bsbeamer

Like many others, a Mac Mini Pro would be sufficient for my needs and will use my own monitor(s).  

Will wait the MP7,1 out a bit to see how widely it is embraced before making a decision.  The iMac Pro is in need of an update or price drop to seriously consider.  Not being able to upgrade the components with 2+ year old GPUs integrated are not enticing.  The MBP16,1 performance is on par with iMac Pro and base MP7,1 for many tasks.

If you're looking for an external drive for ANY TB3 Mac, make sure you know what speeds you actually need before proceeding.  Several of those listed here will not actually achieve the advertised speeds and are only theoretical maximums.  Age of your machine also plays a factor if using any that are USB-C (depending on revision).

For the majority of users, a SATA SSD (like Samsung EVO 860)  in a USB3/USB-C enclosure (like an Orico with UASP) is ~500MB/s and more than fast enough for a lot work.  

If not, an NVMe blade (like Samsung EVO 970) in a USB-C or TB3 enclosure (like Sabrent or Pluggable) is ~1000MB/s and much more economical than some of these suggestions.  Some NVMe enclosures will do closer to ~1500MB/s depending on the blade, but don't expect much more than that unless you're going with a RAID.  

If you NEED speeds faster than ~1000MB/s, look at NVMe RAID setups like OWC Express 4M2 and Highpoint RocketStor 6661A-NVMe.  

I think it's a smart move to release a brand new model this time of year.  Gives motivation to sell 2018/2019 15" models at a discount, which retailers want for holiday sales.  Let's face it - Apple laptop products are expensive, people still want them and always ask for them at the holidays.  This may be an opportunity for enough of a discount to satisfy that.  

Avid HDX was part of the WWDC demos.  Believe featured 6 HDX cards at the demo.  Quote from AVID:

“Avid’s Pro Tools team is blown away by the unprecedented processing power of the new Mac Pro, and thanks to its internal expansion capabilities, up to six Pro Tools HDX cards can be installed within the system – a first for Avid’s flagship audio workstation. We’re now able to deliver never-before-seen performance and capabilities for audio production in a single system and deliver a platform that professional users in music and post have been eagerly awaiting.”

BTO pricing for MP7,1 is something Apple needs to release soon if they want to be successful with their (attempted) re-focus on the professional market.  Businesses plan costs in advance and many need financing pre-approvals for these types of purchases.  I know several that want to get the purchase in well before their mid-November spending freezes hit.  Larger corporate operations are already working on budgets for Q2/Q3 2020.  We're talking about workstations that start at $6K and easily climb to $10K+ if you're hoping they also pickup the new monitor.  

Apple Business reps are still not informed about pricing, leasing, or even estimated fairytale costs for this workstation.  Reaching out to them and you're hearing crickets.  One tried to sell the MacBook Air as an alternative available now.  None of those reps have proactively reached out to myself or colleagues (the actual customers with purchase authority).  Unfortunately, it really seems like Apple is missing the mark here and it is starting to smell way too much like a repeat of their 2011-2018 professional strategy (or lack thereof).  And I'm someone who is excited by and WANTS to buy/recommend this machine...