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Author Topic: New Mac Pro  (Read 11047 times)

JimGoshorn

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New Mac Pro
« on: June 10, 2013, 03:21:25 pm »

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design_freak

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Re: New Mac Pro
« Reply #1 on: June 10, 2013, 03:30:27 pm »

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Leszek Piotrowski

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Re: New Mac Pro
« Reply #2 on: June 10, 2013, 04:32:45 pm »

If the price is not too high,... I'll take one.
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BernardLanguillier

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Re: New Mac Pro
« Reply #3 on: June 10, 2013, 07:54:22 pm »

Very interesting specs and design philosophy.

Now, some things I would like to see clarified:
- Does someone know how many memory banks it has/the max amount of supported memory?
- price?
- it seems that all the USB ports are on the front, is that really the case?
- how to manage the scratch disk if there is only room for one storage device?
- considering that the accelerated pace of OSX releases does absolutely not match the needs of advanced users, how well does it run windows knowing its heavy reliance on Thunderbolt 2?
- upgradability of GPUs and will they always have to come in pairs?

Thanks.

Cheers,
Bernard

design_freak

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Re: New Mac Pro
« Reply #4 on: June 10, 2013, 09:05:38 pm »

Very interesting specs and design philosophy.

Now, some things I would like to see clarified:
- Does someone know how many memory banks it has/the max amount of supported memory?
- price?
- it seems that all the USB ports are on the front, is that really the case?
- how to manage the scratch disk if there is only room for one storage device?
- considering that the accelerated pace of OSX releases does absolutely not match the needs of advanced users, how well does it run windows knowing its heavy reliance on Thunderbolt 2?
- upgradability of GPUs and will they always have to come in pairs?

Thanks.

Cheers,
Bernard

-It looks like 4 banks. No idea - I would be nice if there will be more than 64GB.
-Price is unknown.
-It is hard to say where is front ;)
-I think you can use TB to get more space without any loosing of speed
-I don't use new OS, so I can't tell that it not match my needs...
-You can use additional GPU via TB2
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BernardLanguillier

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Re: New Mac Pro
« Reply #5 on: June 10, 2013, 09:26:26 pm »

-It looks like 4 banks. No idea - I would be nice if there will be more than 64GB.
-I think you can use TB to get more space without any loosing of speed
-I don't use new OS, so I can't tell that it not match my needs...
-You can use additional GPU via TB2

Hum... that's what I was afraid of.

- 64GB is not that much, what is the price of 16GB ECC modules at 1866 Ghz?
- cache disks externalized may not be an issue, TBC
- you may have missed my point. I am not discussing the capabilities of OSX 10.9, I am discussing the fact that 10.9 being released this quickly after 10.8 is bad news for serious users because it always creates compatibility issues and generates a lot of complexity that prevents from upgrading some apps in the portfolio because some apps typically aren't compatible with older OSs... so I am not complaining about 10.9, I am complaining about the pace of upgrade of OSX,
- I am not sure that TB2 will be fast enough to deliver the speed potential of those new graphic cards I may be interested in upgrading to at a later stage. But this may be possible, so let's keep it TBC for now.

Cheers,
Bernard
« Last Edit: June 10, 2013, 09:40:47 pm by BernardLanguillier »
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phila

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Re: New Mac Pro
« Reply #6 on: June 10, 2013, 09:38:50 pm »

Very interesting specs and design philosophy.

Now, some things I would like to see clarified:
- Does someone know how many memory banks it has/the max amount of supported memory?
- price?
- it seems that all the USB ports are on the front, is that really the case?
- how to manage the scratch disk if there is only room for one storage device?
- considering that the accelerated pace of OSX releases does absolutely not match the needs of advanced users, how well does it run windows knowing its heavy reliance on Thunderbolt 2?
- upgradability of GPUs and will they always have to come in pairs?

Thanks.



Cheers,
Bernard


It would appear to be 4.*
Find out closer to the release date.
All the ports are on the "back" in fact (although there is nothing stopping you making that the "front").
*
?
? I wonder about this myself. I, and I assume most photographers, aren't going to require that sort of GPU power. Maybe there will be an option to configure for one? And maybe use the space for another PCI Flash module?

