Google| Subject | Re: Pretty cool... |
| From | -hh |
| Date | 06/11/2013 10:46 (06/11/2013 01:46) |
| Message-ID | <7e16bf11-c628-4c5a-b176-2a9ac7ce3fdd@googlegroups.com> |
| Client | |
| Newsgroups | comp.sys.mac.advocacy |
| Follows | Steve de Mena |
| Followups | Steve de Mena (51m) > -hh |
Steve writes:
Steve de MenaYes, it looks likely. The counter-argument will provably be that high end = Pros are on beefy networks and don't need much local storage. And now that= it *finally* has USB3...blah, blah, blah...nice idea, but it obsoletes the= machine a bit faster.
Right. What will the dimensions actually be when people add the=20 expansion they used to be able to put inside. More cables and money=20 for an ugly Thunderbolt chassis to hold 1-4 PCIe cards, plus one for a=20 RAID drive system. It will end up taking more physical floor space=20 than the current Mac Pro.=20
Is one stuck with the AMD FirePro GPUs, no way to upgrade like the=20 current Mac Pro?=20Well, the current MP is upgradable - problem has been that video cards to u= pgrade *to* have been lacking, due to their need for Apple tailored drivers= . But there have been a few choices, plus I understand that the driver iss= ue is coming to a OBE end. The bigger question IMO is how adequate is the = space claim for a different PCI card if one were to make one? Otherwise, w= e're back in the same Apple-unique rut all over again. It does look like t= wo PCI slots have been sacrificed to Thunderbolt, and kills the aftermarket= for PCI based SSD's...which BTW are already faster I/O than the 500 that A= pple claims that their SSD is better than.
Single Xeon processor? No dual CPU option like today?=20Probably dual capable - that's why the "fine print" on their performance cl= aims consistently say "Up To" ... and this is also an indicator for what me= trics will be not as good in single CPU configurations.
One has to reach around to the back to turn the damn thing on and off?=20Not sure, but it sounds like it is on a lazy Susan to spin/rotate it. The = idea works fine for the *first* cable...
How do you connect multiple monitors to it? Do the Thunderbolt=20 ports double as DisplayPorts?=20Yes, TB has a Displayport protocol piggybacked "in" it, plus there's an HDM= I feed as well. They're touting 3 screens of 4K; not clear yet of how many= smaller screens could be driven (or how).
Overall, it kind of sounds like they dropped the two 4x PCI slots, replacin= g them with TB, and then went "Cloud" for local hard drives and Optical. B= y filling the remaining slots with good GPUs, they support GCD (even though= Adobe is ignoring GCD) and may be 'great' for 2013/2014, the real question= is going to be if they continue to support better hardware in 2015, 16, 17= ...
...and in the meantime, Apple picks up the sale of their SSD card-lette's, = probably at steep markups. I doubt that even in Single CPU config if this = is going to have a 256GB or bigger SSD *and* be less than $2K. I'd not be = surprised to see $2999 base, if for no other reason than there's now also t= he 'Made in USA' tag and public perception is that it should cost more.
-hh
06/10/2013-
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