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00:00Apple has said that their upcoming Mac Pro is supposed to be a modular system.
00:08And instead of a regular kind of component based build that we've seen with like PCs and even the old school Mac Pro,
00:14there's a growing sense that this new Mac Pro is supposed to be a stackable modular system.
00:19So you have kind of like a base unit that has all your core components,
00:22and then you have modules you can add on the top or beneath it that would add extra functionality to the device.
00:28So in your base unit you would have stuff like your CPU, your RAM, and your storage.
00:32The CPU would probably be a Xeon processor.
00:34Apple always runs Xeon chips in their Pro desktop devices, so you get like 10, 16, maybe 20 core chips.
00:40And you're also running ECC RAM in here, so that's server grade memory that's very expensive but very reliable.
00:45And I also think they'll be running storage in that base module.
00:48Not a lot, if you need crazy amounts of storage you're gonna have to get like a different module,
00:51but just enough for the OS and some base applications and stuff like that.
00:55And that's it, there's nothing else in that base unit other than those three things.
00:58And because it doesn't have a GPU, you will need to buy a module for your graphics.
01:03And that's kind of the beauty of a modular system.
01:05If you're someone that has very undemanding graphical needs, you could just get something lightweight,
01:09but if you want something that's more powerful, you have the option of spending a lot more money
01:13and getting a more powerful GPU for your system.
01:16They're most likely gonna run AMD GPUs again, I don't see them going with Nvidia.
01:20They've actually removed Nvidia support, even on the software side, from the latest version of Mac OS.
01:25So, if you're wanting Quadro cards, that's probably not gonna happen.
01:30One thing that's kind of interesting is that Mac OS supports the use of multiple external GPUs.
01:35And the way that these graphics modules could connect to the system,
01:38it is possible that they would be considered external GPUs.
01:43Now normally when we think of external GPUs, they don't have great performance
01:46because we're running off Thunderbolt 3 connections.
01:48This connectivity is new, right?
01:50It could be a completely different system and it could be very fast.
01:54It is possible that you could connect two external GPUs to a base module
01:58and you would have great performance from that for applications that can make use of multiple GPUs.
02:03And that's basically it.
02:04Like you have your computer in a stack and everything else that you would need,
02:08like massive storage or a really high quality DAC,
02:11like all of those would just be extra modules you would purchase and then add on to the stack.
02:16Now this isn't the first time we've seen a company do a modular PC like this, right?
02:20A few years ago we saw Acer do it, they had the Acer Revo.
02:24It wasn't particularly well polished, it looked kind of incomplete,
02:27but it was 2015 and they had a working modular PC.
02:30And then a couple years ago we saw HP do it.
02:33They had a product called the Elite Slice and you could get a speaker module for it,
02:37you could get an optical disk drive for it.
02:39I'll be honest, I don't see Apple going with a disk drive on this new Mac Pro,
02:42but it is possible, right? Modularity allows stuff like that.
02:45And we've even seen a patent from Microsoft where they're trying to make the Surface Studio
02:50a modular system as well, even though that built-in screen might be a little bit weird.
02:54But all of these systems, including that Microsoft Surface Studio,
02:58have been built more for consumer grade products.
03:01The Mac Pro will be the first kind of modular PC or modular desktop
03:07that's ever been made for the professional high-end market.
03:10And for Apple, that's a very small percentage of their user base.
03:13Like, we're talking way less than 1%.
03:16Now, the advantages to a modular system are quite evident, right?
03:20You get a very nice-looking system that's easy to upgrade, easy to use,
03:23and if anything goes wrong with any of the individual modules,
03:26you can remove it, get it repaired or replaced, and then swap it in and out like that.
03:30And it also gives this product line a potentially very long lifespan
03:35as long as Apple continues to support it.
03:37Now, there are some negatives to modular systems as well.
03:42The first one, the biggest one, is cost.
03:45When you have a system like this, every single one of those modules
03:48has to have a housing, or like a shell, as well as the connection
03:52or some kind of interface for these different modules to talk to one another.
03:56And the engineering cost to make all of this work is not cheap.
03:59And customers are going to have to pay for that.
04:01So, as an example, the camera that I use to shoot my videos
04:05is made by a company called RED.
04:07They have a modular camera system.
04:09And you can set up your camera however you want it.
04:11You can build something lean, or you can go ham and build something
04:14that you would see on a movie set.
04:16But the moment the company makes something new,
04:18like they have a new sensor, or a new screen, or a different module,
04:22you can switch out your old one with the new upgraded part.
04:26But the components are very expensive, and the company is good at locking you out
04:30from using other third-party devices.
04:32And the same thing would apply to the Apple Modular Mac Pro.
04:36They're going to be expensive, and you can't just swap out a regular GPU into this system.
04:40You have to use a dedicated Apple-certified GPU that connects to the system.
04:45So, as nice as it is, it's going to have an Apple price tag,
04:48like a professional Apple price tag.
04:51And then the other concern that I have with the modular system
04:54is the power and thermal engineering you have to do around this.
04:57Like, every single one of the modules has to be powered,
04:59and every single one of the modules has to be individually cooled.
05:03But I think that's something that Apple's gotten better with for their desktop products.
05:06But that's the modular Mac Pro, at least how I'm picturing it.
05:10I think this is how it's going to be done.
05:12I don't see them going with, like, the component build with a chassis and stuff like that.
05:16What do you think? Is this what you want? Is this what you would use?
05:20I mean, this is going to be crazy expensive, so very few people are going to be buying this.
05:23But would you want to use something like this?
05:25Or would you prefer a component-based Mac Pro?