8-Core Mac Pros have arrived.

[brooker]

The update seems to have gotten lukewarm response overall and i can't blame consumers.

These things (CS3 & Quad Core MPs) are just that tad bit expensive. If i had the current/previous? 2.66 Dual Core machine, i wouldn't even bother.

With the exception of a DRASTIC change (like oh, say... switching to Intel), a new hardware release would likely never warrant replacing the previous generation outright. Often, not even then (my 1.5GHz PB is still chugging right along). It's not supposed to be a replacement for the previous generation. It is a step forward. Add together enough of those steps and an upgrade will be warranted. How many steps it takes will depend on the user and their application. So everyone maxing out their 1.25 Dual G5's might be good and ready to go after this beast. Anyone buying now will anticipate the hardware still being useful even after additional "updates" are released. Updates should not and cannot make the previous releases obsolete.

And once again... This option is not for consumers! They can be lukewarm as they like. Those who know they can use it are excited about this, and will be willing to pay.

 

[daneoni]

I still can't believe the Joe Publics - that have no real use for a computer this powerful - complaining about this. It's not like Apple have you over a barrel and you need this computer, chances are you don't. This is a high-end pro machine and should be treated as such

Think. We all thought that this would be the NAB announcement - and good on Apple for deploying it now, because look at the response it's gotten. So this clears the runway for something else at NAB; I don't believe that NAB will come and go without a hardware refresh of some sort. I'm looking at you, MacBook Pro...

Even non Joe Publics ARE complaining.

Don't dream for any MacBook Pro updates at NAB.

FCP & Aperture updates...display updates if lucky.

 

[AVID]

I dont know whether this has been mentioned, but i'm not at all surprised that the MPs have mde little progress, but rather since i-sight has been discontinued for so long (in australia anyway) they have not made their way into the cinema displays yet.

 

[Peace]

We will see Leopard at NAB

 

[sblasl]

My hearing is just fine, it sounds (no pun intended), that you had a lemon.

I HAD this drive too, and it was friggin noisy when seeking (which is most of the time). Just surfing the web and you'd hear a loud and annoying "click, click, click." Perhaps you need to have your hearing checked?

Also, this drive is old technology (not SATAII), so Apple will never offer them as an option. Side by side, these drives only slightly beat a 500GB Seagate with SATA II (we are talking about shaving a second or two at most) and they are similar in price.

 

[JackAxe]

One down, two to go...

Now I need;
Leopard for 64-Bit GUI support
Maya (Whatever version under OS X that will finally offer 64-Bit support.)

<]=)

 

[yadmonkey]

My hearing is just fine, it sounds (no pun intended), that you had a lemon.

Apparently these drives can run in two modes - quiet/slow or noisy/fast. Maybe you guys somehow ended up with one of each?

 

[Phillip K]

Even non Joe Publics ARE complaining.

Don't dream for any MacBook Pro updates at NAB.

FCP & Aperture updates...display updates if lucky.

Yea even Joe Prosumer is complaing but if he really needed this
machine he would have done like the pros and got a dual core
Mac Pro and dropped the two Quad cores into it months ago.

 

[kevinoneill]

I'm glad I got my MacPro back in Dec/Jan. I was going to wait for the Quad Core, but looking at the price to get the Quad, thank the good lord I didn't bother waiting.

I got the slower processor, with 2 Gig of ram. Put my money in the ram instead of the processor.

 

[Anonymous Freak]

Don't dream for any MacBook Pro updates at NAB.

FCP & Aperture updates...display updates if lucky.

No display updates. They just lowered the price. Apple doesn't do that right before a product update. MAYBE a new addition to the line, but just a different size (bigger-than-30 or maybe a return of a 17 on the low end, but I doubt it.)

As for MBP udpate? It's possible. Intel's new mobile platform is due "this month", with its 800 MHz front side bus and much faster processors. It is possible that Apple could be one of the launch customers. (Just as they were a launch customer for the original Core Duo.)

 

[Digital Skunk]

Why produce a machine that costs more & does the same? I don't care what's inside -- I care about performance, and if Apple can provide the same performance using slower, cheaper chips they should do it. The market lets Apple charge a premium for some good reasons, but this isn't one of them.

Its about adding expanibility at an affordable price, and introducing a machine that performs better than the 24" iMac and isn't as powerful as the MacPro. Not saying that they need this machine, just that it would be nice.

New 8-core Mac Pros available in Australia. 2-4 Days shipping

Not sure about Cinema Display price drops, don't know the old prices. New Australian prices below:

20" - AU$899
23" - AU$1399
30" - AU$2,798

I just wonder if i can convince the IT department to upgrade my old G4 to one of these... NOT LIKELY.

