Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
2007 Harpertown Stoakley-Seaburg Motherboard With New Graphics Cards 8-Core Mac Pro
- Thread starter Multimedia
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
- Status
Unfortunately, I think you greatly exaggerate the number of people that are complaining about the lack of a Mac Pro update. All those on here plus another 5,000 elsewhere on the planet would most likely be overstated.
I want one as well, so don't shoot me for my observation.
I want one as well, so don't shoot me for my observation.
I personally see the update problem almost as non-issue.
Why?
Because there isnt much to update for.
There is little or nothing to update on mobo section.
Neither in the HDD,memory or other internals. (there could be more BTO options though.)
There could be some updating in the processor arena,as the 4 core clovs are at the same pricepoint as the 2 core xeons are.
But,then apple would come to the point that people would start to point out that the update was done from a 4 core to 8 core system, but the performance worsened on some applications...
For example,as far as I know the 4x3.00 xeon kicks the 8x2.66clovs arse ( in most of the photoshop tests,thanks to its higher clockspeed and PS CS3s poor multicore awareness of most of its filters/actions.
It is such a thing that apple dont want attention to.
They practically would have a lineup that consist of the cloverton series AND the highest clockspeed xeon. Unneccessary mess.
Added cost and very little benefits.
Oh.
And I dont consider a better GFX card as update either. Many people dont need a better card.
It just would be nice to have good card as a BTO.
Why?
Because there isnt much to update for.
There is little or nothing to update on mobo section.
Neither in the HDD,memory or other internals. (there could be more BTO options though.)
There could be some updating in the processor arena,as the 4 core clovs are at the same pricepoint as the 2 core xeons are.
But,then apple would come to the point that people would start to point out that the update was done from a 4 core to 8 core system, but the performance worsened on some applications...
For example,as far as I know the 4x3.00 xeon kicks the 8x2.66clovs arse ( in most of the photoshop tests,thanks to its higher clockspeed and PS CS3s poor multicore awareness of most of its filters/actions.
It is such a thing that apple dont want attention to.
They practically would have a lineup that consist of the cloverton series AND the highest clockspeed xeon. Unneccessary mess.
Added cost and very little benefits.
Oh.
And I dont consider a better GFX card as update either. Many people dont need a better card.
It just would be nice to have good card as a BTO.
You are taking the pee aren't you?
Brand new chips - 8 cores will kick the arse of any 4 core machine, especially encoding video or scientific research.
Totally new motherboard - Hence the name of the thread Stoakley Seaburg.
HD ad Memory, christ I almost broke a rib laughing at that one. iMacs now come with more HD space and Ram as standard. The graphics cards are over 18 months old.
If you think there is not much to update, then you are living in your own little world.
Just to clarify,I am not talking about this SS update,I am talking about why Apple hasnt updated in the previous 14 months. Just to clear out.
This update is soreley needed,dont get me wrong...
About the HD and memory. I personally would take more memory and hd space IF it wouldnt cost me extra. Fine with that.
It is just that the apple charges soooo-o much premium for their memory and HDD that I could personally go without them and get them aftermarket,if I could get reimbursed in that arena.
BUT there are many professionals that dont want extra HDD space or memory. Say,some people use the machines as dumb server boxes or something else.
It is they who dont want to pay a single dime extra.
To simplify : Those who want candy, buy candy. It would be wrong to make all the customers pay for perks that some customers dont need or even want (read, iSight in the ACDs. Many working enviroments dont allow them at all.)
S
nce again. There is a lot to update now.
For the last 14 months there havent been.
Apple could easily provide more Ram and HD for cheaper prices. The cost of Ram as more than halved. THe cost of the processors has been halved since August.
Apple are being nothing more than profit grabbing bastards. The MacPro was at it's lanch a great buy and value for money, now it is a con.
As for iSights in the ACD, I totally agree with you, people who think that should happen need to be shot.
Apple are being nothing more than profit grabbing bastards. The MacPro was at it's lanch a great buy and value for money, now it is a con.
As for iSights in the ACD, I totally agree with you, people who think that should happen need to be shot.
They are a profit making organisation....
I thought this at first, but the isight in the imacs are so teeny, it may not be so bad.
I disagree with you. iSight in the screen is great for making facial animation reference. I do animation and iSight (or in this case camera in my iMac) is great and simple way to record any acting, lip syncing or basically anything I want in not time. Setting up standalone camera, connect it with your mac etc, would take longer and therefore I would really like new ACD refresh with iSight built in.
Penryns are available (in stock) at this place.
http://www.pogolinux.com/
Someone said they had not really seen them in stock anywhere.
They are available, and in stock from at least this place. I just ordered a workstation (Velocity-D50 ) with one for a small client--they have no real need of a Tier 1 vendor. Of course, you have to buy the worksation/server with it. Ordered it yesterday, they said it will ship today or tomorrow.
Newegg.com has them on the site, but they are out of stock. I have not seem any place--yet--where they are in stock.
P.S. I did try to get him to order a Mac Pro, but no go. And his vendor does not have bad prices. The additional price for two quads at 2.66ghz (E5430) was just under $1300. For around $3000, we speced him out quite a nice workstation.
http://www.pogolinux.com/
Someone said they had not really seen them in stock anywhere.
