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Apple Updates The Mac Pro

techcrunch.com

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Re: Apple Updates The Mac Pro

#61

Post by oofabz »

bhauer wrote: post #46
oofabz wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, they are Ivy Bridge-E. Haswell-E doesn't ship until 2014.

Oh? I had been under the impression that Haswell Xeons (at least the E3 v3 series) were available "now" [1]: "Twelve of the chips are available now, but the 13 watt E3-1220L that will be particularly interesting for microservers is not going to be available until the third quarter..." What am I missing here? Presumably the 12-core option would be an E5, is that it? [1] http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/06/04/intel_ha…

The Haswell Xeon E3 series is quad core, single-socket. It uses the same die as desktop Haswell CPUs. The Mac Pro is six core, double-socket, so it must be a "-E". Based on the availability date (later this year), it must be Ivy Bridge-E. Intel will almost certainly call it an E5.

Re: Apple Updates The Mac Pro

#62

Post by rbritton »

masklinn wrote: post #11
rbritton wrote: post #2

At 1/8 the size will it even have any of the internal storage capacity that I love my current MacPro for?

They said it's all external via TB2 (they put in 3 TB2 controllers driving 6 ports)

So cords everywhere then. I do a lot of photo editing an have close to 10 TB storage internal (I repurposed the optical drive bays). I can keep all of my working files internally and only have external drives for archiving and backup and aren't connected all of the time.

Re: Apple Updates The Mac Pro

#63

Post by drzaiusapelord »

mikeash wrote: post #53
drzaiusapelord wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's pretty much every computer out there. Is innovation such a low bar now that a new case and the newer Intel CPU is suddenly deserving of innovation praise because it has a fruit logo? Also am I the other one bothered by the case mentioning being built in the US but designed in California, like California is now its own nation?

Apple stuff has been saying "Designed in California, made in China" for years now.

I get that, my point is that you could just say "Assembled and designed in the US" and be done with it. Does mentioning California really give them so much more culture cachet?

Re: Apple Updates The Mac Pro

#64

Post by bilbo0s »

mosqutip wrote: post #21

"Can't innovate anymore, my ass". Uh... what exactly is being "innovated" here?

Hmm...

If these things are Thunderbolt 2 devices... it really does open up some different possibilities for you.

I know that everyone doesn't need it... but connecting a few of these together via TB 2 would be kind of interesting for me. I mean being able to see one machine with even as few as 24 or 36 cores.

A Xeon here a GPU there... pretty soon you're talking about real capability. Again, it's not for everyone... but there are a lot of areas where you get some real benefits.

Thinking about buying 4 and just writing the software myself if it's not supported. But I'm pretty sure it probably is. Probably just tcp/ip though :(

Oh well... that'd be enough.

Anyway... not many other devices you can do things like that with and still keep good bandwidth between devices. It is thinking a bit outside the box. I can't think of another machine that would let me conveniently do that, and still take up 1/2 the volume of the current mac pro???

Can you???

(Not snark. Genuinely interested. I'm in the market, and would be willing to write the connecting software myself).

Re: Apple Updates The Mac Pro

#65

Post by gtaylor »

bvdbijl wrote: post #43
mosqutip wrote: post #21

"Can't innovate anymore, my ass". Uh... what exactly is being "innovated" here?

Please show me a device that's comparable to the new Mac Pro... So much performance in this small of a form factor is pretty innovative

You could build something much more powerful for cheaper, and still be able to upgrade/change out individual internal components. I've bumped the RAM capacity/speed twice since I built this machine three years ago. Upgraded the video card once, and CPU once. When I decide to do a more thorough re-vamp, I can re-use the power supply, the case, the video card, and a bunch of other components.

What you're really paying for is a very expensive and moderately beefy machine that can run OS X legally. Or you need Final Cut Pro in some serious capacity. Oh, and it has an Apple logo on it.

Re: Apple Updates The Mac Pro

#66

Post by bhauer »

oofabz wrote: post #61
bhauer wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh? I had been under the impression that Haswell Xeons (at least the E3 v3 series) were available "now" [1]: "Twelve of the chips are available now, but the 13 watt E3-1220L that will be particularly interesting for microservers is not going to be available until the third quarter..." What am I missing here? Presumably the 12-core option would be an E5, is that it? [1] http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/06/04/intel_ha…

The Haswell Xeon E3 series is quad core, single-socket. It uses the same die as desktop Haswell CPUs. The Mac Pro is six core, double-socket, so it must be a "-E". Based on the availability date (later this year), it must be Ivy Bridge-E. Intel will almost certainly call it an E5.

Thanks. That was my vague suspicion--that the 12-core option would be an E5.

Presumably the specs they announced are the top-end specs. Perhaps the lower tiers would use E3s.

Re: Apple Updates The Mac Pro

#67

Post by Fomite »

Not thrilled with "all the expansion is external". I wonder how clean it will look with external storage, external PCI cases, etc.

They didn't talk much, but hopefully the RAM is easy to upgrade. I have the sinking feeling the GPU won't be, and the onboard SSD will be...pricey.

Re: Apple Updates The Mac Pro

#68

Post by whatevenisthis »

asdfs wrote: post #45
[deleted] wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[deleted]

Wouldn't you suffer from lower bandwidth than over PCIe, though?

^ A 16-lane PCI-E supports 31.51 GB/s of bandwidth. Thunderbolt 2 supports 20Gbps of bandwidth, or 2.5GB/s. So it's actually only 1/12th of the bandwidth.

Re: Apple Updates The Mac Pro

#69

Post by foxhill »

kind of surprised to see an update, i genuinely thought it was getting scrapped. however..

case aesthetic appears to be a regression. the previous one was almost perfect.

no 16 core ivy-bridge option. i assume haswell might be an option later.

no expandable internal storage.

no pci-e slots (?) is beyond ridiculous.

i'll reserve final judgement for when i actually see one, but right now, but things aren't looking good right now..

Re: Apple Updates The Mac Pro

#70

Post by foxhill »

gtaylor wrote: post #65
bvdbijl wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Please show me a device that's comparable to the new Mac Pro... So much performance in this small of a form factor is pretty innovative

You could build something much more powerful for cheaper, and still be able to upgrade/change out individual internal components. I've bumped the RAM capacity/speed twice since I built this machine three years ago. Upgraded the video card once, and CPU once. When I decide to do a more thorough re-vamp, I can re-use the power supply, the case, the video card, and a bunch of other components. What you're really paying…

i do a lot of audio recording. having a machine that is near silent even at full load is incredibly useful.
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