Anyone excited about MacPro?

[CP39]

I've been checking out the MacPro and really like the innovative design, it's a beast of a machine! Wondering if anyone else feels the same? Or whether you prefer to keep the computer you have already?

[Calum]

Other than the weird looking design, which will as always inhibit upgrades and repairs, what's new or innovative about it?
Hint: nothing at all.
Apple are just doing their usual thing of taking something that's been out a while, packaging it up in some weird looking case, and putting a few tons of marketing on top.  I'm not suggesting for a second that it won't sell well, because it will, I'm just saying that unless you really, really want (or maybe need) a Mac, there are far better options, and there have been for some time - in terms of price, performance, and price/performance.

[CP39]

I know, 80% of it is just marketing and building it up, as with any product really (although advertising it in movie theaters might be going too far). But if you appreciate the other Macs and compare the Mac Pro to them, I think it is destined for greatness. Not just because the size of it is half of the previous models, but because of the (promised) speed, thermal core, better display etc. etc.
No doubt it's gonna cost a heck of a lot of money, but I'm sure people will be lining up to get one. If not for the features, then for the innovative design.

[BC_Programmer]

for the innovative design.

Are we looking at the same thing? I see nothing innovative. It's basically a mix of a G4 cube and a nextSTEP, they just took the "innovative" step of turning it into a cylinder. There are about a million reasons why computers don't use cylindrical cases. At this point it looks like Apple's "Think different" campaign has been changed from something they used to actually follow- with Motorola-based systems their computers quite literally 'thought different' than pretty much everything else- but now the only thing they can do to differentiate themselves is use a non-standard case. That's not "thinking different" and it's not innovative. Sticking high-end components into a shiny case isn't thinking different and making that case cylindrical is not somehow overturning the status quo.

I love some of the text, it's actually pretty hilarious. One part even has a entire paragraph where Apple is pretty much patting themselves on the back on how "innovative" and "engineering" went into one component. The Fan. Seriously. It's a fan. No innovation required. Making the fan bigger  and customizing it to your non-standard case is not innovation, it's just common sense. The flavour text in their marketing uses the words "rethinking" "innovation" "reengineering" often enough that if an alien race had to analyze our language based on their marketing text, they would consider them conjunctions.

[Calum]

I know, 100% of it is just marketing and building it up

Fixed.

I completely agree with BC's post above, Macs used to actually be different due to their use of PowerPC CPUs, nowadays they're just the same as everyone else with a different OS, different case design (sorry, I mean new and innovative and never been done before at all ever, except it usually has) and a higher price tag.  They're also usually later to market, sometimes by a significant amount, than comparable machines.

[camerongray]

While I like lots of Apple's stuff, I don't like the way they have gone with the new Mac Pro.

I mean, sure it's tiny, but for a supposedly top spec workstation, that shouldn't matter.  The new one feels like a real downgrade.

For example:
- Old Mac Pro had 2x CPUs, new one only has one
- Old Mac Pro had space for 4x HDDs or SSDs internally, new one only has a single SSD
- Old Mac Pro could use standard PCI-E graphics cards, new one can't

I really don't see the reason to make something that is targeted as a professional workstation so small, it's not the sort of machine you want to keep beside your TV where the Mac Mini fits well, it's something you would be using on a desk, a desk that sits on the floor, the same floor that could perfectly accommodate a tower case.  For me the new design is worse as I have plenty of floor space under my desk for the tower but the Mac Pro would need to sit on my desk where there is substantially less space.  Then you need to take into account the external storage that you would need to connect and place somewhere - It's designed for video editing yet they don't provide large amounts of internal storage!

For a professional workstation, having to plug in loads of external devices and being unable to upgrade everything except for SSD and RAM seems like a really bad idea to me.  Will be interesting to see what the uptake is like.