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8-Core Mac Pros have arrived.

My PowerMac Quad G5 looks better and better with this octo update.
I am still have a solid machine 1.5 year later and I am very curious to see the tests with CS3 and figure how much faster this octo truly is.
 
Apple's pricing isn't that bad for a workstation class system...

The following "lower" end workstation system from Dell comes in at $6,401 while a similar Apple system with 3GHz Quad-Core comes in at $5,646. Note the Dell system only has 2.66 GHz Quad-Core Xeons (likely a temporary thing assuming Intel is making 3 GHz available now, so likely that aspect of the comparison will evaporate soon).

Dell System:
Code: 
Date	 	4/4/2007 1:25:59 PM Central Standard Time

	Catalog Number	 	5 Retail 555

	Catalog Number / Description	 	Product Code	 	SKU	 	Id

Dell Precision Workstation 490 Desktop - 32bit:
Quad Core Intel® Xeon® Processor X5355 2.66GHz, 2 X 4MB L2,1333	 	4D26Q	 	[222-7372]	 	1

Operating System:
Genuine Windows Vista™ Business, with Media	 	VB3E	 	[420-6643]	 	11

2nd Processor:
Quad Core Intel® Xeon® Processor X5355 2.66GHz, 2 X 4MB L2,1333	 	PR26Q	 	[311-6972]	 	2

Graphic Cards:
512MB PCIe x16 nVidia Quadro FX 4500, Dual DVI or Dual VGA or DVI + VGA	 	FX4500	 	[320-4765]	 	6

Memory:
1GB, DDR2 SDRAM FBD Memory, 533MHz, ECC (2 DIMMS)	 	1G2E	 	[311-5946]	 	3

Hard Drive Configuration:
C1 All SATA drives, Non-RAID, 1 or 2 drive total configuration	 	SATA12	 	[341-3425]	 	9

Boot Hard Drive:
250GB SATA 3.0Gb/s,7200 RPM NCQ Hard Drive with 8MB DataBurst Cache™	 	250ST	 	[341-3409]	 	8

CD-ROM, DVD, and Read-Write Devices:
48X/32X CD-RW/DVD Combo Drive w/Cyberlink Power DVD™ Vista Business	 	COMBOB	 	[313-4938]	 	16

Floppy Drive and Media Card Reader Options:
No Floppy Drive	 	NFD	 	[341-3429]	 	10

Monitors:
No Monitor	 	NMN	 	[320-3316]	 	5

Keyboard:
USB Entry Quietkey, No Hot Keys	 	U	 	[310-7949]	 	4

Mouse:
Dell USB 2-Button Mechanical Mouse with Scroll	 	ELD	 	[310-7959]	 	12

Sound Card and 1394:
1394a Controller Card	 	1394	 	[313-4172]	 	17

Speakers:
Internal Chassis Speaker,Dell	 	INTSPK	 	[313-4160]	 	18

Resource CD:
Resource DVD - contains Diagnostics and Drivers	 	RDVD	 	[310-8765]	 	21

Labels:
Windows Vista™ Premium	 	VPREM	 	[310-8642]	 	750

Hardware Support Services:
3 Year Economy Plan	 	PADB3YR	 	[970-0762][970-6330][981-8379][984-2797][984-2798]	 	29

	Installation Services:
No Onsite System Setup	 	NOINSTL	 	[900-9987]	 	32

Apple System:
Code: 
Two 3.0GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon
1GB (2 x 512MB)
250GB 7200-rpm Serial ATA 3Gb/s
NVIDIA Quadro FX 4500 512MB, Stereo 3D (2 x dual-link DVI)
One 16x SuperDrive
Apple Keyboard and Mighty Mouse - U.S. English
Mac OS X - U.S. English

Note I picked the Quadro FX 4500 because it was the only adapter that both Dell and Apple provide as an option. Also I think I missed the optical drive on the Dell side, to match what the Mac Pro ships with you have to add a ~30 more expensive drive to the Dell system.
 
Some people are never happy and will always find something to cry about. Who ever says the nvidia quadro FX 4500 is not a suffcient GPU is smoking crack IMO. This is a great upgrade for the Mac Pro! The new GPU's and Blu-Ray will come. You know you can upgrade both the drives and the GPU, its this neat option you get when you buy a tower.
 
wildmac said:
What exactly are you looking for in a video card?...

The ATI Radeon X1900 XT 512MB (2 x dual-link DVI) seems to be all that anyone would need unless you are doing video editing..

And I did a search at some vendors, and there aren't many other cards that have 512MB, dual-DVI and OSX drivers.

If anything Apple needs to get more 3rd party stuff available.
Click to expand...

The add-on cards seem fine but the base card should be better.
 
rog said:
Would be a nice machine at $2999. It is insane what they are charging for the MacPros. Been out 8 months without a price cut. $1999 for a 2Ghz machine that is only slighlty faster than the 2Ghz G5 from 4 years ago. No thanks.
Click to expand...

Very few of the parts Apple uses have come down in price since the Mac Pro came out... how again is Apple going to drop the prices? Also why should they drop prices when in general the Mac Pro is at a better price point then other major vendors with workstation class system?
 
p0intblank said:
Woohoo! Any Apple update is a good thing. :) 8 cores is insane... I probably can't even take advantage of 4. :eek:
Click to expand...

hahaha this is great new for ppl that actually use up their comps to make alife out if it, me myself,, i hav a core 2 duo MB and,, im sure i can t even use up half a core with the stuff i do lol
 
dante@sisna.com said:
What do you use to check your power consumption? Educate me please.
Click to expand...

A "digital multi meter" is a common instrument anyone who works on electronics would have. They make consummer level meters too where you simply plug in the device under test and it reads out the power use.

But if all you own is a simple $10 volt meter you can put a low ohm resister in series with the device and measure the AC voltage across the resister and use Ohm's law to find the current.

If the answer is 200W then if power costs $0.25 per KWH then the MP costs $0.25 every five hours of use. or over $1.20 per day if left on 24x7 that's $36 per month in electric power. OK, $0.25 is a worst case rate. Half that is more common. So assume it's only $20 per month to run an 8 core MP. You can see why Apple is using notebook components in the consumer level machines.
 
First of all - this is not the second edition of the Mac Pro many have been waiting for (not me :) ) There are no changes beside that they popp in the CPUs that have been available now for quite some time. This has been done by the anandtech guys now quite a while ago and I guess anybody with basic knowledge can do it.

Second - only in the US ?

Overall - disappointed.
 
...that was so outta the blue... and it's not even Tuesday! No one really was expecting this update till NAB! Wow! Man that thing has got to really SCREEEEEAAAMM! (if you look at my post in 5 years from now you'll laugh at that comment ;) lol

...okay, now update the MacBook Pro! :)
 
Howmanoid said:
This is awesome news! Now let's see some smoking software that takes advantage of all this power!!
Apple's just leaving WinTel in the dust!
Click to expand...

Well, I got my Wintel octo-core the week of 25 December.

That gives me a three month lead on any Apple machine - it'll be a while before I'll see an octo Mac in my rear view mirror ;)
 
BrianMR said:
This is the argument against Apple moving to Intel chips. When it was a totally different chip architecture you couldn't make these kinds of comparisons to Alienware, Asus, or Dell.

I for one say you still can't, not until you can run OS X on that new Alienware machine.
Click to expand...
No. But for an apples-to-Apple comparison, how about this: there's no reason in hardware why if you couldn't take a current Mac Pro quad core, pop out the Woodcrests, and pop in a pair of Clovertowns.

So why should the upgrade price be higher for Apple to do it for us (given their wholesale price advantage for acquiring their processors) than for us to go to the local shop and buy the replacement CPUs ourselves?

But then again, I still cringe when I read about the masses complaining about how the Core 2 Duo Mac Mini doesn't exist yet. They most definitely do exist. It's just that Apple sells them in a "some (dis)assembly required" state.
 
goosnarrggh said:
So why should the upgrade price be higher for Apple to do it for us (given their wholesale price advantage for acquiring their processors) than for us to go to the local shop and buy the replacement CPUs ourselves?
Click to expand...
Do you happen to know the retail price for a 3 Ghz Quad-Core Xeon? (assuming Apple isn't over-clocking)
 
just read through the entire thread so far . . . overall, I'm excited about the "upgrade." I think because this is a niche high end workstation, the options are better leaving it up to the buyer on whether to upgrade the processors or not. Creating an entire new machine to replace the current quad's isn't smart marketing—it would push too many design pro's who aren't 3D modelers but need something more than an iMac, out of the market and their price range. I'm glad Apple waited for a 3ghz core in the newest quad chips.

