workstation
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Akai adds a 37-key standalone workstation to its MPC lineup
Akai just released the MPC Key 37, a standalone workstation and groovebox that follows the larger Key 61. It costs $900 and is available to order right now.
Native Instruments’ Maschine devices are up to $200 off
You'll also get some free software expansions if you pick one up by May 5th.
AMD's first Zen 4 CPUs include a 128-core chip built for the cloud
AMD has unveiled its first Zen 4 processors, and they're Epyc chips built for heavy-duty computing — including a 128-core cloud model.
Apple pulls more iMac models ahead of possible M1 refresh
Apple has stopped selling two versions of the 21.5 inch iMac amid rumors that it's planning a new all-in-one workstation.
Apple will stop selling the iMac Pro
Apple will stop selling the iMac Pro, and is limiting sales to one configuration 'while supplies last.'
Native Instruments Maschine+ review: Freedom in a box
Maschine has a long legacy, and the latest member of the family -- the plus -- is a worthy addition. Now you can make beats, demos and tracks without feeling like you're checking your email. This flexibility comes at a price though.
Apple finally offers a reasonably priced graphics upgrade for the Mac Pro
The Radeon Pro W5700X is now available as a more affordable graphics upgrade option for Apple's Mac Pro.
Apple dives deep into specs for the Mac Pro and Pro Display XDR
You probably know the basics of what the Mac Pro and Pro Display XDR have to offer, but Apple is more than a little eager to help if you have any lingering questions. The company has posted white papers for both the Mac Pro (PDF) and Pro Display XDR (PDF) that dive deep into the specs for each. The Mac Pro paper doesn't offer startling revelations, but it does outline the workstation's capabilities in thorough detail -- you'll know a fair amount about the Xeon architecture, RAM, PCI Express slots, graphics and I/O by the time you're done.
Apple's new Mac Pro is unsurprisingly easy to repair
It won't shock you to hear that Apple's new Mac Pro is easy to upgrade in many ways -- that's the whole point. But how easy it to service beyond the obvious parts? It's mostly easy, according to iFixit. The DIY repair outfit has torn down the Mac Pro, and it's now clear that many components beyond the memory and PCIe cards are trivial to remove and (if you can track down parts) replace, such as the fans. There are even instructions printed on the hardware for some repairs. This is a system designed for pros who may need rapid turnarounds for fixes, and it shows.
Apple's redesigned Mac Pro is now available
Right on cue, Apple has started taking orders for the redesigned Mac Pro and its optional Pro Display XDR. The workstation is available starting at $5,999 with an eight-core 3.5GHz Xeon processor, 32GB of RAM, Radeon Pro 580X graphics and a 256GB solid-state drive. In a pleasant twist, there's also a rackmount version for servers and other non-desktop uses -- it's only listed as "coming soon," but it's poised to start at $6,499.
Apple's redesigned Mac Pro will be available to order December 10th
After half a year -- or two years, if you really think about it -- Apple's reworked Mac Pro is close at hand. The company has notified interested customers that both the workstation and the Pro Display XDR will be available to order on December 10th. There's still a lot Apple hasn't said about the possible configurations and their respective pricing, but you can still expect the base system to sell for $5,999 with an eight-core Xeon, 32GB of RAM, a 256GB SSD and Radeon Pro 580X graphics. Expect those costs to spiral upward if you need a heavy-duty machine, especially if you intend to make the most of that 1.5TB RAM ceiling. At least you can add memory and storage yourself.
Calvin Harris already has the new Mac Pro
Apple still won't say when the new Mac Pro will ship besides "this fall," but one of its early adopters might have hinted that it's getting close. DJ Calvin Harris has posted multiple Instagram Stories showing that he already has Apple's workstation as part of his music production setup. He didn't talk about it, to no one's surprise, but this suggests Apple is comfortable enough with the state of the Mac Pro to seed it to big-name creators.
