The New 2019 Mac Pro

Murasama1 Comment on The New 2019 Mac Pro

https://www.apple.com/mac-pro/

Since 2017 when Apple pre-announced their plans for the Mac Pro, Apple has been working on a redesign to the line after the 2013 “trash can” Mac Pro turned out to be a thermal dead end (along with non-standard GPU’s and limited internal storage).  Many Mac Pro users (myself included) have been waiting to see what solution Apple would come up with after multiple years of neglect.  And the clock was ticking down as 2019 progressed to the midway point heading towards Apple’s developer conference.

Well, that time has finally come and Apple unveiled the next generation Mac Pro during the open keynote at WWDC 2019 in San Jose, California today.  The prior tower desktop Mac Pro (2006-2012) had been referred to as the “cheese grater” design due to the small holes in its front and rear panels.  Apple took that reference to heart and used that as inspiration for the external visuals of the new system where it looks much more like a cheese grater compared to the prior desktop tower design.

The new system is an updated take on the previous desktop tower design; what Apple should’ve done back in 2013 (instead of the cylindrical form factor they went with) where it is an evolutionary spiritual successor instead of an attempt to re-invent the wheel for something that no one really asked for.  As promised, Apple created a modular design in a form factor that works and thankfully did not go with the stackable modules approach that was going around the rumor mill.  My own point of reference back in 2017 (as to what I was looking for from Apple) was HP’s Z8 workstation; Apple heard the feedback and did just that with the 2019 Mac Pro.

The entire outer case lifts up to expose the dual sided logic board (providing exceptionally easy access) that is mounted on the stainless steel space frame.  The internal expandability is there in terms of memory slots (12) and PCIe slots (8; 4 double-wide, 3 single-wide, 1 half-length slot populated with an I/O card); it won’t appease everyone but is a step up from the limited internal expandability of the 2013 Mac Pro and a definitive upgrade over the 2006-2012 Mac Pro towers.  Apple eschewed storage bays for mechanical disk drives in favor of all solid state drives (2 blades can be installed for up to 4TB of internal storage).  It’s an overall clean design that is very functional.  Caster wheels are also an option (price of that is unknown but the obvious meme/joke here given the price of the Pro Stand for the Pro Display XDR is that they’ll go for $499 a piece).
The pricing of both the system and the new 6K XDR display didn’t shock me since I anticipated that early on (ending paragraph).  Off the bat, Apple chose not to offer a lower base Xeon processor and has memory starting at 32GB (the GPU is unsurprisingly on the low end).  A similarly configured HP Z8 G4 workstation clocks in at around $9,300 making this fairly price competitive in the high end workstation space.  The Z8 offers a bit more internal storage (drive bay) options giving it the advantage in terms of sheer modular upgradability.
Apple could have offered a lower end Xeon processor configuration and scaled up CTO options like they did with previous desktop tower Mac Pro’s in order to hit the general prosumer demographic at a lower entry price point.  They instead chose to configure and price this for the smaller specialized pro market and/or those who have a lot of disposable income.  However, unless you need sheer I/O and ECC memory, there are obviously much cheaper non-workstation class systems that have similar processing (compute and GPU) capabilities.Is Apple leaving money on the table by not catering to prosumers/enthusiasts who don’t want an all-in-one system like the iMac Pro or prefer more internal expandability than what a Mac mini can offer?  That is a definitive yes and is also nothing new; Apple has usually ignored this demographic when it comes to offering up hardware configurations in that desktop form factor that makes sense for that crowd.

So is this new Mac Pro a suitable replacement for my 2010 model where it keeps me in the Apple ecosystem?  Based on what is currently known, the simple answer is yes.  I was fairly skeptical they would go back to a functional desktop tower design so I have to give them credit for not screwing up that part.  However, more specific details are needed regarding the MPX module (Apple’s proprietary expansion module) including its pricing and whether or not there will be options for NVIDIA GPU’s.  I’m also holding off on the 2019 model since I want to see how Apple manages upgrades and refinements in its first year.  Plus this will give early adopters enough time to reveal the good and bad things.
As for the matching 32″ 6K Pro Display (the optional $999 stand left me laughing when the price was announced), I personally don’t need this level of display and will be fine with a 4K IPS display.  I do have to give kudos to the team that worked on this new Mac Pro (actually listening to the feedback and following through and not going wild with proprietary modular components) and meeting a 2019 ship date since it does stave off the potential defections for those on their last legs.

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