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What Future Updates will make you switch to the Mac Pro

-BigMac-

-BigMac-

macrumors 68020
Original poster
Apr 15, 2011
2,492
2,859
Melbourne, Australia
Hi Guys.

Earlier this year i sold my 8-core Mac Pro along with my dual 30" dells for a Retina Macbook Pro. It was a good purchase for my use, im at uni and often away from home.

But i still miss my Mac Pro.

I'm curious to hear how your transitions from a Mac Pro have been,
what feature do you miss the most about your Mac Pro, and whether you intend to move back to a Mac Pro down the line? :)
 
Have you looked into a Thunderbolt display?

Laptops nowadays are so fast that they're very much capable of being good desktop replacements for certain users...however, a Mac Pro is still needed for higher end tasks.

I moved away from a Mac Pro a few years ago and used a MBP and also with an external display. It was nice, but I was tired of plugging the cables in everytime I needed to dock. It's just very nice to sit down on the chair and mouse the mouse and wake up the system and work.

I am now back and reunited with my 2008 Mac Pro and I love it. Both the desktop and mobile notebook have their own place.
 
SDAVE said:
Have you looked into a Thunderbolt display?

Laptops nowadays are so fast that they're very much capable of being good desktop replacements for certain users...however, a Mac Pro is still needed for higher end tasks.

I moved away from a Mac Pro a few years ago and used a MBP and also with an external display. It was nice, but I was tired of plugging the cables in everytime I needed to dock. It's just very nice to sit down on the chair and mouse the mouse and wake up the system and work.

I am now back and reunited with my 2008 Mac Pro and I love it. Both the desktop and mobile notebook have their own place.
Click to expand...


biggest issue to date with laptops is good GPUs and cooling related to gaming and heavy graphic rendering usage.

One of those things that are not easily solved by laptops frankly.
 
SDAVE said:
Have you looked into a Thunderbolt display?

Laptops nowadays are so fast that they're very much capable of being good desktop replacements for certain users...however, a Mac Pro is still needed for higher end tasks.

I moved away from a Mac Pro a few years ago and used a MBP and also with an external display. It was nice, but I was tired of plugging the cables in everytime I needed to dock. It's just very nice to sit down on the chair and mouse the mouse and wake up the system and work.

I am now back and reunited with my 2008 Mac Pro and I love it. Both the desktop and mobile notebook have their own place.
Click to expand...

I have had a look into them, theres something really special about a 30" monitor that i just cant describe, the ratio and size are just unbelievable, would need a converter though.. dont think there are any 30" thunderbolt screens?

I know what you mean, the plugging in and out of cables gets annoying, do you still have/use your MBP or sold that for the Mac Pro?
 
-BigMac- said:
I have had a look into them, theres something really special about a 30" monitor that i just cant describe, the ratio and size are just unbelievable, would need a converter though.. dont think there are any 30" thunderbolt screens?

I know what you mean, the plugging in and out of cables gets annoying, do you still have/use your MBP or sold that for the Mac Pro?
Click to expand...

There is a 27" TB, it's pretty much a good size (I have the 30" Alum). It is glossy, though, and it's expected that Apple will update the line soon. No need for a converter for TB, it's just 2 cables, 1 power and 1 TB and the screen becomes a hub for FW800/Ethernet (Which is missing in rMBP).

I use both and need both for my work. It was nice to have a system that has the same setup as the portable one (ie, using a bigger screen) but the fan kept kicking in and the MBP would get loud, which I hated.

However, now I feel harmony as both systems have their own purposes. I use a portable FW800 drive to work between the system and both have identical application installs (I just put in a SSD in the Mac Pro, the MBP already had one) and speed is no issue anymore.
 
SDAVE said:
There is a 27" TB, it's pretty much a good size (I have the 30" Alum). It is glossy, though, and it's expected that Apple will update the line soon. No need for a converter for TB, it's just 2 cables, 1 power and 1 TB and the screen becomes a hub for FW800/Ethernet (Which is missing in rMBP).

I use both and need both for my work. It was nice to have a system that has the same setup as the portable one (ie, using a bigger screen) but the fan kept kicking in and the MBP would get loud, which I hated.

