4 ms·

> Moreover, you are not limited by any client restrictions But you must still limit yourself to sanity and physics. Too often, designers don't have a clue wha

> Moreover, you are not limited by any client restrictions But you must still limit yourself to sanity and physics. Too often, designers don't have a clue what's actually going on behind the scenes, and embarrass themselves. This example puts 16 TB3 ports on a computer, because "consumers want it to be very expandable" and "2 columns of 8 looks pretty". It also adds two graphics cards but buries the connectors into the floor rather than making them externally accessible. Concept cars by designers may have faults such as zero visibility from the drivers seat, have aggressively high front bumpers and low hood lines that look designed to kill pedestrians, utterly lack necessary things like exhaust pipes, crumple zones and spare tires, or have absurd specifications ("500 miles from the 2 cubic foot battery pack!" "600 HP V12 under the rear seat!") Your target (other marketing departments) may not care. But it's also very possible that they encounter these limits as a part of their daily work, and will care, judging you for your lack of domain knowledge. Definitely create some concept work for your portfolio. But don't stray too far from the realm of the possible.

radley 10y ago
Ugh - did anyone take a look at his portfolio? He designs for video games so of course the specs are exaggerated. He did something fun and most of HN is railing on him. The same criticisms ought to be said here - if you're going to criticize, first take a look at the whole picture and don't jump to conclusions.
- AznHisoka 10y ago
  But part of me thinks he's an armchair product designer. Anyone can create a cool looking mockup. But what about the actual thing?
  - adamlett 10y ago
    Anyone, huh?
- smhost 10y ago
  I agree that the ad hominems are unfair, but bad design is bad design regardless of authorship.
runamok 10y ago
I hadn't even noticed the floor facing video card connectors... I imagine this could be addressed by having mini display port cables that connect to external ports on the back. I agree that VGA and DVI would likely not fit. From what I recall most modern video cards have multiple output types though. I know L connectors exist for hdmi too: https://www.monoprice.com/product?p_id=3733 https://www.monoprice.com/product?p_id=3733 and the category in general: https://www.monoprice.com/category?c_id=104&cp_id=10419&cs_id=1041913 https://www.monoprice.com/category?c_id=104&cp_id=10419&cs_i...
- tossedaway334 10y ago
  heat is exsausted out the connector side on modern GPUs, placing that facing downward is an excellent recipie for a cooked GPU.
  - seanp2k2 10y ago
    Just reverse them (so the GPUs are venting up) then have right-angle dongles (which are very Apple now) under a magic magnetic lid compartment. Or, recess them enough (increase the case height) enough that you can plug in normal DP / HDMI cables. I like it, but it's not proprietary enough for Apple to make. They didn't come out with a single upgrade GPU for the Mac Pro dustbin design, so I doubt they care much about selling modularity or upgradability these days. Their message is clear: "upgrade" means new device, which means all the products they sell are disposable appliances. IMO, they could open up MacOS to work on some variations of hardware and sell it for $300-$500. They would still make the nicest hardware, but since desktops and laptops obviously aren't their main focus anymore, they could still offer power users good tools to build all these amazing mobile apps on without limiting them to their current slim pickings. Hell, even just make XCode cross-platform. Even just let it run on X, and use the Windows Linux subsystem to support it.
    - rbanffy 10y ago
      Using two standard full-length cards is just lazy design (even if he made it a point to use standard components). The GPUs should be on boards like they are on the current MacPro and attached to the monumental heatsink. This add two fans to a design that absolutely doesn't need them. The SATA disks also seem misplaced - it should extend PCI-E storage or, even better, DIMM flash modules: big Xeons have 4 memory channels per socket, enough for letting a couple of those go to storage. Having one single bus for everything makes the machine much neater.
vacri 10y ago
Case in point: their 'concept gun' ignores the fact that your trigger hand is attached to an arm behind it.
stormbrew 10y ago
It's weird that they presented the cards as standard PCE-E cards when the existing Mac Pro uses custom cards that don't have their own cooling manifold, but I don't think their intention was that there'd be connectors on the bottom you'd use. Just like the current Mac Pro I'm sure they expect you'd use Thunderbolt or HDMI for display out. Those connectors are the same as on the existing Mac Pro, except this one has TB3 as well.
deleted 10y ago
[deleted]
Nition 10y ago
Even as a non-designer consumer it sucks when you can look at a concept and immediately see that it wouldn't work in real life.

radley 10y ago

Ugh - did anyone take a look at his portfolio? He designs for video games so of course the specs are exaggerated. He did something fun and most of HN is railing on him. The same criticisms ought to be said here - if you're going to criticize, first take a look at the whole picture and don't jump to conclusions.

AznHisoka 10y ago
But part of me thinks he's an armchair product designer. Anyone can create a cool looking mockup. But what about the actual thing?
- adamlett 10y ago
  Anyone, huh?
smhost 10y ago
I agree that the ad hominems are unfair, but bad design is bad design regardless of authorship.

runamok 10y ago

I hadn't even noticed the floor facing video card connectors... I imagine this could be addressed by having mini display port cables that connect to external ports on the back. I agree that VGA and DVI would likely not fit. From what I recall most modern video cards have multiple output types though. I know L connectors exist for hdmi too: https://www.monoprice.com/product?p_id=3733 https://www.monoprice.com/product?p_id=3733 and the category in general: https://www.monoprice.com/category?c_id=104&cp_id=10419&cs_id=1041913 https://www.monoprice.com/category?c_id=104&cp_id=10419&cs_i...

tossedaway334 10y ago
heat is exsausted out the connector side on modern GPUs, placing that facing downward is an excellent recipie for a cooked GPU.
- seanp2k2 10y ago
  Just reverse them (so the GPUs are venting up) then have right-angle dongles (which are very Apple now) under a magic magnetic lid compartment. Or, recess them enough (increase the case height) enough that you can plug in normal DP / HDMI cables. I like it, but it's not proprietary enough for Apple to make. They didn't come out with a single upgrade GPU for the Mac Pro dustbin design, so I doubt they care much about selling modularity or upgradability these days. Their message is clear: "upgrade" means new device, which means all the products they sell are disposable appliances. IMO, they could open up MacOS to work on some variations of hardware and sell it for $300-$500. They would still make the nicest hardware, but since desktops and laptops obviously aren't their main focus anymore, they could still offer power users good tools to build all these amazing mobile apps on without limiting them to their current slim pickings. Hell, even just make XCode cross-platform. Even just let it run on X, and use the Windows Linux subsystem to support it.
  - rbanffy 10y ago
    Using two standard full-length cards is just lazy design (even if he made it a point to use standard components). The GPUs should be on boards like they are on the current MacPro and attached to the monumental heatsink. This add two fans to a design that absolutely doesn't need them. The SATA disks also seem misplaced - it should extend PCI-E storage or, even better, DIMM flash modules: big Xeons have 4 memory channels per socket, enough for letting a couple of those go to storage. Having one single bus for everything makes the machine much neater.

vacri 10y ago

Case in point: their 'concept gun' ignores the fact that your trigger hand is attached to an arm behind it.

stormbrew 10y ago

It's weird that they presented the cards as standard PCE-E cards when the existing Mac Pro uses custom cards that don't have their own cooling manifold, but I don't think their intention was that there'd be connectors on the bottom you'd use. Just like the current Mac Pro I'm sure they expect you'd use Thunderbolt or HDMI for display out. Those connectors are the same as on the existing Mac Pro, except this one has TB3 as well.

deleted 10y ago

[deleted]

Nition 10y ago

Even as a non-designer consumer it sucks when you can look at a concept and immediately see that it wouldn't work in real life.