4 ms·

We reserve our right to moan at consumer junk with the workstation label glued on. Innovation is not something I really want in the workstation market. I want

by kryten 13y ago

We reserve our right to moan at consumer junk with the workstation label glued on. Innovation is not something I really want in the workstation market. I want something utterly reliable that works flawlessly for several years and if something goes wrong I can swap the bits out in minutes. If I need more disks, just throw them inside it without playing around with half knackered frayed cables, external enclosures, power management and cable routing, volume management etc. More RAM? chuck it in. More CPU, chuck another CPU in. Apple aren't offering ANY of that. To be honest, neither Alienware or Razer are even workstation class machines either. People have a low expectation of the term "workstation" these days. Citation: http://www.hp.com/united-states/campaigns/workstations/z820_features.html http://www.hp.com/united-states/campaigns/workstations/z820_... Edit: will the "downvoters" please bother to stop and explain what their idea of a workstation is?

millstone 13y ago
I didn't downvote you, but I don't think your criticism is well founded. For example, on the existing Mac Pro, adding a hard drive not require any cables at all. Neither does adding RAM. So it's not the case that "Apple aren't offering any of that." I also don't see how the machine you linked to supports "chuck another CPU in". It looks like it limits you to two, which is the same as the Mac Pro.
- kryten 13y ago
  I'm talking about the "new Mac Pro". The existing one a better piece of kit if you ask me. You can change the CPUs officially with the HP. I doubt Apple will offer that option. My current "workstation" is configured with 2x 4 core Xeons, 32Gb of RAM, 2x Samsung 840's, a 5 drive SAS array, a 32Gb PCIe RAMdisk and 2 Quadro cards. That won't fit in the new Mac Pro...
deleted 13y ago
[deleted]
chongli 13y ago
>Apple aren't offering ANY of that. I think Apple's philosophy here is to push all the expansion to external devices. The new Mac Pro has 6 thunderbolt 2 ports on it. I'd assume you could probably connect some extremely large and fast storage enclosures with that kind of bandwidth. A regular workstation will always be limited by the space available inside of it. Not with this.
- kryten 13y ago
  That's absolutely no good for a lot of workstation deployments. Ours are locked into desks so they don't get nicked due to the high value nature of the work that is done on them. Try locking a new Mac Pro, 20 dangling Thunderbolt devices and an iSCSI array into a desk. You're going to end up with this as well: http://i.imgur.com/4dmz6Q3.jpg http://i.imgur.com/4dmz6Q3.jpg
  - Someone 13y ago
    I would be disappointed if you could not lock this new Mac Pro and bolt it to your desk. I also bet someone already is drawing a cylindrical case that holds a few 3GB drives and connects to that Mac using Thunderbolt. Make the cable short and rigid and you get something inspired by the Petronas towers. And if I had or planned to buy those 20 Thunderbolt devices, I think I would drill a hole in a desk, pull a Thunderbolt cable through, and hang the devices and the cabling under the desk surface Alternatively, one could build a Cray-1 inspired enclosure by adding a small pedestal with 10 Thunderbolt devices in a circle around it; unfortunately, this machine does not have a thunderbolt connector at the bottom. And now that I am throwing analogies around: this thing needs a handle on top: http://curta.org http://curta.org. That 'no connector at the bottom' is a bad thing, by the way. I can't find any picture on apple.com showing this thing with power and display cables plugged in. Finally, I hope they have tested this thing well for dust intake and overheating in the case people place objects close to it on their desk.
  - astrodust 13y ago
    Why not use fiber-attached storage and forget having all the drives on your desk? Lock them in a room.
deleted 13y ago
[deleted]
- kryten 13y ago
  Yes. If you could stick an engine from a MAN Support Vehicle[1] in a Toyota Prius, it doesn't make it a MAN Support Vehicle... [1] http://www.flickr.com/photos/billkatygemma/6281032897/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/billkatygemma/6281032897/ Edit: in context the cowardly parent poster suggested that because it has a Xeon E5 in it, it isn't consumer junk.
bilbo0s 13y ago
"...consumer junk..." "...New generation Xeon E5..." ???
sliverstorm 13y ago
People have a low expectation of the term "workstation" these days. The whole "prosumer" thing has been blurring the lines, typically to the detriment of the "pro" market, except for those "pro" markets that do not overlap with the consumer space whatsoever, e.g. heavy construction equipment.
- kryten 13y ago
  Good point, cleanly described!
gaius 13y ago
Remember the good old days when SGI had awesome casings and rock-solid tech inside?

