to whether or not it borrows from the IOP X Scale parts, I don't expect so. More likely it's a carry-over of the existing R portion of the ICHxR series. They're only going to go so far afterall (we're getting 10x SATA III disks, and that's going to be the biggest improvement IMO). It would also keep it from cutting into X Scale sales (they're working on a new version that supports 6.0Gb/s SAS/SATA for the RAID card market IIRC, but it's been awhile since I recall seeing anything on it).
 
nanofrog said:
hardware based level 5 support can add value to the system (not sure, but suspect it may only be the 4x SATA II ports rather than the 10x SATA III ports to keep it cheap; though if it does work on the SATA III ports, that will be beyond nice).
Click to expand...

I'd be plenty happy just with RAID5 to the 4 SATAII ports...
 
initialsBB said:
I'd be plenty happy just with RAID5 to the 4 SATAII ports...
Click to expand...
Exactly.

But I'm not all that confident Apple would support it, even though it's there (no matter which ports support it).

Workstations and servers from other vendors tend to have either an ICHxR or LSI 1064 chip for a minimal hardware RAID controller as a means of offering additional value.

Quite useful, as it would allow for a recovery if the OS has ceased to function properly for some reason (i.e. if the array is a data volume, and the OS isn't functioning correctly, such as if drivers were updated and all hell's broken loose). Easier to fix the OS (solve any hardware issues, then restore from a clone) than loose an array and have to restore that by hand (fix the disk/s that went out, restore data off of a backup, and restore any lost data by re-performing work that was done between the failure and most recent backup).
 
The point of Thunderbolt is to eclipse USB 3.. so you won't see USB 3 in the Mac Pro. Neither will you see blu-ray, we're already too far down the road for that to be included. You could of course expect improvements in processing power as well as perhaps a SSD, etc.
 
ratzzo said:
The point of Thunderbolt is to eclipse USB 3..
Click to expand...

uhhhh . . I think somebody missed the "point". At least no time in the foreseeable future. This is one time that Apple's stubbornness might not pay off. USB 3.0 is widespread and becoming universal fast. Thunderbolt is , well . . . Seriously?

I already have a USB3 card on my Mac Pro and use it daily with usb3 drives and flash drives. I don't see many Thunderbolt peripherals even on the radar.
 
xgman said:
uhhhh . . I think somebody missed the "point". At least no time in the foreseeable future. This is one time that Apple's stubbornness might not pay off. USB 3.0 is widespread and becoming universal fast. Thunderbolt is , well . . . Seriously?

I already have a USB3 card on my Mac Pro and use it daily with usb3 drives and flash drives. I don't see many Thunderbolt peripherals even on the radar.
Click to expand...

If the new rumor that came out today is true, we should start to see a lot more Thunderbolt stuff out there. I remember hearing a while ago that Canon would even adopt it, but no word from them about USB 3. As for you using USB 3 all the time, congratulations. Personally, I don't know anyone that uses it yet. I don't consider it to be as widespread as you say.

Obviously, Apple isn't the only stubborn one when it comes to USB 3. Thunderbolt has Intel's support as well, yet they haven't even made stuff for USB 3. With these 2 big companies backing up Thunderbolt, I think it will catch on. Nothing catches on instantly, so it will take some time, but I don't think it will take too long.
 
SmilesLots said:
If the Mac Pros get upgraded/updated anytime soon, I would sure like to see
Click to expand...
…

I'd like to see some native 2,5" drive bays for SSD and HDs. Storage is moving towards this form factor. And it would be nice to get the benefit of having more than 4 drive bays.

Another welcomed change: Bring NVidia GPUs back. I'd like to use CUDA without having to pay a premium for Quadro when a simple GeForce GPU would be sufficient.
 
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strausd said:
Obviously, Apple isn't the only stubborn one when it comes to USB 3. Thunderbolt has Intel's support as well, yet they haven't even made stuff for USB 3. With these 2 big companies backing up Thunderbolt, I think it will catch on. Nothing catches on instantly, so it will take some time, but I don't think it will take too long.
Click to expand...
I see both as moving fairly slowly, so it's still more of a "wait and see" IMO. Both still need traction to lead the market (USB 3.0 has a little bit of a head start, but it could be out-paced by Thunderbolt if the systems and peripherals show up with any significant numbers in the near future). I see it as all coming down to the timing of their respective adoption rates.
 
xgman said:
uhhhh . . I think somebody missed the "point". At least no time in the foreseeable future.
Click to expand...

Nah I did not miss it. I actually failed to point out that such is Apple's view on the subject. They would never implement USB 3 on their hardware because they already have TB and wouldn't like attention to be dragged from TB to USB 3. As you did mention, that is Apple's stubbornness ;)
 
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