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fuchsdh

macrumors 68020
Jun 19, 2014
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I suggest to wait purchasing until they have the 8TB storage option because it would be a good idea to max that out since it looks like it can't be upgraded later, at least not easily. Also, it would be good to wait to see pricing for the W5700X GPU, unless of course you're going for one of the Vega cards.

I dunno. Unless you really just want a single disk (which in many use cases you don't) I don't see why you wouldn't just treat it like your fast OS drive and slot some much cheaper PCIe storage off the back.

Now waiting for OWC to introduce more affordable memory and storage upgrades...

Yeah I'll be curious to see what they offer for internal drive options.
 

th0masp

macrumors 6502a
Mar 16, 2015
851
517
I don't see why you wouldn't just treat it like your fast OS drive and slot some much cheaper PCIe storage off the back.

In case it's possible to boot the system from a standard aftermarket NVMe drive installed internally I would totally ignore this builtin storage, leave it at minimum size and instead keep both system and user data on drives that can actually be swapped out/put into an external case for recovery purposes and so forth.
 
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Stephen.R

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Good luck all "professional". The money is non issue for you guys anyway.
I literally LOLed
Given that the "prediction" of a "barely usable" system from so many went from "12K" to "14K" to "16K" over the last few days, I'm pretty happy seeing a ~$9.4K price tag for 16c/1TB/96GB (and that's at the retail pricing, and just using Apple for memory (to gain a bit of future expansion). Dropping to the standard RAM and getting aftermarket to the same level would save about $600, but would use all 12 slots (the apple option would only use 6).

For those playing at home, at my current rates, that's paid for by about 30 minutes work.. a week (and I'd suggest my rates are at the very low end for those who would consider a Mac Pro for work).
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Seems to me the value spot is in the 12 or 16 core.
Yep, that definitely looks like the sweet spot - particularly if you have any parts of your workflow that are less multi-core optimised - the higher models drop the base and don't gain any boost frequency.
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w5700X "coming soon"
As I've said (repeatedly) I just need to drive displays, so the 580 is more than enough for me, but that 5700 looks interesting, purely because it adds 4 TB3 ports (and will presumably be a **** load cheaper than the Vega II's). A single TB3 port will drive my 2x 4K displays fine, so I'd gain a heap of external I/O ports. The question is how much they price that option, and whether they (or an aftermarket vendor) offer TB3 PCIe cards.
 
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fuchsdh

macrumors 68020
Jun 19, 2014
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So who starts the 8,1 thread? I'm gonna' let the eager beavers who make more money off their kit beta-test the first-gen product :p
 
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Stephen.R

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Yeah I'll be curious to see what they offer for internal drive options.
I wonder how long until someone (maybe it's doable immediately with an adapter plate, if you rip out the mechanical drives it ships with) makes a mount like the dual-drive Promise one (https://www.apple.com/shop/product/...06d1697d6f83494cd1bcf8c0953ff9e773ee62b344413), but for housing a couple of 2.5" SATA SSD's (to provide another - 4-8 TB of fast but not screaming space, without taking up a PCI slot).
 

deconstruct60

macrumors G5
Mar 10, 2009
12,493
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..
As I've said (repeatedly) I just need to drive displays, so the 580 is more than enough for me, but that 5700 looks interesting, purely because it adds 4 TB3 ports (and will presumably be a **** load cheaper than the Vega II's). A single TB3 port will drive my 2x 4K displays fine, so I'd gain a heap of external I/O ports. The question is how much they price that option, and whether they (or an aftermarket vendor) offer TB3 PCIe cards.