What hasn't been discussed is: bus speed. I personally am going to wait until Penryn or better yet, Nehalem.

I believe by Penryn, Apple will make some major updates: bus architecture, RAM speed, HD/Blue Ray. Honestly, between software, the OS and the bus, the true nature of this 8-core beast isn't fully realized, even by apps maxing out 100% of the processors.

Another point: it would be smart of Apple to add an option to just purchase the newest set of quad chips since they match the pins of the older MacPros, then people can upgrade their machine this way (since nothing else has changed between the quad and 'octo' besides the processor anyway, right?)

Nehalem really interests me because from what I have read, the entire architecture will change on these chips. Really, nothing is different from a P4, Pentium D, Core duo, Core 2 duo, Core 2 duo Extreme, Woodcrest & Clovertown except cores, cache and transistor count and size (yes, that makes a large difference mind you and increased efficiency), but the Nehalem processor family will change the architecture completely.

Right now, the cores, even though they are on the same die, act more like separate processors in close proximity of each other rather than 2 or more 'brains' working together as an efficient team.

For me, Nehalem may be the time when I upgrade my dual G5.
 
So who here still thinks Apple made a horrid mistake by switching to Intel? I ask this because there are A LOT of fanbois out there eating their words. (Those words being DOOMED, JOBS IS AN IDIOT, MORE DOOMED, and WE ARE DOOMED.) I HIGHLY doubt we would be seeing quad core G5's right now. At least not outside of a lab that has the entire chassis bathed in liquid Oxygen. :p

shawnce said:
Do you happen to know the retail price for a 3 Ghz Quad-Core Xeon? (assuming Apple isn't over-clocking)
Click to expand...

Probably somewhere in a left kidney range. :p
 
Updates are nice, but this is mediocre at best.

As best as I can tell the biggest advantage of moving to intel has been the notebook market, the speed gains for pro users have been modest- and very expensive.

It makes no sense that Mac's should inherit the shorter life cycle of PC's by moving to intel processors but not gain the graphical power by keeping up with the latest nvidia & ATi cards. The Mac Pro is hamstrung by it's lack of graphics options!

:confused:
 
wildmac said:
The ATI Radeon X1900 XT 512MB (2 x dual-link DVI) seems to be all that anyone would need unless you are doing video editing..
Click to expand...
Whine, whine, whine, whine, whine...

All you need is the standard GeForce 7300 GT for "video editing". The ATI Radeon X1900 XT 512MB is a nice to have for the extra memory.
 
Macrumors said:


Apple has released the long-anticipated 8-core Mac Pro. The update keeps current configurations but adds a top of the line 8-core 3 GHz model for $1498 additional beyond the base 2.66 Quad-core model.



Interestingly, at the current time the model is only available in the US and Canada, although this may simply reflect a lag time in Apple updating localized versions of Apple's website.

The new model is available for shipping in 3-5 business days for basic configurations from the US Apple Store.
Click to expand...

Sorry if I missed this but the UK store has a page for the 8-core

http://www.apple.com/uk/macpro/
 
goosnarrggh said:
No. But for an apples-to-Apple comparison, how about this: there's no reason in hardware why if you couldn't take a current Mac Pro quad core, pop out the Woodcrests, and pop in a pair of Clovertowns.

So why should the upgrade price be higher for Apple to do it for us (given their wholesale price advantage for acquiring their processors) than for us to go to the local shop and buy the replacement CPUs ourselves?
Click to expand...

Because Apple are a business, thats all there is too it.
 
artpease said:
Whine, whine, whine, whine, whine...

All you need is the standard GeForce 7300 GT for "video editing". The ATI Radeon X1900 XT 512MB is a nice to have for the extra memory.
Click to expand...

Most people seem to want a better GPU for gaming, you never see people clamoring for other quadro cards which offer way better performance than any consumer card for most serious non-gaming applications. Sadly for them Apple don't seem to care about gamers, certainly not as far as the Pro is concerned.
 
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