What is the situation on the Hard Drive type/internal? 3.5"? 2.5" only? Accessible?

[Sean Dempsey]

I didn't hear on what the internal storage situation is?

I presume that 2.5" drives are fine since most pro's will use SSD, or high performance platter 2.5". But it doesn't actually say.

Also, if there are internal 2.5" slots, are they user accessible? If I wanted to do a SSD RAID0 internally, can I? I don't have enough need to get an external TB2 enclosure.

Was this mentioned at all??

 

[maflynn]

I believe its like a rMBP proprietary SSD solution and there are no bays for you to worry about.

 

[JesperA]

Why dont you just go to the apple website and look for yourself? Would have been much fasten than creating this thread

 

[Sean Dempsey]

Why dont you just go to the apple website and look for yourself? Would have been much fasten than creating this thread

That doesn't say anything about size, if it's raidable. Or if it's just going to be 3 default sizes.

Don't get your jimmies rustled. There's very little storage info on the splash page.

 

[derbothaus]

I believe its like a rMBP proprietary SSD solution and there are no bays for you to worry about.

Thats good.
And exactly why I would worry.

 

[The-Pro]

Until they are released my best bet would be that you will have the option of choosing your SSD drive size, 256,512,768,1TB. maybe two SSD's factory installed or a fusion setup.
Apple does not seem to have focused on making this Mac Pro in the slightest internally user upgradeable. Its all supposed to be external, so gimme 3 cheers for huge amounts of cables and clutter on and around your desk

we will know more soon, till then we are going to be in the dark about lots of things and can only speculate

 

[JesperA]

That doesn't say anything about size, if it's raidable. Or if it's just going to be 3 default sizes.

Don't get your jimmies rustled. There's very little storage info on the splash page.

You asked about 2.5" drives etc, both the images and the text alongside the images on Apples website clearly shows and states that the new Mac Pro uses proprietary PCI flash storage.

Also, my point is, we dont know anything more than what Apple is telling us so you would be just as wise as the rest of us.

 

[Wild-Bill]

Here's your storage. That's it. Nothing else.

 

[Wyvernspirit]

It's not 3.5 or 2.5 but a drive on a stick like in the MBA or rMBP. It will (reportablly) be faster, but harder and more expensive to upgrade (if at all)

 

[omgitscro]

Here's your storage. That's it. Nothing else.

Great! That's all I need. I don't even need the GPUs either, just the CPUs will do for large-scale resampling procedures. And if someone needs any more storage I'm sure they can use Thunderbolt2 to augment the already-spacious onboard storage.

 

[VirtualRain]

Here's your storage. That's it. Nothing else.

I suspect the storage configuration is similar in concept to the OWC Accelsior which uses a pair of SSD blades in RAID0 via the PCIe bus. That's really the only way to reach Schiller's quoted performance of 1+GB/s throughput in this kind of foot print. They'll probably offer BTO options of 256, 512 or 1TB.

If you need more SSD storage, there's always this...
http://www.promise.com/storage/raid_series.aspx?region=en-US&m=574&rsn1=40&rsn3=62

I expect a flood of black external TB storage enclosures to hit the market any day now

 

[ender78]

They keynote made mention of 1.25GB/1.0 GB read/write speeds for the internal SSD. That is about double the speed of any SSD 2.5" drive on the market today. There does not appear to be any room for any drives inside the new enclosure.

Something like this is the future of expansion

http://www.caldigit.com/T3/ - Priced at $699 with three spinning disks.

 

[spunkgarLEWII]

A sad day for the Mac Pro.. We got instead of a true workstation a trash can Seriously, we really need to wait for updated specs.. Is the processor upgradable? Is the video memory chips upgradable? Given Apple's current direction I would venture a guess that would be a NO.

The days of truly expandable macs is coming to a close.. all thanks to Thunderpants.

By the time you buy the xMac(I will call this thing just that), you will need to spend another 1000 or so dollars for external drives. Way too overpriced going that direction. No, I will stay with my 6-Core all the way.

Here's your storage. That's it. Nothing else.

 

[G-Mo]

Here's your storage. That's it. Nothing else.

Looks like there's space for a matching one on the other board, if ordered in that configuration.

Just like the iMac, if you don't order the Fusion you don't get the slot for the flash stick.

 

[The-Pro]

A sad day for the Mac Pro.. We got instead of a true workstation a trash can Seriously, we really need to wait for updated specs.. Is the processor upgradable? Is the video memory chips upgradable?

The days of truly expandable macs is coming to a close.. all thanks to Thunderpants.

