Re: Why Apple should let HP build its workstations

[Andrew Richards] "
So let's forget that Apple has nothing to gain from outsourcing a product they supposedly don't want to make themselves. Let's say they do it. What does an HP Z800 running OS X look like?

It still has the same old OpenGL (this is an OS X problem, not a hardware problem)
It still has the same limited options for GPUs (if we are assuming EFI instead of BIOS for OS X)
It still won't support Blu-Ray drives (not any more than a Mac Pro will today)
Same number of PCIe slots, same distribution of PCIe lanes as the Mac Pro today
Same number of HDD bays as the Mac Pro today
Same number of built-in NICs
More RAM slots (12 on the Z vs 8 on the Mac Pro)
One additional external 5.25" bay vs today's Mac Pro"

No, no, some issues there:
- MacPros have full support for Blu-ray drives, ie. mount discs in finder, write to discs in finder. You just cannot view BD movies because copy protection scheme isn't implemented in OSX. But as far as using the drives in the same way as you'd use any other blank optical media there is no issue. It is a purely political decission by Apple not to offer Blu-ray drives as a bto option.
- MacPros have four PCIe slots running at 16/8/4/4 lanes.
The z800 has one legacy PCI slots and 6 PCIe slots running at 16/16/8/4/4 so more expansion and faster
- You can add up to 9 internal drives in a z800. There are four at the bottom but are forgetting the expansion bays in the front for which you can get, from HP or elsehwere, hot-swap bays for additional five drives. And there are three of those 5,25 bays, not just one.
In addition to that, you have SATA and SAS headers on the mainboard (plus lots of them), a RAID chip on board including RAID5 as well as HP options for eSATA on USB3.
Of course, with the z820 things are a bit different. Even faster PCIe, USB3 built in etc.