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MP 7,1 POLL: The NEW Cheese Grater Mac Pro (nCMP). Hot or Not?

Do you like the new Mac Pro 2019

  • Total voters
    449
ridgero said:
Have you ever tried an iMac i9 with 128 GB RAM? I would appreciate to hear your opinion.
Click to expand...
No, sorry.
I override Kontakt's prebuffer and stream as much samples as possible from SSD, so i don't know what would I even do with 128GB of RAM and audio right now.

I suspect the 8-core i9 should fare around 40% better than the Mini, but i much prefer the Mini form factor since it doesn't have to be in front of my face, i like a silent environment.
 
Thanks anyways

I am a bit overwhelmed by the price of the basic config, so I think I will wait till the Pro is released.
 
Is that two slots for mSATA SSD that it takes? Apparently it takes the same drives as the iMac Pro- is that mSATA? It looks identical, or maybe a priority Apple SSD?
 
So anyone notice these parts of the mother board?

Messages Image(2737497912).png


At first I thought they were sata ports but they are number 1-8. So I *think* they are breakout ribbons supplying power for each of the slots, for slots that need traditional molex and or 6/8pin power cables? Two big ones for the double wide slots 1-2 and 3-4, and then one small one for the last 5-8 slots?

And then what are these ports, from left to right, my guess is:

Case lock, USB-C/Thudnerbolt. 2 eSATA ports. Magic pin port?!?
Messages Image(1839355645).png
 
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ZombiePhysicist said:
At first I thought they were sata ports but they are number 1-8. So I *think* they are breakout ribbons supplying power for each of the slots, for slots that need traditional molex and or 6/8pin power cables? Two big ones for the double wide slots 1-2 and 3-4, and then one small one for the last 5-8 slots?
Click to expand...
The 1-8 has to be power, like on old Pro, 1-6 enough for 4x8 pin PCIe (because that's what Apple promised 2x8pin for each bay), the one marked 6-8 for some additional power, maybe 1x8pin, molex, sata whatever.
ZombiePhysicist said:
Case lock, USB-C/Thudnerbolt. 2 eSATA ports. Magic pin port?!?
Click to expand...
That looks like USB-A, two SATA ports (not eSATA) and the 10 pin connector - the only think that comes to mind is Firewire. Maybe you can route them to the outside and buy a $500 bracket with custom cable giving legacy ports (esata + firewire) while the USB-A is for USB stick to run something like ESXi or whatever else internal USB port could be used.
 
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ZombiePhysicist said:
The ipad has an 8 core chip. There are some arm chips out there with hundreds of cores. I wouldnt be too sure about that. I'd guess within 2 years we will see arm CPUs, likely starting with the Mac Book.
Click to expand...
AMD is upping the x86 core counts a lot after intel's stagnation. developing such large core complexes comes with it's own problem of inter core and thus inter cache latency, they require pretty complicated engineering challenges and idk if it's worth it to apple to make such large investment for a for them niche market.
Perhaps if they come up with a chiplet design like AMD, but then again, how do the economics of that work out? Because for mobile there is as of yet not any benefit as all systems need to be tightly integrated.
 
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Hi ZombieP..,


ZombiePhysicist said:
So anyone notice these parts of the mother board?

View attachment 840722

At first I thought they were sata ports but they are number 1-8. So I *think* they are breakout ribbons supplying power for each of the slots, for slots that need traditional molex and or 6/8pin power cables? Two big ones for the double wide slots 1-2 and 3-4, and then one small one for the last 5-8 slots?

And then what are these ports, from left to right, my guess is:

Case lock, USB-C/Thudnerbolt. 2 eSATA ports. Magic pin port?!?
View attachment 840724
Click to expand...

Expect the 1-8 are for PCIe Auxillary power.

Watching the Jonny Ive video, it looked like the back double USB / triple ThunderBolt Apple I/O board slot into the place where the extra usb/sata connectors are... or I are these provided via PCIe board.

On schematic picture it looks like there might be a stereo mini jack on that board as well.

Specs do not seem to mention audio out and 6K monitor does no appear to have speakers.

