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The time has come - Apple need to release a new Mac Pro

RhymeAnimal

RhymeAnimal

macrumors member
Original poster
Sep 4, 2008
56
24
Don't bother flaming this. I don't care, and won't read it. I just want someone at Apple to see my post. I want a lonely tear to fall down their cheek when this news sinks in....

If Apple doesn't announce a new Mac Pro in June I'm switching to PC. Forever. 20+years of loyalty to Apple down the drain.

See ya nerdz.
 
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RhymeAnimal said:
Don't bother flaming this. I don't care, and won't read it. I just want someone at Apple to see my post. I want a lonely tear to fall down their cheek when this news sinks in....

If Apple doesn't announce a new Mac Pro in June I'm switching to PC. Forever. 20+years of loyalty to Apple down the drain.

See ya nerdz.
Click to expand...
How "new" is "new"?

Would some speed bumps to the MP6,1 form factor be enough?

Would a different form factor be needed?
 
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RhymeAnimal said:
Don't bother flaming this. I don't care, and won't read it. I just want someone at Apple to see my post. I want a lonely tear to fall down their cheek when this news sinks in....

If Apple doesn't announce a new Mac Pro in June I'm switching to PC. Forever. 20+years of loyalty to Apple down the drain.

See ya nerdz.
Click to expand...
If you want someone at Apple to see your heart-rending post why are you posting it here?
 
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RhymeAnimal said:
If Apple doesn't announce a new Mac Pro in June I'm switching to PC. Forever. 20+years of loyalty to Apple down the drain.
Click to expand...

I posted the following to my blog this week…

Apple needs a revamp. It has turned into a big phone maker, with little side hobbies in computing, software, and television. Sure, by any metric, the computing and software side is huge, but these feel like afterthoughts at the current Apple Inc.

Apple Computer is no more, I realize, and the computer world today is nothing like the 1980s or even 2000, when a desktop computer was necessary for basic work. But, someone has to code and create content. To create content requires a big, powerful, computer.

I have some suggestions for Apple, which are unlikely to be read.

Spin off the software so it becomes the primary focus of a stand-alone company or two companies. In fact, two is better: business apps and content creation apps. Filemaker is out there making money. Turn the business suite apps over to Filemaker - the old Claris Works reborn.

A creative professional company could revive Aperture (maybe), give new life to Final Cut Pro, and keep Logic on track. Do something… instead of letting software rot with age. Creative professionals stood by Apple when few other users did. Give us back that focus!

Revive the Mac Pro as a tower with expansion slots. Lots of slots, cages for drives, and stop thinking "pros" want a mix of cables and adapters tucked around a desk. I want an internal disc (Blu-ray writing is a must), and I want Dolby 5.1 sound from a Mac Pro without external audio devices.

Make a real, serious, MacBook Pro that has real ports and slots. I can accept that I'll need an external Blu-ray/DVD disc drive, but give me a huge, fast, 2TB internal SSD, 32GB of RAM, and USB 3.1 with both major USB connectors (C isn't there yet). And for many of us it is too early to dump HDMI and DisplayPort - we use those on the road for presenting. SD card is a must for video and audio work. And please, don't take away my audio ports!

We need a real, USB 3 / Thunderbolt 3 Cinema Display.

Clean up the product line, overall. I want a machine for content creation, and that content sells your iPhones and iPads. Prove you care about the professional market, or at least spin-off those product lines.

We stood by Apple, when nobody else did. Hello? Apple? Anyone there…
 
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Obviously you're not using Apple computers for anything important. It's pretty obvious this is just anti-Apple bait anyways. Either way, do yourself a favour and move on. Nobody here will miss you, and Apple certainly wouldn't notice or care if you made the move.
 
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why be loyal to apple ?
be loyal to yourself and your work and use what machine you must :)

but I love apple and I love computers and tech in general

I know I am building a PC up this time around
I have 4 mac pro towers right now and everyone of them is basically dead end ? now I know all computers come to a dead end at some point but I can stretch time and performance out of them but the mac pros are stretching at things like loosing the boot screen or not having certain features etc...

