2011 Mac Pro configurations

[ZMacintosh]

I'm curious if there is any necessity for the non-server mac Pro to even need or have the use of the Xeon processors?
Why not use the same types of CPUs in the i7 iMacs? 2600K Sandy Bridge would be pretty slick actually. even if it was a single chip-unit instead of Dual chips.
perhaps more of customizable/upgradable chipsets in the future instead of workstation class processors and more enthusiast type sets.
save the Xeons for perhaps the servers

I'm not sure if thatd have any correlation to the types of additional hardware that could be used but it may make it for a more customizable system in the future if more cpus were based off the type used in the new sandybridge.

 

[Umbongo]

There is no benefit for the customer in Apple using non-Xeon processors. You lose some virtualization features and the ability to use ECC memory.

The price wouldn't change as Xeon versions of any suitable consumer processor and the aditional cost for ECC over non-ECC aren't big enough to change retail pricing. The current Mac Pro is $2,499 because Apple wanted it to be that price, if they'd used Core i7 processors (no price difference) and non-ECC (like $30 at most per unit in cost to Apple) it would still have been $2,499.