14 DAY TRIAL // A report from China claims that all-new Mac Pros and Mac minis are on their way from Apple. The Pro is said to be completely redesigned, with a custom-build CPU inside and a server-centric architecture.
Before delving into the technical stuff, MIC Gadget points out that none of these updates are to emerge before OS X Lion launches publicly.
Of course, it’s more than obvious that Apple doesn’t want to force customers into upgrading to a whole new version of Mac OS days after buying their brand new Mac.
So the report starts with a few details on the Mac mini, which is said to receive the logical Intel enhancements - Sandy Bridge, Thunderbolt I/O.
Even the graphics on this new mini will stem from the same chip maker. The solution will be a mobile one - Intel HD integrated - which basically means that the new minis will not be able to handle graphics-intensive applications all that well.
On the good side, the system is not expected to cost more. Whether or not the mini desktop Mac will also be redesigned from a visual standpoint remains to be seen.
The report confidently states that customers will be able to buy one in the July - August timeframe.
The much bigger Mac Pro is, implicitly, bigger news. The new towers will look “different”, the report says.
The server version will be rack-mountable, which would justify Apple’s move earlier this year to axe the Xserve.
The report also leads to us to believe there will be different configurations that offer either Sandy Bridge CPUs and a “unique”, custom made CPU that is currently in the development stages.
This chip may well be the Xeon E5 processor which Apple could have gained early access to.
Citing their trusted sources, the folks at MIC Gadget claim that Apple’s new Mac Pro will be significantly faster, and a suitable asset for enterprise users.
These sources also reportedly said that the hot swappable drives are gone and that there’s no interchangeable power supply. The same shipping date (as for the Mac mini) is touted.