by kryten 13y ago

millstone 13y ago

I didn't downvote you, but I don't think your criticism is well founded. For example, on the existing Mac Pro, adding a hard drive not require any cables at all. Neither does adding RAM. So it's not the case that "Apple aren't offering any of that." I also don't see how the machine you linked to supports "chuck another CPU in". It looks like it limits you to two, which is the same as the Mac Pro.

kryten 13y ago
I'm talking about the "new Mac Pro". The existing one a better piece of kit if you ask me. You can change the CPUs officially with the HP. I doubt Apple will offer that option. My current "workstation" is configured with 2x 4 core Xeons, 32Gb of RAM, 2x Samsung 840's, a 5 drive SAS array, a 32Gb PCIe RAMdisk and 2 Quadro cards. That won't fit in the new Mac Pro...

deleted 13y ago

[deleted]

chongli 13y ago

>Apple aren't offering ANY of that. I think Apple's philosophy here is to push all the expansion to external devices. The new Mac Pro has 6 thunderbolt 2 ports on it. I'd assume you could probably connect some extremely large and fast storage enclosures with that kind of bandwidth. A regular workstation will always be limited by the space available inside of it. Not with this.

kryten 13y ago
That's absolutely no good for a lot of workstation deployments. Ours are locked into desks so they don't get nicked due to the high value nature of the work that is done on them. Try locking a new Mac Pro, 20 dangling Thunderbolt devices and an iSCSI array into a desk. You're going to end up with this as well: http://i.imgur.com/4dmz6Q3.jpg http://i.imgur.com/4dmz6Q3.jpg
- Someone 13y ago
  I would be disappointed if you could not lock this new Mac Pro and bolt it to your desk. I also bet someone already is drawing a cylindrical case that holds a few 3GB drives and connects to that Mac using Thunderbolt. Make the cable short and rigid and you get something inspired by the Petronas towers. And if I had or planned to buy those 20 Thunderbolt devices, I think I would drill a hole in a desk, pull a Thunderbolt cable through, and hang the devices and the cabling under the desk surface Alternatively, one could build a Cray-1 inspired enclosure by adding a small pedestal with 10 Thunderbolt devices in a circle around it; unfortunately, this machine does not have a thunderbolt connector at the bottom. And now that I am throwing analogies around: this thing needs a handle on top: http://curta.org http://curta.org. That 'no connector at the bottom' is a bad thing, by the way. I can't find any picture on apple.com showing this thing with power and display cables plugged in. Finally, I hope they have tested this thing well for dust intake and overheating in the case people place objects close to it on their desk.
- astrodust 13y ago
  Why not use fiber-attached storage and forget having all the drives on your desk? Lock them in a room.

deleted 13y ago

[deleted]

kryten 13y ago
Yes. If you could stick an engine from a MAN Support Vehicle[1] in a Toyota Prius, it doesn't make it a MAN Support Vehicle... [1] http://www.flickr.com/photos/billkatygemma/6281032897/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/billkatygemma/6281032897/ Edit: in context the cowardly parent poster suggested that because it has a Xeon E5 in it, it isn't consumer junk.

bilbo0s 13y ago

"...consumer junk..." "...New generation Xeon E5..." ???

sliverstorm 13y ago

People have a low expectation of the term "workstation" these days. The whole "prosumer" thing has been blurring the lines, typically to the detriment of the "pro" market, except for those "pro" markets that do not overlap with the consumer space whatsoever, e.g. heavy construction equipment.

kryten 13y ago
Good point, cleanly described!

gaius 13y ago

Remember the good old days when SGI had awesome casings and rock-solid tech inside?