Considering its shape, location of its fan, I see no reason why Dyson cannot come out with a air multiplier extension that mounts to the top.
Silly aside.
I don't care what the hardware inside the Mac Pro is because I cannot upgrade it from what we have seen already. If I am bound by what I buy then its not a traditional "Pro" machine. Its a design statement and nothing more.
Let alone I don't want a family of these enclosures on my desk, I do fully expect the after market to come up with matching towers you can tbolt connect all across your desk. Perhaps one or two will double as monitor stands.
guys, Apple has always operated with the ethos that design matters. Clearly there are a lot of people who don't care about design, who don't care about the way things look. Apple does and it has made the bet that there are a lot of people out there who do too, and who are willing to pay for good design. I would say Apple's bet has paid off, wouldn't you?
If you don't care about design, about the way things look, if you don't believe that form can facilitate function, then that's OK dude. You don't have to buy their stuff. Just stop criticizing others who do. Lots of people care about form and function, lots of people are willing to pay for good design. It doesn't make them naive or stupid or sheep or shallow... it just makes them happy.
If you don't believe in the premise that good design, well-thought out form+function can have an impact on mood, emotion, workplace (or home) atmosphere, etc, then dude, I have to say, you are mistaken.
Also remember that Apple is a for-profit business, and they are not selling "computers" any more than BMW is selling "personal transportation devices".
"Beige box" ? No innovation for the past 30 years ?
It saddens me to see people compare a super expensive mac book pro case with the low end $30 cases. I'm not sure if its ignorance or blindness, but you should inform yourself on the high end market for desktop cases (and not just the external look of the case, the internals are what matters). It will cost between $150 and $300 for a really good model, but then again you're comparing it to a mac pro.
Companies like Antec, Lian-Li, Noctua, CoolerMaster, Thermaltake, ... Have spent the last decade or so making fans and cases that can cool down a maxed 2/3 GPU SLI running the latest game while still being silent for the high end gaming and power users market.
High end PC cases are mostly rubbish. I've had many of them, I've built many workstations over the years. None of them compare favourably to the (original) Mac Pro case. There has been very little "innovation" in that market segment. None of those companies have anough money or the market big enough to warrant R&D expenses.
For a pro computer, where performance is absolutely the most important consideration, do you really care about the shape of the case?
Another thing most of people are not bringing up and driving me nuts, is for pro computer, being able to upgrade components at will is one of the most important considerations. From the looks of it, this looks like its not going to be possible with the macpro. With the old Macpro, it was possible to upgrade components. As a matter of fact, being able to upgrade was a big part of the design.
> For a pro computer, where performance is absolutely the most important consideration, do you really care about the shape of the case?
It’s a tiny 10"×6"×6" workstation. That means you can take it anywhere in a backpack. Lots of pros are going to love that, from photographers to DJs to forensic detectives to doctors without borders.
The new cooling system (and thus the case’s round shape) is what allows the new Mac Pro to be so ridiculously small.
I love carrying around my computer with no monitor, no mouse, no keyboard, no power cables and no accessories. I like even more if it is in a delicate housing with an exposed and breakable fan. I think I will throw that in my bag!
Screw The Macbook pro, I am on board with this new and massively inconvenient alternative.
Plenty of pros have to bring Mac Pros to worksites in big flightcases (think live events, shoots on location, outdoors experiments, etc.). The current Mac Pros are ginormous and they weigh over 50 pounds. If they can be replaced by something 1/8th of the size, those people will gladly do so.
When I need to edit video on the road, I bring a MacBook Air. Final Cut works alright on it, but it’s nowhere near as fast as on a Mac Pro. I could bring a MacBook Pro on these trips, but I decided that the little gain in speed compared to the MacBook Air is not worth the extra weight and mass (for me). Taking a current Mac Pro with me to a shoot would mean I need help from others (I don’t drive). I can take the new Mac Pro with me on location, and that will make my work a lot more pleasant.
Really? Last time I saw a "pro" carry a mac pro to an event was 2006, right after they were released, and it was mainly to show it off. Shortly there after even he realized how stupid it was an got a Macbook Pro (released the same year).
If someone in 2013 is lugging around the basically abandoned Mac Pro line ... I question their sanity.
EDIT: The rotting Mac Pro has long since been eclipsed in performance by the Macbook Pro line, so unless you did custom upgrades to it, you likely are carrying 50+ pounds + monitor + (other) for worse performance than a 4.5 pound laptop.
I point is I can't think of any single task where a "photographers to DJs to forensic detectives to doctors without borders" (as you mentioned), needs to tug along a workstation to accomplish said task that can't be done by a macbookp pro, or any medium to high end laptop.
As a matter of fact, I have never seen or heard of instance of any tugging around their powerful station to do any special purpose work. Esp, nowadays. That just sounds like a ridiculous thing to do.
>As a matter of fact, I have never seen or heard of instance of any tugging around their powerful station to do any special purpose work
Live events work, video work, anything where you need >2 external display outs and top performance...you're thinking in terms of the single person, where lugging a Mac Pro around is an inconvenience. I'm thinking of the Mac Pro getting thrown on the back of the truck with the rest of the lighting rig and truss, in which case it's one very small component in a larger travelling system.
I used to work in live events, it wasn't unusual to load Mac Pros in with the rig.
> I used to work in live events, it wasn't unusual to load Mac Pros in with the rig.
Yeah, maybe 8-10 years ago, but now it would seem ridiculous. Or the person who is moving around with a macpro, is not tech savvy enough to know he has better options.
That doesn't mean its a reasonable thing todo.
I have seen my share of live events, managed by couple of laptops/MBpro or at worst case scenarios AIOs.
I think the new macpro is a case of designer's dictating over practical applications. Most of the time it works well for Apple, but I am afraid, this might not be one of those case.
For a seriously pro user, this is nothing more than a toy.
> Yeah, maybe 8-10 years ago, but now it would seem ridiculous.
No, it still happens and it isn’t ridiculous. Try driving a high resolution video wall with a MBP, especially if realtime rendering is involved.
> For a seriously pro user, this is nothing more than a toy.
I already gave you an example of what I’m going to be using it for: video. A MBP can edit regular HD footage (like from a 5D) but it simply doesn’t have enough power to edit footage from a professional camera like a RED Scarlet, Arri Alexa, or Canon C500.
Fashion photographers have the same problem. For instance, a Leaf Aptus camera shoots at 80MP. That means you get RAW files of 80MB in size. Those are not fun to import or edit on a MacBook Pro. Fashion photographers and their crews don’t wait around for that, they bring Mac Pros.
Somehow.
In some way.