On the now old Mac Pro apple never intended on the processors being upgradeable. That was just "luck" for the consumer same way with some of the iMac.
Upgradeably video memory chips??? never ever heard of that before. There isnt a single GPU available where you can upgrade the VRAM yourself. Correct me if im wrong please.
I would rather ask the question: are the GPU's upgradeable? or will they be special apple parts (which is what I suspect)

What I noticed from the animations on the website was only 4 RAM slots.
That would mean a max of 64GB currently (32GB are about 1000 right now or more I think) So in terms of RAM upgrades will cost you more aswell since you have to buy more expensive modules.

Apple wants to make thunderbolt very successful. I dont blame em, it has great potential. But the one thing with apple pro desktops was always simple cheap internal cable free expansion. Now you will have your elegent Mac Pro and a whole stack or HDD's with extra power supplies and cables everywhere. Thats not very pretty is it?? not to mention th price of thunderbolt enclosures.
Real Real shame this is

 

[Wild-Bill]

I would rather ask the question: are the GPU's upgradeable? or will they be special apple parts (which is what I suspect)

They are clearly proprietary. Those video cards are not full-length (well, I guess "height" in this case), they are rounded near the bottom, traditional cooling is out the window with the new "thermal whatever" thing they call it, and they obviously don't have standard GPU connectors on them (DVI, HDMI, DisplayPort). AMD made this to Apple's specs. Its obvious.

That being said, I would suspect that the left one costs about an arm, while the right one costs about a leg.

 

[KaraH]

Great! That's all I need. I don't even need the GPUs either, just the CPUs will do for large-scale resampling procedures. And if someone needs any more storage I'm sure they can use Thunderbolt2 to augment the already-spacious onboard storage.

PLEASE tell me you were being sarcastic!!!

 

[Zwhaler]

I believe its like a rMBP proprietary SSD solution and there are no bays for you to worry about.

The only thing that worries me is that there are no bays.

 

[ActionableMango]

The only thing that worries me is that there are no bays.

There are bays. They are external and you'll have to buy them. And they are probably expensive, even empty ones.

 

[omgitscro]

PLEASE tell me you were being sarcastic!!!

Nope. It's actually perfect for my needs, I need something that I can take to various research centers but that still provides a lot of CPU power.

 

[Tesselator]

Here's your storage.

That's it. Nothing else.

Yup. But it's not proprietary - as mentioned in the other threads.

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There are bays. They are external and you'll have to buy them. And they are probably expensive, even empty ones.

External USB3.0 bays start at $15 for single drive units - tho typically closer to $35 and $45. Dual Drive units start at $35 but are typically closer to $50 or $60. And there are adaptors you can use to connect drives without any enclosure at all but they're not much cheaper. There are also docking bays but again, not much cheaper.

 

[G-Mo]

Yup. But it's not proprietary - as mentioned in the other threads.

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External USB3.0 bays start at $15 for single drive units - tho typically closer to $35 and $45. Dual Drive units start at $35 but are typically closer to $50 or $60. And there are adaptors you can use to connect drives without any enclosure at all but they're not much cheaper. There are also docking bays but again, not much cheaper.

Who would use USB3 when there are 6 Thunderbolt 2 ports clearly designed for this purpose!?

 

[The-Pro]

They are clearly proprietary. Those video cards are not full-length (well, I guess "height" in this case), they are rounded near the bottom, traditional cooling is out the window with the new "thermal whatever" thing they call it, and they obviously don't have standard GPU connectors on them (DVI, HDMI, DisplayPort). AMD made this to Apple's specs. Its obvious.

That being said, I would suspect that the left one costs about an arm, while the right one costs about a leg.

Great You paid more attention to the images then me Pretty certain now that the way you buy it thats the way its going to stay

Who would use USB3 when there are 6 Thunderbolt 2 ports clearly designed for this purpose!?

Pretty sure I would considering the price for TB enclosures and the money you will have to spend on the Mac Pro in the first palce

 

[-hh]

It's not 3.5 or 2.5 but a drive on a stick like in the MBA or rMBP. It will (reportablly) be faster, but harder and more expensive to upgrade (if at all)

And when the other drives are included, it is in an external enclosure, will have its own FAN making noise, thereby rendering their noise level claims moot.

-hh

 

[Bear]

Who would use USB3 when there are 6 Thunderbolt 2 ports clearly designed for this purpose!?

It all depends on what I was using the drives for. I could see a mix of Thunderbolt and USB 3.0 drives on some systems. For example, I could see using USB 3.0 drives for things like make an Aperture Vault (backup) which would then be put somewhere safe.

I expect a Thunderbolt Dock like the Sonnet one with an optical drive would be a great companion to the new Mac Pro, so there would be even more USB 3.0 ports available. And don't forget the ports on the current thunderbolt display that Apple sells - I expect an update display with USB 3.0 ports and hopefully a FireWire port still.