When will the new MP come out!

[Chupa Chupa]

Well if they would change the freakin case already we would not be having confusion. I don't case if the "grater" goes away but at least paint it or something. Soon to be 10 years on the outside design.

So? The Porsche 911's design concept is 48 years old. The Jaguar XJ design lasted 41 years. (The current XJ takes cues from the original concept but much more radical than the evolutionary tweaks previous models received.)

Some designs are classic and timeless. In the instance of the MP, it's a functional industrial design well purposed for commercial use. I can't think of any other currently marketed tower that beats this "10 years" old design. It's not meant to be eye candy for mall gawking consumers. The changes pro users care about most are the guts and capabilities.

 

[derbothaus]

Ha Ha. Stop with the stupid car analogies already. 20+ years of them when talking Apple is enough for anyone to stomach. "It's like a jag man and your MS is like a Yugo". "No man. It's a Ferrari and yours is a Honda. No it's..."

It's a bare open "not there, but there" design. It is fine. It is maybe classic. It is not meant to be admired with zero criticism. Like anything it could be improved.

 

[blunti]

So what are we to make of the "late July/early August" rumors from a few weeks back? Aside from the fact that rumors are only that, they seemed to come from two different sources, and maybe its only wishful thinking, but I thought they may have pointed to a mid-cycle bump with TB and some spec tweaks to tide things over until SB was released. Is the consensus that those were just wrong or will the remaining few days of "early August" hold a surprise?

to be honest I doubt there will be any refresh in august...

 

[xgman]

to be honest I doubt there will be any refresh in august...

right. same as the false march rumors from last year. I'm thinking very late this year depending on Intel obviously. It just seems like Intel is a whole cycle behind every year on these server grade chips compared to the rest of the line. It's frustrating.

 

[nanofrog]

So what are we to make of the "late July/early August" rumors from a few weeks back? Aside from the fact that rumors are only that, they seemed to come from two different sources, and maybe its only wishful thinking, but I thought they may have pointed to a mid-cycle bump with TB and some spec tweaks to tide things over until SB was released. Is the consensus that those were just wrong or will the remaining few days of "early August" hold a surprise?

Hot air. Vapor. ... Take your pick.

There won't be a mid-cycle refresh, as it's too costly to do so in the case of the MP. New systems won't come along until they have new chips to build them around. So it's looking like Feb - March of 2012 realistically, assuming there's no further delays from either Intel or Apple (or Foxconn = ODM for the MP).

 

[DisMyMac]

New systems won't come along until they have new chips to build them around. So it's looking like Feb - March of 2012 realistically, assuming there's no further delays from either Intel or Apple (or Foxconn = ODM for the MP).

March 2012 is almost time for Ivy Bridge: http://www.tomshardware.com/news/ivy-bridge-sandy-launch-processors,12828.html

I think October/November could happen, about the same time iMacs will get a small boost and the MBP + Airs will merge.

 

[derbothaus]

March 2012 is almost time for Ivy Bridge: http://www.tomshardware.com/news/ivy-bridge-sandy-launch-processors,12828.html

I think October/November could happen, about the same time iMacs will get a small boost and the MBP + Airs will merge.

That is for i7 though. Maybe they are staggering the release dates. Couple months after the Pro's get SB Xeon the i7 gets the Ivy?
I also think around November they'll release. Otherwise it would be way too much overlap. I don't ever remember Xeons taking so long after the parent tech was launched.

 

[nanofrog]

March 2012 is almost time for Ivy Bridge: http://www.tomshardware.com/news/ivy-bridge-sandy-launch-processors,12828.html

I think October/November could happen, about the same time iMacs will get a small boost and the MBP + Airs will merge.

The consumer versions, which are not the same.

There are Sandy Bridge parts that have been out, based on the LGA1155 socket. As it happens, the Ivy Bridge parts you're looking at are still LGA1155 socket, but on a new process (22nm).

But what we're waiting for in the enterprise realm, is LGA2011, which has not released yet. The first of those parts will still be Sandy Bridge (E5-16xx and E5-26xx to be specific for the MP). The Ivy Bridge enterprise parts will again use the same LGA2011 socket with the 22nm die shrink.

Consumer parts and enterprise parts are not on the same cycle, as the consumer parts are much simpler and therefore faster to churn out. And it keeps revenue coming in (spaced cycles reduces the differentials between highs and lows in terms of income when done properly).

 

[Blue Sun]

What is likely to be the new base Mac Pro CPU (will it be a quad-core, maybe a hexacore)?

Sorry, but I'm not familiar with server grade processors.

 

[deconstruct60]

What is likely to be the new base Mac Pro CPU (will it be a quad-core, maybe a hexacore)?

there is a thread about Sandy Bridge E

This post highlights there is a 1620 that is a very likely candidate:

https://forums.macrumors.com/posts/13063671/

so 4 cores with a higher GHz clock. That should make the "clock" buyers happy.