“Apple’s new Mac Pro is a radical departure from previous versions, and a redesign that in many ways has to be seen to believed,” Darrell Etherington reports for TechCrunch. “Which is why we’ve put together this gallery of the new pro desktop for power users, which is clad in black aluminum and houses not one but two workstation graphics cards along with PCI Express flash storage, Thunderbolt 2, Xeon processors and 4k video output for up to three monitors at 4K resolution.”
“The most impressive part of the Mac Pro might be how much Apple’s engineers managed to cram into such a small package. There are not one, not two, but six Thunderbolt 2 outputs, which adds tons of external expandability, as well as two FireWire 800 ports, audio in and out, HDMI and Ethernet,” Etherington reports. “The top of the device is designed to double as a handle, and the whole external casing slides off when unlocked to give access to internal components for swapping parts out. It doesn’t have the same kind of internal drive bays for traditional platter-based HDDs as the old silver aluminum behemoth it replaces, but this little powerhouse is sure to find a place in the hearts of many video and graphics pros.”
Check out TechCrunch’s full gallery here.
The next generation Mac Pro will be available later this year. To learn more, visit www.apple.com/mac-pro.
Related article:
With new Mac Pro, Apple gives sneak peek into the future of the pro desktop – June 10, 2013
I can just see my cat warming his furry butt in the well on the top. Cool looking design. I don’t think the lack of internal expansion is a huge deal breaker. A lot of people never use the internal ports anyway. And those that do can use an external expansion unit. It used to be that doing this meant a slower computer, but with Thunderbolt 2, that shouldn’t be an issue. The downside of this approach is probably price. It would have been nice to make it slightly bigger to add a normal hard drive onboard. I’ve had bad experiences with external drives and prefer internal storage. I guess it’s not meant for the average consumer, which is why they omitted the memory card reader found on many of their other machines. I also wish they’ve added USB ports on the front for things that you connect and disconnect rather than just leave connected. But Apple’s never let convenience trump visual appeal.
Impressive specs. Apple finally delivered there.
What would have been truly impressive is if Apple would have simultaneously announced a matching new Thunderbolt 4k display with integrated Firewire / USB 2 & 3 dock.
Apple overestimates the professional’s appreciation for miniscule form factor and underestimates the professional’s hatred of chintzy overpriced adapters and breakout boxes.
Apple transitioned all its other Macs relatively smoothly from USB/Firewire/DVI/DisplayPort to a more-Thunderbolt approach. Unfortunately, the switch is flipped suddenly on the Mac Pro, which leaves potential buyers with extensive legacy non-Thunderbolt peripherals in the lurch. How many years will it take for Thunderbolt 2 to be supported natively by 3rd party peripheral makers? According to Intel, in the OVER TWO YEARS since Thunderbolt was released there are currently only about 30 computer motherboards shipping with Thunderbolt. There are about 100 Thunderbolt-enabled peripherals. Not particularly strong selection for users! Apple had better hope that Thunderbolt finally takes off, as pro users need flexibility and control.
Moreover, what’s with the !@#$% HDMI port? That pathetic interface with the wimpy physical connector can be adapted from Thunderbolt, why isn’t Apple making the HDMI licensing mob cowtow to the Thunderbolt spec like everyone else?