The Ultra is an Ugly sandwich box

[mi7chy]

Non-standard? $9 in white.

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Proves the point that you have to order it online since you can't buy it anywhere locally. Every office and household already has a bunch of C13 spares shown below.

 

[Pressure]

It feels like people are forgetting that this machine only measures 19,7 cm x 19,7 cm x 9,5 cm and weighs from 2,7 to 3,6 kg depending on configuration.

 

[Herbert123]

 

[PianoPro]

Proves the point that you have to order it online since you can't buy it anywhere locally. Every office and household already has a bunch of C13 spares shown below.

I have a couple in my spare cords box and they are in stock at ALL the Ace Hardware ($10.99) stores near me (check your local Ace Hardware store's stock on line). Or get one from Amazon Prime overnight, free shipping.

But I get your point they aren't as common as a C13. My point was they are not non-standard, as you asserted.

 

[profcutter]

Sort of. The MP used a thermal core and a singular fan. The Mac studio lacks a thermal core, has two fans, and a large heatsink as well.

Correct. And that old thermal core fried the high end GPUs, which were a dead end because ATI never released newer twin models. So it’s good that apple changed the thermal engineering as you point out.

 

[George Dawes]

It is a very dull design by apple’s lofty standards but I’m sticking mine behind my tv - if the thing turns out not to be noisy - so I just see the bottom slots .

I do agree the design is lazy and from learning Jonny Ives not involved I’m not surprised, for all his faults at least he applied some interesting design cues , this thing looks like it was designed by an accountant

 

[Pressure]

It is a very dull design by apple’s lofty standards but I’m sticking mine behind my tv - if the thing turns out not to be noisy - so I just see the bottom slots .

I do agree the design is lazy and from learning Jonny Ives not involved I’m not surprised, for all his faults at least he applied some interesting design cues , this thing looks like it was designed by an accountant

It’s only 9,5 cm tall … I’m not sure what else you could have done. Gone slim and taller? Like the cylinder 2013 Mac Pro.

This way they at least optimized the internal space available while maintaining a very small enclosure with none of the drawbacks from the 2013 Mac Pro.

 

[George Dawes]

An apple logo on the front would've been nice , just to differentiate it from all the boring grey boxes around tbh

 

[Pressure]

An apple logo on the front would've been nice , just to differentiate it from all the boring grey boxes around tbh

Are you afraid someone is going to mistake it for a Dell?

 

[George Dawes]

Looking at it , it seems every area was given quite a bit of attention apart from the front

..

Then again it’s made us all discuss it a lot , so that might have been the intention all along ….

 

[iPadified]

Correct. And that old thermal core fried the high end GPUs, which were a dead end because ATI never released newer twin models. So it’s good that apple changed the thermal engineering as you point out.

It would not have been difficult to add some heatsinks to the chips isn the MP2013. That is could at all keep these hot chip cooled for most of the time without heatsinks and other trick is actually an achievement.

 

[ascender]

Its a pretty uninspiring design, but I don't find it offensive or anything. Not sure how groundbreaking they could have designed this given its likely use and likely customers.

Its clearly function over form which is what most of us want from this type of computer.

 

[playtech1]

With the notable exception of the new iMac, the styling of the Apple Silicon range has been as conservative as the move to ARM was radical.

 

[illitrate23]

An apple logo on the front would've been nice , just to differentiate it from all the boring grey boxes around tbh

Do they still come with stickers of the logo in the box?
if not, I’ll have to root around in my desk, I’ve probably still got the ones from when I bought my iMac 7 years ago - I think they were white Apple logos, might look quite good on the front of the Studio

 

[iPadified]

Its a pretty uninspiring design, but I don't find it offensive or anything. Not sure how groundbreaking they could have designed this given its likely use and likely customers.

Its clearly function over form which is what most of us want from this type of computer.

From Apples price tags, I expect form and function.

 

[Nebrie]

Case looks fine. Only ugly thing I see is the non-standard mickey mouse power cable that if you misplace you're SOL vs standard power cable that you probably already have plenty of spares of.

It's a standard laptop power cable.

 

[bobcomer]

It's a standard laptop power cable.

But it's not a laptop, and it doesn't plug into a power brick like a laptop.

I do have to wonder why they chose it, it's not any better than a normal standard appliance power chord. Anyway, I have extras of whatever kind.

 

[macnick2]

I agree - that's why I started the thread - From Apple we do EXPECT function AND form. The studio has function, and well done for that, but the Form is lacklustre and, quite simply, boring.

The trashcan was a shape and finish to be proud of. I still have mine ON my desk (with my macpro M1max) tucked under the desk and doing the work. It'll be the same with the Studio, unless someone comes up with a great display stand (that lifts it out of any desk dust as an excuse). I'd tear it down & get a new finish on it if iFixit can show it's easy.

The current Macpro looks like a monster of a machine, and is great with the cheesegrater holes. I'd happily display that. But the Studio - nah.....
Boring.

Maybe someone will squeeze the Studio innards into a Trashcan. Problem solved.

 

[profcutter]

Agreed. I like the trashcan design, it was very interesting looking. They designed it badly because they didn’t get guarantees of updated GPUs from AMD, and they had some overly optimistic expectations of thermal performance, but it did look cool. With all the space inside, I don’t doubt they could have made a new apple silicon machine with similar cooling properties to the studio. Hey, what’s the chances there’s some apple studio prototype floating around the apple campus inside a trashcan chassis?

 

[macnick2]

I'd love that option
Give it a Trashcan case, with options of internal SSD's as well - a dream machine.

So here's another thought
Apple surprised everyone with the Ultra chip. 2 x Max
There was talk of modular Macs
How about if Apple have designed the Studio so that 2 or more can be bolted together, so have a Macpro which is 2 X Studio?

Or even a Trashcan Max - larger dia, slightly taller, both to give it some extra gravitas, with 2 x Studio's inside & expandable.
Probably not, but just a thought.

 

[roland.g]

I’m sure someone can come up with some cool pattern vinyl wraps for the 3 sides and potentially the top, accounting for the front ports and SD slot. They make them for the surface pro and all sorts of tablets.

Flowers, Escher, Klimt, wood grain, anime, Star Wars, etc.

 

[usagora]

It's called the Mac Studio, not Ultra

 

[joker00]

As far as we know, one of the major defining theme of the entire Apple silicon thing is that the GPU in integrated into the SoC...

So no GPUs in any PCIe slots, but there are other things plenty of Mac Pro users, well, use...

Audio DSP cards, RAID controller cards, networking cards, etc. ...

not worth having the slot. keep the case small, and you have thunderbolt for anyone of those options.

 

[illitrate23]

Case looks fine. Only ugly thing I see is the non-standard mickey mouse power cable that if you misplace you're SOL vs standard power cable that you probably already have plenty of spares of.

But how do you misplace the power cable? This isn’t a machine you’ll be moving about much. You open the box, take out the Studio and put it on your desk, then turn back to the box, take out the power cable, turn back to your desk and somehow you’ve misplaced it in 2 seconds ?

and thereafter, if you do move the machine to another desk, you’ll move it with the power cord at the same time, most likely without unplugging it from the Studio anyway

 

[MacGizmo]

Only ugly thing I see is the non-standard mickey mouse power cable that if you misplace you're SOL vs standard power cable that you probably already have plenty of spares of.

Actually, that "Micky Mouse" power cable IS a standard size, you can order them from Amazon, or pick one up if you're lucky enough to have a decent electronics store in your area.

Here are some of the standard power connectors (at least, in the U.S.A.)