Want a $50k Mac Pro Cheese Grater? Get a $60 PC Cheese Grater!
by Dr. Ian Cutress on January 14, 2020 4:00 PM EST
One of the more bemusing aspects of 2019 was the launch of the new Mac Pro. Powered by Intel’s Xeon W CPUs, it offered a range of options such that the most buoyant of budgets could splash out on a fully equipped $50k+ system from the fruit company. The chassis was a doozy: nicknamed the cheese grater, because it had a holey and angled design such that you could grate cheese on it. Some reviewers even did that in there reviews – no joke. The only problem with this case is that it is only available for Macs. Phanteks' gaming brand, Metallicgear, has the solution if you want it for PC, and it’s much cheaper.
This cheese grater is called the Metallicgear Neo Pro, and currently in the last stage of design before retailing later this year in March/April. The concept from Phanteks has, for lack of a better phrase, turned into a cheap knockoff, intentionally. Apple’s case is machined aluminum for that premium feel – this Neo Pro is by contrast a plastic design, hence its ability to be only $60.
The circular vents are different to the Apple design, and the feel of the material is definitely different. Not only this, but Phanteks is thinking on making a set of wheels for it – a steal at $395 (they’re not actually making wheels, that’s a joke). However at a distance, you would be none the wiser, for at least the first few seconds.
The chassis design fits an ATX motherboard, and the idea is to ship the black model first with two black fans. The side panel is tempered glass, and the power supply bay is covered compared to the rest of the design. The front IO panel is on the top of the case, with two USB ports and audio outputs. More details to come when Phanteks is ready to ship.
Part of me wants this case, just to build a more powerful system in it than the top-end Mac Pro. Either that, or fill it with more than $50k of hardware, just to see if it is possible.
Images provided by Phanteks - ours weren't that great.
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FreckledTrout - Tuesday, January 14, 2020 - link
At least that is not much cheddar. :) Could.... not..... resist.The brand should be Cheeseteks or if we want to continue the play on words by carrying out there Greek Ph replacement of F in Phanteks we could call it Chezteks.
Kevin G - Wednesday, January 15, 2020 - link
The price is pretty Gouda.quiksilvr - Wednesday, January 15, 2020 - link
And you can build a music editing rig to create some nice R 'n' Brie music.hallstein - Wednesday, January 15, 2020 - link
Absolutely. Emmental all my PC building friends about this case.quadibloc - Tuesday, January 14, 2020 - link
But you're comparing the price of a case to that of a whole computer! That's unfair to Apple!I've heard the claim that the specs of the Mac Pro are so high that a similarly-equipped PC would be nearly as expensive - if one could even find one. While that may be true, of course, that misses the point, which was that open, upgradeable PC systems are available at much lower prices, which highlights how limited choices are in the Mac world.
extide - Tuesday, January 14, 2020 - link
It's not true. You can go configure a workstation from Dell/Lenovo/HP with equivalent specs for less, and you could build one yourself for even cheaper than that.carbonium - Wednesday, January 15, 2020 - link
And you’ll end up with a crappy discounted virus prone inferior system that’s insecure and running Windows 10 instead of macOS. I have a bunch of Mac’s that I make money on and PC’s to play video games with.nico_mach - Wednesday, January 15, 2020 - link
I, too, have a gaming PC and an MBA and I've never thought MacOS was better than Windows 10. It was certainly better than Windows around the time of Vista, XP. That was a long time ago now, and IOS is as bloated and confusing as Windows 8.But, sure, they have less glitches than the alternatives. Single vendor and all that.
sing_electric - Wednesday, January 15, 2020 - link
100% agree with this. I've got a MacBook Pro and a Windows workstation, and I think Windows 10 is a better productivity OS in a lot of ways, and I now feel that on equivalent hardware, Windows 10 just **feels** snappier.Having said that, it's not all life in paradise - Microsoft's QA with Windows 10 updates has been pretty abysmal over the past few years.
Goedel - Wednesday, January 15, 2020 - link
Or you could end up with a nice Linux system with plenty of open-source software to choose from, and zero MicroSoft tax.