There is zero to indicate that the W5700 adds TBv3 ports. The W5700 is detached from Thunderbolt.

https://www.anandtech.com/show/15124/amd-announces-radeon-pro-w5700-navi-gets-drafted-to-the-pros

This is a band-aid that Apple is scrambling to put into the system because they have a huge gap in the value proposition for lots of folks. I suspect there will be some pricing quirk they will put in for the "extra" 8GB of VRAM. That doesn't look to be a MPX module as it uses AMD's branding directly.
 

fuchsdh

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Jun 19, 2014
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I wonder how long until someone (maybe it's doable immediately with an adapter plate, if you rip out the mechanical drives it ships with) makes a mount like the dual-drive Promise one (https://www.apple.com/shop/product/...06d1697d6f83494cd1bcf8c0953ff9e773ee62b344413), but for housing a couple of 2.5" SATA SSD's (to provide another - 4-8 TB of fast but not screaming space, without taking up a PCI slot).

Yeah I think especially now, it's curious they don't offer 2.5-native options. SATA flash has gotten so cheap that unless you're storing your media files in your computer long-term (you should really get an external RAID or other storage solution at that point) you might as well get rid of the spinning rust. 2TB drives go for $180 now.

There is zero to indicate that the W5700 adds TBv3 ports. The W5700 is detached from Thunderbolt.

https://www.anandtech.com/show/15124/amd-announces-radeon-pro-w5700-navi-gets-drafted-to-the-pros

This is a band-aid that Apple is scrambling to put into the system because they have a huge gap in the value proposition for lots of folks. I suspect there will be some pricing quirk they will put in for the "extra" 8GB of VRAM. That doesn't look to be a MPX module as it uses AMD's branding directly.

Given the port config and the mention of after-purchase options, I assume it's gonna be an MPX-styled variant.
 

Stephen.R

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Given the port config and the mention of after-purchase options, I assume it's gonna be an MPX-styled variant.
It literally says it's a full sized MPX module, with 4x TB3 and 1x HDMI, in the modal that pops up from "Which graphics card is right for you?"

AMD Radeon Pro W5700X
For even better performance, choose the Radeon Pro W5700X with 16GB of GDDR6 memory. This full-size MPX Module is based on AMD’s new RDNA architecture, and it features up to 9.4 teraflops of single-precision or 18.9 teraflops of half-precision computing. It supports up to six 4K displays, three 5K displays, or three Pro Display XDRs. And you also get four Thunderbolt 3 ports and one HDMI 2.0 port.
 

fuchsdh

macrumors 68020
Jun 19, 2014
2,028
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Hmm, looks like the is no possibility to add "old" HDDs or SSDs into the MacPro right now?

Promise has (expensive) options for HDDs. I imagine OWC will produce some cheaper ones that don't come with an 8TB drive eventually.

If you're fine with just SSDs then I imagine the SATA and PCIE flash blades that work in 5,1s now will work in the 7,1.
 

Coyote2006

macrumors 6502a
Apr 16, 2006
512
233
Promise has (expensive) options for HDDs. I imagine OWC will produce some cheaper ones that don't come with an 8TB drive eventually.

If you're fine with just SSDs then I imagine the SATA and PCIE flash blades that work in 5,1s now will work in the 7,1.

yes, but only one has one slot free. I really don't get why there is no Apple hardware solution to simply add-in HDDs and SSDs. Or am I the only one who still has some in his 5,1?
 
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fuchsdh

macrumors 68020
Jun 19, 2014
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yes, but only one has one slot free. I really don't get why there is no Apple hardware solution to simply add-in HDDs and SSDs. Or am I the only one who still has some in his 5,1?
I do too, but whenever I updrade I’m going to look to convert them to SSDs. Spinning rust is a ticking time bomb, and whenever I hit the disk I’m reminded of how game-changing SSDs were from a speed perspective. You can get SSDs of comparable size to the max size of HDDs from six or seven years ago for under $200 these days. If I absolutely need 8 or 16 or 24TB of bulk storage, then that’s better left off to my external RAID.


It ain’t 2013 anymore; the pain of replacing spinning rust is much, much lower.
 
