aussiepaul

bkkcanuck said:

welshdog said:

I know this sort of thing goes against the Apple way, but they really need to go out and talk to people about what they need in a desktop or tower computer.  With the old Mac Pros they had a computer that was dominant in video post proudction (with FCP) and in graphic design.  Then they started ignoring that segment of their business and we went years with no update.  This was under Jobs BTW.  Maybe Steve had decided that workhorse computers didn't fit the Apple future, but Steve is gone and I think this is one example of where he was wrong.  It's not a big market, but it is one that is pretty steady.  It might even be one that could grow if they committed to it with engineering and marketing resources.  In the film and video effects world Apple now has practically zero presence because they don't make machines that kare comparable with the powerful HP and Boxx hardware that is used in this industry.  Boxx has built it's entire business around making super fast tower computers.  I see no reason why Apple couldn't do the same with their superior OS, but again only if they had the willingness to do so.  A lot of people would say "take my money" if Apple released a bleeding edge tower computer.  A lot.

I have heard a lot about the cheese grater version of the Mac being far superior to the trashcan Mac as far as expandability.  I still have my Mac Pro 2008 (8 core) [with upgraded graphics] and I can tell you that it was less expandable than people seem to pretend.  You had a PCIe bus but no thunderbolt and USB-2.  First thing I did was put in 2x graphics cards.... which left 1 (yes 1 1 only) PCIe slot with lower bandwidth for anything else - in my case I put in a SAS controller (hobbled a bit by the fact that it PCIe bandwidth.... is less than what I could get from Thunderbolt).  Yes - I can put hard drives in it but however many they give you there will never be enough internally... and I know the PC market has been all about putting hard drives in the same case but .... that is not a great design either.  Hard drives are old mechanical beasts that whirl and vibrate and shake and give off lots of heat.... this is best dealt with in a case that is designed for that thing rather than in the same case as your computer.  I have 4 HD slots and 13 HDs.....  I could not give a crap about any new machine having slots for hard drives .... it would be a waste.  Yes, it would be useful to be able to upgrade the graphics.... but then if there are better options in the future and I had a Mac Pro from a few years ago.... guess what... I can just disconnect the hard drive array, mirror the SSD drives .... then sell it and buy a newer model with newer graphics capabilities (assuming an upgraded Mac Pro exists).... not really much of a hinderance give that Apple hardware retains better resell values than other companies... and there seems to always be someone out there willing to buy it.  Really with the way thunderbolt the way it is the only thing that really is useful for upgrading is the memory onboard.....  Trashcan is not that bad of a design....  However I would not be surprised if the new Mac Pro gets a new case again this year (maybe revert to a certain extent).  I get the feeling that the US manufacturing of the current Mac Pro had some issues, and given they have not "nudged" the specs....  I get the feeling they did not nudge them because there may be some issue with the current design and they felt that nudging it was not the best solution.... and there is a new design in the works.   They should have never moved the manufacturing back to the US  

eriamjh said:

No 5K display from Apple tells me that the iMac 5K will NEVER support target display mode because it's just too costly to implement.  

No Mac Pro updates in 3 years possibly indicates a new form factor with better storage due to the complaints of the small size and its many lightning ports.  

No new Mac Mini is because Apple just doesn't really care about it much and prefers to sell more expensive machines.


All of those things aside, at least give us a processor or memory speed update once a year!