Sorry - just *have* to jump in here. This post is full of ridiculous information.
Statements regarding cabling from the new Mac Pro would equally apply to the Mac Mini; in either case a *single* TB cable to a PCIe cabinet and possibly a 2nd to Storage takes care of expansion - hardly clutter
Raid 0 is a *dumb* idea unless you don't care about your data, even given that, Raid 0 on SSD on OS X defeats O/S trim ability (RAID 0 trim is only supported on Windows on Intel's H77 &Z78 chipsets using Intel's driver). The only way to trim is to perform an image backup, break the RAID pair, perform manual trim on both individual drives, recreate the RAID pair, then restore the image.....
I'd like to know how you put a 3rd party graphics card in a mini ....
overclocking after removing the enclosure? Really?
All that said - you would do well to consider a mini, especially if you are just staying with photos, and not considering video
Finally - hackintosh was offered as an alternative, although certainly doable, the fact remains that it violates Apple's licensing terms. Enforcement (or lack of) aside; I, as an IT professional wouldn't even consider it, I'm assuming the OP as a professional wouldn't either.....
Have to awnser on this, ..
The point was of 1 - Price and 2 Tidy desk..
- The point of the mac pro was just you could build it up inside the case. Now it becomes just a large mac mini, that can not be nicely put away..
- The mac mini, is nice because you can easely buy cases to put it in, and have extra expandability ( via thunderbolt ok but it's inside 1 CASE) for instance by Sonet.
Every one knows with just a computer you haven't enough equipment you HAVE to put extra stuf on it ... And this is cables and this is a collection of dust, and this is annoying .. And for some one wit OCD not good for the state of mind. Also if you pay big bucks for all your equipent ( from camera's to display) it's normal you want to keep it clean and well maintained ..
I have a beefed up Mac mini, with the 2 disk solution for speed and 3the party Ram ( ok expensive ram but anyway) it's mounted in this:
http://www.sonnettech.com/product/xmacminiserver.html and i have a PCI card for scsi ( imacon scanner) and a better graphics card for my screens in it, works perfectly fine,. This is just the " produciton machine" , the back up of he produciton happens on an other " rack mountable" Raid disk above it ( not large only 2 TB) ( once an hour ) and then again on external HD Once a day ... So i have 1 version of the file on the mac mini, then once an hour it goes to the Backup raid disk, and then again once a day to the external one. So on back up it's well covered and if i do some thing stupit i can ALWAYS go back to the previous one within the production.
-> The point of this could be: yes but this is not cheap, .. Shure! but it's dynamic, i can do different things with it and build it as needed while using mac... ( as long as there is no support for Linux systems,) and i also just have to change the "computer" on it if i need to or just the cards - it's like building a techincal camera system), look to this:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/09/12/phonebloks_n_3908611.html , it has to evolve to a as open as possible system, but all systems go to as closed as possible, being mac, or windows, or whatever, <-
Every one knows if you work day in day out with hudge files, it's impossible to save everything on 2TB, and disks directly on the system are not a good solution, not expandable, not multi user etc etc, SO , when post production is finished, it automatically goes to the "ARCHIVING" server ( on the network) where again it's backuped up in RAID and on TAPE ...
The only difference the new mac pro will make is: the price ( as one basically needs the same system to do all the add ons because the machine is not expandable inside so it also has to happen inside the machine) . You nee much more space in your rack ( as it's a tube, and larger, so i guess a U3 or something like that where the Mac mini solution is U1),... For photography ( his is a photography forum no ?), this is overkill right now..
Also Video People, serious post production studios, like to keep their equipment tidy as they have so much different expensive boxes, from Tape readers, to render boxes, to sound , to capture readers, to satellite transmitters, and backup disks, production disks and so on..
And then Apple comes with a machine that can not be incorporated in the system they already have ( well it will be possible but take up loads of space)... it's stupid , ( i think Avid and Quantel are quite happy now ) ...
I have no problem with the Imac being beautifull, or a macbook air, or whatever.. But a "Pro machine" has to be dynamic, and i don't hink a trash-can design is dynamic..
Again it's not about the power of the machin that's Fantastic, but it's put in a completely useless form..
I had SGI's before, nice machines, but the rubbish gets around it...
The new Mac-pro is NOT A BAD COMPUTER, IT's BAD DESIGN!!