The Mac Pro: The Innovative, Problematic Evil Little Space Heater

When Apple's Phil Schiller introduced the new Mac Pro at WWDC Monday, the crowd was enraptured. Twice the processing power, twice the graphics processors, twice the I/O speed, twice the everything—and all in a sleek looking black cylinder. Then he showed the new Mac Pro next to the older model, last updated in 2010. It looked a tenth the size, and there were audible gasps in the audience.

Since that "sneak peak" on Monday, Apple has put up a webpage describing the new work beast, and it now looks even more like a fantastically powerful, not-very-expandable, likely very expensive, evil space heater.

The Mac Pro's website description echoes Phil Schiller's defensive taunt (and seemingly, the running theme of WWDC) "Can't innovate anymore, my ass!" Introducing it with, "Sometimes to take a major step forward, you have to completely change direction," we get a rundown of the new machine. First off, it's got dual graphics processing units, ultrafast RAM, flash-only storage, based off the high-speed PCI Express bus, and Thunderbolt 2—Intel's new version of its already fast I/O system that doubles the amount of data transfer and display support of the first Thunderbolt.

The CPU offers a next-generation Intel Xeon E5 chipset, with up to 12 cores of processing power, all transferring over a 40GB/s PCI Express third generation connection. Apple is promising the diminutive machine will offer twice the speed compared to the current Mac Pro.

The four-channel DDR3 1866MHz memory also doubles the 2010 Mac Pro's speed, and the four slots are close to the edge of the chassis, meaning it might be easier to replace than the RAM on a lot of other Apple computers, though, with a workstation like this, that has to be a given.

The GPU is actually two AMD FirePro graphics cards, with 6GB of VRAM dedicated just to graphics processing each, which provides more than twice the graphics performance of the 2010 Mac Pro. Apple promises you'll be able to seamlessly edit full-resolution 4K (the next generation of HD) video while also running graphics processes in the background, while simultaneously using three 4K screens. Helping run those screens is the 20GB/s Thunderbolt 2, which was just announced by Intel, and is capable of running a total of six devices through one single port. The new Mac Pro has six of them. Other ports include a HDMI 1.4 port, four USB 3, and two Gigabit Ethernet ports. The Mac Pro will also have a next generation WiFi connection and Bluetooth connectivity.

Finally, as the cutting edge computing industry is moving away from optical drives — the clunky spin-up disc drives that crash often and slow down your entire system —to solid-state drives, the Mac Pro is upping the ante with flash storage connected by PCI Express, promising to be 2.5 times faster than other solid state drives (and 10 times faster than standard hard drives).

All of this is organized in a triangle structure around one unified core that is vented by one single fan. No computer, according to Apple, has ever been built this way before, but it makes sense. Rather than using multiple fans and heat sinks and blowing hot air around the body of the computer, why not have all the heat go directly to the center, and immediately be vented away.

All of this is in an impossibly small 9.9-inch by 6.6-inch diameter tube. Yes, it kind of resembles a space heater, the way the Power Mac G4 Cube resembled a toaster.

And, really, they're kind of long-lost cousins. The Power Mac G4 Cube back in 2000, ran into expandability issues as well. It was a great looking version of the Power Mac G4 to brag about on your desktop, so much so that the MoMA and design museums have showcased it before, but when it came to working with one computer station for more than a few years, the G4 Cube was kind of useless.

At least when Apple was making the G4 Cube, they were also making standard tower-sized Power Macs. The Cube wasn't the only option, as the Mac Pro soon will be. And, even though Thunderbolt 2 will provide cutting-edge, mind-blowing speeds and flexibility, and the Mac Pro comes with two cutting-edge GPUs, the whole point of "cutting-edge" is that the "edge" moves forward—every year or two, in fact. Once you buy a Mac Pro, you've got those GPUs for its life, and every time you want to add a HDD or SSD, you're adding more wires and more clutter to your desktop.

No doubt professionals will have those things in mind. We'll have to wait until the Mac Pro goes on sale to see how well this compact no-internal expansion strategy works for Apple, because, even with the revolutionary and undoubtedly beautiful design, some pros might start the days when you always knew Apple had a clunky tower option to buy.