Expansion ports
The easy-access interior of the Mac Pro is
hidden behind the side panel. This means users can slide out the processor tray
to add memory; the drive bays to add storage; slide a bar to change up to four
expansion cards at once; and thanks to the I/O ports add lots of external
devices, says Apple of its current Mac Pro.
Thunderbolt
One thing about the Mac Pro update in June
2012 that didn’t make sense was the lack of a Thunderbolt port. This is
especially puzzling, considering it’s the professional market that’s most
likely to spend money on Thunderbolt accessories this was a strange
omission. For example, it lets you connect four HD screens at a time, who,
other than a professional user, would want to do that.
The
Mac Pro offers users easy access to the interior for simple expansion
As yet, apple’s high-speed peripheral
interface hasn’t taken the pro market by storm, and that’s probably due to the
shameful lack of Thunderbolt in the Mac Pro line. Apple can’t even use the lack
of Thunderbolt peripherals as an excuse. Now the technology has been around
for a few years, and has long come standard on many Macs, high-end Thunderbolt
peripherals are widely available. You can get super-fast RAID drives with
Thunderbolt connections. And if you need specific PCI cards, a Thunderbolt PCI
case will let you use many kinds of PCI cards (other than video cards)
over a Thunderbolt connection. A new Mac Pro will surely have multiple
compatible ports.
If you were wondering, Thunderbolt is a
peripheral-connection technology, developed by Intel with collaboration from
Apple, that combines data, video, audio and power in a single connection. Based
on the PCI express and DisplayPort architectures, Thunderbolt allows for
high-speed connection of peripherals such as hard drives, RAID arrays,
video-capture solutions and network interfaces, and it can transmit
high-definition video using the DisplayPort protocol. Each Thunderbolt port
provides up to 10 Watts of power to connected peripherals, and up to
10Gbps of data throughput (faster than USB 3.0).
USB 3.0 and FireWire
Disappointingly, the current Mac Pro
doesn’t offer USB 3.0 – it’s still stuck in the dark ages of USB 2.0. The
problem is that the current Sandy Bridge chipsets don’t natively support USB
3.0.
The
rocketu Quad USB 3.0 for Mac, a PCI Express card with four USB 3.0 ports
One thing the current Mac Pro offers that
future models may not is FireWire. It’s probable that in gaining Thunderbolt
and USB 3.0, FireWire will be culled. The standard has already disappeared from
every other Mac, with the exception of the Mac mini, although the first time
apple attempted to remove it the creative world was in uproar.
Expansion cards
Apple’s Mac Pro is the only Mac to
offer PCI expansion, and this is a key reason why it appeals to
professional users. These PCI cards can be used for faster RAID
performance and transcoding of video, high-end networking, complex audio/video
connections, and many other things the average consumer will never need.
Apple’s
Mac Pro is the only Mac to offer PCI expansion, and this is a key reason
why it appeals to professional users
Such expansion slots are essential for
users who wish to add high-end video cards, sound, networking, RAID arrays, and
other connectivity options to their Mac. There are currently three such slots.
However, there are some fears apple could reduce this to two PCI ports in its
desire to make the machine thinner. It may also update to the PCIE3 standard,
which will offer 40 lanes per socket, rather than the usual 36.
Many of those who in the past required PCI
slots can these days make do with other solutions, thanks to Thunderbolt.
We’ve also seen reports that claim
that SATA III/SAS connectivity will be native in the new Mac Pro.
SuperDrive
Another feature that may be removed is the
optical drive. We aren’t completely convinced Apple will remove the optical
drive from the Mac Pro. The professional Mac user is probably the one and only
one remaining that could honestly say they require an optical drive. For one
thing, some professional creative software isn’t widely available as a download,
although it’s only a matter of time.