* Obviously the days of everything on the inside (pretty much) are gone. Expansion via TB2 is now the new reality. While at first I wasn't too happy with this approach it does have its advantages. You will no longer be paying (one hopes) for features you might never use (PCI slots perhaps - although I use 2 extra myself). ASSUMING good expansion units are forthcoming, and the very design of the MacPro would seem to guarantee this. Storage, PCI, etc can all be added as required. Maybe even memory (I don't know enough about that to say)? Apple itself might even expansion units available? I can see an integrated, perhaps stackable system? Maybe with some sort of integrated TB connection system?

While I like a clean workspace more than most and would prefer it to be cable free, the massive reduction in size and footprint will free up a lot of area on my desk!

I guess we will see...

studio347

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Re: New Mac Pro
« Reply #7 on: June 10, 2013, 10:03:00 pm »

I like it. Even though it might be not perfect.. it's great that Apple didn't drop off powerful computer division. I understand that some people hate the fact that it can't be modified...or difficult to do it. It's very essence to some people... But this is Apple's decision which was probably tough one even for Apple. I might want to plan to replace it every two years or so... meaning selling through ebay or.. The design looks fine. The beauty is in the efficiency of the form. I hope the form works well for the computer. I need 32(now)or 64 ram( probably near future) and a fast and stable hard drive(SSD). As long as I can get a fast external SSD for 10 or 15 M interval_continuous chrono sync, it looks fine for my usage.... :)
« Last Edit: June 10, 2013, 10:15:22 pm by studio347 »
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K.C.

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Re: New Mac Pro
« Reply #8 on: June 10, 2013, 11:04:15 pm »

Very interesting specs and design philosophy.

Now, some things I would like to see clarified:
- Does someone know how many memory banks it has/the max amount of supported memory?
- price?
- it seems that all the USB ports are on the front, is that really the case?
- how to manage the scratch disk if there is only room for one storage device?
- considering that the accelerated pace of OSX releases does absolutely not match the needs of advanced users, how well does it run windows knowing its heavy reliance on Thunderbolt 2?
- upgradability of GPUs and will they always have to come in pairs?

Any attempts at answering these questions are pure speculation.

Today's announcement was vague for a reason, it's still being developed.
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John.Murray

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Re: New Mac Pro
« Reply #9 on: June 11, 2013, 11:33:33 am »

I was very surprised to see the form factor, expecting a rack mountable solution that a lot of people were asking for; but it makes a lot of sense.  Your typical workstation today has at least 3-4 individual fans, none of which are particularly optimized to work in conjunction with others.  The single fan approach makes a lot of sense - I'm amazed how small this thing is.....

In regard to performance, it appears they've doubled memory bandwidth, and with new TB-2 ports you'll get the same PCIe performance (20GBx2) as the internal PCIe bus, making and external expansion cabinets practical with no performance trade-off.  Looking closely at the Dual GPU cards in Apple's photo, they appear upradeable .....
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BJL

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New Mac Pro: rotate with top handle for port access
« Reply #10 on: June 11, 2013, 12:40:25 pm »

All ports are together, just above the power-in connection, so clearly intended to be out of the way at the back most of the time. Apple's PR suggests that one access ports by rotating the whole unit, using its top handle (the port lights come on when you do this!), but I would prefer at least one USB on the side opposite the main cable zone, for casual hook-ups. On the other hand, being small enough to go on a desktop is a great advantage for port access.

I also want the option of a transparent outer cover: it looks much cooler with the cover off!

P. S. I like the "iChimney" design, with a single integrated vertical heat outlet and fan system.
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W.T. Jones

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Re: New Mac Pro
« Reply #11 on: June 11, 2013, 01:21:18 pm »

Interesting design, Miller Electric Manufacturing has used a similar wind tunnel cooling design in their inverter welding power supplies for nearly two decades. I am talking 400 amp machines that weigh 80 lbs or so, Very efficient cooling. 