The prices here are

20" - $599
23" - $899
30" - $1799

Kinda nice. It brings the prices a tad very very small bit closer to the price of the competitors. But I will still get one of those 23" or 30" displays if I had a desk big enough to hold one.

 

[AidenShaw]

(Just as they were a launch customer for the original Core Duo.)

Apple was one of the last manufacturers to announce a Core Duo system, however.

 

[synth3tik]

At least they kept the dual cores. I was worried that my 2.66G Mac Pro was going to be obsolete.

 

[nuckinfutz]

Even non Joe Publics ARE complaining.

Don't dream for any MacBook Pro updates at NAB.

FCP & Aperture updates...display updates if lucky.

Aperture 2.0 likely isn't coming until after Leopard. Updates to Final Cut Studio are a given. Apple's not going to host an "by invite" event prior to NAB and now have big new updates.

I doubt the video guys and audio guys are complaining too much about the update. They get to right off the depreciation of their hardware.

 

[CptnJustc]

I imagine that people who need CPU power (renderfarms and scientific heavy calc stuff) would welcome the additional cores. Many people simply do not need 8-cores at this point. In a year there will probably be 8-core models at $2500-3000 making it more mainstream.

Oh, I'm sure. But in terms of the buyers' guide specifically, I think that "Buy Now!" headline should at least be heavily qualified.

 

[Digital Skunk]

I guess I will just shrug my shoulders and (re)order my quad 2.66 mac pro. I am surprised like so many here that after so many months there is no change in graphic card options at the very least. I guess Apple is squeezing all they can from the mac pro line in the hope that CS3 will help them catch up on sales. The 8-core is nice at 3GHz though, regardless of the price hike, though I am unable to justify a purchase for myself.
I canceled my order last month hoping that NAB would see the release of updated mac pros but there you go, that's what you get for trying to look into the future.
In a brief moment of anger I thought about a Dell - then cracked up laughing! To think I almost considered Vista as an alternative to OS X!

I think some people just expect too much from a company that in no way asks and moves around the industry like a PC company. Many people rely too much on their hopes and wishes and other people's speculation and rumors to base their buying strategies. If they actually ran a company they would understand that you get the machine that is right for you and that you can afford and forget about what will be coming out next. If I had the money for a MacPro last month I would have still gotten a Dual Core 2.66 and 4GB of ram. If I need the product I will get the product. If Apple doesn't have it then I will find it somewhere else. If I want Apple to make it and they don't then write them a letter or wait for them to get it then ****.

When it comes to brand loyalty you either have it or you don't. I am an Apple fanatic because of Mac OS X. Nothing else. I don't care about the case... give me the OS. The OS only comes on the Mac machines so I will buy the machines... and since the machines do look great and work great then I win both ways. For those that find it easy to get disappointed by Apple not granting their wishes and contemplate getting the weird world of windows, then I feel for them.

To each his/her own I guess.

 

[zap2]

8 Core is pretty freaking SWEET!!


But I've come to the realization I don't need it...I don't even need the Mac Pro. My Core Duo Mac Mini cuts though TV shows and Movies in handbrake pretty fast(lot faster then my iMac G5)...hopefully next Mac will be an iMac..maybe a lowend Mac Pro, as I have the screen and the extra few 100 would be worth it.


Guess it all comes down to the might dollar. Still nice to know come April 15 we might be seeing a more consumer update, along side a MacBook Pro.

 

[centauratlas]

blu-ray and xserve

I agree, it seems much less likely now that we'll see blu-ray drives in 2 weeks. So now the question is, buy an 8 core now and get an external blu-ray when available or wait more and do it with the blu-ray? This will be a nice machine.

Any bets on the xserve updates time frame? My bet is WWDC or summer with 10.5. Ditto for blu-ray on the Mac Pro's with some new feature updates. June 2007 will no doubt be fruitful for updates on the Mac Pro, xserve, and Mac Book Pro (new logic board to support > 3GB of RAM). Yeah, 2 more months to wait...

(The other odd thing is that the xserve has a 32GB option yet the Mac Pro doesn't yet...my bet is that the blu-ray etc update for the Mac Pro will include the more memory option in the BTO section.)

Where are the blu-ray drives? This update doesn't make sense. I'd like to think that they were waiting for NAB but got sick of all the complaints/dip in sales, so they rushed out the octo as a bto option but this doesn't make sense. There were other features ppl were expecting too, like new graphics cards. I doubt they will drop a new form factor with new features in a fortnight now. They were obviously just waiting to get clovertown to 3 Ghz so that their product line was differentiated enough.

