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The author hits the nail right on the head here. The new Mac Pro is making a bold bet on the future: that given sufficient bandwidth, the benefits of external

The author hits the nail right on the head here. The new Mac Pro is making a bold bet on the future: that given sufficient bandwidth, the benefits of external expansion ultimately outweigh the benefits of packing them into a tower. This is going to cause tremendous short-term pain and the fiercest hand-wringing the tech world has seen since the release of FCP X, but in the long term I think Apple made the right bet and will come out ahead.

IverNewson 13y ago
It's not an either/or proposition; Why couldn't Apple have provided a tower that had both internal and external expansion? Because new Mac Pro 'needs' to be 1/8th the volume of the old Mac Pro?
- nicholassmith 13y ago
  The same argument can be made for many of Apple product decisions, why no Blu-Ray? Why no SuperDrive in the MBPr? The simple answer being as always, Apple doesn't think it's necessary. They've clearly designed it for a very specific purpose, I'm interested in seeing what the futures bodes for it.
- stinos 13y ago
  There's enough people out there that will let the appearance playe a major part in their decision of whether or not to buy it. So yes, from Apple's POV it needs to be smaller and different looking. It's all about pleasing the customers, innit?
- evilduck 13y ago
  That wouldn't put any pressure on 3rd parties to manufacture external peripherals (which is hypothetically the goal).
- deleted 13y ago
  [deleted]
- masklinn 13y ago
  > Why couldn't Apple have provided a tower that had both internal and external expansion? The lack of internal expansion means high-end mac pro peripherals have to be TB, which may finally kickstart the the TB ecosystem. And when that happens, these peripherals are compatible with all machines from the mini and air to rMBP and mac pro.
- deleted 13y ago
  [deleted]
- interpol_p 13y ago
  Because it isn't necessary for the future they envision. It's like including a DVD drive on a laptop: some people might use it now, but it's very clearly on the way out. Apple generally make these decisions before it's very clear what direction the industry is heading. Their decision here is to position the Mac Pro as a tiny, powerful computing hub that has the bandwidth and controllers necessary to drive a crazy amount of professional hardware at high speed. This unifies their products relative to external accessories (if everything is Thunderbolt, you can plug your hardware into your laptop when required). It also lets them stay focused on making the best 'pro' computing hub they can build. (That it also happens to be quiet and small is a very nice plus.) Edit: That said, who knows whether this is the right direction for the pro industry.
  - dasil003 13y ago
    The other interesting bit of this strategy is how OS X serves as the wedge that forces people to take the bitter pill and recalibrate their idea of pro computing. Any other hardware company wouldn't have the clout to avoid losing massive marketshare in a move like this.
- minikites 13y ago
  For the same reason the original Macintosh had no arrow keys or why the iMac didn't have a floppy drive or internal slots.
pinaceae 13y ago
I agree, very informative and good article. I am not a AV guy, but using my mac mini i started to do the same thing described in the article. rather than byuing an internal hdd, i simply connected a 1tb external drive (silent, sdd). at first I didn't think about it, but this enabled me to: - Need to transfer files to one of my Windows machines? Simply unplug the hdd from the mac and plug into the Winbox - Travelling? Take my entire library of stuff with me. No need for DropBox, etc. This works offline, anywhere. Sounds low tech and slightly too simple, but I'd love to expand this to other functionalities. An external graphics card would be awesome, play games on any machine I want (Mini or Air...). I've built my own gaming PCs, but by now I would really prefer something more modular, easy, true plug and play.
atonse 13y ago
Let's not forget that moving to thunderbolt actually makes the whole machine MORE expandable, because of daisy-chaining. An existing computer may have something like 5 PCIe slots. That's your limit. But with these thunderbolt ports, you can hook up 6 devices per port. 5 PCIe cards vs a potential of 36? I really don't see how the new Mac Pro is less extendable. In addition, now that there is no CD Drive, there's no longer any reason why this tower needs to sit where you do. You could theoretically have 40ft Thunderbolt cables drive your displays, and the computer can be neatly stowed away in another room, and just the interfaces (like these cool looking RME devices) and other monitors and editing equipment can stay on your desk. When it comes time to upgrade, you just replace the "brain", and hook up all the cables to it.