The lack of an optical drive is puzzling to me, but that seems to be the way Apple is heading will all computer designs. Never the less, kudos to the designers, Very forward out of the box thinking IMHO. The small size & neatness is very tempting indeed.
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Warren

george2787

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Re: New Mac Pro
« Reply #12 on: June 11, 2013, 07:04:44 pm »

I'm curious about the caché issue, this thing mounts PCI express SSD capable of nearly 1GB/sec... say you get 1TB and your data is in an external enclosure, should't that be enough speed/space for scratch?
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BJL

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New Mac Pro: good riddance to the last internal removable media drives
« Reply #13 on: June 11, 2013, 07:40:34 pm »

The lack of an optical drive is puzzling to me ...
With almost all my software installs by download, I use optical drives about once a year lately, so I am happy to have a single portable one for the rare remaining DVD installs on all computers in my department, and reduce the size and cost of the computers. I guess that, as with diskette drives, Windows computers will hang on to them for some years longer than Apple has, but external USB diskette drives were all I needed for that transition too.
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Ellis Vener

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Re: New Mac Pro
« Reply #14 on: June 11, 2013, 09:35:41 pm »

Anyone else notice that, at least in the photos they are showing so far, there is no visible Apple logo/icon on the new Mac Pro?

Edit: Found it! It is above the connectivity dock on the back. Talk about minimal, sheesh Sir Ivey!
« Last Edit: June 11, 2013, 10:24:08 pm by Ellis Vener »
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John.Murray

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Re: New Mac Pro
« Reply #15 on: June 11, 2013, 11:51:54 pm »

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BJL

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New Mac Pro: why no PCIe slots, and no Nvidia graphics option
« Reply #16 on: June 12, 2013, 02:36:04 pm »

John,
thanks for that link. Something just struck me with Apple's pushing TB over internal PCIe card slots:
1) Apple is pushing mobile computing like mad, and probably already makes more profit on laptops than desktop/deskside computers.
2) laptops do not have PCIe slots, but can use TB2 expansion for anything that fits its 20Gb/s limit.

So Apple would very much like expansion devices to move away from PCIe cards to using TB (or USB), making them usable with its laptops too.

This would also benefit those of us who aspire to do as much as possible with a (docked) high-end laptop.

I also suspect that Apple is trying to push general purpose GPU processing, and push the use of the multi-vendor supported and open OpenCL standard for this rather that Nvidia's proprietary CUDA. Not offering Nvidia GPU's and having two GPUs but only a single (albeit 12-core) CPU are what suggests this to me. And the fact that Apple was the originator of OpenCL.

P. S. I just realized another reason for the lack of choice of GPU's: they need to be a custom mod, omitting the integral fan system and such of the standard PCIe version.
« Last Edit: June 12, 2013, 07:00:22 pm by BJL »
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geotzo

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Re: New Mac Pro
« Reply #17 on: June 13, 2013, 06:24:24 am »

The price tag is probably going to be higher than the last Mac Pro... which will force even more users to get into high end pcs.
I like the design but it looks limited in terms of upgradability, ie only 4 slots for memory, not many connectivity slots for an engine that
only accepts ssds, no internal optical drive etc
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Ellis Vener

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Re: New Mac Pro
« Reply #18 on: June 13, 2013, 09:47:35 am »

Great link John, thank you for sharing. it's clearly a machine that a lot of "modders" are going to dislike, but I think  a lot of working photographers, videographers, and editing studios will embrace. 
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BJL

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New Mac Pro. One more time: expansion is there, but is external
« Reply #19 on: June 13, 2013, 09:58:04 am »

The price tag is probably going to be higher than the last Mac Pro... which will force even more users to get into high end pcs
I suspect that also, a large proportion of former potential Mac Pro customers have already moved to iMacs or even MacBook Pros, which now meet the needs of many people who formerly needed the tower unit, and so the new Mac Pro is more focused on the remaining upper part of the Mac Pro market. So yes, I expect a higher entry price, just for the dual graphics cards to start with.
... it looks limited in terms of upgradability, ie only 4 slots for memory, not many connectivity slots for an engine that only accepts ssds, no internal optical drive etc
With the ability to connect up to 36 Thunderbolt devices and four USB3 ports, the four memory slots are the only part that seems a real limitation on expansion, and with Apple saying that OS X 10.9 has been tested with up to 128GB of RAM, I have to think that Apple knows that fast 32GB RAM cards are coming (at a "Pro" level price!) As far as adding mass storage or optical devices, upgradability is clearly there through those external options, since Thunderbolt and probably even USB3 have enough speed for that. Locally networked mass storage via Fibre Channel (using a TB adaptor) or gigabit ethernet are options too -- though offering the newer 10Gb ethernet would be more "future proof".

P. S. I already asked elsewhere, but are there examples other than graphics cards where one would need internal PCIe slots because the 20Gb/s of TB2 is not enough?
« Last Edit: June 13, 2013, 10:00:09 am by BJL »
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