Cheers,

Zebity.
 
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ssgbryan said:
I like it, and if it was 2016, it would be reasonably priced.

Alas, it isn't 2016 anymore.
Click to expand...

It's cheaper than any Windows equivalent I've found. The closest I found in price was HP for around $1200 more. I'd bet money Apple got a subsidy again on the Xeon chips which is how they're able to undercut everyone.
 
chrono1081 said:
It's cheaper than any Windows equivalent I've found. The closest I found in price was HP for around $1200 more. I'd bet money Apple got a subsidy again on the Xeon chips which is how they're able to undercut everyone.
Click to expand...
I configured equivalent at Dell and it was $3.2k. Remember - the base CPU is $750 retail, it is not $3~4k gold Xeon.
 
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LK LAW said:
AMD is upping the x86 core counts a lot after intel's stagnation. developing such large core complexes comes with it's own problem of inter core and thus inter cache latency, they require pretty complicated engineering challenges and idk if it's worth it to apple to make such large investment for a for them niche market.
Perhaps if they come up with a chiplet design like AMD, but then again, how do the economics of that work out? Because for mobile there is as of yet not any benefit as all systems need to be tightly integrated.
Click to expand...

Apple already did - they are using Infinity Fabric on those Vega GPUs.
[doublepost=1559669009][/doublepost]
chrono1081 said:
It's cheaper than any Windows equivalent I've found. The closest I found in price was HP for around $1200 more. I'd bet money Apple got a subsidy again on the Xeon chips which is how they're able to undercut everyone.
Click to expand...

Velocitymicro.com

$6,000 gets you either a TR with 32 cores, 128Gb ram & a WX5100 (workstation version of a 580), or a 24 core Eypc with 128 Gb ram & a WX5100.
 
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chrono1081 said:
No you didn't. You're obviously not matching spec for spec.
Click to expand...
I couldn't spec it exactly. Dell doesn't sell consumer graphic cards with their workstations after all. But matching what apple presented as $8000 Windows workstation - 8 core Xeon, 32GB RAM, 256 GB SSD (NVMe), WX 7100 - total comes to 3215.33. Plus tax. And before you start - that silver Xeon is $500 retail vs $750 whats in MP.

dell.jpg
 
Thysanoptera said:
I configured equivalent at Dell and it was $3.2k. Remember - the base CPU is $750 retail, it is not $3~4k gold Xeon.
Click to expand...

I configured an equivalent Dell Precision 7920 Tower and it came out to a $8,324 list price. That's with the Xeon Gold 6134 CPU, but even subtracting the $1450 difference between the CPUs, Dell's list price is still higher than Apple's.

Precision 7920 Tower
Precision 7920 Tower XCTO Base
Processor
Intel Xeon Gold 6134 3.2GHz, 3.7GHz Turbo, 8C, 10.4GT/s 3UPI, 24.75MB Cache, HT (130W) DDR4-2666
Operating System
Windows 10 Pro for Workstations (4 Cores Plus) Multi - English, French, Spanish
Microsoft Office
No Productivity Software
Chassis Options
Precision 7920 Tower Chassis (BC_PCIe)
Video Card
Radeon Pro WX 7100, 8GB, 4DP (7X20T)
Memory
32GB 2x16GB DDR4 2666MHz RDIMM ECC
Systems Management
No Out-of-Band Systems Management
Wireless
Intel Dual Band Wireless AC 8265 (802.11ac) 2x2 + Bluetooth module
Operating System (Boot) Drive
Intel NVMe PCIe SSD (Front PCIe FlexBay)
Hard Drive Controllers
Intel Integrated controller (RST-e) with 1-2 Front FlexBay NVMe Drives
Hard Drive
M.2 256GB PCIe NVMe Class 40 Solid State Drive
2nd Hard Drive
No Hard Drive
3rd Hard Drive
No Hard Drive
4th Hard Drive
No Hard Drive
Additional Storage
No Additional Storage
5th Hard Drive
No Hard Drive
6th Hard Drive
No Hard Drive
7th Hard Drive
No Hard Drive
8th Hard Drive
No Hard Drive
5.25" FlexBay
No Optical
Slimline Bay Options
Slim filler panel (no opt.)
9th Hard Drive
No Hard Drive
10th Hard Drive
No Hard Drive
RAID for HDD/SSD & Front PCIe NVMe SSDs
No RAID
Keyboard
Dell Premier Wireless Keyboard and Mouse - KM717
Mouse
No Mouse
Teradici Remote Workstation Access Host Card
No Remote Access Host Card
Network Cards
Intel® X550-T2 10GbE NIC, Dual Port, Copper
PCIe I/O Cards
Thunderbolt 3 PCIe card - 2 Type C Ports, 1 DP in
Power Cords
US Power Cord
 