IverNewson 13y ago

It's not an either/or proposition; Why couldn't Apple have provided a tower that had both internal and external expansion? Because new Mac Pro 'needs' to be 1/8th the volume of the old Mac Pro?

nicholassmith 13y ago
The same argument can be made for many of Apple product decisions, why no Blu-Ray? Why no SuperDrive in the MBPr? The simple answer being as always, Apple doesn't think it's necessary. They've clearly designed it for a very specific purpose, I'm interested in seeing what the futures bodes for it.
stinos 13y ago
There's enough people out there that will let the appearance playe a major part in their decision of whether or not to buy it. So yes, from Apple's POV it needs to be smaller and different looking. It's all about pleasing the customers, innit?
evilduck 13y ago
That wouldn't put any pressure on 3rd parties to manufacture external peripherals (which is hypothetically the goal).
deleted 13y ago
[deleted]
masklinn 13y ago
> Why couldn't Apple have provided a tower that had both internal and external expansion? The lack of internal expansion means high-end mac pro peripherals have to be TB, which may finally kickstart the the TB ecosystem. And when that happens, these peripherals are compatible with all machines from the mini and air to rMBP and mac pro.
deleted 13y ago
[deleted]
interpol_p 13y ago
Because it isn't necessary for the future they envision. It's like including a DVD drive on a laptop: some people might use it now, but it's very clearly on the way out. Apple generally make these decisions before it's very clear what direction the industry is heading. Their decision here is to position the Mac Pro as a tiny, powerful computing hub that has the bandwidth and controllers necessary to drive a crazy amount of professional hardware at high speed. This unifies their products relative to external accessories (if everything is Thunderbolt, you can plug your hardware into your laptop when required). It also lets them stay focused on making the best 'pro' computing hub they can build. (That it also happens to be quiet and small is a very nice plus.) Edit: That said, who knows whether this is the right direction for the pro industry.
- dasil003 13y ago
  The other interesting bit of this strategy is how OS X serves as the wedge that forces people to take the bitter pill and recalibrate their idea of pro computing. Any other hardware company wouldn't have the clout to avoid losing massive marketshare in a move like this.
minikites 13y ago
For the same reason the original Macintosh had no arrow keys or why the iMac didn't have a floppy drive or internal slots.

pinaceae 13y ago

I agree, very informative and good article. I am not a AV guy, but using my mac mini i started to do the same thing described in the article. rather than byuing an internal hdd, i simply connected a 1tb external drive (silent, sdd). at first I didn't think about it, but this enabled me to: - Need to transfer files to one of my Windows machines? Simply unplug the hdd from the mac and plug into the Winbox - Travelling? Take my entire library of stuff with me. No need for DropBox, etc. This works offline, anywhere. Sounds low tech and slightly too simple, but I'd love to expand this to other functionalities. An external graphics card would be awesome, play games on any machine I want (Mini or Air...). I've built my own gaming PCs, but by now I would really prefer something more modular, easy, true plug and play.

atonse 13y ago

Let's not forget that moving to thunderbolt actually makes the whole machine MORE expandable, because of daisy-chaining. An existing computer may have something like 5 PCIe slots. That's your limit. But with these thunderbolt ports, you can hook up 6 devices per port. 5 PCIe cards vs a potential of 36? I really don't see how the new Mac Pro is less extendable. In addition, now that there is no CD Drive, there's no longer any reason why this tower needs to sit where you do. You could theoretically have 40ft Thunderbolt cables drive your displays, and the computer can be neatly stowed away in another room, and just the interfaces (like these cool looking RME devices) and other monitors and editing equipment can stay on your desk. When it comes time to upgrade, you just replace the "brain", and hook up all the cables to it.