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Apple Announces Penryn Mac Pros and Xserve
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Man, I sure hope you are not really a "video professional" because I would have thought pros were smarter than the average bear until now.
This is just an asinine statement. It's not even worth taking the time to detail exactly how incredibly stupid it is to say that.
And here it all begins to make sense. you are not even concerned about the MacPro design, you seem to be just concerned about how the case looks.
Here's a tip, you can pick up MacPro or G5 cases for almost nothing from a surplus company. Buy a few MacMinis and stick one inside each case and you have an array of cool looking machines to impress your clients. It won't do much besides look good, but that seems to be what you want.
You didn't answer the question.
What do you want that this didn't deliver? What PC is out there that has features not in this box, and what are those features?
The only real omission I've seen listed here is bluray, and that's just because it hasn't clearly won the format war yet. And now that warners announced their support just days ago, the tide is finally turning once and for all. Bluray will come soon enough, and most people will probably just buy a third party unit because it will be cheaper.
Now that the apple store is back up, we see that the cheapest mac pro is the quad core at $2299. That's the exact same price as the previous cheapest, is it not?
Sure, the "base" model went up, but for that price you now get eight cores instead of four. The cost of an octo went down what, $700? That's a big boost, and I think it's something to get excited about.
And specifically what would that be?
Nvidia and AMD's VC's have been working under EFI for a while now. It was OS X that didn't see the cards. You know that whole driver thing that Apple people like to make fun of Windows people over...
Finally!
Ive been waiting a year for the Mac Pro processor/video card refresh. However, I am bumbed that the 3.2GHz one is so expensive ($4399). I was hoping that the price would have stayed at $3299. I forgot that these are 8 cores. The old 3.0GHz 8 core machine was $3999, so I guess $400 for the new architecture? Still, a little rich for my blood, and my wallet. Looks like Ill have to settle for the 2.8 or the 3.0.
I am thrilled that the case design stayed the same. I love it and I am glad to see it stayed. I'm thrilled too that this will be shipping with the new keyboard. I can put my $50 gift certificate that I got for Christmas towards something else.
Ive been waiting a year for the Mac Pro processor/video card refresh. However, I am bumbed that the 3.2GHz one is so expensive ($4399). I was hoping that the price would have stayed at $3299. I forgot that these are 8 cores. The old 3.0GHz 8 core machine was $3999, so I guess $400 for the new architecture? Still, a little rich for my blood, and my wallet. Looks like Ill have to settle for the 2.8 or the 3.0.
I am thrilled that the case design stayed the same. I love it and I am glad to see it stayed. I'm thrilled too that this will be shipping with the new keyboard. I can put my $50 gift certificate that I got for Christmas towards something else.
Don't get me wrong, I understand the price increase and I like they added a decent video card for once (I speak of the 8800GT) but doesn't seem odd that now there is a bigger gap in between the iMac and the Mac Pro???
ITT we get angry because game developers write more games for PC than they do for Mac.
Seriously, don't be angry at me. It wasn't MY decision.
What are you talking about? My point is, value and worth are totally subjective. I can't understand why people spend $5 to drive a Kia. What does that mean? Nothing.
Ok thanks? I'm still not entirely sure why you even responded to my post in the first place.
I like the new system it offers a lot of value. I have 3 quibbles with it however.
1. The graphics card in the machine is of a very old low-end variety. In my opinion the 8800GT should be the standard option at the systems price point.
2. HD Optical Drives. It has a second drive bay and that should be utilised better by offering a Bluray or HD-DVD reader/burner as a BTO option. I know it can be "Added in later" but honestly any part of the system can be added in later including the Processors and RAM. It's just nice to have them do it for you especially if your willing to pay them for it.
3. Drive space, ever since the original G5 was released with 2 drive bays I've always felt the Mac Pro being the size that it is should ship with a minimum of 4 drive bays and an optimum 6. The Intel systems brought about the 4 drive bays and although that is good it's not great and I really think a system of this class should have the capability of 6 internal drive bays. Make the system taller by a few inches or reshuffle the wasted bottom-space just fit in some more drive bays!
