What is the point of an iMac Pro if you can soon have a modular Mac Pro?
It feels like a knee-jerk reaction to the Microsoft Surface Studio.
>:x
Maybe it's more a knee-jerk reaction to Intel and AMD delivering the pieces that Apple needs to make it work in the iMac form factor and thermal envelope.
Let me know when MS delivers Thunderbolt 3 in any Surface, including the Studio.
This is curious, was expected, but is of no real interest to me.
• still an all-in-one with all the thermal and servicing problems that comes with
• the cost is extreme and there's no way I can afford to buy a powerful workstation more than once per ten years, nor could I afford to buy more than base RAM on purchase day.
Though I guess this shows us what to expect in the cost of the upcoming Mac Pro. It looks like my 2011 iMac acquisition is going to have to last me more than two years. If the upcoming Mac Pro does not offer replaceable RAM and storage, and the ability to clean its insides, Apple will have learned nothing. But I suspect that their notions of modularity for the upcoming model are purely based on them selling new computers more often, not owners incrementally increasing storage and memory over time.
It's too early to start whining about a product that does not yet exist. Just wait. They're promising something pros are going to be pleased with and there's no reason to doubt them based on these new announcements.
Thats why you buy as much RAM as you can afford just like on other models with non-upgradable RAM. I suspect that any serious Professional will pack this thing with RAM. This isn't a consumer Mac remember. Professionals are willing to spend money to get their work done.
Why should we have to pay thousands of dollars more than retail just for Apple RAM that IS CLEARLY NOT SOLDERED ON?! This is fucking insanity. Lower costs for professionals translates to lower costs for the consumers that buy what professionals create. Why do you think this behavior is acceptable?
This is curious, was expected, but is of no real interest to me.
• still an all-in-one with all the thermal and servicing problems that comes with
• the cost is extreme and there's no way I can afford to buy a powerful workstation more than once per ten years, nor could I afford to buy more than base RAM on purchase day.
Though I guess this shows us what to expect in the cost of the upcoming Mac Pro. It looks like my 2011 iMac acquisition is going to have to last me more than two years. If the upcoming Mac Pro does not offer replaceable RAM and storage, and the ability to clean its insides, Apple will have learned nothing. But I suspect that their notions of modularity for the upcoming model are purely based on them selling new computers more often, not owners incrementally increasing storage and memory over time.
I have a 2011 iMac as well that I use as my desktop dev machine, and other than maxing the ram out on Day 1, I have no interest in incremental DIY tinkering. Least of all upgrading the storage. As with my last iMac, I'll sell it or give it to family, get another beefy iMac, and be on my way. DIY tinkering is not a primary use case, it's a niche use case at best.
Thats why you buy as much RAM as you can afford just like on other models with non-upgradable RAM. I suspect that any serious Professional will pack this thing with RAM. This isn't a consumer Mac remember. Professionals are willing to spend money to get their work done.
Why should we have to pay thousands of dollars more than retail just for Apple RAM that IS CLEARLY NOT SOLDERED ON?! This is fucking insanity. Lower costs for professionals translates to lower costs for the consumers that buy what professionals create. Why do you think this behavior is acceptable?
So you're saying you know for a fact that nobody will be able to open the iMP and install ram? How do you know this?
I think it is a confused design. The faster larger fans on the rear of the unit (required for the handling of the extra cores and faster graphics) means that the fan noise is right near your head ... whereas the correct place for fan noise created by professional demands is on the floor or in a cupboard or in another room (away from you head). An all in one unit next to your head should be essentially silent - and this machine is not going to be silent.
Then, Apple has again confused form and function with the absence of wired keyboards and wired mouse. First, again, I don't want the unnecessary health risks of using Bluetooth next to my body unless I absolutely have to; and second, nor do I want the unnecessary inconvenience of having to charge the items.
What is the point of an iMac Pro if you can soon have a modular Mac Pro?
It feels like a knee-jerk reaction to the Microsoft Surface Studio.
>:x
It sounds to me like Apple decided (about 12 months ago) that they were going to drop the Mac Pro, simplify their line-up and make this new iMac Pro to look after the professional market. That is why we have this announcement - it is what they were going to do.
THEN they got all this feedback about 3 months ago - rightly so - that that is NOT what the professional market wants ... the iMac Pro is confused as a Pro machine - ill-suited to managing heat demands, and the 12 / 18 multi-core models slower than standard iMac models for most users.
So, what we have today is the announcement NOW of what Apple intended to do ... and in a few months, in 2018, thanks to the user protests an backlash, we will have the real new Mac Pro that caters to the full professional market. Happy to have both available!
One pro feature that is very welcome in the iMac Pro is Apple's support for 10Gb ethernet built-in. Look forwards to seeing that built-in on future models and an excellent complement to Thunderbolt 3!