 

[Rocketman]

We will see Leopard at NAB

But will you touch it?

Comments on other posters. Blue-Ray? I bet NAB. X-serve? I bet WWDC. MacBookPro15? I bet WWDC announce and demo, later delivery.

"I can't see. These googles don't help!"

 

[digitalbiker]

No need to "call him out". This update is not Stokley-Seaburg, as he clearly stated he is waiting for. If you want this Apple blessed update at 8x3ghz you could just have easily had a 8x2.66 ghz hack back in 11-07 (really some had it in 10-07). So if you were an 8-core "needer", the roughly 5 months of usage would have more than paid for the $4500 (less resale value) needed to implement that plan. Then you could have popped your old chips in and resold the MP 2x2.66 stock unit (with disclosed minor user caused internal "cosmetic damage"), and the upgrade chips, for around 70-80% of what you paid, just in tome for WWDC to roll around where some freakin surprise is likely. Or just buy a blessed system with a blessed warranty.

BTW I posted this fact to this site way back at the time referenced. So those who cared, had a need, and listened (I was not alone), made out big time for 5 months.

Rocketman

Rocketman,

Do you really think they will update the Mac Pro at WWDC?

It seems that this update was specifically released to keep users satisfied until the next major redesign, probably late fall 2007 with a 45nm chipset.

That's one reason I see this as a big disappointment.

It seems like Apple could have released a very similar machine back in Dec. 2006. But when that machine didn't show up, most people were expecting something better to make the wait worthwhile.

Now with this release, it makes me think that we are at least 6 months or more away from the real update to the Mac Pro line.

 

[freiheit]

Memory and other BTO options -- prices ridiculous

Newegg has a transcend 2GB stick for $320 so $640 for another 4GB. About the same price as apple but its 2 2GB sticks instead of 4 1GB sticks plus you end up with 5GB total.

Actually OWC has 2gigs of RAM for the Mac Pro at $239, $259 or $289 depending on the perceived quality and Apple-certifiedness. Apple are charging $300 to go from 1gig to 2gigs (so $300 for 1gig). OWC's price is MUCH better than Apple's. That's why I'm so disconcerted that Apple neither provided any new options (like a mid-range 7600/x1600 graphics card) nor reduced any of the prices on the MacPro with this announcement. Some of their build-to-order options are just ridiculously overpriced (add $129 to go from 250gig hard drive to 500gig hard drive -- NewEgg currently has Seagate 500gig hard drives for $145 and the 250's for $70 but Apple charges $129 for the second 250gigs).

Sure, 8-core Mac Pros are great if you've got the software to run on them (that is, software which not only performs better on 4 cores than on 2, which is fairly rare, but which also performs better on 8 cores than on 4, which is extremely rare) but nothing at all has changed on the entire rest of the line.

 

[RedTomato]

I predict a large octo-core price-cut within a couple of months. Buy now, you're paying for bleeding edge and top end bragging rights. Prices will come down soon.

 

[Rocketman]

Rocketman,

Do you really think they will update the Mac Pro at WWDC?

Now with this release, it makes me think that we are at least 6 months or more away from the real update to the Mac Pro line.

I think the new paradigm for the "MacPro" line is BTO. As such if a second motherboard is released it will be a big deal indeed. In the mean time I would expect to see incremental BTO updates like Blue-Ray, External PCI expansion, and others for pro markets (ie announced at NAB). The consumer stuff is out there. There are no droids here.

Now that there is a CS3 and a real platform to "play" it on, Apple needs a platform to "play" NAB stuff on. 4K capture. Final Cut Extreme editing of 4K, 2K, full HD in multiple streams, etc. Stuff for studios and TV stations.

Logic is in need of an emergency update and will likely get it at NAB. The market for third party boxes, I/O equipment and plug-ins is pretty strong. There is also a robost market for service bureaus and "talent pools".

As Apple starts to expand its enterprise focus within media and beyond, we will see increased emphasis on "solutions", mot merely the latest hardware box with the latest Intel chip, as Apple as it might be.

You may or may not care about that, likely not, but Apple does, their value-added customers do, and when Apple drops the cost to create content and broadcast it by 60-90% the outcomes will be noticed.

Rocketman

 

[freiheit]

Now with this release, it makes me think that we are at least 6 months or more away from the real update to the Mac Pro line.

Yeah, but the people who bought the G5 iSight iMac probably thought they had at least 6 months before the next revision and then the Core Duo iMacs came out 2-3 months later, so you never know.

 

[i_am_a_cow]

here is my order