Apple will manufacture its new Mac Pro in Texas
Apple hinted that it wanted to manufacture the redesigned Mac Pro in Texas, and now it's official. The company has confirmed that it'll assemble the workstation at the same Austin, Texas plant that has produced the cylindrical Mac Pro since 2013. The company isn't shy about the reason for the move: it's reportedly enabled by exemptions from Trump's China tariffs for "certain necessary components" in the system. Production starts "soon."
ASUS’ ProArt StudioBook One is a breathtakingly powerful laptop
You know a company is feeling confident when it has industry-standard benchmarking software pre-installed on its demo PCs. ASUS' new ProArt StudioBook One is the first to offer NVIDIA's class-leading Quadro RTX 6000 pro graphics. And it had Futuremark's 3D Mark 11 just sat there, practically begging us to try and see how fast thing could run. Turns out that it had a Performance score of 24,438, making this laptop faster than 98 percent of all computers it's ever benchmarked.
Akai Force is for DJs and producers that want to ditch the laptop
Akai made its name around the early 90s thanks to its line of relatively affordable S-series samplers and the (now legendary) MPC. Since then, the company has continued to release new spins on those mainstays, the latest of which is the all-in-one Force workstation.
ASUS' new StudioBook S is a portable workstation for creators
ASUS' new ZenBooks are pretty solidly spec'd, but sometimes you need some serious power to get your work done. That's where the company's new StudioBook S comes from: sleekness and portability were priorities, but the company was arguably more concerned with squeezing as much power as it could into a notebook. Not a huge surprise from a company that takes gaming as seriously as ASUS does -- this time, though, the Taiwanese PC maker is setting its sights on creatives.
NVIDIA unveils the Quadro RTX 4000, its mainstream workstation GPU
NVIDIA has unveiled the Quadro RTX 4000, a workstation and deep learning version of its GeForce RTX 2070 gaming GPU. Like that model, it packs 2,304 NVIDIA CUDA cores, 288 Turing Tensor Cores for AI and 8GB of GDDR6 graphics memory, but has fewer ray-tracing (RT) cores with 36 rather than 42. It also uses slightly less power (150 watts) compared to the RTX 2070's 185 watts, likely because of reduced clocks speeds. It's equipped with 8K video decoding and encoding capability for multiple professional formats, and connects to VR headsets by VirtuaLink.
AMD's Radeon Pro WX 8200 is for content creators on a budget
AMD has been pushing Intel on the CPU high-end with new, more budget-minded offerings like the 32-core Ryzen Threadripper, and now it's doing the same to NVIDIA. Just ahead of Siggraph 2018, AMD launched the Radeon Pro WX 8200, a card aimed not at gamers but workstation-using content creators. With 8GB of ECC RAM, the Vega 10-powered offers 10.8 teraflops of performance, close to that of AMD's flagship Radeon Pro WX 9100. However, the WX 8200 is less than half the price at $999, while significantly outperforming NVIDIA's similarly-priced Quadro P4000.
Apple will ship its redesigned Mac Pro in 2019
If you were budgeting for the redesigned Mac Pro this year, you'll want to earmark that money for something else. Apple has revealed to TechCrunch that the modular workstation is now slated to ship in 2019, rather than sometime in 2018 as many expected (though it was never set in stone). The company is providing the heads-up now so that customers who need a system soon can buy an iMac Pro without worrying that the Mac Pro might be right around the corner, according to Hardware Engineering VP Tom Boger. It might be worth the wait, however -- as Apple explained, it's shaping the system based on its potential customers.
Windows 10 is adding an Ultimate Performance mode for pros
When you're creating 3D models or otherwise running intensive tasks, you want to wring every ounce of performance out of your PC as possible. It's a good thing, then, that Microsoft has released a Windows 10 preview build in the Fast ring that includes a new Ultimate Performance mode if you're running Pro for Workstations. As the name implies, this is a step up for people for whom even the High Performance mode isn't enough -- it throws power management out the window to eliminate "micro-latencies" and boost raw speed. You can set it yourself, but PC makers will have the option of shipping systems with the feature turned on.
