Apple reveal new 4K equipped Mac Pro suitable for uncompressed raw editing. Not just pro but genius!

[xenogears]

Well, certainly I cannot say I like. The heat go up in your desktop at 10" i don't know. I'm a long time Mac Pro user but for me this is a Mac Mini Pro, but certainly i prefer this to a Imac.

 

My two cents

 

Pd: this afternoon i see a video at Engadget where some dude is showing the Mac Pro in a crystal cylinder, and some employed cross behind with two big chrome ashtrays and look keep looking the Endgadget guy, very ironic moment.

[tomekk]

Apple isn't for everyone, but if you don't want to fuss around with things and just want something that works... this will do the job.

This is the only sentence I agree with :D ;). No point derailing the thread though so I'll stop here.

Anyway, I think it will be shorterm hype (if at all) just because it will probably be overpriced. Competition will catch up very fast and make it cheaper and better.

[hmcindie]

This machine will be absolutely bustling with cables in and out. 

 

Specs wise the only thing impressive is the design and marketing. Those are top-notch. When people say "competition will catch up", what does that mean? You can already get a 16 core pc-system with four gpu's if you want to. Apple just packages it very beautifully but that packaging comes with a price tag attached.

[tomekk]

This machine will be absolutely bustling with cables in and out. 

 

Specs wise the only thing impressive is the design and marketing. Those are top-notch. When people say "competition will catch up", what does that mean? You can already get a 16 core pc-system with four gpu's if you want to. Apple just packages it very beautifully but that packaging comes with a price tag attached.

I meant IF this design actually significantly improves cooling of the components others will follow. Yeah, I probably exaggerated because there is nothing special in this product other than design.

[Giulio Dimitri]

the T-bolt2 /Pcie/external chassis thing is not really clear to me:

to support the full speed of PCIe these "external chassis" should be connected via T-bolt2?

don't think so, since T-bolt2 is still slower than PCIe!So what the heck this means?

 

Thunderbolt 2 delivers twice the throughput, providing up to 20Gb/s of bandwidth to each external device. So you’re more than ready for the next generation of high-performance peripherals. You can connect massive amounts of storage, add a PCI expansion chassis, and work with the latest external displays

 

I guess that's why they wrote PCI and not PCIe, so if i'd ever need a PCIe card , where i should put it, in this keg?

Having said that, i don't need any pcie card so far, It's all about expanding needs, because we all know  Apple is going conservative, with built-in and soldered stuff you cannot replace...

 

on top of this, i doubt this will be cheap, and i'll need to buy external (t-bolt2=expeeensive? when on the market?)chassis and raid storage, instead of my inexpensive internal 4 HDs...

 

i'm quite keen, and frightened at the same moment...

 

[riccardocovino]

No way they can build a strategy in which the pro apps are running proprietary acceleration like CUDA. A modern OS must be open.

 

The choice has no relation to being "open", as Apple's policy in everything is the closest possible.

It's a matter of choice based on economical reasons.

[Bruno]

Apple just packages it very beautifully but that packaging comes with a price tag attached.

 

It's not a matter of being beautiful, it's excellent design, those are different things, beauty just for the sake of it is useless.

Look at the current Mac Pros, no matter how old they are, their design is still sublime, and the competition hasn't yet caught up in that regard. These new ones are an evolutionary step forward, an attempt to create a new kind of computer from the ground up, which most other makers are not capable of doing, sticking to the old conventions instead.

[Brellivids]

The design is not that special. In a sense that similiar designs have been tought up by many designers. The thing that is the big deal is that Apple actually makes it happen. It's very easy to think the design one step further a tubular structure where the central cooling structure is a water reservoir. It's good to remember that Apple has made logical heat path thinking into reality in the past as well. They had MAC's with thermal chambers (power PC something).

 

The main Beef I have with Apple is that they are highest level consumer company in a sense that you get only what they decide to give to you. Apple provides LOCKED in systems where the user can do what they allow you to do. Same could be said about many other companies and it would be 100% true. Specially if one compares Apple to MS.

 

One other prospect about Apple that many ppl dont often discuss and the more or less dismiss it as a "let's not talk about that" is the use of chinese slave labour.  And sure what company does not.

 

Dressing to latest H&M trend Bangladesh clothing and holding the latest Foxcon Iphone you bought via monthly plan just to fit in. Sure the Iphone is acutally a good product. We should not forget the realities we buy into when we buy. The Latest Apple product often casts a grimm shadow. But it looks promising that at least these new Mac pro's are for large part built in the USA.

[chauffeurdevan]

This is almost exactly what I wanted from Apple for many years, but not as an hi-end mac pro, but as a mid-range desktop with an i7 in the range of 1.5k-2.5k - something that always missed as I never had any interest in those iMac.

 

However, I don't think Apple it is a good idea to replace the old tower Mac Pro with this. I really don't like the idea for an hi-end computer to have everything external. People that I know that have Mac Pro have tons of internal hard drives, a few PCIe cards (Pro Tools, Avid, AJA), etc. Going fully external, you increase noise, a lot of cable and external power supply, and at the same time increase the price of every component.

