Oh, Mac Pro… poor little neglected Mac Pro. All of your other family members have gotten the Intel bump this year with Sandy Bridge processors and Thunderbolt I/O ports, and yet you remain frozen in time, no longer the fastest Mac of them all. While we (im)patiently wait for a new version of you, here are a few things we’d like to see in your next incarnation.
Last updated more than a year ago, the current quad-core and eight-core Mac Pro is already showing signs of neglect. Apple has updated every other Mac in the lineup this year, and speed tests of the current iMac Core i7 shows that it’s actually faster than the poor old Mac Pro, thanks to the screaming fast Intel Sandy Bridge processor which has thus far been absent from the Pro lineup.
With rumors of a dramatic new change coming for the Mac Pro (and possibly even the entire Macintosh line), we scribbled up a list of things we’d like to see from the new model. Apple, no excuses: Steve Jobs may have stepped down as CEO this week, but that doesn’t mean your engineers can start acting like a bunch of lazy slackers. Let’s get on this stuff!
To say that the current Mac Pro has a tired old look is barely scratching the surface of the truth. After all, the latest mid-2010 Mac Pro mostly looks just like the old Power Mac G5 first introduced in the summer of 2003, and to be sure, that’s a long time -- but in computer years, it’s an eternity.
Given persistent rumors in recent months that the Mac Pro will soon get a radical new look -- perhaps even making it a slim, rack-mountable box like the late, great Xserve -- we’ll go on record as being down with that idea. The rest of the Mac lineup has gone on a pretty extreme diet in the years since the Power Mac G5 hit the streets, so it’s time to drop those pounds, chubby. Drop and give me 20 -- but first, make sure you keep the stuff we already love.
While we’re on the subject of losing weight and girth, let’s make sure Apple knows that there are some things we just can’t live without on a Mac Pro. It goes without saying that we’ll want to keep all those tasty USB 2.0 and FireWire 800 ports (five and four, respectively), plus Gigabit Ethernet, Bluetooth, 802.11n Wi-Fi, audio in and out and even Fibre Channel.
But please, Apple, don’t take our PCI Express slots -- that’s the kind of stuff that separates the men from the boys and the Mac Pro from all other Macs. We know that you’re going to introduce Thunderbolt ports into the mix (see below) and as time goes on, most of the uses for PCI will find their way to Intel’s faster I/O connection -- but that day isn’t here just yet, and we’ve got work to get done in the meantime.
On the subject of optical and hard disk drive bays, we’re of a mixed opinion. You guys missed the boat on that whole Blu-ray thing so we sort of don’t care about it anymore -- but it would be nice to still have the option for at least a couple of internal devices, especially if you slim down to rack-mountable size.
Well, yeah… duh! Apple would look kind of silly releasing a new Mac Pro without the latest and greatest technology Intel has to offer. Unfortunately, word on the street is that the chipmaker isn’t quite there yet with the necessary Sandy Bridge-E processors to power your quad-core, six-core and eight-core innards -- but that should change soon enough.
On the Thunderbolt front, while the high-end 27-inch iMac is currently mocking the Mac Pro with its twin I/O ports, we figure a new Mac Pro should come to this knife fight with something more like a nuclear warhead -- can you say four Thunderbolt ports? Heck, there aren’t even four Thunderbolt devices on the market yet to plug into those ports, but the more, the merrier.
As enticing as a new rack-mountable Mac Pro might be, even more desirable in many ways is the idea of making the new models stackable in some way -- after all, you certainly couldn’t have done that with the current Mac Pro (nor would you want to, considering how much heat comes out of them).
Not many of us would actually have need for stacking two or more Mac Pros together, but we enjoyed building blocks as kids, and those old habits die hard. Even a return of the Power Mac G4 Cube might be nice, assuming it was a hair bigger to hold those PCI Express cards. (Okay, stop laughing at us.)
