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New Mac Pro Coming Soon?
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[Kevin Patrick] “In the comparison I was making, I excluded hard drive configuration changes. I was only looking at changing CPU (if possible), memory and graphics options. Changing these non-hard drive options moved the ship date out weeks for Mac Pros, days for the rest of their computers.”
But that’s the thing — changing a configuration on the online Apple store doesn’t mean that Apple modifies an existing standard config machine for you.
I suspect that all the build-to-order machines are configured from a base, empty-chassis machine.
In other words, a standard-config Mac is already assembled, has a 1TB drive in it (probably purchased before the shortage), and is sitting in a box in a warehouse now.
Once you “modify” that Mac online, even with something as simple as additional RAM, you are actually commissioning the assembly of a new Mac, from scratch, from a bin of existing parts. It is not based on existing Macs in the warehouse. They’re taking an empty chassis, adding the processors, adding the RAM, adding the graphics card, and adding a HDD, according to your order.
Since 1TB hard drives are in short supply, that custom order will be delayed to weeks. If you specify a 2TB HDD or an SDD, it will ship with normal lead time of a few days.
That’s why we’re suggesting the 1TB drive is the critical component for the Mac Pro ship date. On a custom order, specifying a 1TB drive causes delay that can be eliminated by specifying a different disk.
Walter Soyka
Principal & Designer at Keen Live
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
RenderBreak Blog – What I’m thinking when my workstation’s thinking
Creative Cow Forum Host: Live & Stage Events -
[Steve Connor] “Apple, are you listening, this is what you reduce us to by not giving us roadmaps!!!!!!”
If Craig, Moody, Jeremy, Kevin, David and I all spent 15 minutes on this yesterday, and if we all bill $150/hr, we collectively wasted enough billable time to buy three-quarters of a license of FCPX…
I understand that we may not be able to know the “when” — but knowing the “if” or “what” about Mac Pro refreshes sure would be nice.
Interestingly, the roadmap question seems less of a concern for PC workstation vendors, either because we can assume they are committed to remaining in the workstation market, or because we know we can move to a different hardware vendor with virtually no workflow penalty should our current vendor disappoint.
Walter Soyka
Principal & Designer at Keen Live
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
RenderBreak Blog – What I’m thinking when my workstation’s thinking
Creative Cow Forum Host: Live & Stage Events -
[Walter Soyka] “In other words, a standard-config Mac is already assembled, has a 1TB drive in it (probably purchased before the shortage), and is sitting in a box in a warehouse now.”
With the 12 Core being the exception since they show 1 to 3 week delay even without selecting BTO. To put it another way. all 12 Core are BTO. It may be that their orders are so low that they are all empty cases so they don’t tie up 1TB HDs sitting in least likely to be sold systems.
The flood wasn’t specific to 1TB HDs but the reason why there’s no big delay with 2TB HDs is that they’re not being used in standard configs so they have a much greater supply on hand.
To put it another way, if Apple has 1000 1TB and 1000 2TB, those 1TB HDs are all going into standard configs but the 2TB HDs are all available for BTO. That’s why the shortage seems to implicate the 1TB HDs only.
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[Craig Seeman] “With the 12 Core being the exception since they show 1 to 3 week delay even without selecting BTO. To but it another way. all 12 Core are BTO. It may be that their orders are so low that they are all empty cases so they don’t tie up 1TB HDs sitting in least likely to be sold systems.”
I agree with you that all 12-cores are likely BTO.
I wouldn’t have guessed it had anything to do with tying up HDDs, though. Given that the 6-core is also always BTO, I would think Apple is simply not interested in tying up cash holding too many expensive 6-core Xeons in inventory.
Walter Soyka
Principal & Designer at Keen Live
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
RenderBreak Blog – What I’m thinking when my workstation’s thinking
Creative Cow Forum Host: Live & Stage Events -
[Craig Seeman] “With the 12 Core being the exception since they show 1 to 3 week delay even without selecting BTO. “
The 12 cores have been a minimum of 3-5 business days for a long time. I started looking a year ago, and it was the only standard configuration not immediately available.
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[Walter Soyka] “I understand that we may not be able to know the “when” — but knowing the “if” or “what” about Mac Pro refreshes sure would be nice.”
The reason why this is such critical information is that, given Apple’s approach to Thunderbolt, some may be concerned the PCIe Video I/O might be in steep decline if either MacPros are gone or replaced with a box primarily Thunderbolt based. This not only impacts our Computer purchases but PCIe card purchases, manufacturers of PCIe cards, possibly equipment rack purchases (basically any facility or room build).
Windows users don’t have the issue because even if Thunderbolt gives one other options for systems, there’s more likely to be some workstation makers continuing to use PCIe given the large number of card manufacturers who aren’t addressing Thunderbolt.