 

I don't call that evolution. In this case, I really think the visual design of the box reduce the usability design of the computer for pro/hi-end user. Like I said, it should have been a mid-range computer for people with no or a single harddrive, maybe a printer, nothing else.

[peederj]

It's hip to hate #1, whoever they are. So we hate Canon, and Apple, and Philip Bloom. But usually they got to #1 on at least some merit. Merit we can often learn from. And economies of scale provide them profound advantages over the other contestants. Advantages to us that can more than make up for any peccadilloes that we might be persnickety about.

 

Go ahead and hate #1. You will be my enduring Internet hero.  :rolleyes:

[Bruno]

The design is not that special. In a sense that similiar designs have been tought up by many designers.

 

Designing something is not just coming up with some cool empty concept artwork.

Design is form+function, and in this case the seamless work between art and engineering.

3D modelling or photoshopping a cool enclosure and calling that "computer design" is a bit of a stretch.

 

One other prospect about Apple that many ppl dont often discuss and the more or less dismiss it as a "let's not talk about that" is the use of chinese slave labour.  And sure what company does not.

 

That's an extremely important point, but a bit out of context here, since they've announced that the new Mac Pro will be assembled in the USA.

[mtheory]

I'm really happy they didn't kill Mac Pro. This tower will be an amazing setup with the BMPC4K! Now give us a 4K Cinema Display, Apple!

[ike007]

BTW, this thing is portable. to me this is one of its major breakthroughs. it will fit in a carry on, even a shopping bag, or in a suitcase between your T-shirts and dirty laundry.

 

They may still be able to sell a stripped down version starting at 2499, as they always did with their Pro. 

 

For Apple as a company, since when they became a "mobile" company, one of the major problems with the old Mac Pro, which was probably raised by analysts and share holders, it is the profit margin decreased by the foot print  occupied by the large boxes they ship with, or they sit on the expensive real estate of the Apple stores at the exclusive location they are normally in. At the apple store in Soho NY, one of those large boxes may cost about 30 to 50$ of rent per month and it takes the same space of about 20 ipad or 60/80 iPhones, that may be sold in few hours.

[ike007]

It's not a matter of being beautiful, it's excellent design, those are different things, beauty just for the sake of it is useless.

Look at the current Mac Pros, no matter how old they are, their design is still sublime, and the competition hasn't yet caught up in that regard. These new ones are an evolutionary step forward, an attempt to create a new kind of computer from the ground up, which most other makers are not capable of doing, sticking to the old conventions instead.

If you have to look or deal with something every day of your life, that being your partner in life or something you have to use for work, beauty has an immense value.

[Axel]

It's not a matter of being beautiful, it's excellent design, those are different things, beauty just for the sake of it is useless.

In art, beauty often means that something looks absolutely purposeless, but with a hint that it's purpose is just too advanced for the recipient to see. You admire the form because it expresses a bold thought.

In design, beauty has a condition: It must never contradict functionality, usability. The axiom reads 'form follows function'.

I don't like the probably very high price of this, higher even if you think about all the expensive periphery, but it surely is a fantastic machine. It will be accompanied by a new version of FCP X. This software made many professionals switch to Premiere, because it had many flaws (and still has some). Today, it is stable enough, fast and with Resolve makes a dream team on the Mac. Once one overcomes initial preoccupations and edits a project with it for real (provided one has a fast enough machine), one will see Premiere as hopelessly outmoded.

If not, that's the implied statement of this new Mac, you can as well stick to an array of PC-tower gadgetry with Adobe.

[jgharding]

It looks lovely, and is a great way of redesigning the PC.

 

I think the downside will be mad cost for the initial system, for all the bespoke parts and any upgrades, if they are possible beyond a limited degree.

 

Lovely as it is, I doubt I'll ever have one.

[jgharding]

It is great for anyone who really needs this kind of power right now, and there are a few people like that. I'm sure the rest will wait a while til it's cheaper.

 

It's interesting that Intel use Apple to showcase their new technology now.

 

In fact it's a little beyond that, they've already upgraded Thunderbolt before it even reached the PC of anyone I know! Thunderbolt 1 was only ever on one computer of someone I know, now it's old news. That's quite a "hype sell"

[tomekk]

btw. MAC OSX version of Resolve 10 supports OPENCL, windows version doesn't. Any clue when they'll include support in windows version?

http://www.blackmagicdesign.com/uk/products/davinciresolve/compare

[Bruno]

If you have to look or deal with something every day of your life, that being your partner in life or something you have to use for work, beauty has an immense value.

 

I didn't say otherwise, but beauty without function (or brains) will probably prove itself pointless over time.

It's fine for a decoration object, not for something you will actually use.

 

I don't like the probably very high price of this

 

Many people are commenting on the expensive aspect of it, is there an announced price yet? Apart from the new components, it looks like this system would be much cheaper to build than the current Mac Pro, it's mostly molded plastic after all... On the other hand it's being assembled in the USA...

 

For Apple as a company, since when they became a "mobile" company...

 

I think we became a mobile world, Apple is only catching up with the times :)

 

Lovely as it is, I doubt I'll ever have one.

 

"Ever" is such a long word... :)

[odie]

i want one