2013 Mac Pro

Kris

Kris

Well-Known Member
Introducing the 2013 Mac Pro. Now, I've never really owned a Mac, and I wasn't too fond of the Macs I've used, but I decided to make a discussion thread on this whacky looking thing. Just to see what you computer savvy people think of it.

Processor: Unspecified (up to 12 core Intel Xeon - E5 V2 based)
Memory: Unspecified Capacity DDR3 ECC at 1866 MHz (up to 60 GB/s)
Graphics: Dual AMD FirePro with up to 6 GB of VRAM (six Thunderbolt 2 and one HDMI port)
Hard Drive: Unspecified capacity PCIe based solid state flash storage (up to 1250MB/s read and 1000MB/s write)
Also, from what I can tell, there's no pre-installed internal optical drive.

macpro.jpg

2013_Mac_Pro_Ports.png

So, begin!
 

Attachments

  • New-Mac-Pro-key-facts-explains-2013-design.jpg
    New-Mac-Pro-key-facts-explains-2013-design.jpg
    39 KB · Views: 114
ollee said:
I don't even know why they wouldn't do this? It costs so little extra for such a big feature in business and education environments that it should be a no brainer.
Click to expand...
Espically since it's such a small and compact size, it'd be so easy to steal compared to a fullsized one.
 
Wooty said:
No pcie slots, no kensington lock. Looks like a good computer for people who enjoy OSX and like to pay extra for looks.
Click to expand...

Each Thunderbolt connection is fast enough to support 40 PCIe 2.0 Lanes and their are products on the market called Thunderbolt Expansion Chassis that let you hook up PCIe cards to a computer via Thunderbolt. Having 6 Thunderbolt ports on the new Mac Pro (Gives 120 PCIe 2.0 Lanes if having 2 ports per Thunderbolt controller or 240 PCIe 2.0 Lanes if having 1 port per Thunderbolt controller) is lots beter than having just 24 PCIe 2.0 Lanes spread over 3 slots like as in the Mac Pro 2012.

As far as drivers for the PCIe cards in the Thunderbolt Expansion Chassis they don't require any modification because the OS X presents to the software the PCIe slots in the Expansion Chassis just like if they were physically inside the computer.

Because of the above reasons I feel that the new Mac Pro is the most expandable personal computer someone can buy and use out of the box. The only other options for expandable computers at this time are Workstations (I am talking > $5000) and Custom built computers (Like all of your guys rigs).

Patchouli said:
What even is with the shape? Is it trying to look like a HEPA filter?
Click to expand...

As far as the shape goes I would be worried that if I had one at work my coworkers might throw trash in the main exhaust vent.
 
ChrisWsrn said:
Each Thunderbolt connection is fast enough to support 40 PCIe 2.0 Lanes and their are products on the market called Thunderbolt Expansion Chassis that let you hook up PCIe cards to a computer via Thunderbolt. Having 6 Thunderbolt ports on the new Mac Pro (Gives 120 PCIe 2.0 Lanes if having 2 ports per Thunderbolt controller or 240 PCIe 2.0 Lanes if having 1 port per Thunderbolt controller) is lots beter than having just 24 PCIe 2.0 Lanes spread over 3 slots like as in the Mac Pro 2012.

As far as drivers for the PCIe cards in the Thunderbolt Expansion Chassis they don't require any modification because the OS X presents to the software the PCIe slots in the Expansion Chassis just like if they were physically inside the computer.

Because of the above reasons I feel that the new Mac Pro is the most expandable personal computer someone can buy and use out of the box. The only other options for expandable computers at this time are Workstations (I am talking > $5000) and Custom built computers (Like all of your guys rigs).



As far as the shape goes I would be worried that if I had one at work my coworkers might throw trash in the main exhaust vent.
Click to expand...
You understand you called something with really fast, customized USB ports the most expandable thing ever because you can plug things into it, right? You keep using that word "Expandable", I do not think it means what you think it means.
 
NewspaperCrane said:
You understand you called something with really fast, customized USB ports the most expandable thing ever because you can plug things into it, right? You keep using that word "Expandable", I do not think it means what you think it means.
Click to expand...

Well, he didn't specify what he meant by expandable, so I will offer my opinion. The actual components of the computer (internal hardware) are generally not expandable. Apple is known for making it extremely difficult to upgrade the parts of their products without getting it done officially by apple at a store at a huge price. This could be viewed by some as not being "expandable" but if you are good with computers, any computer is expandable if you are willing to take the time and added risks of doing it yourself.

Given that chris was not talking about internal hardware in his post, however, I think he knew exactly what he was saying when he used the word "expandable" because he was only talking about the thunderbolt interface, which I agree is extremely expandable. There is no mainstream external periphery that I am aware of that can harness the full potential of the 20 gbit/s speed of the thunderbolt 2 interface. The pegasus ssd I believe is the only drive available right now that comes anywhere even close, using up to 10gbit/s of the 20gbit/s potential.

In this sense, the inclusion of 6 whole thunderbolt ports on the Mac Pro is enormously expansive. They will be useful very far into the future. Hopefully more innovative external devices will be invented that can make full use of the thunderbolt interface.
 
We use a fairly large of mac pro's where i work and these are just not what we are hoping for or what we needed. These are designed for the graphic design working at home that wants a "cool" looking computer. Apple is pretty much abandoning the corporate world. They killed xserv about a year ago, with mac pro running osx server being the replacement. 2 mac pro's in a rack take up the same space as something like 12 xserv's but it would work. These new ones while they could sit on a shelf in a rack like old mac pro's would, they don't seem to have front to back airflow which is pretty much a requirement for putting something in a rack. The lack of pci-e cards also means we don't really have a way to use one to replace an xserv if one dies and we can't repair it as we are running apple xsan2 which needs fiber channel cards installed. Some sort of breakout pci-e to thunderbird box is just adding another point of failure in the system. This thing reminds me of the cube which went over so well for apple....


p.s. I wonder how many problems there will be for people thinging it's a trash can and throwing shit in the top.

and do these even support more than 1 drive in a raid array? the current mac pro makes it easy to use up to 4 drives in various raid configurations.
 
cs6ranger said:
and do these even support more than 1 drive in a raid array? the current mac pro makes it easy to use up to 4 drives in various raid configurations.
Click to expand...

They require external drive enclosures to add drives. If you have the drives connected you can set up a RAID array. (All you need now is some ID10T to steal one of the external drives for your RAID 0 array)

Also I am also kinda annoyed that Apple keeps shooting its self in the foot (With OS X server and Intel GPUs in the Mac Books). It kinda stinks that Steve Jobs left.
 
ChrisWsrn said:
They require external drive enclosures to add drives. If you have the drives connected you can set up a RAID array. (All you need now is some ID10T to steal one of the external drives for your RAID 0 array)

Also I am also kinda annoyed that Apple keeps shooting its self in the foot (With OS X server and Intel GPUs in the Mac Books). It kinda stinks that Steve Jobs left.
Click to expand...
He didn't leave, he died + all Steve Jobs did before he died was show off the newest Apple products.
 
xHallucinationx said:
He didn't leave, he died + all Steve Jobs did before he died was show off the newest Apple products.
Click to expand...

When he was alive he did QC on the work by the engineering department, If something did not make sense (Like putting Intel GPUs in the Macbook Pro) he would make them change it.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top