New Cylindrical Mac Pro

**Otto Seaman** · 10-Jun-2013, 22:58

Only 9-inches tall and 6" in diameter but apparently it will be the maximum Mac this Fall. All flash SSD storage.

How large will SSD drives be by Fall 2013? I guess this is built knowing that you're connecting it to external drives, there is no way you're fitting a conventional hard drive inside....

I wonder how much a maxed out 12-core model with be, loaded with RAM and SSDs?

I suppose this pretty much is for video editing since most people seem pretty happy with iMacs and the like for even larger images these days....

**asnapper** · 10-Jun-2013, 23:18

Lots of information and comments on Lloyd Chambers Mac blog about the new Mac Pro

http://macperformanceguide.com/

**Richard M. Coda** · 10-Jun-2013, 23:21

I was debating waiting for this new MacPro or getting a 27-inch iMac NOW to replace my MacPro. But since they didn't announce a date or price, and I would have to buy a new monitor (I have a 30 inch Apple Cinema Display) I think I'll save a few bucks and get the iMac.

**DaveS** · 11-Jun-2013, 00:28

It looks like a rubbish bin

**EOTS** · 11-Jun-2013, 02:41

Aaah that's bad news for me ...
Having two 3TB SATA drives you can't migrate internally and a relatively expensive newly bought SSD PCIe Card with two SATA-SSDs disks on it ...
That means spending an extra 1k for the lot of external PCIe-2-thunderbolt chassis, external SATA-2-thunderbolt-chassis, cables, power supplys ...
And besides costs, you no longer have the benefit one solid self-contained unit, but a jungle of the abovementioned ...

IMHO, disfunctional designer crap no one in the "Pro" Segment really cares about ...
As for image and video editing, vast amounts of storage is essential, not so much the compactness factor ...

Best regards,
Martin

**vinny** · 11-Jun-2013, 05:03

Built-in obselesence, nothing new to aplle products these days.

**Struan Gray** · 11-Jun-2013, 05:37

I'm running on some trailing edge technology at present, but even there I have gravitated towards external storage - either a network disk or a local enclosure. I could happily live with this as a concept.

My main worry would be that it will need ground-level clearance all round to feed the air intakes - the current mac towers only need a unidirectional flow, and the intakes are up off the ground. Perhaps we're all supposed to have them on our desks rather than under them.

I hope the cooling fan is programmable. It could blow some awesome smoke rings.

**gth** · 11-Jun-2013, 05:39

Originally Posted by EOTS

Aaah that's bad news for me ...
Having two 3TB SATA drives you can't migrate internally and a relatively expensive newly bought SSD PCIe Card with two SATA-SSDs disks on it ...
That means spending an extra 1k for the lot of external PCIe-2-thunderbolt chassis, external SATA-2-thunderbolt-chassis, cables, power supplys ...
And besides costs, you no longer have the benefit one solid self-contained unit, but a jungle of the abovementioned ...

IMHO, disfunctional designer crap no one in the "Pro" Segment really cares about ...
As for image and video editing, vast amounts of storage is essential, not so much the compactness factor ...

Best regards,
Martin

Have to agree a bit with that.... the "Wow, but not really factor"..... on the other hand most video work probably takes place off big external RAID arrays already.

Personally, I'v always used external drives, going back to original Macs with SCSI. There was a time before laptops I travelled to client sites with my trusty SCSI drive with everything on it.

And yet another external drive standard.... SCSI, FireWire, USB, Thunderbolt......

At least we get a new powerful Mac.... I was afraid they would abandon that market.

**Scott Davis** · 11-Jun-2013, 06:40

With the covers off, it looks like a little Dalek, minus the eye stalk. If it were not for the need to buy another monitor, when it comes time for an upgrade, I'd be all over that. For now I'm quite content with my iMac.

**ROL** · 11-Jun-2013, 09:17

Originally Posted by Richard M. Coda

I was debating waiting for this new MacPro or getting a 27-inch iMac NOW to replace my MacPro. But since they didn't announce a date or price, and I would have to buy a new monitor (I have a 30 inch Apple Cinema Display) I think I'll save a few bucks and get the iMac.

I did a major and long overdue PC upgrade in February to an iMac 27", maxed out to an aftermarket 16GB, figuring the cost of a separate cinema display was worth getting almost that in an upper end "prosumer" desktop. The Fusion Drive is very fast for everyday uses, possibly nearly as functionally equivalent as full ($$$) SSD's. I'm editing videos as I write this with FCPx, and except for a few crashes (automatic saves so no worries), I haven't scene the spinning wheel of death. BTW, I've grown to love the Magic Trackpad, even over the iPad touch screen interface.

But the new Pro is a marvel (and possible the pinnacle) of engineering and design, as always with Apple, and may be the only choice for 4K video editing, if you got it. I wouldn't curse the FedEx guy if one showed upon my doorstep.