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tobefirst said:
This is the ugliest thing Apple has designed in a long, long time.
Click to expand...

Very true, even the trash can was better.

This might of been a decent design if they just made it look more like the older 5,1 Mac Pro. The new handles and legs are very ugly, chrome has been out, and the new circulation vents are in poor taste. It’s just UGLY. it might look better if it was dark grey with beefier handles.
 
Lone Deranger said:
The old Cheese grater was function over all else (perhaps even more so, with its 5.25" & 3.5" drive bays) and still looked stunning. I don't understand what happened with this new one. It's almost like they're taking the piss and decided to intentionally make it look like like an actual cheese grater. Those stumpy little legs that make it look comically stupid. I hope they can be easily removed.
Click to expand...

I agree totally. I feel like they were annoyed with how people kept ragging on the old Mac Pro being design over function and went the other way to a malicious degree to almost send a message.
 
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Apple has lost it and it's been since long ago. Yet, it will continue to sell and make profit for the same reason Microsoft had enjoyed a 99% market share for decades. Users and customers are weak and will do as told.

Regarding the new Mac Pro, fanboys have suddenly swallowed their words for internal storage, NVidia GPU options, pricing, etc. If you think it is expensive for the USA market and salaries, wait until it gets priced for the rest of the world, until years have passed and Apple has kept (or even raised) the price of the same configuration, until the opposition has come up with MP and PCIe 4.0 and their previous models are discounted or can be easily found for nothing, until you realise that 3rd party options are not applicable (due to T2 or physical/design constraints that sets them suboptimal) or are not coming (cheaply), until you realise that 3rd party repair shops are banned and parts are ultra-expensive, until you realise that it doesn't make sense to compare the NewCheeseGraterMacPro at 6k with single-CPU Xeon alternatives unless you are talking about configurations that e.g. need that 512GB RAM (and for which the total price difference might not look so different), until you realise that you WILL be able to easily beat that (single) CPU for a fraction of the cost (if total RAM is not important), etc.
 
MisterAndrew said:
I configured an equivalent Dell Precision 7920 Tower and it came out to a $8,324 list price. That's with the Xeon Gold 6134 CPU, but even subtracting the $1450 difference between the CPUs, Dell's list price is still higher than Apple's.
Click to expand...
I got within $200 of your quote and I don't know where this difference went. That gold Xeon is actually a $2k up-charge over my config, but I forgot about 10Gb Ethernet and TB3, the integrated dual ports are 1Gb. With Intel CPUs sometimes you pay 5x more for 20% performance increase. Other thing is - list price in Windows world is like MSRP on cars, you never pay it.

Bottom line is, I can get right now, today, for $6k, as a private citizen without assigned corporate Dell's sales person, a preconfigured, ready to ship Dell workstation with double the cores, double the RAM and an actual workstation GPU that's between 30% to multiple times faster. This 2019 Mac Pro with those specs should be $3k tops.
 
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The real threshold question for me is how much will the 24/28 core upgrade cost. Also. Will it be drop in upgradable in the future with regular cpu parts. I have am12core 5,1, and psychologically, after 9 years, I want at least a 24core machine to feel like the machine is a “real” update.

The verge estimate of $7.5k is nuts as the 28core part goes for $3k online. At 9k with 28 core, the machine would be decently priced (still outrageously priced but a lot of it being market prices for the components).
 
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