However, now I feel harmony as both systems have their own purposes. I use a portable FW800 drive to work between the system and both have identical application installs (I just put in a SSD in the Mac Pro, the MBP already had one) and speed is no issue anymore.
Click to expand...

Yea im aware of the 27" cinema display, ive had one before, but wouldnt think about it seriously anymore as it really is too glary in my room.

How you finding the 30" alum? it has been my dream to own one, they are SO sexy, and compliment the Mac Pro casing so well ;) :D
 
-BigMac- said:
Yea im aware of the 27" cinema display, ive had one before, but wouldnt think about it seriously anymore as it really is too glary in my room.

How you finding the 30" alum? it has been my dream to own one, they are SO sexy, and compliment the Mac Pro casing so well ;) :D
Click to expand...

I bought it back in 2009 for the retail amount...it's a great display. I also had a 23" Alum before and I've used the 27/24" Glossy IPS displays from Apple. Honestly, the IPS display is beautiful (kind of old now), very bright and accurate...but it's too glossy for me.

I love the 30" and you can't pry it off my hands :D
However, if Apple ever comes out with a less glossy version of the 27" display I wouldn't mind going that route. However, I dislike 16:9 displays for desktops and still prefer 16:10.

The 30" has great industrial design, but definitely showing it's age when you put it next to the new iMac, etc. The panel is very old by today's standards, but still a beautiful and hi-res display.
 
SDAVE said:
Just add a TB/USB3.0 and update the architecture? :D
Click to expand...

There really isn't much more to add. If they can double the speed of the 2010 with a 2013 update, I'm there.

Although a case redesign is not essential, it will probably be coming in 2013.
 
Lesser Evets said:
There really isn't much more to add. If they can double the speed of the 2010 with a 2013 update, I'm there.

Although a case redesign is not essential, it will probably be coming in 2013.
Click to expand...

I have a feeling it is definitely going to be much smaller, but still use the Xeon architecture. They'll probably remove the optical drives and have built in mSATA for the OS and still have a few bays for additional storage.

We'll see. I'm waiting to be surprised.

Nonetheless, the Mac Pro is a beautiful machine (regardless if it's the 2010 or the 2006). The G5 was beautiful as well.

Enclosure wise, no company has come close to it, yet. The mesh design is being imitated heavily but they can't do it right.
 
-BigMac- said:
... .
what feature do you miss the most about your Mac Pro
Click to expand...

About my Mac Pro, software upgrades along the line of 10.6.7, not the iOsification of felines like the king of the beasts. About the Mac Pro generally, they're baiting us with pictures of meat, i.e., eyecandy laden with tiny tinny morsels of filler like the Mac Pro 2012, rather than real red meat like Sandy Bridge Xeons.

-BigMac- said:
and whether you intend to move back to a Mac Pro down the line?
Click to expand...
If they kill the Lions, get back to tracking svelte cats like snow leopards, and feed us real red meat regularly and predictably.
 
-BigMac- said:
Hi Guys.

Earlier this year i sold my 8-core Mac Pro along with my dual 30" dells for a Retina Macbook Pro. It was a good purchase for my use, im at uni and often away from home.

But i still miss my Mac Pro.

I'm curious to hear how your transitions from a Mac Pro have been,
what feature do you miss the most about your Mac Pro, and whether you intend to move back to a Mac Pro down the line? :)
Click to expand...

I will always have a desktop whether it be a MP or Hack. I see no compelling reason to move to a portable only. My 17" fills a roll, and the MP fills a roll.
 
I don't think there's much chance that a Mac Pro update in 2013 would be significant enough for me to get one, but I'd think about it if it had:

~ Thunderbolt
~ Ivy Bridge
~ Replace four 3.5" slots w/eight or ten 2.5" slots (SSD slots instead of HDD slots)
~ Easy slide-out washable filters built into the case
~ Up-to-date GPU options
~ Native USB 3.0
 
-BigMac- said:
Hi Guys.

Earlier this year i sold my 8-core Mac Pro along with my dual 30" dells for a Retina Macbook Pro. It was a good purchase for my use, im at uni and often away from home.

But i still miss my Mac Pro.

