A New Mac Pro Model vs Existing Models

2011-04-28 • SEND FEEDBACK |
Related: gear, Mac Pro, SSD, Thunderbolt, weather events

Tune up a Mac Pro as an
MPG Pro Workstation

Please see my editorial Could There Be a New Mac Pro Coming?.

There’s thinking out there that a new Mac Pro is due, and that it will be better than the existing one, so wait and see. But that’s a stretch:

• Intel has not announced new processors that are suitable for and superior to those in the existing Mac Pro.
• For a new Mac Pro to offer a substantial advantage for internal drives (e.g., fast SSDs), it would need far higher bandwidth on the motherboard. The current Mac Pro motherboard is almost maxed-out with two of the slower previous generation 3G SSDs, and that solution is beyond what 99.9% of users need anyway.
• Some users are waiting for Thunderbolt, but Thunderbolt devices are not going to be cheap, and for truly high performance, existing PCIe cards already offer performance far beyond what even demanding users need, with similar or even better performance than Thunderbolt. See the iStorage Pro with a RAID card. After all, Thunderbolt is PCIe with a connector.
• A variety of fast SSD solutions will emerge soon that will work in the existing Mac Pro and provide faster speeds than Thunderbolt can offer. For example, PCIe cards with onboard SSDs, and other solutions based on SSDs.

A solution now starts working for you now

A well-configured Mac Pro, e.g. an MPG Pro Workstation, solves the needs of users today, with performance and reliability. Waiting for an unknown when proven systems already exist that can save time and/or increase reliability is the wrong approach for professionals.

Last year

Last year, Apple delayed a new Mac Pro until August (instead of April). iPhone and iPad are the priorities; expecting a new Mac Pro to appear as a priority seems rather optimistic.