“We have been expecting new MacBook Airs this week and now it appears that the ultra-thin notebooks won’t be the only new Macs this week. According to our source Mr. X, part numbers for an upgraded Mac Pro line have appeared, hinting at a release for the new line of professional-minded desktop Macs in the coming days,” Mark Gurman reports for 9to5 Mac.
Advertisement: Students, parents and Faculty save up to $200 on a new Mac.
Gurman reports, “Apple will be releasing four new MacBook Air models. This includes two 11 inch models and two 13 inch models; both screen sizes will come in entry level and upgraded configurations. Built-to-order options (BTO) will be available as well… Speedy Sandy Bridge processors and Thunderbolt I/O are this model’s main upgrades.”
“Surprisingly, it also looks like new Mac Pros are coming as early as this week,” Gurman reports. “The new Mac Pros are may feature a re-designed enclosure that is both narrower and rack-mountable. A faster, 16 core model is also a possibility and Thunderbolt is an obvious addition. As expected, a new Mac Pro Server model will also debut.”
Read more in the full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews readers too numerous to mention individually for the heads up.]
I hope the high-end Mac Pro will have 16 cores. I would not buy one, but it would make me smile to think such a thing exists (for someone who needs it). 🙂
From the article
> … there’s been talk of Apple working on a brand-new enclosure. The current tower design has received a number of tweaks over the years, but remains a carryover from Apple’s PowerPC days.
A “number of tweaks”? The interior design is VERY different from the “PowerPC days.” I think it still looks very nice on the outside, for a big metal box.
i LOVE my big metal Box!
I still think one of the best designed cases out there.
but it’s a PowerMac…
Does this give truth to the rumors of Lion this week?
I’ve disliked the enclosure since day one. Big, somewhat ugly, rather boring. And those handles! How many times a day do you need to move such a beast? Better to put it somewhere and never move it again. Yet those handles intrude and make stacking difficult. More-generally, they make it difficult to put anything on top of it. And, on the rare occasions when you do need to use the handles, they cut mercilessly into your hands. I think my opinion would be much different if the handles were changed.
The other side of the story is that it’s effective, solid and easy to work inside it. So my dislike is not strong or unbalanced.
I Guess it’s time to sale my 12-Core Mac Pro, 🙁 my 2.93GHz 12-Core Mac Pro with 32GB of ram is old news bummer!!!
Sold! My first gen Mac Pro has only 12 gb of RAM, and not nearly enough cores… But I am with FTB — I too love the giant aluminum enclosure. I have three, and, years after the introduction, the G5/Mac Pro tower is easily the best-looking case on the market, prettier on the inside than most are on the outside. And switching hard drives is insanely easy — and RAM, vid cards and optical drives not much harder.
Making the optical trays sideways mountable and the enclosure fit to a three u rack with optional racking ears would make a killer server enclosure and cost minimal to bring to market. We love our two Xserves and appreciate the economics of bring these bespoke units to market. We hope the new mac pro will fill the void the Xserve left.
Optical drives? I don’t think Macs will have built-in optical drives by the end of 2012. Actually, Mac Pro will probably be the last to have it as a BTO option.
As long as they don’t do away with the PCI card slots.
I’m using 3 right now (and if I had a different model of video card, that added HDMI to the SDI & analogue connectors, I would need 4 slots).
And please… no comments (from those with no understanding or different needs) of “luddite” “moron” and all the other usual slurs… it shows a shallowness of understanding the depth and breadth of the Mac user base.
Seriously, I’m disappointed about the Thunderbolt progress. I didn’t exactly expect it to take off right away, but it’s like half a year now that I’m waiting for anything at all to appear.
There’s been a correction by the source who gave this information. Apparently it’s for a macbook, two mac regular mini models and a mini server.