New Mac Pro's radical design draws admiration, criticism via Photoshop

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Comments

  • Reply 61 of 110
    ankleskaterankleskater Posts: 1,287member
    gtr wrote: »
    This is very embarrassing, but you did ask...

    ascii wrote: »
    Wow, you really *are* excited about the new Mac Pro!

    :)

    Reads to me that GTR was excited by your invitation. Get a room, you two. ;)
  • Reply 62 of 110
    asciiascii Posts: 5,936member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by ankleskater View Post







    Reads to me that GTR was excited by your invitation. Get a room, you two. image


     


    GTR does clever and funny pics on many threads, so this was a logical thread for him to comment on, so I asked...


     


    Unfortunately I did not choose my wording carefully enough so he rightfully gave me sh*t about it. 


     


    Sorry mate it's not gay banter it's just him using humour to keep me on my toes.

  • Reply 64 of 110
    tallest skiltallest skil Posts: 43,388member
    nethan9 wrote: »
    700

    GOSH. DANG. IT.

    I JUST remembered the cheese grater stuff from a decade ago and was surprised that no no one had mentioned it yet. I wanted to be the first. :p
  • Reply 65 of 110
    19831983 Posts: 1,225member
    Lighten up people its only a bit of humorous digging. It doesn't stop the new Mac Pro from being an great bit of design.
  • Reply 66 of 110
    flaneurflaneur Posts: 4,526member
    ifij775 wrote: »
    I seriously doubt the sales of this device will ever be meaningful to Apple's bottom-line, since its a pretty niche product

    I would never say never, which is the same as your "seriously doubt that ever."

    It's possible that many people, amateurs and pros, will be dealing with 4K video in the future, as well as two streams of 4K video for 3D.

    The case design with its thermal management is the main innovation here, so it's possible that Apple is looking to develop a line of high-powered video editing or real-time stereo video streaming machines using this case design, maybe with less capability than this first (meant to be convincing) demonstration of the form factor.

    In other words, machines based on this design could become mainstream within a few years.
  • Reply 67 of 110
    ankleskaterankleskater Posts: 1,287member
    ascii wrote: »
    GTR does clever and funny pics on many threads, so this was a logical thread for him to comment on, so I asked...
     
    Unfortunately I did not choose my wording carefully enough so he rightfully gave me sh*t about it. 
     
    Sorry mate it's not gay banter it's just him using humour to keep me on my toes.
    I was teasing.
  • Reply 68 of 110
    ankleskaterankleskater Posts: 1,287member
    flaneur wrote: »
    I would never say never, which is the same as your "seriously doubt that ever."

    It's possible that many people, amateurs and pros, will be dealing with 4K video in the future, as well as two streams of 4K video for 3D.

    The case design with its thermal management is the main innovation here, so it's possible that Apple is looking to develop a line of high-powered video editing or real-time stereo video streaming machines using this case design, maybe with less capability than this first (meant to be convincing) demonstration of the form factor.

    In other words, machines based on this design could become mainstream within a few years.

    The case is not truly part of the thermal management.
  • Reply 69 of 110
    MarvinMarvin Posts: 15,326moderator
    ifij775 wrote: »
    I seriously doubt the sales of this device will ever be meaningful to Apple's bottom-line, since its a pretty niche product

    Probably not but the average selling price is high and the margins are high. The typical volume for these would be about 250k per quarter and the sales volume is weighted towards the lower end so say the average selling price is $3.5k (it has to be above $2.5k because not everyone buys the lowest models but it falls off quite sharply) so that makes $875m with 25% net margin = $219m.

    That's the volume that would be expected of the old model and also net margins. Take into consideration the publicity around this, the new dual-GPU design and the fact that they'll save on shipping due to the much lower weight (people can probably even buy one in store and carry it home), that could easily push net profits up 50% or so to $300m+. Relative to the $9-13b, it's small but it helps and it's nice that they decided to update it this way. This will boost sales of Thunderbolt peripherals, which drives prices down for everyone.

    It gives them the opportunity to come out with a Retina Thunderbolt 2 display, which wouldn't have quite the same appeal if they kept with the old design because 3rd party GPUs couldn't all run them. By controlling the GPUs this way, they can ensure that everyone gets support and that allows them to hit lower price points than the competition.
    relic wrote:
    I would actually love to see a clear neoprene case for it.

    I think a few people will be modding these. There has to be an R2D2 one:

    1000

    The wheels will help spin it round and they can have a webcam on the top. As long as they leave enough holes for the heat to get out.
  • Reply 70 of 110
    flaneurflaneur Posts: 4,526member
    The case is not truly part of the thermal management.

    Suppose we call it the tubular architecture. Would that work?

    Edit: Taking a second look at it, it's clear to me that the outer case manages the airflow across the outer side of the boards, while the triangular inner heatsink manages the inner flow. The inner is more important, but the outer is probably critical as well.

    In other words there would be hotspots, areas of lazy airflow, and general overheating if you ran it for extended periods without the outer case.
  • Reply 71 of 110

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by nitewing98 View Post


    There was the same response to the original Macintosh, the original iMac, the G3 Tower, the "sunflower" iMac, and the G4 Cube. And except for the Cube, every one of those designs were successful. And the only problem with the Cube was it was over priced.


     


    Let the haters have their fun. I admit, I find some of the pics cute. But eventually the joke will blow over and we'll be left with another revolutionary computer.



     


    I figure that after they are done making fun of it, then LIKE ALL THE OTHER TIMES, Dell, Compaq and Acer will follow suit and start making cylinders with single heat sinks and fans on a central spire.


     


    Yes, if you add all your peripherals in, it will look like a messy squid, but I'm guessing if someone is an actual PRO user and budgets money, they'll be using TB2 connectors to monitors and drives. It's not perfect for connectors but we have to start somewhere.

  • Reply 72 of 110

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Flaneur View Post





    I would never say never, which is the same as your "seriously doubt that ever."



    It's possible that many people, amateurs and pros, will be dealing with 4K video in the future, as well as two streams of 4K video for 3D.



    The case design with its thermal management is the main innovation here, so it's possible that Apple is looking to develop a line of high-powered video editing or real-time stereo video streaming machines using this case design, maybe with less capability than this first (meant to be convincing) demonstration of the form factor.



    In other words, machines based on this design could become mainstream within a few years.


     


    This is about the only system actually CAPABLE of dual real-time 4K streams. It's a frickin' monster. 70 teraflops of Graphics power? And the internal memory speeds to RAM and hard drive are double any top of the end offerings from other companies. Someone was suggesting more banks for the SSD and memory but it's likely Apple has tweaked out the best layout their engineers could conceive of and there isn't a lot of playing around with having slots and "RAIDing" the Hard Drive since it's PCI-E instead of SATA attached -- it likely cannot offer any more throughput with the hardware available. It seems designed around getting the most throughput with current technology so there isn't any improvement until components get better.

  • Reply 73 of 110
    blowbotblowbot Posts: 9member
    It looks like a black garbage can, but I could still use one.
  • Reply 74 of 110
    herbapouherbapou Posts: 2,228member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Gazoobee View Post


     


    It's a pro machine.  It's not intended for your rec-room.  


     


    I'd like to see someone come out with a drive array for it and a custom desk for both to fit into before I buy it for my home, or maybe some kind of drive array that stacks underneath the main cylinder, but the pros that it was actually built for won't care about that.  It's only people like you and me trying to use it for a desktop replacement that will have problems with the design. 


     


    I'm thinking I might still be able to use the thing if I move all my storage to NAS's around the house, then it's just the cylinder and a monitor on a nice sleek desk. 



     


     


    It could be a nice domestic desktop computer if they release a model with less expensive and more consumer oriented GPU'S.  They are using 2 CAD optimize and very expensive GPU's that are sub-part for anything other than video editing and CAD.  For 1/4 of the price you could put more powerful GPU'S in there and those machines would be great for gamers who need better GPU's than iMac can provide.


     


    For example, a pair of GTX 770 or Radeon 7970 would be a lot less expensive and much more suitable options for gamers. I understand the goal of this machine is video editing and cad, but with just this change they could also offer a gamer beast. The top of the line fire pro GPU gives about the same 3D benchmark has the GTX 680mx you can get in high end imacs: http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/video_lookup.php?gpu=FirePro+W8000&id=2427


     


    With those 2 options, they would cover pretty much the entire desktop market needs.  All the other expansion needs could be done through the thunderbolts cables.


     


    I would also like to see Apple make a line of thunderbolt GPU's for there imac and laptop lines.  Using an external casing and a desktop GPU's is not the best choice because of the limitations of the thunderbolt, size, power requirement, drivers, hot swaps  and installation. If Apple would used a mobile chip with lots of memory they could come up with a nice plug and play GPU's at around $500 that would worked without problems.


     


    From the components I see in there, I guess with the actual configurations the price of this machine will be around 5k, depending mostly on the GPU's which can be up to $1500 each.

  • Reply 75 of 110
    curtis hannahcurtis hannah Posts: 1,833member
    I think the "support for 4k display" means a new thinner 4k thunderbolt 2 display is coming


    Talking about this take this display and change its features for a Apple TV would be great!
  • Reply 76 of 110
    sipsip Posts: 210member


    The thing that bothers me is that some idiot is going to produce a camp stove type stand for the new Mac Pro.

  • Reply 78 of 110
    flaneurflaneur Posts: 4,526member
    This is about the only system actually CAPABLE of dual real-time 4K streams. It's a frickin' monster. 70 teraflops of Graphics power? And the internal memory speeds to RAM and hard drive are double any top of the end offerings from other companies. Someone was suggesting more banks for the SSD and memory but it's likely Apple has tweaked out the best layout their engineers could conceive of and there isn't a lot of playing around with having slots and "RAIDing" the Hard Drive since it's PCI-E instead of SATA attached -- it likely cannot offer any more throughput with the hardware available. It seems designed around getting the most throughput with current technology so there isn't any improvement until components get better.

    Thanks for this perspective.
  • Reply 79 of 110
    glnfglnf Posts: 39member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Jessi View Post





    I wonder how many people realize that the shape of the Cray and the shape of the Pro are similar for the same reason? Both are designed for efficient cooling.


    Nope. The Cray was designed this way to keep the wiring short. And for the new Mac Pro - it is of course much easier to cool a bigger enclosure. So Apple first decided (for whatever reasons) to make the new Pro tiny and then had to solve the problem of cooling such a small computer. Nice design, but the problem solved is self-inflicted. The old Pro design was perfectly capable of powering and cooling the new components as is every decent PC.

  • Reply 80 of 110
    haggarhaggar Posts: 1,568member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by jragosta View Post





    That's hardly news. The Apple haters have been doing this with every product Apple has made for decades. They don't have any vision of their own and don't understand Apple's drive for simplicity and quality, so they criticize.



    Best to simply ignore it. Giving them attention only encourages them.


     


    Thank you so much for your decades of service to Apple.  Where would Apple be without you to defend everything they do?

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