Max out the processor and graphics on the current high-end 27-inch iMac Core i7 and you’ll only be spending a cool $2,299 -- a price that’s still $200 less than an entry-level quad-core Mac Pro 2.8GHz. Max out the current Mac Pro with two 2.93GHz six-core Intel Xeon processors and two ATI Radeon HD 5770 graphics cards and you’re breaking the bank at $6,449 before tax.
See what we’re getting at here? The Mac Pro is too expensive (or maybe we’re just too cheap/broke) at both the lower as well as the higher end of the scale. Apple loves to slash prices as they thin up their products, so we’d certainly welcome some less pudgy pricing to go along with our new slice of Pro system.
Last but not least, we’ll propose the decidedly crazy theory that Apple might choose instead to phase out the Mac Pro altogether -- although we preface this by wishing that it weren’t so. We can only imagine there would be an uprising that makes even the recent Final Cut Pro X brouhaha look tame, but it certainly wouldn’t be the first time Apple has stuck it to the pro user, would it?
While we think the Mac Pro will be around for a while longer, just for fun, what might Cupertino replace it with? One possibility is something we’ll call the “iMac Pro,” another all-in-one system with built-in display (likely only available at 27 inches or larger) that keeps some of the niceties of the Mac Pro. For example, the back comes off easily, allowing for easy access to upgrade memory, storage or even to jack something into a couple of PCI Express card slots. Current iMacs can already drive an external 30-inch display, but maybe this Pro model could double the fun.
Where do we come up with such a crazy idea? Well, many professional users are already using the iMac, which as we’ve previously mentioned, is already among the fastest Macs ever. Given that Apple is now carrying only one display (the $999, 27-inch Apple Thunderbolt Display), we figure the company doesn’t care all that much about selling Macs without a display attached -- especially as processors get crazy fast and start taking up less space.
One thing’s for sure -- we’ll see something coming down the pipeline regarding the Mac Pro by year’s end. The question is, what would you like to see from a radically new model? Sound off in the comments!
Follow this article’s author, J.R. Bookwalter on Twitter
Samuraiartguy
September 17, 2011 at 7:46pm
Heaven knows what's on Apple's mind with the Mac Pro. They certainly haven't shown these workhorse machines much love in the Age of iThings Ascendant.
Since Intel says that the Sandy Bridge-E Xeon chips are further delayed, and they are awfully vague about the release date, it could be that we might reasonably expect a Mac Pro Update in the Spring of 2012. Apple may get early shipments from Intel, it's happened before, but I am not betting the mortgage money. But Apple will be happy to have them, then they can EOL the 27" LCD for the Thunderbolt 27" Display.
So calm your frothing and coax a little more life out of your system.
What's interesting is what other features or support may come and go in the a revised Mac Pro form factor. I know that the Mac Pro(fessional) community is really interested in eSATA, SATA3, USB 3 (come ON, Apple) and truly muscular standard graphics cards. But there hasn't been much interest from the mothership. On the other hand, Apple has made no secret that they feel Optical media is done. We may very well see not only optical drives go away, but also the bays. Like blu-ray, if pro users want optical so bad, they can go external.
What may also a point of concern is the future of Firewire on the mac. Apple has been pitching Thunderbolt as the "everything" high speed connection, and Firewire may be next on the kill list. But will future Mac Pros ONLY have thunderbolt parts? Probably not, the Xeon chips do not have built in graphics, being designed for heavy lifting. So the Mac Pros must sport third party graphics cards, and those are likely to have more traditional video output options. But you never know with the Apple of the 2010's.
"we’ll propose the decidedly crazy theory that Apple might choose instead to phase out the Mac Pro altogether... but it certainly wouldn’t be the first time Apple has stuck it to the pro user, would it?"
No. No, it wouldn't.
It could happen. Apple has certainly been pitching the 29" i7 iMac as "the Mac Pro for most of us." In the Apple Stores, MPs don't have their own section with the big wall graphics, but typically one lonely box sitting neglected in the corner. The MPs portion of Apples revenue is a fraction of their desktop revenue, which is already the smallest segment - even at Apple's MP tear-inducing pricing. For many of us in Design and Publishing, the iMac is becoming the financially responsible choice, glossy screen not withstanding, even though many of us desire the expandability, configurability and stoutness of a tower, even if we don't need max performance.
