Apple working on re-engineered and smaller Mac Pro

The Mac Pro is a large desktop machine — but if a report published on Monday is true, Apple could be reducing its size by as much as half in a future model.

Apple's Mac Pro is a large, modular desktop computer with and many expansion slots. Reportedly, Apple is working on a new, smaller model — but what processors are inside, Intel or Apple Silicon, is not yet clear.

A report from Bloomberg says that on Monday alleged that a new, smaller Mac Pro is in the works. Also unclear, is when this unit would be announced, or if it would supplement or replace the existing Mac Pro design.

Reducing the size of the Mac Pro would likely lead to reduced internal configurability, and fewer PCI-E slots. This may not be an issue for some, however, as expansion can be made using external Thunderbolt equipment, or not be needed at all.

Apple is expected to launch all new Macs running Apple Silicon on November 10. High-end desktops are not expected at the event as reports indicate discrete GPU's and better processors won't be ready until later in 2021. Apple could introduce a 24-inch iMac and a 14-inch MacBook Pro, though recent rumors indicate Apple will keep the MacBooks at 13-inches.

45 Comments

caladanian 10 Years · 380 comments

About 4 years ago

Strange. The size is not the problem. The price is.

zimmie 9 Years · 651 comments

Bloomberg is also the company which gave us The Big Hack, which still has zero concrete evidence or independent corroboration, and they haven't issued any kind of retraction. It would be extremely generous to call their record on tech reporting "weak".

Edited to fix a typo. Derp.

DuhSesame 8 Years · 1270 comments

Apple engineers are currently developing a new Mac Pro that looks like the current design at about half the size. It’s unclear if that Mac will replace the current Mac Pro or if it’s an additional model. Apple’s chip designs could help the company reduce the size of its computers due to increased power efficiency, but the current Mac Pro is large, in part, to fit components like additional storage drives and graphics chips.
Why? I don’t buy this either, not at least the “replacement” part. Are they suggesting that Apple Silicon only have half of the PCIe lanes?

headfull0wine 10 Years · 124 comments

Give it the Mini-me scaled case as rendered above and take out some of the “sky’s the limit” configuration and expansion and you will end up with a better price point. A headless Mac with iMac Pro caliber specs and a better thermals could be a win.

plovell 15 Years · 826 comments

The last expandable Mini was the one from 2012, and I'm hanging on to mine.

But I would really go for a Mac Mini Pro++ with space for a couple of internal SSDs, one slot, and expandable memory.

That would be great.