The new Mac Pro. What a radical departure in personal computer design. It’s bold, beautiful, and kicks some serious ass. It also is quite vastly different than the previous models of mac pros with their more industrial rectangular design handle (sometimes dubbed the cheese grater). It’s available now, but stock is quite limited, so don’t be surprised that you’ll be back-ordered for a month or so until Apple keeps catches up with demand.
Trashcan, or awesome PC?
So what is the big deal? It’s designed for content creators, and professionals like video editors. Apple has also optimized the much maligned Final Cut X to run circles around other NLEs (Non Linear Editors). Reports such as 2 minute videos rendering in under 20 seconds are not uncommon. Now will we see the same performance gain with Adobe’s suite, or the older Final Cut Pro under the same hardware? Not at the moment, and for Apple’s older ‘pro’ software (Final Cut Pro) it will likely never happen. However it does point the way for other developers to tune their offerings and provide similar performance. Are you listening Adobe?
MacPro Specs:
- Intel Xeon E5 Processors (Either quad core or 8 core to 12 core)
- 12 – 64 Gbs of RAM
- dual AMD FirePro GPUs (2-3Gbs per GPU )
- Able to support up to 3 4K displays, or 6 conventional monitors
- 6 thunderbolt ports
- 4 USB 3 ports
- HDMI port
- Bluetooth and wifi capabilities
- and under 10″ in height
We had a chance to take one for a quick spin, and the first reactions (for those who’ve never seen one) are… ‘where the heck is the system? I can’t see it anywhere!’ The cylindrical marvel is extremely understated, yet gorgeous as we can expect from the Apple Corporation. Radically re-designed from the ground up, it essentially gets out of the way, and should you choose to stash it, can fit pretty much anywhere. Of course it will sit beautifully on a desk and will look right at home. Surprisingly, the material is not a fingerprint magnet as we first suspected. The second thing you’ll notice, or not notice is that it is WHISPER quiet! It’s less than half the sound level as 2013’s model (30dBA to 12dBA). The unique fan design as shown below uses a central heat sync that draws the heat from three different PCB locations. Very intelligent. I wonder when the next manufacturer will use a cubic configuration? It’s gotta be easier to manufacture than a triangular form factor!
Mac Pro insides
The third but most important thing you’ll note is of course the speed. It is SNAPPY! You’re not waiting for ANYTHING, and again in the case of Final Cut X, your benefit is those insane rendering speeds. If your production house lives and breathes Final Cut X, the value in rendering times are not to be ignored.
Of course there are those who don’t like the physical looks, and call it the trashcan, but those are largely in the minority. I mean really, this is one of the coolest, and most elegant PCs to roll off the assembly line. In fact folks like the design so much, a particularly handy modder took it upon himself to create a hackintosh lookalike.
Cool hackintosh mod made out of an ACTUAL trashcan!
PC wise, there is such a glut of fugly cases (again just looks wise) that belong more in a rave or a fast and furious movie. They just seem so juvenile in design. Hover there are some brilliance in case designs. One of my faves was the limited edition ThermalTake’s Level 10 design.
Thermal Take Level 10
Now the bottom line is really, what’s inside that counts. Is this good value for an editing machine? At the minimum configuration it’ll run you around the $3000 mark without any monitor. This climbs steeply to $10,000 again without a monitor. We watch our friends over at FilmRiot regularly and Ryan talks about this issue in a bit more detail.
[su_youtube url=”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hi5Qh1UgUik” width=”600″]
Ok, so it’s time to dip my toe into rant territory. There are lots of folks switching from Mac to PC, and of course reverse migration from PC to Mac is equally commonplace. At the BCPVA (BC Professional Videographer’s Association) it’s pretty much split 50/50. The Windows – Apple argument has spanned throughout the history of PCs, so there’s nothing new here. Decades ago, the Mac was the defacto standard for content creation with Desktop Publishing, Design, Audio, and of course Video production. Through the years, the Windows based systems have played catch up and have steadily gotten more capable. Now it’s largely a matter of value and preference. Really though, it’s all about the tools you use. If you happen to have a machine with the apple logo on your desk, or you have Microsoft’s offering, your creativity is no longer handcuffed by your operating system. It really becomes a choice of software preference. In the case of Adobe’s creative suite, well, you can pick and choose hardware. In fact that’s Digital Cyclops Video Production‘s choice for NLE. With the democratization and competition of editing software, we’re able to take edits from a Mac based Premiere or after effects project and synch it up onto a PC, or vice versa without any difficulty. Now that’s very cool. Now that’s the future.
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