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00:00Okay, so the 2019 Mac Pro. This is a device that has been labeled as super expensive,
00:08super powerful, super like over-engineered, it's all of the above. But the real reason
00:12why people are even having a conversation about the Mac Pro, and the reason why you
00:16guys are even watching this video, is because of the way that it looks. Like, if Apple had
00:20made a just super ugly grey box, like the HP or a Dell workstation, no one would care
00:26about it. And keep in mind, the people that are buying those workstations are the same
00:31people that should be buying something like this. But because of the way this thing looks,
00:35and because of the marketing that Apple does with a very nice looking workstation like
00:39this, there's people that are not usually in that target market that are interested
00:44in this device. I purchased the $6,000 base model, and I bought it just to, for one, just
00:51to see what it could do at the base model, and two, just to see what this thing was all
00:55about. Like, I wanted to know why it was priced the way that it's priced. And there's
00:59that argument of like, oh, it's got, you know, Xeon processor, ECC memory. It's not even
01:03about that. As I opened this up, I realized there is a lot more going on in this system
01:08than just high-end components that are traditionally very expensive. So the first thing I noticed
01:13is the lack of cables. This is a completely cable-free system. And I don't just mean like
01:19it's cable managed nicely. I mean there are no visible cables in the entire system. So
01:25the fans, the graphics card, the power supply, even the connection up at the top to connect
01:30to the power button and the USB connections, there's no cables. Everything is connected
01:35through either pogo pins or some kind of physical contact of like metal on metal, and it just
01:40powers whatever it needs to power through that contact. Now, that is like, okay, let's
01:45step back for a second and realize that in the history of PC building stuff, that has
01:51never been a thing. Like to have a cable-free system on the internals is super expensive.
01:55They have to tool the chassis to be a certain way. They have to tool the motherboard to
01:58be a certain way. They have to tool every single component that is in this system to
02:02have that type of cable-free mechanism. And it's, it's a thing. Now, is it something that's
02:08important? No, like absolutely not. There is, I can't think of a single profession in
02:13the world that would require that, but it is very cool. Now, in addition to this cable-free
02:18thing, this system is very quiet. Now, I, it's something that I value. Not everyone
02:24wants a quiet PC or a quiet workstation, but it's something that I appreciate. And this
02:29thing is weirdly quiet. There are three fans up front and they push a crazy amount of air.
02:34I don't have a way of measuring CFM, but it's strange to see this type of airflow on something
02:39that is as quiet as it is. And then there's a fourth fan on the, on like the back side
02:43of it. And that's mostly for the power supply, but they've also designed it to have this
02:47gasket so that the power supply heat doesn't spread through the rest of the system. And
02:52every component that connects to the Mac Pro, like every official Apple module does not
02:57have its own fan. It all just has like these custom heat sinks and custom shrouds to utilize
03:03the airflow from these three big fans. So it's, it's a thing. Again, it's super quiet,
03:08it's not something that everyone will appreciate, but it's something that I do. Now to do this,
03:13to have custom power connectivity, so there's no cables visible as well as custom heat sinks
03:17and shrouds on all the components, it's going to jack up the price of a system like this.
03:22Like it's invariably going to be a more expensive build than anything that is not a Mac Pro.
03:28And if you tunnel vision on those features, you can start to justify to yourself as to
03:31why this system is as expensive as it is. But then when you take a step back and you
03:36realize, okay, this is a $6,000 workstation and a lot of the features as cool as they
03:41are and as difficult as it is to engineer something like this, some of those features
03:45are just, they're just so superfluous. It's a, it really is extra AF, but it is Apple.
03:51Like this is the embodiment of like, this is so Apple. If they were going to build a
03:56workstation, this is how they do it. And this is what they've done. So there's two kind
04:00of tweaks I've done to this system. I've removed the 580X and replaced it with the
04:05Radeon Pro 5700 XT, which is a gaming card, but it's just more powerful than the 580X
04:12for the stuff that I do. And I've also added an NVMe PCIe adapter. So it's just a PCIe
04:19card that can hold an NVMe and it works flawlessly for both of these things. I installed them
04:25before I even booted up for the very first time and it just, it went right into the system.
04:30No issues. Drivers are good. Like it's, it works perfectly. And that's one of the greatest
04:34things of a modular Apple computer. Like to be able to do this, you can't do this on anything
04:40else that they make. You can do it on the Mac Pro though. The performance is great,
04:44but this system is crazy expensive and delivers performance that is so much worse than if
04:49I'd spent $6,000 on a PC. Now I'm someone that does not need a Xeon processor and I'm
04:54someone that does not need ECC memory. And I think the vast majority of people that make
04:58YouTube videos don't need that stuff either, but that is what you get with the Mac Pro.
05:03So this is my takeaway on it. As cool as this thing is and as much as I want to appreciate
05:08this thing and want to use this thing, it just, it just does not make sense for the
05:12stuff I do. I felt that this would be the case. Like when they first announced the product
05:16in the middle of the summer, I just had this gut feeling that there was no way that I would
05:20be able to make use of it. And it stands true. It is a truly amazing piece of tech from Apple.
05:26And I really like what they've done for the professional user base. Like if you're someone
05:29who can actually make use of this hardware, this is awesome. This is like a dream come
05:33true to have user customizable, user upgradable hardware like this. It really is something
05:38special and it's something that's people have been asking for in the professional community.
05:42But for someone like me, I look at this and I can just admire it from afar because I don't
05:46shoot an AK video. I don't shoot with like 3D effects and stuff like that. This is cool,
05:51but it's just extra. Okay. Hope you guys enjoyed this video. Thumbs if you liked it, subs if
05:54you loved it. See you guys next time.