I only retired my 5,1 three years ago, with Apple Silicon's bonkers performance-per-watt. Definitely the machine that brought be back to childhood geekdom. Really enjoyed my 8awg Pixla's mod adaptation (direct to PSU pads); which honestly was too technical even for Greg's blog.
stephen_g•2mo ago
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...
seam_carver•2mo ago
stephen_g•2mo ago
What I’m talking about should be in the realm of 1.5x the cost of the Mac Studio.
jsheard•2mo ago
IMO that points to the Mac Pro being on its way to retirement in favour of the Studio - they would have made more of an effort if it were sticking around.
ProllyInfamous•2mo ago
Fortunately I was broke when the last Intels were being released, so didn't waste any money on them. The current MacMini lineup is absolutely incredible; even the entry-level $500 M4 is much faster than $10k Intels from five years ago.
wpm•2mo ago
I still wish they would try. I can't put HDMI capture cards into a Mac Studio. I can't rack mount it. I can't easily add network cards to it. Hell, I can't even put it on the floor to keep my desk clear. I don't want a Mac Studio. I want a Mac Pro.
jsheard•2mo ago
IIRC the Asahi Linux devs were quite confident that those rumors were bunk and a quad-die part was never on the table, at least not for the M1 or M2 generations. The hardware was only set up to support two dies.
linguae•2mo ago
Sadly I think it's even less likely we'd have something like an xMac today. Consider the MSRPs of base-level Mac Pro models from 2006 onward. During the cheesegrater days, entry-level Mac Pros were available in the $2000s. The "trash can" Mac Pro had a starting MSRP of $2999; more expensive than the cheesegrater models, but still not a gigantic leap from its predecessor. But when Apple released the 2019 Mac Pro tower, the MSRP took a dramatic leap to $5999, pricing out many people who had the budget for a $2999 or even $3499 computer. As a user of a 2013 Mac Pro, I would've bought a 2019 Mac Pro in a heartbeat in 2019 had Apple maintained a $2999 entry price. The ARM Mac Pro is even higher priced at $6999.
The message from Apple for over 20 years has been loud and clear: Apple does not want to sell an affordable, expandable, user-serviceable desktop, and Apple at times doesn't always look committed to expandability and user-serviceability. I expect the Mac Pro to be unceremoniously discontinued, though I could get shocked like I was in 2019.
King-Aaron•2mo ago
I ended up gutting the case and building it into an ATX machine, and eventually sold it to a friend. But it was a fantastic computer.