I'm curious to hear how your transitions from a Mac Pro have been,
what feature do you miss the most about your Mac Pro, and whether you intend to move back to a Mac Pro down the line? :)
Click to expand...

1) USB 3
2) Thunderbolt
3) more internal SATA (if case remains the same size - at least 6-8)
4) offer non-Xeon systems
5) smaller foot print - for what it has as guts, its way way too large
 
Just made on with SPEED

Come om Apple make a Desktop with SPEED and some bells & whistles. Bluray. thunderbolt, fast video, cheap ram, Quiet, cool.

Really am I asking for too much, Apple? You've been doing this since 1974 I think you can pull this off by now.
 
Give it a proper amount of RAM in base form, update the CPU architecture, add USB 3.0/TB, and put it on sale is all I need.
 
1. "Current" Processor (whatever the most recent Xeon processors are at Release, whether that be Sandy Bridge-E soon or Ivy Bridge-E later in the year).
2. Thunderbolt
3. USB 3.0
4. "modern" GPU (doesn't have to be cutting edge, but seriously something better than the AMD 5XXX series!).

So really, I don't think I'm asking for much. If it doesn't happen fairly soon, I may just switch back to Mini's....
 
- Lower power consumption
- Radeon 8000 series support (let's face it, that's when it will come out)
- Crossfire/SLI support (although goes against lower power consumption)
- 256GB RAM support
- 6 (min) 2.5" Hard Drive Slots
- Thunderbolt 2 (20GB/sec each way, each port, optical, backwards compatible)
- Lighter/smaller footprint
- New Matching-Style 4K-Native 27"-30" Displays
 
kendall69 said:
Come om Apple make a Desktop with SPEED and some bells & whistles. Bluray. thunderbolt, fast video, cheap ram, Quiet, cool.

Really am I asking for too much, Apple? You've been doing this since 1974 I think you can pull this off by now.
Click to expand...

Bluray is not going to happen. Definitely count that out. The rest, will definitely happen.

Bluray came out at the wrong time (there was already a transition to online video services).

While I adore Bluray for it's ability to hold high quality video, lossless audio, it will become a thing of the past very soon.
 
wonderspark said:
I don't think there's much chance that a Mac Pro update in 2013 would be significant enough for me to get one, but I'd think about it if it had:

~ Thunderbolt
~ Ivy Bridge
~ Replace four 3.5" slots w/eight or ten 2.5" slots (SSD slots instead of HDD slots)
~ Easy slide-out washable filters built into the case
~ Up-to-date GPU options
~ Native USB 3.0
Click to expand...

I very much suspect you'll see such a machine, maybe with ivy-bridge successor/ivy bridge-E. Thunderbolt, usb3, new cpu are all a given...

3.5" drives are dying, even in the pro/high end storage market. Why? Because a bigger number of high performance 2.5" drives beats out faster 3.5" drives - and 3.5" drive capacities are getting to the point where RAID rebuild time for a single drive failure is unreasonable. Much better to use 2x 2.5" drives instead.

e.g. on my Netapp Fas at work, we had a choice of filling 4 rack units of space with either 32x 3.5" drives or 48x2.5" drives. 48 drives = faster, more resilient... same amount of space required.

Mac pro case is smaller scale - but the same basic rules apply... 2.5" drives aren't just for laptops any more - they come in 10,000 rpm...

Plus... SSDs are the future.

I doubt the new pro will come with 3.5" bays.

Only doubt in my mind is the GPU options.
 
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Yeah, I really like my 8x3.5" RAID box, but it would be sweet to have all the volumes tucked away inside one desktop box. For now, I'd struggle with only ten 512GB SSDs, as I use more space than that... but maybe by the time a new Mac Pro comes out, there will be 1TB SSDs for a decent price, and I could just manage with only 10TB. :p
 
Current generation CPUs
A graphics card that isn't 3 years old
Available PCIe slots and 8 pin power connectors
Serviceable hard drives (no iMac type BS please) and a couple of empty disk bays
SATA III
USB 3
Thunderbolt - I want to be able to continue using the TB storage devices that I have acquired so far.

I think that's pretty much what most people want, except the crazies who expect things like BR drives and will be throwing their toys out of the cot.
 
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