Mac Pro (Early 2008) Notes and Options

[PROJECT359]

The company put in an order on one for me today. Now I have to wait 2 - 3 weeks.

I use Macs at home and PC with XP in the office. I've been requesting a Mac upgrade due to the level of video I work on. And now they've finally committed.

Perfect timing

 

[Freebart]

SATA Ports

Does anyone know if this newer Mac Pro still has the two extra SATA ports? I'd like to put two extra drives in the second optical bay without using an extra PCIe card.

Is the optical drive SATA or PATA?

 

[winterspan]

PCIe?

I hope so too!
it's the only mid range option right now, which kinda sucks... you can't change anything on the imac other than the ram ... what if you have a need for a PCI-X card or something ... i want to add a second internal hard drive ....

What? You mean PCIe (PCI - Express) not PCI-X, right? I almost 99% sure the Mac Pros don't have native support for a PCI-X slot. I don't even think Apple would have the drivers for it.

 

[AppleMojo]

Something can't be a standard option. It is either standard or an option. I think you meant to say that bluetooth is now standard.

My standards are optional.

 

[bobsbarricades]

Here is what a chat from one of the salesmen on the Apple website said about upgrading to dual core after purchasing single core.

"Once you get the computer, you can do what you like with it but upgrading the processor is not supported by Apple."

that deffinately sounds like it's possible

 

[Peace]

Does anyone know if this newer Mac Pro still has the two extra SATA ports? I'd like to put two extra drives in the second optical bay without using an extra PCIe card.

Is the optical drive SATA or PATA?

You want to have SIX hard drives ?

 

[bobsbarricades]

can anybody tell me the price of a MP with the ADC discount applied? The aforementioned salesman also told me that the student/college discount is usually a bigger discount than the ADC one... which I find hard to beleive as the student is only 200 bucks...

 

[CWallace]

You want to have SIX hard drives ?

Too much is never enough.

 

[Pukey]

can anybody tell me the price of a MP with the ADC discount applied? The aforementioned salesman also told me that the student/college discount is usually a bigger discount than the ADC one... which I find hard to beleive as the student is only 200 bucks...

bobsbarricades, I already posted this comment by twitch to someone else, here it is again though concerning the ADC discount. It gives you a ballpark idea I think.

Ordered mine today.... pretty darn pumped really....

I've been waiting for this machine for quite a while, as a workstation for my recording studio, and the update suits me fine really.... All i really wanted was some current horsepower for the price, and its certainly there. Twice the cores at a faster speed, twice the ram, and more HD for just a tiny bit more than the old base model....

Here's a hint for anyone considering a purchase -

An Apple Developer Connection "Select" membership will cost you $500, and will give you a 'one-time select member hardware discount'. The discount you get with it will save you at least $500 on a base mac pro, and even more on a tricked out one. After upping my hard disks and adding a wireless mouse and keyboard my 'select' price in canadian dollars wasn't even back up to the retail base price..... Basically if you were going to order retail anyway you'll be getting the select membership for free, or even saving a bit of money. The membership has some perks for attending events, and access to lots of extra downloads, including developer use full versions of the client and server versions of tiger and leopard.... Lots of other goodies too....

Food for thought....

-N

 

[Freebart]

You want to have SIX hard drives ?

If you're willing to give up your internal optical drive and a PCIe slot, you could have EIGHT internal drives, at least with the older Mac Pro model.
http://www.maxupgrades.com/istore/index.cfm?fuseaction=product.display&product_id=158

 

[plumbingandtech]

You want to have SIX hard drives ?

The extra sata ports allow a cable (like the newertech) to run out to an external sata drive that is also bootable. very helpful.

 

[Freebart]

Too much is never enough.

Especially for Time Machine.

 

[MacFly123]

Black Gloss?

Wasn't there anyone else that saw the pic and thought that they added a glossy black coat to the interior well??? I thought they did and went.... COOL, they are adding the new theme. But NO I think they should have, it looks HOT. Am I alone?

 

[PROJECT359]

Wasn't there anyone else that saw the pic and thought that they added a glossy black coat to the interior well??? I thought they did and went.... COOL, they are adding the new theme. But NO I think they should have, it looks HOT. Am I alone?

