Uninformed Speculation about Mac Pros

[Paul Dickin]

HI
Hmmm.
The only reason to come out with a new Mac Pro at the moment would be to add the v1 Thunderbolt ports.
In terms of high end (Mac Pro) users that adds zilch new functionality at this point in time, given the state of Thunderbolt peripheral progress so far.

The replacement Sandy Bridge two-processor CPUs aren’t going to be available from Intel until Q4 2011, and they require a new CPU socket and chipset, so a complete motherboard redesign – a good time to add Thunderbolt, maybe even a faster v2 optical Light Peak option?.

A form-factor change would be easy for the Sandy Bridge Q4+ redesign, but very costly now.
FCP X/Motion X should scream on the current boxes, so plenty of wow! factor potential already at hand.
(Airs and Minis need Thunderbolt though.)

[Hector Berrebi]

[Ben Holmes] “. On the one hand, AVID software costs more, on the other, Mac Pros cost more.”

maybe not completely related but worth a side note. many Avid systems are on
mac-pros… and many mac-pros are bought for AVID software… actually, the parallel workstations from Dell and HP (last time i checked) are more expensive than a similarly equipped mac-pro, which will run AVID just as well.

hector

Hector Berrebi
prePost Consulting

[Ben Holmes]

Whilst you can run AVID on Mac Pros, almost no one does in my experience – also I’ve spoken to a number of shared storage vendors who do not support AVID filesystems on Mac, although I’m sure there are some. If I was switching to AVID I’d go PC, because I know I’d get much better reseller technical support.

I’ll admit – I always thought the HP workstations were cheaper in quotes I’ve seen for configured systems, interesting to hear that they are not, but I suspect deeper discounts are available to resellers for PC gear.

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[Ben Holmes]

Yup – as noted, no new processors, and I’d discounted any refresh this year except……

1. These supply rumours often come to something – Apple can’t hide when stock is being run down, although the timeframes are often longer than people seem to think. It’s pretty thin, admittedly.

2. Mac Pro graphics need updating (you can get a card, albeit mobile, with more RAM in an iMac at the moment)

3. Seems like a good time (without new processors) to refresh a line in form factor to grab back some server sales, and boost things along for a few months until they hit.

4. The last Mac Pro case design was launched before a big processor change – don’t forget the original ones were Power PC, then the first Xeon used the same design (it’s been around since 2003!!) and it doesn’t strike me that the Q4 chips would require much in the way of case changes, being similar power chips.

5. Although less useful in a Mac Pro, Thunderbolt is a ‘pro’ feature, and I don’t think Apple will want their pro machines going without for long – even if you and I know it’s not a gamechanger, it’s still the kind of design consistency they, and their peripheral makers like.

Anyway – food for thought. Honestly, I wouldn’t care so much except I have a looming deadline to purchase new gear, and right now I think I’ll wait a little longer before I jump. Once that deadline hits, however, I’m in whatever, and won’t be THAT disappointed if there’s a new model – although my gear travels a lot, and a rackmount unit would save me a fortune in flightcases!

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[Paul Jay]

I heard a rumor that Motion 5 didn’t need any form of hardware to run. 😛

[Paul Dickin]

Hi
As I understand it its the Mac Pro Server model that’s been EOL’d.
Which is logical as that model won’t exist once Lion ships – as the Server upgrade is an App Store download, so there won’t be a retail Server model as such.

Points to Lion being sooner rather than later though 😉

[Craig Seeman]

[Ben Holmes] “5. Although less useful in a Mac Pro, Thunderbolt is a ‘pro’ feature, and I don’t think Apple will want their pro machines going without for long – even if you and I know it’s not a gamechanger, it’s still the kind of design consistency they, and their peripheral makers like.”

Key will be for people using the new MBPs or facilities also using the new Thunderbolt iMacs. It will make it much easier to move gear around if they’re all using the same ports. Think of the Matrox MXO2 with Thunderbolt for example.

Since we’re talking about case design, it’s conceivable that at some point there can me a “slotless” MacPro with multiple Thunderbolt ports rather than PCIe slots. Such box could be rack mountable as well.

[Ben Holmes]

[Craig Seeman] “Since we’re talking about case design, it’s conceivable that at some point there can me a “slotless” MacPro with multiple Thunderbolt ports rather than PCIe slots. Such box could be rack mountable as well.”

Nice idea – not sure we’ll see this until Thunderbolt 2 – Beyond the Thunderdome is released…

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[Warren Eig]

[Ben Holmes] “Whilst you can run AVID on Mac Pros, almost no one does in my experience”

Umm, I guess all the Mac Pros here in Los Angeles, cutting at Universal and Warner Bros running Avid are really HP or Dell machines dressed as Mac Pros??!!

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[Walter Soyka]

The Mac Pro needs more expansion slots, not fewer. HP’s Z800 workstation has 7 slots. The current Mac Pro has 4. I could really use an extra slot or two.

I’m sure that Cubix would love to see a smaller case with more Thunderbolt and fewer slots, though.

[Craig Seeman] “Since we’re talking about case design, it’s conceivable that at some point there can me a “slotless” MacPro with multiple Thunderbolt ports rather than PCIe slots. Such box could be rack mountable as well.”

But then you’d also have to rack your Thunderbolt capture device. This is definitely a case where I’d prefer to have an internal card.

Walter Soyka
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