shortly after releasing the Mac Pro
Apple delivered on their promise of a
rack-mountable version of the same
machine naturally immediately the web
absolutely lit up with speculation that
Apple was finally creating a spiritual
successor to their xserve lineup of
servers and maybe even Mac OS server
could this the apples triumphant return
to the data center no that that's not
happening
Apple is 100% laser focused on building
cloud services that actually don't even
run on their own hardware and nothing
about this machine changes that so let's
take a look at this and find out why
Apple saw fit to create a rackmount
machine that you would be absolutely
nuts to use as a server if you use Wi-Fi
a lot on your smart phone why pay for a
fixed monthly data plan it's not paying
for what you don't use with ting you can
take a look at how much you'll save
through their calculator at Linus ENCOM
let's start with the price I've got a
base pakrac Pro here and for a similarly
performant 8 core machine off of think
mate like a proper server one with
similar upgrade ability I'm looking at
quite literally half the price not only
that but one of the largest costs
associated with building out a data
center is naturally the data center
itself which you pay for by the square
foot now the Mac Pro may be very
powerful from like a workstation
perspective but space efficient it is
not at for server rack units or for use
I would expect for like a CPU
performance oriented deployment anywhere
from 8 to 16 CPUs compared to the Mac
Pros one and if I needed you know more
GPU power I would expect anywhere from
10 to 16 GPUs in for use as opposed to
apples
four and not only that but the
connectivity on this thing is a big
problem let's take a closer look at it
here you've got a hardware access hatch
here I actually haven't looked at anyone
else's coverage of this thing not many
people are checking this one out because
frankly speaking it doesn't make a lot
of sense for most people and at the
front we've got the familiar
cheesegrater styling very open great for
airflow not necessarily optimal for the
data center because there's like on the
desktop version no dust filtration or
any such thing that's fascinating I had
intended to lay it down flat but there's
actually more for us to look at here so
let's start with these release latches
on the bottom this is a little different
so our front i/o is handled by a little
daughter board here there we go we've
got our two Thunderbolt three ports up
there and then back here for whatever
reason is this right side up for no this
is the bottom for whatever reason our
access to the memory slots is certainly
still easy but only because we have it
out on the workbench right now not
because it would be easy to get at if it
was actually installed in a server rack
this would be a royal pain in the butt
to get at you would have to pull the
thing out and like work on it from down
here then come on there we go okay yep
there it is so we've got our single
storage drive there in our base
configuration and then of course the
quad-channel memory configuration that
Apple ship says their base back for
whatever stupid reason just like the
desktop it supports up to six channels
of memory and with the right CPU up to
1.5 terabytes of RAM know we get to have
another look we've got quick releases so
these are nice and to lists for the rack
one kind of sucky thing about them is
that doesn't seem to be any way to lock
the server in the rack that's a pretty
typical feature so you just have like a
through-hole like this and you could put
something like a security bolt in there
I mean I haven't had a look at the rails
yet so it's possible that they take care
of that feature and then we've got two
more releases here and here to take off
the top cover yep it's a Mac Pro alright
that appears to be basically the same
motherboard as the regular desktop Mac
Pro and in fact a weird actually how
they've just kind of got this open space
in the front here so there's our CPU
cooler exact same passive design I mean
not straight really passive because
there's a fan right in front of it and
then because I haven't got any expansion
cards like an afterburner card or a dual
GPU and px module I've just got the
regular radio in pro/5 ATX right here
it's quite uh it's quite open inside so
I've just got there io card look at the
back where we've got dual USB Taipei's
as well as a couple of Thunderbolt
threes and then I just have a couple of
HDMI s and then dual 10 gig Ethernet and
the plug for the power supply here one
of the most notable things about the
internals though is the lack of storage
expansion considering the size of the
machine so you can put that upgrade Bay
in here that gives you two three and a
half inch storage drives and you can put
as many PCI Express based SSDs in it as
you want but that's not a lot for a
machine this size especially for a
server with that said that's not
inherently a problem in the enterprise
because it's quite normal to have sort
of single-use or specialized systems
when we looked at SFU supercomputer you
saw some of this so there would be
storage only machines with almost no
compute to speak of just chock-full of
hard drives CPU only machines with a ton
of RAM for big simulation
GPU machines that could lend their
muscle when needed over the network and
actually that is where the real problem
lies not the inability to put hard
drives in this thing so I was jazzed to
see 10 gig networking on the iMac Pro
and the Mac Mini and duel 10 gig rj45
connectors on the new Mac Pro but even
to buy 10 gigabit is nothing in the data
center where they've been using 40
gigabit for 10 years and largely
converted to 50 or 100 gigabit
networking or higher along with crazy
tech like PCI Express fabrics for
high-speed storage yes
PCI Express networking with that said
other than the weird bottom Ram access
the fact that this thing is almost
completely toolless like it's desktop
brethren is pre suite so all that I want
to do now then is throw it into rec and
see how the rails work that's pretty
satisfying in it now it shouldn't
surprise me at all but naturally Apple
is using their own system for attaching
