New Designed "Mac Pro" by Apple - how it fails, and how it could win

[Kazuha Vinland]

Mac Pro .::. 2013 Edition

So today we saw a lot of news presented on the yearly World's Developers Conference by Apple. Among the hot items was a largely revamped iOS, a Haswell-refresh to the MacBook Air line-up and finally, a brand new Mac Pro. A product which by computer standards, have been left alone long enough to be put into a museum. So let's take a look under the hood.

Closer look



First I want to note the small footprint of this machine. Apple claims it carries 1/8th of the volume of the last model. Despite this they have managed to fit dual GPU (graphics processing units) branded AMD, and dual socket CPUs. All-in-all, performance wise, this looks stellar.

Cooling Synergy



Now this is something I personally find very cool. All high performing components in laptops and desktops these days, have their individual heatsink to absorb and diversify the heat produced by CPUs and GPUs. Now with a triangular design, Apple has done something ingenius. They have managed to fit the 2 GPU chips and the single CPU chip onto one common heatsink. This is space saving, and you thus only need one larger fan spinning at a low revolution per minute rate to provide sufficient cooling.



Upgradability, or lack thereof

Apple claims that this is their most upgradable Mac Pro yet. Quite ironic, when the whole tower is stacked to its absolute max density as is. The upgradability, by their words, come from external connectivity. Most of it from the Thunderbolt 2 interface, which is a zappy fast transfere method that can, in fact, function for PCIe level devices. However, it very much so distracts from the simple device the Mac Pro wishes to introduce itself as, and feels to me as a very restricted way to upgrade without creating massive clutter.

Unreached Potential by the Mac Pro:.



Some mock the new Mac Pro for having the shape of a trash can. Personally I find it a bit more classy, and think it resembles more the shape of a HiFi speaker.

Regardless, I do not see how the Mac Pro, in its current state, can become a corporate success by any means. It essentially lacks upgradability, especially in regards to storage, and to put it bluntly, it is just a beefed up version of the MacBook Pro without a display.

Tim Cook, new CEO of Apple, violently shook his fist as he exclaimed that with this product, Apple had proved to the world that they can still innovate. I agree with him partially. The new cooling design is great, and the frame they have put around the nearly equally tall graphics card, is very slick. However, I can't see how any of these improve its usability as a desktop PC. The decline in Mac Pro sales have been apparent with the new mobile devices taking market share, and this Mac Pro seems to do nothing of the sort to change that.

My idea is to change the desktop computer as we know it. Since it already kinda looks like a HiFi component, why not give it some similar properties that are impossible for laptops to achieve? I can only imagine how many people would find a use for this, if it had a projector canon and a high fidelity speaker system integrated. Can you imagine putting the thing on its side, and add those elements to it?? It would be a winner in any office environment. Furthermore, with this tactic, they could play onto Apple TV, basically having a projector instead of a TV model.

Naturally, this would add substantially to the cost of the Mac Pro. But then again, who are the buyers of such a system? Corporates who know how to spend money if it can become profitable in the end over time.

I can actually not foresee myself buying a new raw desktop computer again. It would be a different matter though, if I could have a dual GPU wielding game console, TV adapter, capable of projecting a large image, being a media center speaker for parties - while also being a desktop! And because of the high mobility and external upgradability, I could take it anywhere and attach anything to it. Its flexibility would be unheard of.

[Ominous Gamer]

So Apple is mimicking the Zalman Tnn 300 concept from 6-7 years ago?

yay for innovation!

[Illusions]

So Apple is mimicking the Zalman Tnn 300 concept from 6-7 years ago?

yay for innovation!

We've innovated by attaching all the heat producing components to one shared heatsink, and then venting that heatsink! Isn't that the basis of watercooling tech?

[Khendraja'aro]

We've innovated by attaching all the heat producing components to one shared heatsink, and then venting that heatsink! Isn't that the basis of watercooling tech?

Yepp.

[Aimless]

There will probably be chassis options for more elegant "external" upgrades

[Dreadnaught]

I didn't even read the news stories about the announcements, but the headlines missed this. The fan looks a lot like the oil cooling fan of a VW Beetle. Cute.

The site seems to be making a big stink about how the design "shares thermal capacity" across all the heat sources. Doesn't that mean everything gets pretty warm all the time (EG if you are using a lot of CPU but not a lot of GPU)?

Not bad looking, and sorta nice to see them working to keep the desktop market alive beyond the iMac. Also a nice marketing touch with the "assembled in the US" nonsense. Not worth it to me, but I'm not the target market.