Mac Pro Unboxing Photos, Early Benchmarks and Notes

[trip1ex]

Holy heatsinks batman!

 

[Truffy]

Hackintosh is tempting but the questionable future is off putting. I don't want to have to worry that if download a software update my machine is no longer going to be stable. Yes, 10.6 works, but what about 10.7? I can be sure that will run on a Mac I buy today.

QFT

I did the whole 'build my PC' thing. I got over it...it was one of the reasons I went Apple in the first place.

Ditto, been there with the cables and ties (jeez, even the jumpers in the days before PNP!) Happy to have got it outta my system now. Even compared to an OEM build PC, Macs are just nicer to work inside.

 

[Orange™]

No it isn't obvious, so there's no need to be snarky.

The dummy enclosure then is incredibly short, and if it's a 2.5" drive they could really design a fifth slot somewhere for such a drive, front of the PCI section maybe, but of a shame. I wonder if there's any brackets out there that could fit two 2.5" drives in a 3.5" bay?

Pay no attention to the Halo fanboy, he's just bitter because he knows he will never be able to afford one!

 

[PeterQVenkman]

Darn it, why does a stock, non-overclocked core i7 980x score 10.21 in cinebench on windows, but the hex core Xeon on Mac OS gets a cinebench score of 9.0?

http://www.cbscores.com/

 

[Master Chief]

No it isn't obvious, so there's no need to be snarky.

The dummy enclosure then is incredibly short, and if it's a 2.5" drive they could really design a fifth slot somewhere for such a drive, front of the PCI section maybe, but of a shame. I wonder if there's any brackets out there that could fit two 2.5" drives in a 3.5" bay?

Sorry. I wasn't trying to be snarky, but it is so obvious.

Pay no attention to the Halo fanboy, he's just bitter because he knows he will never be able to afford one!

No sir. I am the one and only Master Chief. My forum name is what I am. Not based on some sort of game. I don't play games. Never did.

And you may have missed it, but my Mac Pro 12 core already arrived with the following [free] options:

– Two 2.93GHz 6-Core Intel Xeon “Westmere” (12 cores) [$1,200.00]
– Mac Pro RAID Card [$700.00]
– Two ATI Radeon HD 5770 1GB [$250.00]
– Two Apple LED Cinema Display (24" flat panel) [$1598.00]
– Apple Magic Mouse + Magic Trackpad [$69.00]
– 32 GB OWC Memory

And all this for less than $8000.00 instead of $12,366.00 Thanks to Apple and a magical RAM supplier

 

[Edmoil12]

64 bit by default? That took long enough. My Nintendo 64 is 64 bit by default!

 

[gugy]

WOW
Nice machine. I wish I could afford one.
Since most of my work is Photoshop I am leaving my MacPro behind next time I upgrade and getting an Quad iMac.

But I have to say I will miss the MacPro.

 

[meatballs]

Does Farmville run smoothly on this MAC PRO?

 

[davidbrummy]

Impressive machine

I have a 2008 Mac Pro that I use as my server at home that I stuck 4TB and has 16GB in it (max 32). It is still way more of a machine then I need and I develop server side Java for a Media company.

I am surprised they have not come up with a new case .

 

[IlluminatedSage]

hmm, looks great.

where are they making this run of Mac Pro's?

love to see the made in usa tag. not the silly, designed in california. assembled in china.

 

[Jorojr]

Mine can't get here soon enough.

 

[AppleZwei]

hmm, looks great.

where are they making this run of Mac Pro's?

love to see the made in usa tag. not the silly, designed in california. assembled in china.

You're not very smart to even think Apple or any company would build computers in the US. An already overpriced machine times 10 at least? No thanks.

 

[skeep5]

64 GB of memory? Wow...

seriously what would you need that for...

 

[ikir]

Impressive as always. Now I want 5870 for my early 2009 Mac Pro, it is on online store already but it is unavailable

 

[mBox]

Why such a pedestrian videocard in an otherwise brilliant machine? It's a decent card, but for a rig that costs around $4000 or so, it's disappointing.

Ive been sitting on this years budget of 50k for this release. Well with the ATI cards itll be sitting a little longer.
We cant use them for what we need.
Were hoping that the Nvidias are in the Fall.

 

[jonnysods]

Purdy.

I'm still in love with my 09 quad 2.66.

 

[mBox]

...I don't have real-world results yet from After Effects renders, but it crushes my iMac (go figure). However, After Effects wants more than 8GB of ram to use all 16 virtual cores/threads. If you turn the dial all the way up on render speed, it'll jump on 14...

Find the NightFlight After Effects Test file. Google it. Its an really good test file for AE.
Well the iMac is same as my MacBook Pro. Compare a recent i7 MBP to last years Mac Pro top off the line...no comparison. One renders at 11min the other 2 min.

 

[parish]

64GB - I can remember using computers with 64KB. That's one millionth of a Mac Pro I want one

 

[mBox]

I just got mine today and love it. I got the 6 core since the only app i use that im aware of that uses all cores is Maya. The rest i use i don't think uses everything. (Photoshop cs5, Zbrush, Unity 3D, corel painter, logic) there are some more but those are the ones i use the most. Logic may use everything I'm not sure though.

Maya and Renderman (license dependent) use all the cores. But the promise that others apps will release core eating code is always a good thing

 

[Roofy.]

truly a piece of artwork - those pictures are brilliant!

i cant wait until the day that i can afford one! *drool*

That first pic made me realize what a sexy piece of engineering Mac Pros are. Now if only I could afford one.

 

[mBox]

...And it's about prolonging computer lifetime - an iMac is quite obsolete after some 3 years, while a big box MacPro will easily live twice the time. So the TCO (Total Cost of Ownership) might not be worse (if not better) for a Mac Pro over an iMac...

Well said The Mac Pro to me is a professional tool. I teach at a local college and we have a huge iMac lab (a few actually). But when it comes to working with real intense apps e.g. Maya and After Effects, even the first gen Mac Pro Intels are robust and reliable.
At work, its all Mac Pro. The iMac as a computer has everyone here believing that its for secretary's so its 200 dollar HP's it is

 

[bobr1952]

Or you could have just bought,

As much as I liked the looks of the MacPro--that Ferrari is gorgeous!

 

[etep]

Great machine but a real pity that there's no CUDA-compatible graphics card option (i.e. Nvidia). I guess I have to go for a Linux box then...

 

[Bandido]

That thing looks pretty sleek and awesome.

That thing just look like last year's. I don't know if people are getting exited by the dual graphic cards on the pictures, but some of them sound like they have never seen the inside of a Mac Pro before. I'm just waiting for Avid to finish testing these new machines and update their list of qualified systems for Media Composer 5 so I can make up my mind about which one to buy.

 

[mBox]

A Dell T3500 is $1,199 with 2.8GHz quad Xeon, 3GB RAM, 320GB HD, cheap 2D card and 3 year warranty...

I was a big time Dell fanboi (back in the day). as I read this. there is a Dell tech in my cubicle already on the third mobo try on one of our Rendeman boxes