I guessing someone will come up with a matching drive case then. Too bad there was not a matching monitor.

Since the Mac Pro can handle 4K monitors, I'm guessing that's probably why no new monitors. Have you seen the price of one? Cheapest I could find on Newegg is $3500. ouch.

Holy Moly! I just looked! I thought my old 30 inch display was costly….

My guess is they're throwing third parties a bone and letting them handle that, at least for the external cases. We'll see on the 4K monitor, but maybe monitors are not a profitable endeavor.

It seems there's not really a big market for 4K monitors yet anyway.

Uh.. just because it can drive (3) 4K monitors doesn't mean you need one...lol.
2560 x 1440 pixels is plenty for now me.

I knew the day would come.

Among it's other advantages, I assume switching over to flash memory over hard disks will help extend the life of Mac even longer no?

Possibly. HDDs tend to get quite warm. Just having Flash will bring down the overall temp inside the box.
Also.. Flash has no moving parts...so less susceptible to shock/drops.

Also, they weigh about 1/10th that of a HDD and they are practically silent.

AHHHH !! what an ordeal !!
We don't have an Apple Store in Tyler - yeah I know you're shocked. BUT we do have a Mac store called Simply Mac... took my old MB in there and they confirmed the HD was dead. BUT they wanted $250 to install a new one and put a system on it. Seemed like a nice store and much like an Apple store in appearance... even has their own "Genius Bar".

So I told them I decided NOT to fix the MB and to thank them for the "no charge" and support I wanted to get a new one. Asked about Educational discount - and they can do that BUT you must purchase the Apple Care with it (Bundle).. OK will only cost me $83 with the educational discounts instead of $250... Ok took some time to decide which model and finally decided to go for the big kahoona a mid-level MBPro... total out the door cost $1700 with tax, Apple Care, 8 Gb RAM, 2.4 GHz CPU, and a 256 GB Dynamic HD.... pricy but still a lot for the $. I had a Barclay's account pre-approved for $4K last August and had a Barclay's check to write them which would be just like the Card and . . . they can't do it !! WTF , are you crazy ??

So adios !! All that . . . and for empty hands !
So going to order from Apple without the Applecare but bumping the CPU to 2.6 GHz, and it'll only be $1600 w tax.
Try to support local businesses, and they throw roadblocks at ya !!