They are available, and in stock from at least this place. I just ordered a workstation (Velocity-D50 ) with one for a small client--they have no real need of a Tier 1 vendor. Of course, you have to buy the worksation/server with it. Ordered it yesterday, they said it will ship today or tomorrow.
Newegg.com has them on the site, but they are out of stock. I have not seem any place--yet--where they are in stock.
P.S. I did try to get him to order a Mac Pro, but no go. And his vendor does not have bad prices. The additional price for two quads at 2.66ghz (E5430) was just under $1300. For around $3000, we speced him out quite a nice workstation.
I should have mentioned
that the motherboard the above was the same 5000X. So they did not really take the time to rework anything else.
But he only needed it for science calcs that were not memory throughput nor amount starved--so these should be fine.
that the motherboard the above was the same 5000X. So they did not really take the time to rework anything else.
But he only needed it for science calcs that were not memory throughput nor amount starved--so these should be fine.
Thanks for the link. That isn't one of the major vendors, so who knows how many of the chips they have in stock. For someone like apple to start shipping these, they need them in a sizable quantity.
<sarcasm>
But what about the new reports that Apple has bought up all the available Penryns so that they can be the first to ship?
</sarcasm>
...never believed that silly rumour from the first day.
The problem that I have with buying one now, is that they are the same price as when they were brand new. This is what I hate about buying apple tech, it never drops in price no matter how old the parts are. I would totally buy one right now for 1699$ or less, you don't get your moneys worth unless you buy on day one.
Post of the week
This is spot on for Apples M.O..
Intel publishes their price lists far in advance - the summer price drops on the various chips were known at the end of winter.
One should assume that vendors who are placing orders for hundreds of thousands of CPUs have access to this information long before we mere mortals do.
Apple priced the Mac Pro based on a single retail price for the life of the system - knowing that the CPUs would be fairly dear early in the life, and relatively cheap towards the end.
The rest of the companies adjust the price to follow Intel, so that the initial higher price drops with the Intel price drops.
The net result is that if you buy the Apple kit - you get a good deal at the beginning, and you're royally <insert any crude physical gerund here that would get you banned if you actually used it> if you buy late in the cycle. (We're now very, very late in the cycle, and therefore very royally <?> if you buy now.)
I looked seriously at buying a bunch of Mac Pros when they came out - but the reality that I needed to depend on Apple for Windows and Linux and Solaris drivers made that a non-starter. (Oh, Mr. Jobs, when will you have the Longhorn RC2 64-bit drivers for my quad-port QLogic 4Gbps FC HBAs available?).
This is spot on for Apples M.O..
Intel publishes their price lists far in advance - the summer price drops on the various chips were known at the end of winter.
One should assume that vendors who are placing orders for hundreds of thousands of CPUs have access to this information long before we mere mortals do.
Apple priced the Mac Pro based on a single retail price for the life of the system - knowing that the CPUs would be fairly dear early in the life, and relatively cheap towards the end.
The rest of the companies adjust the price to follow Intel, so that the initial higher price drops with the Intel price drops.
The net result is that if you buy the Apple kit - you get a good deal at the beginning, and you're royally <insert any crude physical gerund here that would get you banned if you actually used it> if you buy late in the cycle. (We're now very, very late in the cycle, and therefore very royally <?> if you buy now.)
I looked seriously at buying a bunch of Mac Pros when they came out - but the reality that I needed to depend on Apple for Windows and Linux and Solaris drivers made that a non-starter. (Oh, Mr. Jobs, when will you have the Longhorn RC2 64-bit drivers for my quad-port QLogic 4Gbps FC HBAs available?
).
Having a camera in the display costs nothing these days and there's plenty of benefit as phoning over the web (see skype) is becoming more common place. As for working environments - I guess it depends which one you're in - mine (creative professionals) is looking for more integration with its separate offices so video conferencing is ideal.
I think it should be a BTO option whether you want video conferencing or not, Apple could be losing some customers if they stick an iSight camera in all their displays.
Or, they can bring back the stinkin' iSight and we can just mount them on our ACD's.
I guess if Apple gave everyone who bought the iPhone a 100 dollar store credit, why couldn't they do something similar with the MacPro? It's definitely not worth the money and they know that. They should at least drop the price a bit, or is that a sign of an update to come?
I would hate to have an iSight in my ACD because there would always be the confusion of whether that's the one being used, or whether the external one is being used. I would never use the internal one, as I love the freedom to move my external iSight around.
The distinction between Can and Choose not to probably sheds more light on this situation.
Perhaps Apple plans to use the 1600 MHz FSB Xeons, at http://www.pogolinux.com/ they offer only the versions for 1333 MHz front side bus...
Perhaps because Apple bought all of them?
This occured to me too.
I'm also wondering if perhaps obtaining 800MHz FB-DIMMS is also an issue. Of course some people will say Apple has just bought all them too.
I think I'm done speculating on this for the most part now, it's really a case of it's comming when it's comming at this point. There are a number of reasons why it might not be ready and trying to work out Apple's mentality, sales figures and supply issues is fruitless.
That is exactly correct.
We will probably never know why the new Mac Pro isn't out by now.
Could be a supply problem, faulty hardware problem, software problem, driver problem etc.
I've run out of guesses so I can do nothing but sit back and wait.
- Status