[jan-jaap]

Max spec new MacPro == $35,000

:( 

... probably get equiv system for under $10,000 without Apple-ism attached.

Nope.

Those Xeon W chips alone cost $5K. A 128GB DDR4 DIMM? HP charges $3500 a piece, so I'll let you do the math about the cost of 1.5TB of it.

I think in many ways this new Mac Pro is like the SGI systems we all like. Completely custom. Purpose built. If you're complaining about the cost you are not the target audience, it's as simple as that. This is not a home computer any more than the Tezro or the Onyx2 was. A Tezro was pretty expensive (compared to a beige Pentium 4 tower), but still only a minor part of the cost of the Discreet suite it was usually integrated in. And as long as you can bill time on that Discreet suite for a couple of hundred per hour and write it off over a couple of years it's still going to be profitable.

Personally, I love these no-compromises professional workstations. Just like I loved the DEC Alpha, the SUN workstations and especially the MIPS/IRIX workstations which threw some funky design and colorful cases into the mix. This new Mac Pro has that same DNA and that's why I like it.

I'm simply looking at it from a consumer point of view, as I would only want it for home use. I agree that looks aren't the only design parameter for a case, but if I am to use it at home, it has to fit into my home environment and I still have to look at it when I use it!

But this is the new Mac Pro. It's a tool for professionals who need that kind of power. For people who manipulate 8K video. For years people moan that Apple abandoned the pro user and now they built a new pro system you tell me it sucks because it's no good as a home computer?

The ASUS will definitely be enough of a machine for my purposes, with the looks to match!

It looks like a concept gaming rig that will fail even the most basic EMC test. Unsafe around small kids and pets too. I'd be disappointed if Apple built something like that.

I don't think Apple is trying to push macOS as a serious gaming platform, and for the non-gamers in the Apple audience there's always the iMac or iMac Pro. Gamers don't need the $5K Xeon CPUs or ECC RAM you find in the Mac Pro.

Sadly Apple has dropped the ball here in my opinion! :(

You're clearly not the target audience for this system. That's OK, most people aren't (me neither). That doesn't make it an unprofitable product for Apple.

Maybe in a couple of years, when this generation of Xeon chips hits eBay and the prices drop I'd buy one 2nd hand. That's how I got my HP Z600 years ago: bought a basic system and dropped in a pair of 6-core X5675 Xeons and 48GB of RAM to match because it cost nearly nothing. I transcoded all my DVDs and BluRays to my Plex server and now that's done this system is overkill for just about anything I do. I mostly use my MacBook Pro, carefully chosen maxed-out configuration from just before they f-ed up their keyboards. Will have to hold on to it until they recover from that, I guess. :dodgy: