Or in other words a 2013 Mac Pro, AKA Mac Pro 6,1. These came out to much mixed reaction even back in 2013, and at the time I basically considered it a re-incarnation of the Cube. Among other things, people loved its small size and quiet operation, but lamented the lack of expandability(a hallmark of the older "Cheesegrater" Mac Pros, their immediate predecessor the PowerMac G5, and the PowerMac towers before that). Inside this little $3000(base config at intro) anodized aluminum cylinder Apple told you that you could do whatever you wanted with the 4 RAM slots and that's it. In reality, storage is also easily accessible(and now can be replaced with NVMe drives) and the CPU is socketed so can be upgraded.
The issues with it weren't helped by the fact that this stuck around without a major update(maybe a speed bump somewhere in there?) until 2019 when it was replaced by the hideously expensive(even by Apple standards) but also impressive Mac Pro 7,1. At one point, Apple admitted indirectly that they'd boxed themselves into a thermal and the Radeon D700s, the highest config, were horribly dated but there wasn't enough spare thermal overhead to put something better in there.
The thermal issues were actually quite an admission, even though the wording was like when they sort of acknowledged "Antennagate" on the iPhone 4(okay, not that bad, it wasn't "You're holding it wrong but we're going to give you a free case" but the wording was very careful). Steve Jobs was always obsessed with quiet computers and more than once insisted on fanless computers to get that. The original Macintosh and derivative models(128K, 512K, 512Ke, Plus) were all fanless and also loved to cook analog boards- the Kensington System Saver, which is a big fan and powerstrip rolled into one that snaps into the top handle and at least forces some air into the case through ventilation holes, adorned a lot of those computers back in the day(I have a few that live on systems I run somewhat regularly). The slot load iMac G3 didn't have a fan, and it was mostly okay unless you crammed 30 of them into a school computer lab with 30+ bodies, which happened more than once(the eMac, or "education Mac", which looks like an iMac G3 updated to "Snow White" design language plus has a G4 and a 17" CRT, has a giant fan in the back of the case that almost never turns on, but when it does you start looking overhead for the plane that's about to land). The Cube of course was probably the best known one, although the engineers hid an fan bracket in the bottom of it. Cubes are okay-ish on their original 450 or 500mhz CPUs with the pitiful Rage 128 GPU that most shipped with(do we see a theme here?), but start getting awfully even if you do a mild GPU upgrade to a Geforce 2MX, much less something like a Geforce 3Ti(which at least has its own fan). I've put fans in my Cubes-all 5 of them-and even my 800mhz with a Geforce 3Ti and my 1.8ghz(Rage 128 that I never got around to upgrading-one of these days) are fine. Still though, even in systems with lots of fans, Xserve excepted, Apple tends to use pretty mild fan curves and on most Intel computers you won't see fans start really spinning until the CPUs start going over 95ºC or so. Among its many other faults, the 2016 MacBook throttled terribly despite using a relatively low spec CPU. The Mac Pro 6,1 has one huge fan in the top of the case, although it normally runs slowly and is barely audible. The M series Macs have finally made silent operation feasible-the MacBook Air is fanless, and I have to really beat on my M1 MacBook Pro to even get the fan to turn on.
I've always been conflicted on the MP 6,1. On one hand, I love the overall look, the form factor, and the nearly silent operation. The main thing I've done with PCIe slots on my Mac Pro towers(1,1-5,1) is change the GPU and add USB 3.0 cards. I have run PCIe drives in them, but of course the 6,1 has a dedicated slot for that.The 6,1 does give you 6 Thunderbolt 2 ports, so you do have PCIe access, although there are downsides to going that route. In 2023 it's possible to use an eGPU(not officially supported by Apple for this or any other TB1/2 Macs) and this can help a lot for some uses, but Thunderbolt in any form only gives you a 4x PCIe connection where most GPUs are intended to be installed in 16x slots. There are people, though, for whom the lack of PCIe slots is a deal killer-DAW users are one of the big targets I know of. I always thought the 6,1 would have been a nice supplement to a proper tower as a(relatively) small, quiet and interesting looking computer using workstation class components. Instead, it made a lot of power users who needed this kind of expandability either stick with their older Mac Pro 4,1/5,1s(Apple tacitly acknowledged this when when they kept firmware updates coming for a long time, published a recommended list of aftermarket GPUs, and then officially supported them in 10.14 and 10.15 if you used one of those GPUs).
Background aside, I've been watching prices on these since the Mac Pro 7,1 was released, saying I'd buy one if I could ever find a decently specced one for a good price. They held their value suprislngly well, although most Intel macs have now reached the point where the specs are really starting to show their age and they're too new to attract collector attention. The only ones really holding on still are late high end ones like the 5K iMacs, 16" MBPs, and of course the Mac Pro 7,1.
I hadn't really been actively looking, but a few weeks ago I bought something for work(albeit out of my own pocket) on Ebay-an ion gauge controller for an HP 5973 mass spectrometer. I realized that the one I'd bought was at a business near me and offered pick-up as an option, so I arranged that. When I got there, I realized that the operation was actually a second hand computer store, and as I'm walking to the Ebay counter I get distracted by a shelf with 15 or so of these beasts of different specs and different price points. I had an internal debate with myself, and finally picked one I liked-a D300, 1tb, quad core CPU, and 64gb RAM for well under $300. DId I need it, no, or even have a use in mind? Still, though, it was a good chance to get one.
