That Mac Pro is such an amazing design, truly a classic! I have a few retro Macs but that is one I would like to add one from that era my collection - it's just a matter of space because they are pretty big!
Thinking of the Pro though, I really do find it very odd what Apple are doing with the current Mac Pro at the moment. Literally all people want is basically a Mac Studio in a bigger chassis with just two extra things - replaceable drives, and two to four PCIe slots for professional audio interface cards, SDI video capture/playout cards, etc... Ideally rack-mountable too.
The Mac Pro is just so overkill in some ways but limited in others, and way too expensive - it just misses what people want and need on every axis...
It's overkill because they preserved nearly every design aspect of the Intel version when switching it over to ARM, even when those design elements no longer made any sense. It's built around cooling for GPUs that aren't supported anymore, has a power supply with about 4x more wattage than the system will ever draw, and the I/O is massively oversubscribed due to Apple Silicon having fewer PCIe lanes than the Xeons it replaced. IMO that points to the Mac Pro being on its way to behind retired altogether in favour of the Studio, they would have made more of an effort of it were sticking around.
Have you looked at the Mac Pro Rack version?
I have been reading through this guide a bit at a time on my phone simply because it's so well written and interesting. I don't even own a Mac Pro, it's just fascinating to read through all the challenges and workarounds to keep the platform modern. Kudos to the author and all the contributors who made it possible.
That Mac Pro is such an amazing design, truly a classic! I have a few retro Macs but that is one I would like to add one from that era my collection - it's just a matter of space because they are pretty big!
Thinking of the Pro though, I really do find it very odd what Apple are doing with the current Mac Pro at the moment. Literally all people want is basically a Mac Studio in a bigger chassis with just two extra things - replaceable drives, and two to four PCIe slots for professional audio interface cards, SDI video capture/playout cards, etc... Ideally rack-mountable too.
The Mac Pro is just so overkill in some ways but limited in others, and way too expensive - it just misses what people want and need on every axis...
It's overkill because they preserved nearly every design aspect of the Intel version when switching it over to ARM, even when those design elements no longer made any sense. It's built around cooling for GPUs that aren't supported anymore, has a power supply with about 4x more wattage than the system will ever draw, and the I/O is massively oversubscribed due to Apple Silicon having fewer PCIe lanes than the Xeons it replaced. IMO that points to the Mac Pro being on its way to behind retired altogether in favour of the Studio, they would have made more of an effort of it were sticking around.
Have you looked at the Mac Pro Rack version?
I have been reading through this guide a bit at a time on my phone simply because it's so well written and interesting. I don't even own a Mac Pro, it's just fascinating to read through all the challenges and workarounds to keep the platform modern. Kudos to the author and all the contributors who made it possible.