This is essentially a large, triangular, extruded-aluminum frame in the middle of the new Mac Pro that acts as both the structure for the computer and a central heat sink. But the new Mac Pro also incorporates what Apple calls a unified thermal core. Of course, not having traditional hard drives, PCI expansion cards, honkinвЂ™-big PCI-card GPUs (graphics processing units-a.k.a., вЂњvideo cardsвЂќ), and the like inside does wonders for internal temperatures.

ItвЂ™s also an inefficient use of materials, because each heat sink is only cooling its respective component(s) part of the time. Fitting all these components into a case, and creating good airflows to make sure each can adequately cool, requires a relatively large enclosure. Traditionally, each heat-producing component in a desktop computer-CPU(s), graphics chips, memory, and so on-has had its own heat sink, and sometimes even its own fan. Instead, the 2013 Mac Pro offers most of its expansion options on the outside: Turn the cylinder around, and youвЂ™ll find a compact panel that hosts a slew of ports and connectors: four USB 3.0 ports, six Thunderbolt 2 ports (two each on three independent controllers), two gigabit ethernet ports, an HDMI 1.4 (audio+video) port, a 1/8-inch analog/optical-digital line-out jack, and a 1/8-inch headphone/headset jack.Д«ut Apple also reduced the Mac ProвЂ™s size with some clever engineering. Apple achieved this size reduction in part by doing away with many things professional-level computers have traditionally reserved internal space for: multiple bays for hard drives, multiple slots for graphics and expansion cards, and space for an optical-drive (or two). It truly is a tiny computer given its capabilities. It even looks somewhat silvery in bright light. As we noted in our first impressions, while AppleвЂ™s PR videos and images make the new Mac Pro look like a dark, metallic gray-almost black-itвЂ™s really closer in color to the new Space Gray finish of AppleвЂ™s current iPhone and iPad models. Apple has done away with the massive enclosure of the 2012-and-earlier Mac Pro: The new Mac Pro is instead a small cylinder with a beautiful, unibody exterior made from a single block of aluminum. If youвЂ™re reading this, chances are you know all about the new Mac ProвЂ™s design, but hereвЂ™s a refresher. YouвЂ™ll have to decide if AppleвЂ™s new approach is right for you. The best I can do is tell you what the new Mac Pro is, what it does, and how well it does those things. IвЂ™m not here to tell you which view is right or wrong, because real people with real jobs and real needs hold each. Thanks to its diminutive profile and attractive design, the Mac Pro is clearly meant to be a computer for your desk, rather than something you hide under your desk Both sides can make a good case: Depending on your particular uses and needs, the new Mac Pro may be exactly what you want (a state-of-the-art, multi-core-processor, workstation-GPU computer that doesnвЂ™t waste space and resources on expandability you may never use), or nothing like what you need (a workhorse tower with tons of bays and slots for expansion). Others thought it was a slap in the face of вЂњrealвЂќ pro users. Some people thought the new computer was a brilliant design that embraced current trends in high-end computing. The short answer is, вЂњIt depends.вЂќ When the new Mac Pro was announced this past summer, the initial reactions were, to put it mildly, polarized. Does it live up to its name as a professionalвЂ™s Mac?

Whatever you call it, itвЂ™s the companyвЂ™s new flagship computer-its halo car, if you will-and weвЂ™ve been putting it through its paces. Apple calls it the Mac Pro (Late 2013) a snarky reviewer might call it the Mac Pro (Almost 2014).

Higher-end configurations quickly get expensiveД«ack in June, when Apple gave us a preview of the new Mac Pro, the company said it would ship вЂњlater this year.вЂќ Here we are, just a few days shy of 2014, and the new Mac Pro has arrived.Single-core performance not substantially better (and sometimes worse) than that of other current Macs.

Apple mac pro computer cylinder