New Apple Mac Pro announced at their Tech Tent.

So Apple are not really ditching Intel if this new Pro is anything to go by as it's powered by a Xeon CPU ranging from 8 core to a 28 core version. Plus a Radeon Pro Vega II GPU and 6 channel ram expandable to 1.5TB! 😮

Storage is flash only usb proprietary M2 SSD modules. Base model only comes with 256GB storage. And upgradable to 8TB max.

So unlike the consumer M1 based range the Pro is thankfully fully configurable and upgradable.

But then you look at the price:

£5999 for the Mac Pro (base model)
£4999 for the monitor
£999 for the monitor stand! WTF!

£12,000 total!

So yeah, really like the case design, really like the hardware, but the price is a complete joke and in no way realistic. You could build a PC workstation of equal, if not greater spec, for £4-6k easily including monitor.

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So the joke gets bigger. I decided to click the buy button and see what configuring the spec would add to the price.

So the base £5999 model only comes with an 8 core Xeon at 3.5Ghz. Uograde to a 12 core adds £1000! But wait for it.. upgrade to the 2.5 Ghz 28 core Xeon adds £7000. 😂

Now the ram. It comes with 32GB which is more than ok for most things. Upgrade to 48GB adds £300 so not too bad. But then it shoots up. 192GB is £3k. And if you go all the way up to 1.5TB it's £25k just for ram.

The standard GPU is actually a Radeon Pro 580x with 8GB ram, so ok but not amazing. There are quite a few upgrades. But if you wanted the Pro Vega II that's an extra £2.4k. But it goes higher. Want the top spec pair of Pro Vega II Duo's? That's only £10.8k!

If you want to do video editing than why not also add an Afterburner card for £2k.

Upgrading the storage next. As standard it's a 256GB SSD. What to change that for 1TB it's £400. Want the max 8TB it's £2.6k

On to the "little" extras. Want some wheels on your Pro's case? That will be £400!

Upgrade the mouse? £149.

And finally add Final Cut Pro and Logic Pro for £499.98.

So if you opted to fully spec out the new Apple Mac Pro it comes to...

£51,947.98

🤣🤔🤭

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I completely forgot I didn't include a display. Silly me. So I need to add on £4999 for the monitor, but wait the stand or wall mount are an optional extra. Vesa wall mount is £399 or a stand is £999. So up to £5998 for the monitor, bringing the top spec grabd total to £57,945.98
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Bargain!

What's the deal with the Apple monitor stands? I heard a while back that they introduced a ridiculously expensive one.

I wonder if they'll sell many what with the supposed move away from Intel processors.
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The monitor stand is a complete piss take. Apple annouced their new 32" 6K resolution monitor. Proclaiming it the highest resolution on the market. Then stated its price is £4449.99! Yes that is £4.5k for just a monitor. But that doesn't include a stand. You have to buy the stand as an optional extra or the monitor is pretty useless. So you could wall mount it using their Vesa wall mount, but that's £399. Or buy the desk stand for £999.

It gets even madder. I ran the buy page for the monitor and it you want to opt for the special matt finish glass to reduce reflections, rather then the standard gloss one, that's an extra £1000. So buy the monitor, the matt glass and the stand and you won't get much change from £7000. For a monitor!

As for the M1. Apple announced it was completely abandoning Intel CPUs as they had no direct control over their future development. Remember with PPC CPUs Apple dictated their higher end development. So instead they aquired ARM technology rights and developed the M1 chip, which is actually an integrated system on a chip, with the CPU, GPU and Ram all contained in a single package. This is great for Apple from a generic consumer sales perspective, but really bad for computing. Apple's plan is for their whole range to be running on the M1 chip. This means a Mac with an M1 will have zero expansion or upgradability because the ram and gpu are built in. All you might be able to upgrade is the SSD, which is Apple proprietary. You will see the M1 in Macs, Mac Books, Air, iPad and probably future iPhones too. From a consumer product perspective for smartphones, tablets and even laptops having nearly the whole system on a single chip is a good solution for home consumer use and it dramatically reduces Apple's components and reliance on other chip manufacturers. But it is going to make Apple Macs as generic and fixed platform as a house appliance. But that's probably what most home users actually want and use. And it locks all products down even more for Apple to have full control. A fixed platform with no component variation is a dream for a company and its OS development as it didn't have to design it to work on different setups. It will be like a game console.

Of course fixed hardware would never work for pro setups which is why the next Mac Pro is using Xeon CPUs and graphics cards.

One thing I don't know much about is a new security chip that is installed on the motherboard of all new Macs. I noticed it in the Spec of both the M1 and Pro systems. Apple locking down the hardware even more?
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Probably. Of course, locked down hardware is nothing new. One of the old ThinkPads I got for free a couple of years ago does it. I changed the mini-PCI wireless network card out for another one and it complained of an 'unauthorised card' and refused to boot!

How do the expensive monitors compare to others on the market? Apple always used to do very good monitors, albeit with a high price. Back when I bought my Dell U2410 in 2011 the main competition for that type of display were Apples, just at twice the price.
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They are very nice displays, just not £4.5k nice. More like £1.5-2k if comparing to direct competition in the Pro market.

Remember Apple don't even make them themselves. All their displays are manufactured by Samsung.
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This is just ridiculous.
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What he said!....
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Staggeringly expensive. There must be enough people/business that buy these to make it viable. And good luck to them, I suppose.

I don't need a machine anywhere near that powerful, be it Windows, Mac OS or any other flavour, but it's neat that beasts like this exist, I guess.
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I'm not denying it's a very nice system in terms of both design ans spec. Just nowhere near worth that price. I'm going to actually see what building a PC workstation isn't similar components would actually cost. I'm betting it will come in under 10k, but we will see.
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