I always get excited and then 2 years in I want to do something new to bring it up and it either costs so insane much or just not available ?

I am going to try to build it with the idea of being a hackintosh for me the interface is the only reason I like apple anymore and even that is getting to not be as stable as it could be

I want apple to hear this to but they wont and even if they did they would thumb there nose
 
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PoetCSW said:
Revive the Mac Pro as a tower with expansion slots. Lots of slots, cages for drives, and stop thinking "pros" want a mix of cables and adapters tucked around a desk. I want an internal disc (Blu-ray writing is a must), and I want Dolby 5.1 sound from a Mac Pro without external audio devices.

Make a real, serious, MacBook Pro that has real ports and slots. I can accept that I'll need an external Blu-ray/DVD disc drive, but give me a huge, fast, 2TB internal SSD, 32GB of RAM, and USB 3.1 with both major USB connectors (C isn't there yet). And for many of us it is too early to dump HDMI and DisplayPort - we use those on the road for presenting. SD card is a must for video and audio work. And please, don't take away my audio ports!
Click to expand...
Sorry this is still broken logic.

I've owned Macs of pretty much every epoch. The 2013 nMP is a great machine. It is not a big deal to have a TB2 raid array next to it. Nor is it a big deal to have any other peripheral connected to it. TB2 and USB3 to a lesser extent are nice and fast with plenty of bandwidth for audio producing, video editing and other applications.

It's cute to make a picture demonstrating the 'superiority' of the 40lb cheesegrater Mac Pro over the 9lb can. Oh look it can all mount on the inside!
But honestly almost everyone I know who uses a lot of hardware, ends up mounting it externally. Audio and Video ingest interfaces tend to be boxes more often than cards these days.
Raid arrays as NAS or DAS are cheap and painless. Terabyate storage can be bus powered and carried in your jacket pocket. So people do, and they end up with several external drives sitting on top of their tower Mac Pro.
La Cie rugged FW800 anyone?

And the optical drive? Really only needed for watching DVDs.
Esata SAS and Fibre channel are the only places I can see the Tower Mac winning. Not a lot of cost effective TB adapters for those. Also video cards. But then that has never been a pleasant experience using aftermarket cards has it?
I do agree that the Pro (or a new TB display) should have an integrated SD card slot. It should also have a more accessible power button and extra slots for aftermarket M.2 drives.
 
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calaverasgrande said:
Sorry this is still broken logic.
Click to expand...

Not for me it isn't!

calaverasgrande said:
And the optical drive? Really only needed for watching DVDs.
Click to expand...

I still have software on install CDs and DVDs. Most of them I've burned myself. I have two optical drives - a DVD and a BD.

Return to something akin to the old form factor with EXPANSION capabilities and PLEASE allow us to use PC graphics PCIe cards like in the past. If something like this does not come along, my cMP 5,1 will be with me for a long time to come.

Lou
 
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calaverasgrande said:
It's cute to make a picture demonstrating the 'superiority' of the 40lb cheesegrater Mac Pro over the 9lb can. Oh look it can all mount on the inside!
But honestly almost everyone I know who uses a lot of hardware, ends up mounting it externally. Audio and Video ingest interfaces tend to be boxes more often than cards these days.
Raid arrays as NAS or DAS are cheap and painless. Terabyte storage can be bus powered and carried in your jacket pocket. So people do, and they end up with several external drives sitting on top of their tower Mac Pro.
Click to expand...

Indeed. I have said this again and again: I have cables connected to every port on my cMP. One Thunderbolt cable to an external disk array wouldn't make a difference.
But the extra cost of a Thunderbolt chassis added to the higher sticker price of the nMP is objectionable to me. When it first came out, it was high; now, three years later, I find the cost indefensible.

calaverasgrande said:
And the optical drive? Really only needed for watching DVDs.
Esata SAS and Fibre channel are the only places I can see the Tower Mac winning. Not a lot of cost effective TB adapters for those. Also video cards. But then that has never been a pleasant experience using aftermarket cards has it?
Click to expand...

