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The scaling across the range would be much smoother if they released a headless mid-range machine, rather than relying entirely on iMacs (and laptops) to fill t
by dasmoth 13y ago
The scaling across the range would be much smoother if they released a headless mid-range machine, rather than relying entirely on iMacs (and laptops) to fill the gap between the Mini and the Pro. They seem quite actively disinterested in building such a machine, though.
- cstejerean 13y agoA laptop in clamshell mode is a good substitute for a headless mid-range machine. Combine it with a BookArc stand to avoid wasting desk space and it's hard to beat.
- AlexanderDhoore 13y agoIsn't that how Reddit started? Hosted on a laptop. I read that somewhere. They had to keep it around to restart the server every few hours.
- pak 13y agoBest part about hosting on a headless laptop: built-in UPS in case you have a power dip or somebody knocks the power strip out. I've wondered: if computer makers sold laptops with lights-out-management and detachable displays, would people would repurpose them into makeshift mobile servers and design entire server farms around them, like they have with the Mac Mini. You could have a work/coding environment where if somebody needs to take home the dev server to hack on it overnight, they pull it out of the rack, slap on a display, use it any other laptop, and bring it back in the morning to plug back in.
- dasmoth 13y agoDepends what you're looking for GPU-wise (which is also one of the frustrations of the iMac range). Also, slower CPUs and memory limited to 16Gb. In many respects, the new Mac Pro is exactly the all-round machine (development, scientific computing, plus the odd game) I've been waiting for. If it shows up with a reasonable low-end version, I'd buy it in a flash (or even sooner, given an Nvidia GPU option). But Apple have been very wary about releasing mid-range machines which might cannibalise iMac sales, so I'm not holding my breath.
- leoc 13y agoThe Mac Pro design looks like a better template for a mid-to-high end desktop - at least if the Thunderbolt market matures enough. It would have downsides compared to a conventional PCI-E-motherboard PC, but it would be a unique and interesting option. I don't think it can really cut it as a substitute for a meat-eating high-end workstation though. (Compare: http://www.supermicro.com/products/motherboard/Xeon/C600/X9DAX-iF.cfm http://www.supermicro.com/products/motherboard/Xeon/C600/X9D... - two Xeons and up to half a TiB of RAM in 16 sockets, never mind about PCI-E.) Maybe most professional audio guys don't actually require a serious workstation anymore; I'm sure Apple is calculating or hoping that it will be good enough for enough video editors too. It's hard to see the 2013 Mac Pro getting under the desks at Pixar, but presumably Apple feels willing to give up on that end of the market.
- r00fus 13y agoThis only works if the laptop is designed to be used in clamshell mode - ie, if you tax the processors and the thermal venting isn't adequate it will either fail or ruin the lifespan of the components.
- cstejerean 13y agoThe Macs are designed to run this way as far as I can tell.
- leoc 13y agoIt's a common complaint: here's a blogpost from 2007 called "Where's the Mac?" http://don.blogs.smugmug.com/2007/08/08/wheres-the-mac/ http://don.blogs.smugmug.com/2007/08/08/wheres-the-mac/ . Midrange desktops are probably still where the buyers are most price/performance-conscious, and where design/engineering effort makes the least difference: Apple probably wants to avoid competing on that kind of terrain. They may also be worried about people who would opt for a midrange Mac over a Mac Pro if given the option.
- calinet6 13y agoThe Mini is supposed to be that, ideally. The graphics are the bottleneck, but they'll get better as the Intel integrated graphics pipeline improves.