Buy the actual Mac Pro 12 cores internal upgrade or go for Mac Pro 2013 external upgrade.

The dilema of internal versus external new way for upgrade of not only Apple but others computers makers put me thinking.
Do i want the fastest computer or the conveniance of be able to put everything inside a tower even if that mean a little slower.
Probably a silly question but i sure there is plus and minus ... old tower is all in one and new tower need external hd and burners.

PRODUCTION D. GOYETTE
TOURNAGE / MONTAGE VIDÉO CORPORATIF
DISTRIBUTION DVD / BLU-RAY / WEB
[www.productiondgoyette.com]

If you're asking in the general sense I'd always chose speed. Speed is related to generating income.
"A little slower" understates the speed differences between most (not all) MacPro Box configurations and other current computers.
At this point if you need internal expansion specifically I'd choose a new HP or Dell workstation over a MacPro Box.

Granted there are cases where internal expansion is better than external expansion (given the limits) but you'd have to have a specific need for it.
Thunderbolt will work in most cases where the PCIe cards would otherwise be 4x or below. It is not adequate for 8x (limits the speed of RedRocket) or 16x (GPUs) for example.

Personally I can think of very few reasons to recommend a MacPro Box to anyone at this point. If an iMac or the upcoming MacPro Tube doesn't meet your needs I think you'd be better off looking at a good Windows workstation than a MacPro Box. They are not a little, they are a lot slower, than comparably priced computers.

For internal vs external expansion you really have to look at specific use cases for an answer to be of real value.

Personally I'd prefer the MacPro Tube since I use FCPX and Thunderbolt will allow me to move any peripheral to any other modern Mac I use ranging from MacBook Pro to MacBook Air. That's something that can't be done with a PCIe card. The only concern I have about the MacPro Tube is the inability to update GPUs so if/when the time comes I'd have to sell to upgrade.

Thanks Craig to give me your feedbacks about a very valid POV on Mac Pro 2012 vs Mac Pro 2013 and i read many of your exellent post here and others forums as well.
I use FCP X , Motion 5 , Compressor 4 , Logic Pro 9 , Sony Content Browser 2.0 , Belight Disc Cover 3 , Aperture 3 , Toast 11 , Dropbox , Laewo Blu-Ray Creator 1.2.
I mostly have for workflow Simple Edit , add Transitions , Titles , Basics Effects , Background Music , Basic Color Correction , Add Chapters markers for Blu-Ray Disc.

More than 90 % is Blu-Ray delivery to Corpo Clients for witch i even included a Blu-Ray player in the contract because the cost is very low since about 2 year minimum.
This Mac Pro got two Pioneer Blu-Ray burners , Sapphire HD 7950 Mac Edition , 4 x 1TB Hard-Drives , 32GB Ram , Apple Cinema Display 24 inch , External HD System Clone.
In short the tower is the entire NLE attach to a Display and a Epson Printer to Print the Blu-Ray discs and the External HD is connect as a Clone of the Boot Drive and Updated.

The Mac Pro is allways buyed by another company at the end of the Apple Care so this one is on his way out and my workflow on Blu-Ray need a new Mac Pro right now Craig.
The new Mac Pro (Old Mac Pro 2012) will be paid and make profits in less than a year and i know the new Mac Pro 2013 is the future : CPU connected to a Display and External Storage.
In the future the Optical Disc Delivery will be replaced by Online Delivery i have some request allready but it will take time for most of my clients to accept YouTube , Vimeo , Dropbox.

So what i have do is buy a Mac Pro 2012 with 12 Cores Top Speed , 64GB Ram , 4 Hard-Drive of 2 TB , Transfer my Sapphire HD 7950 in it , Transfer my Pioneer Blu-Ray Drive in it.
Of course i have buy an Apple display 27 inch and keep the External Hard-Drive for Cloning the Boot-Drive , the Ati 5870 is put back to previous Mac Pro and LG Blu-Ray also prior to the sale.
My next buy will be this kind of Mac Pro in about 2 year and maybe the optical will not even be that important but for now the convenience win temporary since top speed is not critical for me.

This is not a mistake from me but very simple mid-term migration with no money lost and the Mac Pro 2012 replace a Mac Pro 2009 who i agree by contract to resell in june 2013.
And i have no intention to go to Windows PC but that my preferences and some i have jump boat with FCP X arrival but Apple solutions Hardwares and Softwares serve me better.

PRODUCTION D. GOYETTE
TOURNAGE / MONTAGE VIDÉO CORPORATIF
DISTRIBUTION DVD / BLU-RAY / WEB
[www.productiondgoyette.com]

It does seem you're in a fairly "unusual" situation. In your case convenience does seem to win given speed isn't important and money isn't a great concern.

For speed (although not critical for you) many have found the 2012 27" iMac with Quad i7 and nVidia 680MX to be faster than the MacPros, in regards FCPX. It takes advantage of changes in the chips that doesn't exist in the old Xeons in the MacPros. The 680MX is surprisingly competitive to the 7950 but I suspect that's due to the drivers. Of course the iMac includes the 27" monitor. Many editors bought the 2012 BTO 27" because it beats the MacPro and price and, in many cases, performance as well. In you case though convenience seems to be the predominant factor.

While we're on the subject of speed, this is speculated to be a benchmark for the new Mac Pro:
[browser.primatelabs.com]

Interesting to note that in some cases the 2012 model is faster, although it's probably best not to draw too many conclusions until the final version is released.

My software:
Pro Maintenance Tools - Tools to keep Final Cut Studio, Final Cut Pro X, Avid Media Composer and Adobe Premiere Pro running smoothly and fix problems when they arise
Pro Media Tools - Edit QuickTime chapters and metadata, detect gamma shifts, edit markers, watch renders and more
More tools...

The only limitations of any iMac are the limited amount of cores in their processors but if you dont use H264 or AVCHD Blu-Ray with Apple Compressor with Quickclusters iMac are the best deal.
Even going from dual 4 cores in Mac Pro 2009 to dual 6 cores in Mac Pro 2012 will reduce the time it take to do compression for Blu-Ray but very few do Blu-Ray creation around me (dvd and web only).
Also i have drop Matrox MAX last year because it was too sensitive to Apple Update with Compressor and Going Apple Only give me that option but again that only in my preferences in updating fast.

PRODUCTION D. GOYETTE
TOURNAGE / MONTAGE VIDÉO CORPORATIF
DISTRIBUTION DVD / BLU-RAY / WEB
[www.productiondgoyette.com]