“In front of me, two 30-in. Apple Cinema Displays glow softly at my desk. Beside me sits the fastest stock-configuration Macintosh that Apple Inc. has ever shipped: a superfast eight-core Mac Pro. Inside the Mac — and on full display on those screens — is Mac OS X 10.5, better known as Leopard, Apple’s latest operating system. All around me is the work I’ve been putting off that is now getting done…One thing is certain: This Mac Pro packs a mighty punch in raw bandwidth and horsepower.,” Michael DeAgonia reports for Compuetrworld.
“Inside all of the new Mac Pro machines are Intel Xeon 5400-series processors, code-named Harpertown. My review unit is the eight-core 2.8-GHz model, stacked with 4GB of memory — double the standard configuration. Each quad-core processor sports 12MB of Level 2 cache memory, so this particular Mac Pro has 24MB. The main logic board architecture also received an upgrade — it now sports high-bandwidth, dual independent 1,600-MHz front-side buses, allowing you to use up to 32GB of 800-MHz DDR2 ECC FB-DIMM memory,” DeAgonia reports.
“The graphics card is nothing to sneeze at: an ATI Radeon HD 2600 with 256MB of GDDR3 dedicated video RAM capable of pushing enough power for two 2560-by-1600-pixel, 30-in. Cinema Displays. The $1,799 displays themselves are gorgeous, displaying deep blacks and vibrant hues at a resolution sharp enough to show off Mac OS X Leopard’s amazingly detailed and fluid graphics while rendering even small text clearly,” DeAgonia reports.
“Given the plethora of build-to-order options Apple now offers, there’s a Mac Pro for just about any task. This is an amazing machine that is as fast as it is stable, offering pure brute force and processing power at a competitive price for what you get,” DeAgonia reports.
Full review here.
Me want. Me want. Me want.
(Mac Pro, 30″ Cinema Display, 30″ Cinema Display)
Amen. I like the pic of his nice set up. Would have been even better with BT keyboard and mouse.
@ mr angry:
I’d agree with you if Apple had a full Bluetooth keyboard – I use the number pad all the time, so the smaller Bluetooth keyboard would bother me.
With 4 GBs of RAM, it’s not exactly a ‘stock configuration’ unit.
DO WANT!
“cough”
Mac Mini pro dual core xeon, or Core 2 Extreme with high end DESKTOP class graphics card.
“cough”
I got one recently and couldn’t be happier and snappier.
Don’t ask, don’t get…
Dear Steve,
Can I have the same please, as I’m a big fan & could never afford it myself.
Yours Faithfully
Troy,
MI.
I know they won’t do it, but give me a Demi-Tower—half the hard drive bays, half the PCI slots, half the memory slots. Especially now that the tower is priced so high, it seems like they could easily squeeze another model in between the iMac and the Power Mac.
Otherwise, just give me some more options on the video card with the iMac, even if I can’t replace it, let me buy a killer video card up front on the 20 inch model! That would go a long way towards most people’s complaints.
If I were going to buy an 8-core machine I’d get a better graphics card, because that one is crap. Why? Because just about the only reason to get an 8-core machine is for video editing and compression.
Not that its the only reason but not many tasks would benefit from that many cores, unless you are planning on doing some heavy multi-tasking.
@studentrights
You forget 3D rendering. That is the reason I am getting one this summer. Once your seen is setup, all you need raw processing power. I have to leave my G5 running two days in a row to render files sometimes. This computer should bring that time to hours, not days.
@studentrights
You’re also forgetting heavy-duty audio apps like ProTools or running a virtual instrument rig.
” … because that one is crap.”
My HD2600 cuts like a knife through my Maya creations so I don’t know wtf studentrights is talking about. It’s obvious from his smack he doesn’t own this video card.
I also finished Crysis using this card.
Of course there are better video cards out there… there’s ALWAYS something better, coming or going, but for a basic video card this card kicks neck!
holy shizNat.
someone actually posted a review about an apple workstation on here for a change instead of the iPhone or iPod.
the world must be coming to an end…
So where’s the news in this?
Now if only the apps would take advantage. We have a little app that shows how much each processor is being used. On many apps 4 of the cores sit totally idle 🙁
have fun upgrading the damn thing in a years time
http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/geforce8800/signatures.html
i blew £3k on my pro and i’m stuck with the noisy old x1900 FOR EVER
so much for ‘upgradeable’
When Mac OS X eventually goes XI, it’ll be about taking full advantage of multiple processors. I think these 8-core Mac Pro models will be relevant and useful for a very long time.
@Synthmeister ,
I agree, something between the Pro and a mini would be very nice.
My dual 1.8GHz G5 scores 1600 on a popular benchmark tool. The top-end Pro just over 8000. For some serious coin, I could get the Pro. But an iMac will easily double my performance and it includes a screen I don’t want. The mini isn’t too far off the iMac performance-wise, but isn’t really expandable in a meaningful way. But $700 to double my performance isn’t worth the $$$, and certainly not for an iMac with a screen I don’t need or like (and still no meaningful expansion). Give me a mini-Pro tower for about $1500-$2000 with at least 4x my current capability and my attention has been got.
A professional OpenGL card would be nice.
I believe the only option for Mac Pros is a top of the line Quadro for $3k. It would be nice to have a proper range of professional graphics cards and not just a list of “gamer” cards.
Sun workstations come with a complete range of Quadro cards and are looking a better option at the moment.
I totally agree with flappo. I don’t own the Mac Pro, but I think it is an outrage that Apple is doing this to its customers! I signed the petition, btw. They are blowing it big time. “Most upgradeable Mac ever!” Yeah right. Too bad OS X is sooo damn good, or I would just build a Linux box.
MW – “got”, as in early Mac Pro buyers “got” screwed!!