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The $25,000 Mac Pro Workstation (2013)

2013-10-27
what's up guys Lew here and today we're going to talk about apples next generation Mac Pro as you probably know we finally have specifications on two different models for the next-gen system the first one is a 4 core version at $3,000 and then there's a 6 core version at 4,000 but this of course is not the entire story Apple has announced that there will be a 12 core version available as a CTO or customization and as in the past with the Mac Pro series specifically you've been able to improve things like the RAM and the hard drive space of course now we're talking about SSD space so this video aims to find out what is the maximum specification Mac Pro and what might that cost spoiler alert it ain't gonna be cheap we'll get started with the baseline 6 core system and work up from there the first thing to swap out is the CPU as stated a 12 core version will be available in order to figure out the rough cost I used this chart from Intel which lists the suggested price for its xeon e5 series the 12 core chip lists for two thousand six hundred and fourteen dollars that's just a cpu next i subtracted the cost of the six core chip from the cost of d12 core version which produces a rough idea of the upgrade figure the difference is about two thousand bucks just like that we've jumped up to six thousand total for the most basic 12 core Mac Pro but we're far from maximum specification we've still got to upgrade the RAM SSD and graphics let's do the graphics next the top spec here is listed as the fire pro d700 from AMD this appears to be a unique name given to GPUs destined for the mac pro but internally it matches the exact spec of the currently available PC equivalent card the fire Pro W 9000 it looks like every Mac Pro we'll be shipping with dual GPUs this means a top spec version should have 2d 700s otherwise known as the W 9000 so how much is a w 9000 workstation GPU worth oh right around 3 G's times 2 that's $6,000 of graphics add that to 12-core upgrade and we're sitting around 12,000 bucks of course Apple could always credit back some value for the stock components that are being replaced via these customizations but in the past that's rarely been the case Apple tends to charge top dollar for GPU upgrades overshadowing any kind of credit for these stock cards let's quickly add on the max RAM 64 gigabytes of ddr3 ECC memory this should run around 800 bucks lastly we'll need the maximum storage listed as a one terabyte PCIe type SSD drive Apple hasn't shipped this type of storage with the Mac Pro in the past so it's tough to determine exactly what they'll be using that being said the previous gen PCIe upgrade from owz may offer some insight into what something like this might cost the biggest they've got is 960 gigabytes at around $1200 I'm fairly certain that this type of SSD form factor won't be the one used in the next pro nonetheless a one terabyte SSD upgrade will likely cost around $1000 rounding up ever so slightly we're now sitting at $14,000 for 12 core 64 gigabyte ram dual d700 one terabyte SSD mac pro but we're just getting started we need some displays to go with this system or we'll have trouble using all that power option 1 the Mac Pro supports up to 6 Thunderbolt displays these displays feature resolution of 2560 by 1440 and cost 999 dollars each this option will add six thousand to our total which is now sitting at 20 grand option 2 is even more fun Apple has stated that the next-gen mac pro is capable of powering three 4k displays for the ultimate spec I decided to select the PQ 3 2 1 Q a 30 1.5 inch 4k monster from Asus these go for around 3400 for the Mac spec we'll need three $10,200 total system price just under 25 grand the craziest part of all is that someone somewhere in the world will be sitting in front of this exact configuration Khan December there will always be people looking for the ultimate and in this case it's going to cost them big time there you have it a 25 thousand dollar workstation with just under 25 million pixels now you know what the ultimate configuration of next-gen Mac Pro could possibly cost we will of course figure this out when it launches in December before I take off I want to give a big shout-out to everyone who helped me with the research for this video by sending me links and having a discussion on Twitter those people are Austin Evans mkbhd Detroit Borg and TLD today I hope I didn't miss anybody but yeah we were all talking about what kind of SSDs they might use in this next-gen Mac Pro since that information is not out there so big thanks to those guys for getting involved in the discussion and helping contribute to this video all right guys that wraps this up if you enjoyed this content please remember to leave a thumbs up down below if you're not a subscriber now is a great time to become one and I will catch you very shortly on the next video all right have a good one later
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