"The Mac Pro Lives"

Mac
#41

yes, that is part and parcel of what I mean. Apple made a mac pro that could only be expanded externally. But did not provide the resources and support for it. This is another reason why Thunderbolt hasn’t taken off.

Another example is the absence of a new thunderbolt display. Those LG things are ugly, as well as flaky.

I think the problem is the designers have got too much control compared with the engineers. Too much liberal arts, not enough technology.

About the only thing they have released recently that has the old Apple magic are the AirPods.

#42

I disagree. Thunderbolt has been adopted very well for what PCIe has always been used for (i.e. serious audio & video I/O, SAS/Fibre adapters, etc.) with GPUs as the exception. That said, I agree that Apple should have prioritised eGPU support, but their whole pitch on the Mac Pro 2013 was that it had dual GPUs already.

In all honesty, the only real issues with the current Mac Pro is: it can’t have dual CPUs, and it can’t have a big honking GPU and said GPU can’t be upgraded after the fact. If they fix those two things, while adding Thunderbolt 3, I think they’ll have a hit on their hands. Apparently there are some cases that are effectively small PCs with 1 fast PCIe for GPU. I reckon that’d be a great new Mac Pro (as long as it had everything the current Mac Pro has, plus TB3 and 1x PCIe double width slot and good cooling/power for GPU).

I do think that eGPU support launched with the new MacBook Pros & Thunderbolt 3 would have been appropriate though. I would not be surprised if it’s announced at WWDC as a 10.13 feature.

True - but I think it’s more the design ideology than designers having power per se. i.e. Apple are obsessed with ‘thin and light’ these days, which compromises the possibilities rather more than ‘designers making it pretty’ does. The old MacBook Pros were still pretty, but expandable.

#43

I think its got more issues besides that - general lack of upgradability and the case being too small to take mass storage using mechanical hard drives. From what I’ve read plenty of Pros would like to have main storage as SSD but use HDDs for additional.

#44

Sure, but I don’t think we’re going to get mass storage internally, nor is it really necessary nowadays. It’d be nice, I agree, but it’s not a deal breaker the way CPU/GPU is. :slight_smile:

#45

This is meant to be the Pro machine - the top end machine that doesn’t have compromises. Plenty of people do need mass storage internally.

Would be great if Apple could make an expandable Mac Pro with modular components and a base system.

#46

yes, but thunderbolt promised the ability to expand. Why didn’t Apple right from the start have an expansion case that matched the mac pro trash can purely for additional storage? or eGPU?
So focussed on a stand alone bit of perfection that was so perfect it wasn’t fit for purpose.

1 Like
#47

Exactly. Apple’s mishandling of thunderbolt is fairly shocking. They designed it for the Mac mini audience and sold it to the Mac Pro audience.

#48

Pretty easy to speculate why they didn’t have a Thunderbolt case for an eGPU — they bet on dual GPUs being the way forward, and that turned out the wrong decision.

As for additional storage, I think third-parties already had that covered. If Apple already exited the pro-level storage market, why would they have jumped right back in with a Thunderbolt enclosure?

#49

For you perhaps but I always prefer local storage on a machine as opposed to NAS or server based storage.

#50

I just can’t see the point of having a neat and compact machine, if you’ve then got to hook up endless peripherals.

Ideally the new Mac Pro would be like Lego expansion - a module for storage for example, but with a base machine for those who don’t need any more. I guess thermal and power issues would be difficult to work around. If Apple was doing that I would understand the wait.

I still think in the mean time they should resurrect the cheese greater to sell alongside the trashcan.

#51

A couple of discussions on the what would be good from a number of perspectives (sourced from John Gruber)

A software developers Mac pro

And
Marco Arment: the audacity to say “yes” in a design culture of “no”

#52

[quote=“Oldmacs, post:50, topic:3281, full:true”]
I just can’t see the point of having a neat and compact machine, if you’ve then got to hook up endless peripherals. [/quote]

Yeah, I seem to recall this being the argument when the 2013 Mac Pro was first announced.

No way, there would be riots. The processors in them are close to a decade old, and updating them would draw from Apple’s already strained resources.

#53

Oh don’t worry I 100 percent agree, but whoever I suggest anything of the sort on here, I usually get a grilling.

1 Like
#54

I actually laughed out loud at this, Apple is the richest corporation on the planet - if they need resources they can easiliy obtain them.

3 Likes
#55

I feel you, but I can’t image one day I use PC parts build Macintosh and purchase Apple macOS license sticker just like Microsoft does. I would still prefer to use Apple build Apple made Apple Brand products and not paying “license fee”…

#56

Truth is, I don’t care. At all.

I wanted a 2008 Mac Pro in 2008. I found the old forum posts elsewhere, where I hackintoshed and kept saying I was going to replace it with a legit Pro. Instead I bought a MacBook White and an Intel Mac Mini, which I could afford, and then replaced the Mini with a MBP that I could afford. Two years ago, I did it again, selling that MBP and getting my current one. Because the Mac Pro was just out of reach, too expensive for its lack of portability.

It’s now 2017, and I just bought a 2008 Mac Pro, just like I said I would… and it runs better than my MBP for my editing workflow. And with all the internal storage space I could even, no kidding, go back to 10.6 Snow Leopard and install Premiere 6.x and my various codecs (I use the same ones), and even edit in 720p or 1080p (no source I have is higher than that) on spare drive and just dual boot between them, with specs I could have only dreamt about in 2008. This is going to last me years…

…and then I could just get a 4,1 or a 5,1. Why the hell would I care about the 2018 Mac Pro? I’m a prosumer, sure, but there’s no new Mac Pro for me. I need the expandability, I need to ease of open and repair of a nice tower (I LOVED the flip side case of the G3/G4 towers), I need more power than the average user, and want a dedicated editing rig that isn’t my facegramtwitcord dropcloudmegatube mobile device (my iPhone and my MBP do that) but not the extremes of the professional.

Apple doesn’t currently make a hardware product for my editing life. And if it did, well, it would look a lot like the Mac Pro 2008 I just got. Specs included. Except new. Screw your iMacs. It’s not mobile enough to replace my MBP/iPhone, and it’s not open enough to replace my 2008 Mac Pro.

I’m good, thanks.

2 Likes
#57

I’m sorry, bennyling… are we talking about the same company? TEll me, please, how Apple’s resources are so strained.

1 Like
#58

So you think you pay nothing for the OS now? Given Apple’s astronomical hardware prices you can be assured that it’s well and truly built in to the price you pay.

#59

Cause they’ve got important things like ‘Carpool Karaoke’ and ‘Planet of the Apps’ to make :wink:

3 Likes
#60

Wait, people don’t think Apple is strained for resources?