New Mac Pro • Hacker News Board

Re: New Mac Pro

#261

Post by secabeen » Mon, Jun 03, 2019, 9:12 PM UTC

threeseed wrote: post #180

colechristensen wrote: post #126

The copy about the lattice pattern front being inspired by nature for airflow and rigidity is pretty ridiculous. It looks cool to have little spheres cut in the inside of a metal block but that's it. If you were actually optimizing for airflow or density you would do something entirely different (or you would look at the effects the grill has on airflow and realize the effect is minimal regardless of what you do and…

Not sure what you are talking about. They actually were optimising for airflow. If you look at the picture you couldn't design to allow more air to come through whilst maintaining a rigid structure: https://www.apple.com/mac-pro/design/ As for dust/dirt you could just spray it with compressed air.

Do they need a rigid structure on the faceplate? It's got the Space Frame bars, and there's a standard grid of holes plate behind the fancy faceplate. Just use the standard grate.

Re: New Mac Pro

#262

Post by wtallis » Mon, Jun 03, 2019, 9:12 PM UTC

jimbokun wrote: post #214

duskwuff wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The first step up from 256GB is 2x512GB, and there's configurations up to 2x2TB. My guess is that the 256GB configuration is meant for users that work primarily with data that's kept on network storage.

Or is this meant to be the "I just want to buy my own disks separately model", with 256GB drive just there to allow OS to be pre-installed? EDIT: I see now there are only two internal drive bays, so that would mean tossing the 256GB that comes with it if you wanted to max out the internal storage.

> I see now there are only two internal drive bays, so that would mean tossing the 256GB that comes with it if you wanted to max out the internal storage.

Or using some of the several PCIe slots to add lots more SSDs. It looks like the default configuration has enough spare PCIe slots and lanes to accommodate 8 M.2 SSDs in suitable risers. That can get you another 16TB for ~$1.8k (consumer-grade SSDs).

Re: New Mac Pro

#263

Post by jandrese » Mon, Jun 03, 2019, 9:13 PM UTC

This is the first Mac in many years that feels like it earned its "Pro" moniker, especially at that price point. It has a proper power supply. And cooling! And you can swap out/upgrade the hardware. It's not a bunch of thermally throttled laptop parts soldered onto some mini motherboard.

That display is in a class of its own as well.

Re: New Mac Pro

#264

Post by erdewit » Mon, Jun 03, 2019, 9:13 PM UTC

1.4 kW power supply... the next Apple accessory will be diesel generators.

Re: New Mac Pro

#265

Post by Spooky23 » Mon, Jun 03, 2019, 9:14 PM UTC

linguae wrote: post #204

rkho wrote: post #181

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The new Mac Minis are really powerful. What doesn't it have that you're hoping for?

- The new Mac Mini has soldered storage. This precludes upgrading storage, replacing internal storage (which is important for preserving data due to a motherboard failure), and adding additional internal storage. - Apple finally made the RAM on the new Mac Mini upgradeable, but it is not user-serviceable; you have to get the RAM installed by an Apple-authorized repair center in order for the warranty to stay valid on…

You can replace the memory yourself, but you must put OEM memory in if you bring it in for service.

Re: New Mac Pro

#266

Post by StillBored » Mon, Jun 03, 2019, 9:14 PM UTC

amarshall wrote: post #216

old-gregg wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, 580X is old (it's the same hardware as RX 480 from 2016) In fact, everything in that machine is old: the Xeons they use are rocking the Skylake core form 2015, with all of the recently discovered side-channel vulnerabilities. The upcoming AMD Threadripper 3 CPUs with PCIe4 would be a much better Pro offering. Clock-for-clock they are beating Skylake now, rumored to have up to 64 cores. Also, PCIe4-based RAID 0 a…

It’s more likely the new Mac Pro uses the as-of-yet unannounced (but leaked [1]) Xeon W-3xxx CPUs. The current Xeon W fare doesn’t have the core counts Apple is advertising. [1] https://www.tomshardware.com/news/intel-xeon-cascade-lake-w-...

Xeon W-3175X is 28 cores (and 250W)..

But yes, I would expect a dual die 64 core monster like the 92xx series they recently announced. Of course the 300W power/thermal solution apple was talking about seems a bit limiting in that case.

Re: New Mac Pro

#267

Post by aczerepinski » Mon, Jun 03, 2019, 9:14 PM UTC

matthewmacleod wrote: post #191

rkho wrote: post #181

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The new Mac Minis are really powerful. What doesn't it have that you're hoping for?

GPU for me. I’d snap one up if it had a GPU in line with that in the MacBook Pro. I don’t particularly want a large external GPU hooked up over Thunderbolt.

Same. The short height of the mini is in no way a feature for me, but being configurable with a graphics card sure would be.

Re: New Mac Pro

#268

Post by ianhowson » Mon, Jun 03, 2019, 9:14 PM UTC

wayoutthere wrote: post #194

llampx wrote: post #186

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's no professional that would buy a machine with 256GB of storage. Let's call it what it is - a throwaway configuration meant to hit a price point.

You would if you had a storage appliance on a SAN, as the SAN is almost certainly faster than a single SSD. This is an extremely common setup for video production, so it’s not out of the target market at all.

There are plenty of cheap NVMe SSDs that can push 3.5Gbytes/sec (Samsung 970, Adata XPG). Even with dual 10Gbe NICs, you can't match that, nor the low access times of local storage.

But I do agree that SAN storage is the norm here.

Re: New Mac Pro

#269

Post by buckminster » Mon, Jun 03, 2019, 9:15 PM UTC

pfranz wrote: post #205

shawnz wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Competing on what, markup? What advantage does this hardware give for movie studios when consumer grade hardware outperforms it?

To be clear, I'm not talking about this Mac Pro in particular, but things like the Boxx or Mac Pro. You would get something like this instead of consumer hardware because man hours cost real money. At a previous job they wanted a VR PC, so someone speced out a bunch of high end parts and a case with flashy lights. A couple days of my salary went to putting it all together. That was the first time I had to RMA a mothe…

There is a vast middle ground between build it yourself and buy it from Apple.

Re: New Mac Pro

#270

Post by outworlder » Mon, Jun 03, 2019, 9:15 PM UTC

mcphage wrote: post #70

Shivetya wrote: post #23

I know being expandable is important here but I am stunned by the fact that an iMac Pro actually comes with better SSD and Video Card for less money and you get a screen to boot! 256g SSD is shameful, I don't care what they were thinking. No Nvidia support mentioned so I know a few that just wrote it off for that oversight alone. They will probably hold out just to be sure but that was the hope for them and others. W…

> 580X is old, 2017 old Is it? This site claims it came out in March 2019 but I definitely can't keep the various graphics card lines separate in my head: https://www.techpowerup.com/gpu-specs/radeon-pro-580x.c3398

That was a sub $300 GPU back in 2016 (the RX480). There is nothing "pro" about it in 2019.