Cost remains my main beef with Thunderbolt. External ThB devices are much more expensive than comparable internal expansion. And with its slow adoption rate, I don't see that changing anytime soon.

calaverasgrande said:
I do agree that the Pro (or a new TB display) should have an integrated SD card slot. It should also have a more accessible power button and extra slots for aftermarket M.2 drives.
Click to expand...

Completely agree. User-accessible M2 slots would be great, but in 2013 that hadn't really taken off yet, and to include them now would require a logic board redesign; something I doubt Apple would do for a potential 2016 MP.
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flowrider said:
I still have software on install CDs and DVDs. Most of them I've burned myself. I have two optical drives - a DVD and a BD.
Click to expand...

But the throughput of DVD is so slow it can be competently handled by USB2 and you'd never know the difference.

So for me having the superdrive externally is no big deal.
 
zephonic said:
But the throughput of DVD is so slow it can be competently handled by USB2 and you'd never know the difference.

So for me having the superdrive externally is no big deal.
Click to expand...

For you - NOT for me! I have 9 internal drives. The 2 opticals, 2 spinners, and 5 SSDs. I am now happily at the point where my only external devices are my modem, my router, and my VOIP Obihai box. The lack of clutter is GREAT!

Lou
 
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PoetCSW said:
Revive the Mac Pro as a tower with expansion slots. Lots of slots, cages for drives, and stop thinking "pros" want a mix of cables and adapters tucked around a desk. I want an internal disc (Blu-ray writing is a must), and I want Dolby 5.1 sound from a Mac Pro without external audio devices.

We need a real, USB 3 / Thunderbolt 3 Cinema Display.
Click to expand...

I'm a nMP owner/user and of course I agree it is time for updates, however I'm fine with the current form factor PROVIDED Apple keeps up to date on the external interfaces. Based on our internal upgrade cycle it is pretty much time for me to replace my nMP with something. Obviously I'm going to wait another month or so and see if a nMP materializes. I don't have any objections to the new form factor without expansion slots and drive bays as long as Apple is willing to keep up with the technology to interface with external devices. Right now the nMP is lacking Thunderbolt 3, USB Type-C, USB 3.1, HDMI 2.0, DP 1.4 (or 1.3), and 10G ethernet. All of these features are present on the Windows 10 workstations we just purchased. Although most of these technologies were not available when Apple released the nMP (except 10G ethernet, the absence of which in the nMP made me go "huh?"), they are available on commodity PC workstations now and are important for Apple's small form factor + ports to connect what you need philosophy with the nMP.

Also Apple needs to have a strategy on the GPU issue. I like the concept of the two GPUs with one for compute in the nMP except for 1) GPU performance has advanced so rapidly what is available for the nMP is obsolete now, 2) Apple's OpenCL implementation is mostly understood to broken and Apple does not appear to be interested in fixing it, and 3) almost all development for machine learning / compute use of GPUs is being done with Cuda and the Nvidia ecosystem (outside of Google's new stuff). Frankly I would be fine with Apple leaving GPUs out of a new MacPro in favor of Thunderbolt 3 connected external GPUs as long as the OS X support was there. I run three 4k displays off my nMP (this is what it is for right?) and recall it took a not insignificant amount of time for Apple to get adequate support in OS X for 4k displays even after the nMP had been shipping for a while.

I manage the purchasing / upgrade decisions for a group of about 25, and we are evaluating the same thing right now in regards to replacing iMacs and minis. In laptops the MacbookPros are still far and above our favorites, but we are starting to take a hard look at whether or not iMacs and minis make sense after the latest releases which have left us scratching our heads and looking closely at the numbers.

Anyway, I hope Apple plans to continue to innovate with a new MacPro. If they don't, that is fine too, I've made plenty off their stock as they have turned into iPhoneCo. I can't blame them for following where the profit is, but my Apple history goes back to an Apple IIe and includes such highlights as the Macintosh Cube (probably why I like the nMP form factor so much). During the dark times we switched to Windows or *nix workstations and did fine, and can easily do so again. Actually it would be significantly easier as all of our important software is multi-platform now, but I do find OS X to be a pleasure to use (even though I personally think Windows has made significant progress closing the gap lately).
 
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