What is the point of an iMac Pro if you can soon have a modular Mac Pro?
It feels like a knee-jerk reaction to the Microsoft Surface Studio.
>:x
It sounds to me like Apple decided (about 12 months ago) that they were going to drop the Mac Pro, simplify their line-up and make this new iMac Pro to look after the professional market. That is why we have this announcement - it is what they were going to do.
THEN they got all this feedback about 3 months ago - rightly so - that that is NOT what the professional market wants ... the iMac Pro is confused as a Pro machine - ill-suited to managing heat demands, and the 12 / 18 multi-core models slower than standard iMac models for most users.
So, what we have today is the announcement NOW of what Apple intended to do ... and in a few months, in 2018, thanks to the user protests an backlash, we will have the real new Mac Pro that caters to the full professional market. Happy to have both available!
Hit the nail on the head! I think for most pro users, this iMac Pro will more than suffice, while the new Mac Pro will cater to much higher-end niche users.
EDIT: On the other hand, if the new Mac Pro ends up being almost everything Apple promises, I wouldn't be surprised if it cannibalizes the iMac Pro
One pro feature that is very welcome in the iMac Pro is Apple's support for 10Gb ethernet built-in. Look forwards to seeing that built-in on future models and an excellent complement to Thunderbolt 3!
I was wondering what was keeping them from updating. I guess their slavish devotion to wireless technologies made them want to force people to use it over Ethernet (even in dongle-to-Thunderbolt form).
So what is the reason for Apple not allowing user upgradable RAM other than Apple wants people paying their markup prices for RAM? Doesn't the current 27" model allow user access to upgrade RAM?
So what is the reason for Apple not allowing user upgradable RAM other than Apple wants people paying their markup prices for RAM? Doesn't the current 27" model allow user access to upgrade RAM?
It's a trade-off of having to re-engineer the cooling system to be able to build a workstation-class AIO. Remember, the iMac Pro is (supposedly) more powerful than the current trashcan Mac Pro.
Here's another point I saw elsewhere, but it is a good one. The iMac Pro shows four memory channels. All of the new Gold and Platinum Skylake-SP parts that we know about have six channels. So most likely this is the Bronze or Silver tier, about which we know little. Silver is a good bet. We should know more soon. I'll bet the 18-core is the Silver flagship. The beauty, of course, is that it makes use of Intel's whole "scalable" (the "S" in SP) Xeon scheme, as the Mac Pro next year will then likely use Gold, possibly in a dual-socket configuration.
The other possibility, of course, is that this is Broadwell-EP, but I just don't think that is likely. Releasing something like this with March 2016 CPUs (thus approaching two years old in December, plus they were delayed for months) just seems like a non-starter.
Here's another thought, from me this time. It looks like the boards visible from the back are screwed to something we can't see due to the cooling system and speakers. I'll guess the way you work on this is you open it from the front and remove the display, and then pull a sort of "chassis" out, thereby gaining access to both sides.
Not "user serviceable," but if the chassis is relatively easy to pull out, it might not be too terribly challenging to work on it.
I have to wonder if there won't be heat and noise issues with a system of 18 cores and Vega 64 GPU. That is a lot of processing crammed into that space. The trash can Mac Pro has had overheating and GPU issues with heavy duty Pro apps like Resolve. Maybe they learned some things?
To Apple's credit, this was the first WWDC in some years that provided some small excitement re the Mac and OS X: lots of hardware updates (even if most were minor - but hey - I was on the Apple web site comparing models and thinking of spending some coin), some cool stuff re VR, and advances coming re Apple File System --- not just iOS picture tools.
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Let me know when MS delivers Thunderbolt 3 in any Surface, including the Studio.
THEN they got all this feedback about 3 months ago - rightly so - that that is NOT what the professional market wants ... the iMac Pro is confused as a Pro machine - ill-suited to managing heat demands, and the 12 / 18 multi-core models slower than standard iMac models for most users.
So, what we have today is the announcement NOW of what Apple intended to do ... and in a few months, in 2018, thanks to the user protests an backlash, we will have the real new Mac Pro that caters to the full professional market. Happy to have both available!
EDIT: On the other hand, if the new Mac Pro ends up being almost everything Apple promises, I wouldn't be surprised if it cannibalizes the iMac Pro
The other possibility, of course, is that this is Broadwell-EP, but I just don't think that is likely. Releasing something like this with March 2016 CPUs (thus approaching two years old in December, plus they were delayed for months) just seems like a non-starter.
http://www.oit.uci.edu/telephone/cell-safety/hands-free-devices/
Not "user serviceable," but if the chassis is relatively easy to pull out, it might not be too terribly challenging to work on it.
Then count your sperm