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Small bytes of hard drive space may spell big problems for Apple’s new Mac Pro

Konrad Krawczyk
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mac pro desktop spec problem final
Image used with permission by copyright holder

Now that Apple’s latest hardware reveal event has concluded, we know a bit more about its upcoming Mac Pro desktop. We all agree that it sports intriguing aesthetics and generally impressive specs. To top it off, who can argue with an $800 price drop over the previous Mac Pro? Despite the fact that the new Mac Pro seemingly shines in multiple areas at first glance, we have one key concern that could trouble the market that Apple is targeting with the Mac Pro.

The Mac Pro portion of Apple’s presentation yesterday included music producers, mentions of A-list pop stars like Lady Gaga and other signs that Apple is clearly aiming at one key constituency with the Mac Pro: creative professionals. Workstations like the Mac Pro are designed specifically who spend make a living creating content, like video, music. The reason why workstations like the Mac Pro are priced the way they are ($3,000 this time around) is due to the fact that the hardware has to match up with the workload that the target crowd deals with on a daily basis. Editing audio, video and photos puts a lot of stress on the CPU and GPU, which is why the new Mac Pro sports multiple GPUs and a server-class Intel Xeon processor. Audios, videos and photos also take up a lot of hard drive space, which is why the previous-generation Mac Pro offered up to 8TB of storage.

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With this in mind, its worth pointing out that the new Mac Pro and its 256GB SSD, while certainly speedier than any mechanical drive that the previous generation Mac Pro had, will fill up rather quickly. This could pose a significant problem for creative professionals who likely won’t want to be constantly swapping files between their new $3,o00 workstation and a multitude of external hard drives. Those in the market for a new Mac Pro will be able to configure their system’s storage and bump it up to 512GB and 1TB, but neither of those measure up to 8TB.

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Just something to keep in mind if you’re a video editor looking forward to the new Mac Pro, which will be released this December.

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Konrad Krawczyk
Konrad Krawczyk
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Konrad covers desktops, laptops, tablets, sports tech and subjects in between for Digital Trends. Prior to joining DT, he…
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