The New MacPro?

[xgman]

It will be interesting to see what Apple comes up with next year. Their current trend seems to be thinness. I have a feeling that they may just use the same case, upgrade the parts and be done with it simply to placate us. It's pretty clear that Apple thinks MP style computing is on the spiral down. Unless they dramatically change things (whereas the market share doesn't really warrant this sort of investment from Apple).

 

[Lesser Evets]

IMO the current mp chasis is too big and heavy - I dread to think about lugging it into a apple store

The current pro's design is definitely chunk-tech. Mine is loaded with drives and cards and memory, and the thing is a complete rock.

If you look in there, you can see that the board designs are very spacey and under-compressed when compared to all other Apple products. In fact, it looks like it was designed in 1981.

My guess is on Apple compressing the entire package in the next year's release. While the processors aren't going to compress much, the rest of the thing can be pressed down into half the size of the current model. It's a pity that the SSDs aren't matching HDDs, because the entire MacPro could be even further reduced.

 

[gpzjock]

Workstations carry a lot of heat. Powerful CPUs, ECC RAM modules, large GFX cards and rows of PCI slots all need room to breathe. Only the huge cheese grater grilles and healthy air flow caused by the excellent front to back multiple fan run cooling system allows the Mac Pro to remain so quiet under load. Reducing this system's volume of air change significantly without radical changes to the cooling method would increase noise or heat. Both are undesirable especially as they would interfere with either music production (Logic's customers) or outright processor performance depending on which increased.
Apple would have to make a radical design to improve on the existing whispering wind tunnel concept. Judging by their existing attitude to the least profitable part of their sales chart, I doubt they will invest much effort in changing the design, although I would be pleasantly surprised if they did.
I took my Pro to a local PC repair outfit for its annual blow job using their air compressor to remove the built up dust deposits. The poor sod who lifted it over their counter now refers to it as "the beast" after doing so and going purple in the process.

 

[Lesser Evets]

... allows the Mac Pro to remain so quiet under load.

I'm not sure which MacPro you are using, but this hasn't been true since 2006!

I'd love to hear about a sound professional that keeps this thing near the mic. And then I'd question his competence. Unless the mac is in a very controlled temp room with a very cool air temp so you can slow the fans down, this thing is not something you want anywhere near a mic.

Every studio I ever worked for kept the MacPro on one side of the glass, the mic on the other. It's quieter than the G4 mac, by far, but it is nowhere near "whisper quiet" unless you crank down the fans.

 

[brentsg]

I'm not sure which MacPro you are using, but this hasn't been true since 2006!

I'm not sure what you're using but I have to get down on the floor and press an ear to my 2010 to determine if it's on, even when encoding video or something.

 

[gpzjock]

I'm not sure which MacPro you are using, but this hasn't been true since 2006!

I'd love to hear about a sound professional that keeps this thing near the mic. And then I'd question his competence. Unless the mac is in a very controlled temp room with a very cool air temp so you can slow the fans down, this thing is not something you want anywhere near a mic.

Every studio I ever worked for kept the MacPro on one side of the glass, the mic on the other. It's quieter than the G4 mac, by far, but it is nowhere near "whisper quiet" unless you crank down the fans.

I have used my 2008 MP to record and edit sound in the same room as the source with no noticeable fan noise in a mic less than 3m away, the 13" i5 MBP I use for other tasks is deafening by comparison when under load. Especially if I attempt to run a GFX intensive task.
Ok, I'm not a professional recording studio which would of course have a separate sound booth but a noisy PC whirring away right next to the engineer or producer would still be a serious pain in the arse I reckon.
The only time I hear my MP is when it is caning its Sapphire HD5870 while running WoW. Then only the GFX card fan is noticeably audible.
Meanwhile a m8's PC has just fried its PSU because he crammed too many add ons into a small poorly vented case with a couple of small diameter fans.
Good design takes the ambient temp requirements into account. Apple over engineered the MP's airflow to cope with maximum expansion. Good thing too considering the price of a new one.

 

[golf1410]

Next year for sure.

 

[JoeG4]

How about an i7 tower for $1600-ish to be the low end Mac Pro, along with the usual ECC+Xeon powerhouses? I'd be all over that ****!

Before you say "Apple doesn't care", look in the mirror.. they haven't updated the Mac Pro in forever

 

[northernbaldy]

I think it's a really interesting concept

 

[unibility]

If it weighs less than a tonne like the current mp does then I might buy - IMO the current mp chasis is too big and heavy - I dread to think about lugging it into a apple store

seriously? 41.2 pounds is a ton to you? your government education surely has paid off.

 

[Phrygian]

I really don't think there is that much waste space.... though i don't know how the cooling would work out... mac pros designs have a really nice air flow due to where the fans are and what not... I remember that was a selling point. The cooling also however has a lot to do with the aluminum case.

Regardless i think its pretty cool design at least.. but a modular mother board is a bit odd...

But seriously, i doubt i'll ever get a mac pro again... I love my 2008 and its still kicking strong with all the upgrades i've put into it. But seriously... Apple just charges way to ,much for their parts these days. You can do a pc build or even a hackintosh build for way cheaper.

 

[scottsjack]

seriously? 41.2 pounds is a ton to you? your government education surly has paid off.

41.2 pounds is even a tonne either.

 

[theSeb]

41.2 pounds is even a tonne either.

It could be either.

"In American English, a ton is a unit of measurement equaling 2,000 pounds. In non-U.S. measurements, a ton equals 2,240 pounds. A tonne, also known as a metric ton, is a unit of mass equaling 1,000 kilograms.

American English speakers generally have no use for tonne, so the spelling rarely appears in U.S. publications. Elsewhere, fastidious publications use the appropriate spellings for the units of measurement. And ton (often pluralized) is used informally as a noun meaning a large extent, amount, or number."

 

[G4er?]

How about an i7 tower for $1600-ish to be the low end Mac Pro, along with the usual ECC+Xeon powerhouses? I'd be all over that ****!

So would I. And it is precisely because people are asking for such a product that Apple refuses to provide it. It hates any ideas that do not originate in house.

 

[phoenixsan]

Somebody remembers....

The G4 PowerMac Cube?

Superb design but poor options for expansion/cooling problems....looks nice, though...

 

[steveOooo]

seriously? 41.2 pounds is a ton to you? your government education surly has paid off.

Yes deadly seriously

I think most people would have issues, especially UPS, shipping computers weighing a tonne.

Oh by the way, seeing as you see all posts as serious, in this country, we spell 'ton' as 'tonne' 'surly' - which means being aggressive / angry? Did you mean 'surely'? I see your education in English really paid off!!

 

[gpzjock]

Not trying to be surly about it but let us clear up some confusion that has surely been created by our cross continent discussion.

Tonne - a Metric Tonne 1000kg

Ton - an Imperial Ton 2240 lbs (1016kg)

US Ton - 2000 lbs (907kg)

"This thing weighs a ton!" - expression that an object is heavier than expected, an exaggeration.

Semantics ftw.

 

[unibility]

Yes deadly seriously

I think most people would have issues, especially UPS, shipping computers weighing a tonne.

Oh by the way, seeing as you see all posts as serious, in this country, we spell 'ton' as 'tonne' 'surly' - which means being aggressive / angry? Did you mean 'surely'? I see your education in English really paid off!!

perhaps not reviewing my notes prior to clicking submit has gotten the best of me. but still 41.2 pounds is clearly not a ton.


1 TON = 2,000 POUNDS

41.2 POUNDS = 0.0206 TONS

clearly no where near 1 TON