the rail so you can't just go get some
generic super micro rails or whatever
honestly speaking it's not like it's
uncommon in servers anyway though Apple
you guys even managed to make server
rack mount rails look sexy this is nice
having the packaging keep the rails from
sliding apart and slicing your fingers
open definitely appreciate that coach EE
pretty blog the standard ish it's nice
if you're familiar with rack mount cases
at all this won't really be much of a
stretch for you that is a slick tool
assistant alright remember always how to
help her when you're mounting a rack
machine like this especially if you're
trying ever so hard not to scrap hey
Tyler that is a nice smooth slide action
there you go there's that locking
mechanism just pop it out like that
lock it in like that I'm sure it looks a
lot better than the other server I have
in here it's a really old store NATO
that's our first one that's obviously
not in use anymore
it sort of raises the question of like
how to use it now though it doesn't it
because there are a handful of other
things now that I've got it in a rack
that are obviously not designed for data
center use how about your remote access
to it it would be pretty typical for a
server to have not just your two
high-speed networking ports or however
many you have but also an additional one
that's called a management port
unfortunately the Mac Pro has no such
thing so there's no way to access it
remotely from outside of the data center
to do things like reboot the machine if
it's hung up or you know update the
firmware or whatever the case may be
things that you would not be able to do
normally unless you are actually sitting
in front of the machine plugged into a
display in peripherals on that subject
it is still in the year 2020 quite
typical for server and enterprise gear
to be equipped with a VGA port we will
find no such thing here and therefore
you'll have some potential and
compatibility issues with things like
the little carts that they'll push
around in a data center to you know
quickly plug into stuff that's not
behaving as you would expect another big
problem right here it's typical for an
actual server that's designed for 24/7
operation to have not even necessarily
just to but up to three redundant power
supply units that the system can fail
over to in the event of like a
catastrophic PSU failure so you can see
these modules cannot just be swapped out
but they can actually be hot swapped
while the system is operating and the
whole thing can operate off of just one
of them meanwhile the Mac Pro for all of
its costliness has just a single power
supply I mean I have no reason to think
it's not a perfectly high-quality power
supply but one power supply is still
just one power supply
it would appear that the way that Apple
actually intends for you to use this
thing is just like you would a regular
Mac Pro you just plug it into the wall
plug your monitor and directly from the
back and like you know press the button
and operate it like you would a
completely normal desktop computer
except that you happen to have our rack
next to you and your computers in Iraq
seems to be just as quiet as the desktop
version though that's nice enough about
who it is not for though let's talk
about who the rack Pro is for I think
Neil Parfitt has done a spectacular job
of not just explaining but demonstrating
who this thing is for people like him
he's worked as a composer and mixer on a
ton of TV and film projects and his
series chronicling his transition from a
super janky set up made up of two trash
can Mac Pros with endless dongles - the
2019 Mac Pro is excellent for those of
you who didn't know some of the tools
for professional audio work like logic
are exclusive to Mac OS and Mac OS is
low latency handling of audio is
absolutely legendary it leaves windows
completely in the dust anyway in the
series he talks about the vendor
specific hardware that's required from
any of the software applications he uses
the performance implications of having
all of these CPU threads and RAM
available I mean I never considered the
importance of having thousands of
instruments available at an instant's
notice but the way he explains it's like
oh yeah that makes a ton of sense and he
talked about the way the expandability
allows him to install all of the
interface cards that he needs what a
concept right anyway better late than
never Apple and it threw all of it
though I was honestly really impressed
both by his videos and also by Apple's
willingness to go ahead and create a
product like this for just one customer
like not just Neal specifically but
audio professionals like him because
that is what this is don't kid yourself
in the data center the quiet operation
of the Mac
is absolutely meaningless but in audio
particularly a live production it
matters a lot
so yeah it's not a server and the only
reason this unit is rack-mounted and the
reason that people will be willing to
pay the $500 premium for that feature is
that basically all other high-end audio
equipment is also rack mounted and
having everything neatly stacked up like
this or ready for easy transport is
really helpful from an organization and
efficiency perspective so in summary
it's the exact same machine for the
exact same customer but with handles
like this not like this ting does mobile
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carrier tricks you just pay a fair price
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ting gives you the ultimate control over
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they've got wider nationwide LTE
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phone will work with ting from that
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check it out so thanks for checking out
this video if you guys are looking for
more Mac content maybe check out our
hack Pro series where we are attempting
actually we're not quite done yet but
it's mostly working to build a PC
equivalent to this that we've managed to
install Mac OS on it's pretty sick I'm
gonna have that link below I have now
moved up to the big leagues and wasted
my money on two Mac pros this time it's
the rackmount edition