Thought the same thing

 

[Drumjim85]

What? You mean PCIe (PCI - Express) not PCI-X, right? I almost 99% sure the Mac Pros don't have native support for a PCI-X slot. I don't even think Apple would have the drivers for it.

yes sorry .. pci-e .... (why did people name 2 products pci express.... grr)

 

[68134]

Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry8130/4.3.0 Profile/MIDP-2.0 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/105)

Would suck if you ordered a new display with your new Mac pro and they. Made new ones at mwsf...

yes, i was thinking this. apple has done shady stuff like this in the past. therefore, im getting the MP and waiting on the ACD

 

[Thomas2006]

Stop gap for what? This rev just doubled the procs in every base Mac Pro. That's one heck of a stop gap.

Is there some new chip from intel arriving this summer?

The Montevina platform and Nehalem processors should be out in the second half of this year. Starting with Nehalem the front side bus (legacy technology) will disappear and the Intel QuickPath Interconnect will take its place. As sweet as this update is the next update will be that much sweeter.

 

[SheriffParker]

Based on the specs and cost, I think a midrange will be shown at MacWorld.

There has been no evidence of such behavior.

Plus, the last thing Apple wants is a bunch of teenage gamers using their machines, hacking them, destroying them, trying to get Applecare to fix it, tying up all the phone lines for support etc. There's a reason Apple stays out of this market. They might gain market share, but profits and quality control might begin to slip. I think they do quite well without the mini-tower.

 

[Glideslope]

Looks like Apple redesigned the memory cards to face each other instead of stacked upwards.

I was wondering about this also? I've always felt the top riser on my 2.66 ran warmer than the bottom. Never gave it much thought. Inverting the top riser would make a more efficient space to cool IMO.

 

[plumbingandtech]

The Montevina platform and Nehalem processors should be out in the second half of this year. Starting with Nehalem the front side bus (legacy technology) will disappear and the Intel QuickPath Interconnect will take its place. As sweet as this update is the next update will be that much sweeter.

Ahh sweet.

 

[jettoblack]

Just a note for all you out there, this means that the new 2.8 GHz "quad-core" model has a single four core processor sharing a single 1600 MHz bus, whereas the previous-generation "quad-core" models had two dual-core processors on two separate 1333 MHz busses. This means that for bus-intensive, multi-threaded operations, the old models will perform better. Yes, even the old 2.66 GHz model will likely be able to outrun the new 2.8 GHz model.

[snip]

Again, please note that on the lowest-end CTO model, you now have four cores sharing that single 1600 MHz bus, whereas on the previous models, you had two dual-core chips on two separate 1333 MHz busses.

This is not correct. All Intel systems to date use a single front-side bus (FSB) which is shared by all CPUs and the Northbridge (which connects to the RAM). The new systems have a single 1600MHz FSB, while the old systems had a single 1333MHz FSB. Furthermore, inside the CPU package there is a faster connection between the cores. On a dual-chip dual-core (old quad systems), inter-chip communication happens over the relatively slow FSB. On the new single-chip quad-core systems, all communication between cores is local to the single chip. Barring any bugs or driver issues, there shouldn't be any situations in which the old quad systems would be faster than the new quad systems.

 

[Carl Spackler]

Gamers vs. Pro users..

In the deadhead world this would be called tweakers vs. peakers.

I like the cut of your gibberish.

 

[skellener]

Since Apple released this today, it leaves more room for a big announcement on Monday!

Please let it be actual MAC related stuff and not an hour of talk about the iPhone and AppleTV.

 

[sas76]

Not for those who already own a monitor, or need expandability. You might as well say that apple doesn't need the imac...after all, with the Macbook it already has a "midrange model"...

Get the single quad core Mac Pro, seems good value to me. There is no room in the price structure between these and the iMac 2.8 extreme.
In Aus dollars $3289 Mac Pro
$3339 iMac

Which would you buy ?

 

[skellener]

I hate it when my lame ducks give me 4 more procs then before.

Now if Adobe could only get mulit-proc rendering to work on OS X in AE!!! 2-4-8 Doesn't ,matter much when the software doesn't work.