At WWDC today, Apple announced the upcoming Mac Pro, which will be available later this year. The new Mac Pro is clearly a massive change from the Mac Pro form factor we have grown accustomed to really since the aluminum Power Mac G5’s introduction in 2003, which was somewhat refreshed with the first Mac Pro in 2006.
The new Mac Pro stands only 9.9-inches tall and is cylinder-shaped. It will be equipped with next-gen Intel Xeon E5 processors with up to 12 core configurations. Additionally, it will pack in 2 AMD FirePro workstation-class GPUs and feature 4-channel ECC DDR3 RAM at 1866MHz for up to 60GB/s memory bandwidth.
Additionally, it is equipped with PCIe-based flash storage, six Thunderbolt 2 ports, four USB 3 ports and HDMI 1.4. It will drive up to three 4K monitors simultaneously, along with a gaggle of other Thunderbolt peripherals (6 per port).
Mac Pro RAM Slots
Of course, the reduced form factor means little or no internal expansion. It looks like RAM will be user-expandable; however, the GPUs appear to be fixed units with difficult or impossible replacements after initial purchase.
All-in-all, the new Mac Pro looks like a beast of machine in what is sure to be a controversial design. No word on pricing yet; however, you can bet it won’t be cheap with the flash-based design and proprietary components.
More details on Apple’s website.
I don’t think I could ever buy a desktop where I could not change out the graphics card. I wonder about changing the hard drives as well. If I start out with a 2TB 7200 RPM drive today and then later when SSDs come down in price want to replace the hard drive with a solid state drive, can I do this easily? I love SSD drives but it is pretty much impossible to get anything over 512GB and even 512GB is expensive. Also, are there RAID options? There are some I/O boxes that still need a PCI port as well though I guess Apple is hoping everyone starts going to external thunderbolt hardware rather than the internal cards we are used to.
I am pretty sure that those innovations are made to secure more money for Apple, rather than make user’s life easier or happier.
Personally for the “brilliant” invention of iTunes I decided to boycott Apple’s products. I don’t think I miss much. Nice designs – truth, but after all way overpriced and overrated.