On the Mac side, AJA, Blackmagic, Matrox all have Thunderbolt Video I/O, Sonnet has card cages for legacy PCIe cards (should they become legacy) as well as some adaptors. Even given that, it could be a major retooling if MacPro has a redesign impacting PCIe use.
The problem is, unless one’s back is to the wall, buying a MacPro right now seems risky.
Of course if Apple says anything, MacPro sales drops to near zero (if it hasn’t already) while waiting for the replacement (if any).
Basically I’d think the smartest thing Apple could to would be assure that the MacPros or, at least, PCIe will continue to be supported with the same number of slots. That’s assuming that’s the case of course. If not, it might make sense for Apple to be silent to continue MacPro sales until the change.
Of course if you read into my comment one might guess that silence = change since silence sans change may be hurting MacPro sales.
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[Chris Harlan] “The 12 cores have been a minimum of 3-5 business days for a long time.”
They’re 1 to 3 weeks now. So they may have always been BTO but there was no major wait on 1TB HD previously.
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[Walter Soyka] “Given that the 6-core is also always BTO, I would think Apple is simply not interested in tying up cash holding too many expensive 6-core Xeons in inventory.”
Yes, both 6 and 12 Core show 1 to 3 weeks with 1TB HD and both show 2-4 days with 2TB HD.
BTW this brings up another interesting tangent relative to another one of my possible mistakes. I had thought that 6 Core was an off the shelf. The odd thing is Apple’s marketing. While 12 Core is shown even though it appears to be BTO, the 6 Core is not. One only discovers it when selecting the 4 Core BTO option.
I’d think they’d want to make the 6 Core option equally visible as the 12 Core. At least my mind thought it had been displayed that way. The odd thing is pricing and perception. The 6 Core Option is more expensive than the 8 Core Standard. So if they where pictured as standard price order it would be 4, 8, 6, 12. Of course Apple wants to show they have a “top of the line” power system so the 12 Core is visible as a system. I’m not quite sure why the 6 Core isn’t though (even though they both seem to be BTO).
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[Walter Soyka] “Once you “modify” that Mac online, even with something as simple as additional RAM, you are actually commissioning the assembly of a new Mac, from scratch, from a bin of existing parts. It is not based on existing Macs in the warehouse. They’re taking an empty chassis, adding the processors, adding the RAM, adding the graphics card, and adding a HDD, according to your order.”
I thought this thread was getting longer than I thought it should. But I’m gonna make it even longer.
Making these kind of changes to systems other than the Mac Pro does not change the lead time by weeks, only days.
Change memory, hard drive (any) or display on a Macbook Pro and you’ll only go from in stock to 1-3 days.
Change memory, hard drive (except the 2G HDD) or graphics on an iMac and the maximum lead time is 2-4 days. Also for iMac’s, SSD and graphic upgrades are build to order only. At least that’s what the Apple person told me in an Apple store when I asked whey they don’t have any SSD configurations.
Change just memory (any size) on any Mac Pro and it goes from stock to 1-3 weeks.
A new Mac Pro is coming. I can feel it.
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[Kevin Patrick] “Change memory, hard drive (any) or display on a Macbook Pro and you’ll only go from in stock to 1-3 days.”
MBPs use totally different components, so a shortage of 3.5″ HDDs wouldn’t affect them.
[Kevin Patrick] “Change memory, hard drive (except the 2G HDD) or graphics on an iMac and the maximum lead time is 2-4 days. “
Right — just like the Mac Pros with 1TB HDDs.
Change the iMac to a 2TB HDD and its ship time goes up to 1-3 weeks, just like a BTO Mac Pro with a 1TB HDD.
The 1TB HDD is the critical component on the Mac Pro, the 2TB HDD is the critical component on the iMac.
[Kevin Patrick] “Change just memory (any size) on any Mac Pro and it goes from stock to 1-3 weeks. “
Only if that BTO Mac Pro is configured with a 1TB HDD. Take your Mac Pro with the changed memory, then also change its default 1TB HDD to a 2TB HDD or an SSD, and you’ll see the ship time drop back to days — so it can’t be the memory slowing down shipment, and it has to be the 1TB HDD.
[Kevin Patrick] “A new Mac Pro is coming. I can feel it.”
That may be true — I just don’t think these shipping times indicate short supply of anything other than hard drives.
As others have suggested, the new Mac Pro is likely waiting on Intel. The Sandy Bridge server chipset is expected sometime this quarter, right?
Walter Soyka
Principal & Designer at Keen Live
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
RenderBreak Blog – What I’m thinking when my workstation’s thinking
Creative Cow Forum Host: Live & Stage Events
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