"Max out the processor and graphics on the current high-end 27-inch iMac Core i7 and you’ll only be spending a cool $2,299 -- a price that’s still $200 less than an entry-level quad-core Mac Pro 2.8GHz. Max out the current Mac Pro with two 2.93GHz six-core Intel Xeon processors and two ATI Radeon HD 5770 graphics cards and you’re breaking the bank at $6,449 before tax."
And that's before you pop a display on it - built into an iMac. Add an 27" LCD or Thunderbolt display, you're looking at a cool $7,548. Ouch. That definitely limits the market to users with serious need and serious resources. So Apple is hardly motivated to devote much attention to their heaviest iron. But after the Final Cut Pro X debacle, professional users are understandably nervous.
Still, was a day when Apple's Mac towers got the shiny, and bragging rights first. As a Graphic and Web Designer, I do rather miss that. Now were second class citizens in Apple's consumer utopia.
DJSPIN80
September 09, 2011 at 6:00am
Tired look? Sure. Slow? Hardly.
Your Sandy Bridge i5's and i7's are fast, but it doesn't carry the same weight as the Xeon's. Those Xeon's are built for sheer power. Try running multiple services simultaneously on your iMac and watch it crap out. The Mac Pro? It'll run it beautifully. Also, Mac Pro's have ECC and buffered DRAM, so you don't suffer from data corruption. Sure, I think that the line needs to be updated, but the current line-up is nothing to scoff at.
tanker10a
August 31, 2011 at 7:12am
How about a dedicated soundcard with a minimum of 5.1 and preferably a 7.1 surround sound capability. I am not asking for much. While they are at it, make that soundcard reverse-compatible for the current MPs.
That's not asking for much. Is it?
avflamenco
August 30, 2011 at 8:19pm
I've also been sitting on a pile of savings waiting to pounce, but every morning I wake up and refresh the Mac Pro line up; its the same old antiquated machines staring back at me on the Apple online store.
Then I go through my on the fence, off the fence mental routine... "let's see, if I buy a PCIe eSata card for $200, I can have 6gbs of bandwidth for my SSDs, and if I spend even more I can do one or two OCZ PCIe SSD cards. I use virtual instruments and really need the fastest options possible. If only there was just a simple update of adding SATA 3 and Thunderbolt! I could part with my cash much easier!
Then theres the whole waiting for the IVY-Bridge processor dilemma. Wait, or not wait?
I think I could take the current processors and the same old box design, if we were just allowed to have SATA 3!
I'm not even going there on the USB 3 subject, that's just a weird Apple decision altogether.Maybe since Best Buy appears to have dropped their Mac Pro prices a tiny bit, its a hint that we'll be thrown a bone on the next Apple event in September. Yes, I know its silly rationalization, but man, c'mon already with an update!
It seems like a lot of MP users out there are freaking out, speculating that the end of the Mac Pro is just a matter of time, but I just can't see this happening anytime soon. The iMacs just get too hot for 3d, video, and pro audio use for serious studios, even with Thunderbolt. The processors get too hot for anything more than light audio and video work, but are awesome for desktop publishing or web development.
So, I think we're at least one or two MP updates before we'll see it go away.My wife is nudging me to just go ahead and order one of the 2010 Mac Pros, but I think she's just exhausted from listening to me whine about no update.
Maybe Tim Cook will nudge a new MP out the door.
tulrich
August 30, 2011 at 6:17pm
I was waiting for someone to even write an article about the Mac Pro! I've been sitting on a pile of funding waiting and waiting for an upgrade to the Mac Pro! The original rumor said it was coming out in early to mid August. Now it's nearly September. I'm hoping for some big changes and for them to come very, very soon!