So far I've set it up at work but not done a lot else. It may replace the 2015 MacBook Pro I've been using more or less as a desktop, but we'll see. One nice thing about workstation hardware is that once its dated, it's cheap, and I did snag a 12 core CPU for $25 shipped.
The issues with it weren't helped by the fact that this stuck around without a major update(maybe a speed bump somewhere in there?) until 2019 when it was replaced by the hideously expensive(even by Apple standards) but also impressive Mac Pro 7,1. At one point, Apple admitted indirectly that they'd boxed themselves into a thermal and the Radeon D700s, the highest config, were horribly dated but there wasn't enough spare thermal overhead to put something better in there.
The thermal issues were actually quite an admission, even though the wording was like when they sort of acknowledged "Antennagate" on the iPhone 4(okay, not that bad, it wasn't "You're holding it wrong but we're going to give you a free case" but the wording was very careful). Steve Jobs was always obsessed with quiet computers and more than once insisted on fanless computers to get that. The original Macintosh and derivative models(128K, 512K, 512Ke, Plus) were all fanless and also loved to cook analog boards- the Kensington System Saver, which is a big fan and powerstrip rolled into one that snaps into the top handle and at least forces some air into the case through ventilation holes, adorned a lot of those computers back in the day(I have a few that live on systems I run somewhat regularly). The slot load iMac G3 didn't have a fan, and it was mostly okay unless you crammed 30 of them into a school computer lab with 30+ bodies, which happened more than once(the eMac, or "education Mac", which looks like an iMac G3 updated to "Snow White" design language plus has a G4 and a 17" CRT, has a giant fan in the back of the case that almost never turns on, but when it does you start looking overhead for the plane that's about to land). The Cube of course was probably the best known one, although the engineers hid an fan bracket in the bottom of it. Cubes are okay-ish on their original 450 or 500mhz CPUs with the pitiful Rage 128 GPU that most shipped with(do we see a theme here?), but start getting awfully even if you do a mild GPU upgrade to a Geforce 2MX, much less something like a Geforce 3Ti(which at least has its own fan). I've put fans in my Cubes-all 5 of them-and even my 800mhz with a Geforce 3Ti and my 1.8ghz(Rage 128 that I never got around to upgrading-one of these days) are fine. Still though, even in systems with lots of fans, Xserve excepted, Apple tends to use pretty mild fan curves and on most Intel computers you won't see fans start really spinning until the CPUs start going over 95ºC or so. Among its many other faults, the 2016 MacBook throttled terribly despite using a relatively low spec CPU. The Mac Pro 6,1 has one huge fan in the top of the case, although it normally runs slowly and is barely audible. The M series Macs have finally made silent operation feasible-the MacBook Air is fanless, and I have to really beat on my M1 MacBook Pro to even get the fan to turn on.
I've always been conflicted on the MP 6,1. On one hand, I love the overall look, the form factor, and the nearly silent operation. The main thing I've done with PCIe slots on my Mac Pro towers(1,1-5,1) is change the GPU and add USB 3.0 cards. I have run PCIe drives in them, but of course the 6,1 has a dedicated slot for that.The 6,1 does give you 6 Thunderbolt 2 ports, so you do have PCIe access, although there are downsides to going that route. In 2023 it's possible to use an eGPU(not officially supported by Apple for this or any other TB1/2 Macs) and this can help a lot for some uses, but Thunderbolt in any form only gives you a 4x PCIe connection where most GPUs are intended to be installed in 16x slots. There are people, though, for whom the lack of PCIe slots is a deal killer-DAW users are one of the big targets I know of. I always thought the 6,1 would have been a nice supplement to a proper tower as a(relatively) small, quiet and interesting looking computer using workstation class components. Instead, it made a lot of power users who needed this kind of expandability either stick with their older Mac Pro 4,1/5,1s(Apple tacitly acknowledged this when when they kept firmware updates coming for a long time, published a recommended list of aftermarket GPUs, and then officially supported them in 10.14 and 10.15 if you used one of those GPUs).
Background aside, I've been watching prices on these since the Mac Pro 7,1 was released, saying I'd buy one if I could ever find a decently specced one for a good price. They held their value suprislngly well, although most Intel macs have now reached the point where the specs are really starting to show their age and they're too new to attract collector attention. The only ones really holding on still are late high end ones like the 5K iMacs, 16" MBPs, and of course the Mac Pro 7,1.
I hadn't really been actively looking, but a few weeks ago I bought something for work(albeit out of my own pocket) on Ebay-an ion gauge controller for an HP 5973 mass spectrometer. I realized that the one I'd bought was at a business near me and offered pick-up as an option, so I arranged that. When I got there, I realized that the operation was actually a second hand computer store, and as I'm walking to the Ebay counter I get distracted by a shelf with 15 or so of these beasts of different specs and different price points. I had an internal debate with myself, and finally picked one I liked-a D300, 1tb, quad core CPU, and 64gb RAM for well under $300. DId I need it, no, or even have a use in mind? Still, though, it was a good chance to get one.
So far I've set it up at work but not done a lot else. It may replace the 2015 MacBook Pro I've been using more or less as a desktop, but we'll see. One nice thing about workstation hardware is that once its dated, it's cheap, and I did snag a 12 core CPU for $25 shipped.
