

(The new model offers the same pair of Gigabit-ethernet ports as current models.) How upgradeable is the new Mac Pro?

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Of course, the new Mac Pro also-finally-gets faster connectivity, as well, sporting six Thunderbolt 2 ports (which are up to twice as fast as the first-generation Thunderbolt ports on the rest of Apple’s current computers) and four USB 3.0 ports, compared to four FireWire 800 and five USB 2.0 ports on the current Mac Pro.Īnd, finally, Apple has improved wireless performance, adding 802.11ac Wi-Fi and giving the 2013 Pro the same Bluetooth 4.0 circuitry found in every other current Mac. (More on that below.) Apple The Mac Pro’s ports
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(Apple doesn’t say how much faster this new storage technology is than the motherboard-based flash storage on the current MacBook Pro.) The other advantage of PCI Express-based flash storage is that you should be able to easily upgrade it. According to Apple, this new type of flash storage is up to 2.5 times faster than the fastest SATA-based solid-state drives (1250 MBps versus 500 MBps) it’s up to 10 times faster than a 7200rpm SATA hard drive (110 MBps). Whereas the current Mac Pro uses traditional mechanical hard drives, and most of Apple’s other computers use standard flash storage (either SSD or flash memory soldered to the motherboard), the new Mac Pro will use next-generation PCI Express flash storage. Storage should be dramatically faster, as well. (Apple says the fan is very quiet, because it’s a large, single fan with an efficient design.) The top-mounted fan sucks cool air from beneath the Mac Pro, pulls it up through that core, where it cools the components, and then blows the warmed air out the top. Underneath that fan is a key reason for the Mac Pro’s unique design: the “unified thermal core.” This is Apple’s name for the large, triangular space in the middle of the cylinder, with its sides made up of the two video cards and the processor card-each of which vents its heat into that central core. You can grab the top of the external housing anywhere around the ring and pick it right up. That’s because while the Mac Pro’s case ends at the top of the cylinder, the internal housing, made of the same aluminum material as the exterior, ends an inch or so below that with a ringed vent above a single fan.


You can actually pick it up-and we did-with one hand by grabbing it by the top. It’s a dense, heavy object, but much smaller than the old Mac Pro: just 9.9 inches tall and 6.6 inches in diameter. Instead of the traditional blocky “cheese grater” tower, the 2013 Mac Pro takes the shape of a black cylinder made of polished aluminum. Given that the current Mac Pro looks essentially the same as the 2003 Power Mac G5, any new design would stand out, but the new Mac Pro’s design is dramatically-nay, shockingly-different. (By way of comparison, the current Mac Pro costs $2499 for the 3.2GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon-powered standard configuration and $3799 for the 12-core model with two 2.4GHz Xeon chips.) On the one hand, the new Mac Pro is roughly one eighth the volume of the current Mac Pro, and it uses fewer internal components, as well on the other hand, Intel’s newest processor won’t be cheap, and the new Mac Pro uses pricey solid-state storage and two high-end video cards, even on the low end. Macworld editors have been taking wild guesses around the office, with estimates ranging from $2000 to $4000. Apple similarly hasn’t announced prices for the new Mac Pro.
