Apple’s $55,000 Mac Pro

by admin January 21, 2020, 9:28 am 9.2k Views 31 Comments

Apple_Mac_Pro_Thumbnail_$55,000_dollars_2020 — Apple Mac Pro

Modern? Expensive? Powerful? It’s a matter of opinion but here’s what’s known for sure. Apple’s new Mac Pro can be upgraded into a top-shelf programming machine. Some say it might be able to blow away even the most modern PC configuration so far. Or can it? Is it worth the money? Let’s have a look.

The tower

Stainless steal is the material used for the Space Frame accompanied with stands and feet. But we all know that this machine will be as hot as a volcano so we need a good cooling and according to Apple, they’ve got us covered on this.

Cooling

Both the CPU and GPU coolers are passive, meaning that the airflow comes directly from the 3 chassis fans at the front of the tower.
What’s more important – the design is completely reconfigurable and the panels are extremely easy to open.

Inside the box

Inside we can find 8 PCI express x16 slots, 4 of which are double-width.
There are 12 RAM slots which support up to 1.5 TB 6-channel DDR4 memory.
There are 2 Thunderbolt 3 ports on the top, as well as 3 on the back and dual 10 GB Ethernet network ports.
The Wireless connection is 802.11.ac Wi-Fi, IEEE 802.11a/b/g/n compatible and 5.0 Bluetooth.

Dimensions, Weight and Electrical consumption

The tower is 52.9 cm (20.8 inches) high, 45.0 cm (17.7 inches) long and 21.8 cm (8.58 inches) wide.
The rack is 22.02 cm (8.67 inches) high, 53.95 cm (21.24 inches) long and 48.2 cm (18.98 inches) wide.
The tower weights 18 kg (39.7 pounds) and
the rack weights 17.6 kg (38.8 pounds).

Line voltage: 100–125V AC at 12A; 220–240V AC at 6A
Frequency: 50Hz to 60Hz, single phase
Operating temperature: 50° to 95° F (10° to 35° C)
Maximum altitude: tested up to 16,400 feet (5000 meters)

Technical specs

As usual, Apple leave us room to customize our product based on preferences. We are going to cover the base and the highest options possible.

Processor

3.5GHz 8‑core Intel Xeon W processor, Turbo Boost up to 4.0GHz
upgradable up to
2.5GHz 28‑core Intel Xeon W processor, Turbo Boost up to 4.4GHz

Memory

32GB (4x8GB) of DDR4 ECC
upgradable to
768GB (12x64GB) of DDR4 ECC

Graphics

Radeon Pro 580X with 8GB of GDDR5 memory
upgradable to
Two Radeon Pro Vega II Duo with 2x32GB of HBM2 memory each

*Coming soon:

Radeon Pro W5700X with 16GB of GDDR6 memory
Two Radeon Pro W5700X with 16GB of GDDR6 memory each

Storage

256GB SSD storage
upgradable to
8 TB SSD STORAGE

Pro Display XDR

The Pro Display XDR is a 32-inch 218 ppi Retina 6k display, the first of its kind. The brightness it supports is up to 1600 nits and 1,000,000:1 contrast ratio with superwide viewing angle.
The true 10-bit color makes the production of more than a billion colors with accuracy.

Pricing

There are more than 30 different options for customization when it comes to specs and extras. That makes about a 1,000 possible combinations. Literally. That’s why we’re going to cover the low-end and high-end Mac Pro Tower.
We’ll get the easy part out of the way first which is the base model. To summarize, here’s what it looks like with the Pro Display XDR:

Pro Display XDR with Standard glass:
$4,999

Pro Display XDR with Nano-texture glass:
$5,999

Base model:
-3.5GHz 8‑core Intel Xeon W processor, Turbo Boost up to 4.0GHz
-32GB (4x8GB) of DDR4 ECC memory
-Radeon Pro 580X with 8GB of GDDR5 memory
-256GB SSD storage
-No Apple Afterburner
-Stainless steel frame with feet (without wheels)
-Magic Mouse 2
-No Final Cut Pro X
-No Logic Pro X
-Power cord, USB-C to Lightning Cable, Magic Keyboard with Numeric Keypad
Total: $5,999

Now, let’s look at the other side. The one we all want to see.

Max upgraded model:
-2.5GHz 28‑core Intel Xeon W processor, Turbo Boost up to 4.4GHz (+$7,000)
-1.5TB (12x128GB) of DDR4 ECC memory (+$25,000)
-Two Radeon Pro Vega II Duo with 2x32GB of HBM2 memory each (+$10,800)
-8 TB SSD storage (+$2,600.00)
-Apple Afterburner card (+$2,000)
-Stainless steel frame with wheels (+$400)
-Magic Mouse 2 + Magic Trackpad 2 (+$149)
-Pre-Installed Final Cut Pro X (+$299.99)
-Pre-Installed Logic Pro X (+$199.99)
-Power cord, USB-C to Lightning Cable, Magic keyboard with Numeric Keypad
Total: $54,447.98

When you draw the line, if money isn’t an issue and your job includes hard-rendering work or you just want to have the best of the best, you’d be looking to spend exactly $60,446.
What do you think? Is it worth it? Let us know in the comments bellow.