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Stephen.R

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yes, but only one has one slot free. I really don't get why there is no Apple hardware solution to simply add-in HDDs and SSDs. Or am I the only one who still has some in his 5,1?
I don’t know that small numbers of mechanical drives are that common for the type of market this is aimed at, are they?

Big 6+ arrays where either you can stripe to get the performance needed and/or you’re more interested in massive storage, sure - but that’s always gonna be an external das/nas/san, right?
 

fuchsdh

macrumors 68020
Jun 19, 2014
2,028
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I don’t know that small numbers of mechanical drives are that common for the type of market this is aimed at, are they?

Big 6+ arrays where either you can stripe to get the performance needed and/or you’re more interested in massive storage, sure - but that’s always gonna be an external das/nas/san, right?

In general, yeah. I suppose you could buy the two of the Pegasus 4-bay RAIDS and stick them in the Mac Pro, but then you'd have no more room for another MXM module.
 

Coyote2006

macrumors 6502a
Apr 16, 2006
512
233
I don’t know that small numbers of mechanical drives are that common for the type of market this is aimed at, are they?

Big 6+ arrays where either you can stripe to get the performance needed and/or you’re more interested in massive storage, sure - but that’s always gonna be an external das/nas/san, right?

I actually don't run a raid, just 2x4TB HDDs both as independent TimeMachine backup HDDs and 2x 1TB SSDs as working and CCC system backup disks. And a 970 as system disk. I just don't want to buy an external box when I pay 7K for a tower, just continue to use my disks like that
 

deconstruct60

macrumors G5
Mar 10, 2009
12,493
4,053
It literally says it's a full sized MPX module, with 4x TB3 and 1x HDMI, in the modal that pops up from "Which graphics card is right for you?"

Ah. Sorry. that page must of have been stuck in cache somehow. All I saw earlier was the mention on the "buy" page.

Hmmm, if that is the case then that "coming soon" could be a wide margin in time. Like "coming this Fall" in June turned into "end of Fall". It is a good sign that they are iterating. Kind of quirky though that this is full MPX module though. ( they are probably clocking this up too to where thermals go pack half width card. Which will boost price point too. )

Four TB ports and a 8GB bump in VRAM. I suspect folks are going to be moaning about that being $1K instead of $429 too in several months. I don't think this is going to be a "save me from the over $1k GPU card" solution that most folks are having "problems" with.
 

fuchsdh

macrumors 68020
Jun 19, 2014
2,028
1,831
I actually don't run a raid, just 2x4TB HDDs both as independent TimeMachine backup HDDs and 2x 1TB SSDs as working and CCC system backup disks. And a 970 as system disk. I just don't want to buy an external box when I pay 7K for a tower, just continue to use my disks like that

You can put your 2.5" SSDs in something like this: https://www.amazon.com/Sedna-Express-Extended-Connector-Included/dp/B07L5SPWNV

Frankly I don't see the point of two separate Time Machine backups, if a Time Machine fails you're better off with a remote backup somewhere.

Ah. Sorry. that page must of have been stuck in cache somehow. All I saw earlier was the mention on the "buy" page.

Hmmm, if that is the case then that "coming soon" could be a wide margin in time. Like "coming this Fall" in June turned into "end of Fall". It is a good sign that they are iterating. Kind of quirky though that this is full MPX module though. ( they are probably clocking this up too to where thermals go pack half width card. Which will boost price point too. )

Four TB ports and a 8GB bump in VRAM. I suspect folks are going to be moaning about that being $1K instead of $429 too in several months. I don't think this is going to be a "save me from the over $1k GPU card" solution that most folks are having "problems" with.

The solution for those people is just buy a regular supported GPU. You can keep the 580 around for its Thunderbolt ports.
 

TrevorR90

macrumors 6502
Oct 1, 2009
379
299
Just a heads up to military and veterans, if you verify through ID.me the 10% off applies to the Mac Pro as well. I'm looking at apples website and the base model is $5,399 and upgrading to 12 core is $6,299.

Hmmm.. Tempting.
 
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