I like the Case I love the design as I always have since way back when the first G5 introduced it. The new Harpertown processors are monsters and I like how much RAM the system can take. It's hard not to buy the new Mac Pro but I'll stick with what I got until they improve on some of the points above.
My ideal Mac Pro would have the following specifications:
2x SATA Optical Drive bays
6 to 8 3.5" Hard Disk Drive bays (SATA wired)
4xPCIe connectors (Atleast 2 should be x16 PCIe 2.0 or higher)
2x LGA771 Xeon sockets with 1600FSB support
2x1000T-Base Ethernet connectors with Jumbo frame support
Around that core I would like 2x2.8GHz Quad Xeons, 2x8800GT (To drive 3 of my Monitors) 8GB of DDR2 ECC FB-DIMM RAM 2x4x1TB Hard Disks (RAID 0+1 or 5 depending what I need more total reliability or speed). That to me would be great.
As it stands for most of this stuff I'd need to modify the case of the Mac Pro or get a NAS for the storage and I don't even know if the Mac Pro will power 2x8800GT I'm guessing it doesn't as they do not offer that BTO option only the x1600's.. Guess I'm stuck with my Windows machines that I build.
1. The graphics card in the machine is of a very old low-end variety. In my opinion the 8800GT should be the standard option at the systems price point.
2. HD Optical Drives. It has a second drive bay and that should be utilised better by offering a Bluray or HD-DVD reader/burner as a BTO option. I know it can be "Added in later" but honestly any part of the system can be added in later including the Processors and RAM. It's just nice to have them do it for you especially if your willing to pay them for it.
3. Drive space, ever since the original G5 was released with 2 drive bays I've always felt the Mac Pro being the size that it is should ship with a minimum of 4 drive bays and an optimum 6. The Intel systems brought about the 4 drive bays and although that is good it's not great and I really think a system of this class should have the capability of 6 internal drive bays. Make the system taller by a few inches or reshuffle the wasted bottom-space just fit in some more drive bays!
I like the Case I love the design as I always have since way back when the first G5 introduced it. The new Harpertown processors are monsters and I like how much RAM the system can take. It's hard not to buy the new Mac Pro but I'll stick with what I got until they improve on some of the points above.
My ideal Mac Pro would have the following specifications:
2x SATA Optical Drive bays
6 to 8 3.5" Hard Disk Drive bays (SATA wired)
4xPCIe connectors (Atleast 2 should be x16 PCIe 2.0 or higher)
2x LGA771 Xeon sockets with 1600FSB support
2x1000T-Base Ethernet connectors with Jumbo frame support
Around that core I would like 2x2.8GHz Quad Xeons, 2x8800GT (To drive 3 of my Monitors) 8GB of DDR2 ECC FB-DIMM RAM 2x4x1TB Hard Disks (RAID 0+1 or 5 depending what I need more total reliability or speed). That to me would be great.
As it stands for most of this stuff I'd need to modify the case of the Mac Pro or get a NAS for the storage and I don't even know if the Mac Pro will power 2x8800GT I'm guessing it doesn't as they do not offer that BTO option only the x1600's.. Guess I'm stuck with my Windows machines that I build.
dunno if anyone else responded to this, but it's a well known fact that Apple is in the BDA, plus for any kind of computer work Blu-Ray is the clear winner purely because of increased storage = more room for backups, larger video projects, etc. The only reason why Apple would choose an HD-DVD drive is if they were deciding on one for the iMac.
The value of the 1st Mac Pro's just went to ****, as does on every release of a new computer.
I'm no longer the king of the hill.
Sweet upgrade though, they actually included the 8800, it's a 200 dollar upgrade.
$9k to upgrade to 32 gigs of ram, ouch.
I'm no longer the king of the hill.
Sweet upgrade though, they actually included the 8800, it's a 200 dollar upgrade.
$9k to upgrade to 32 gigs of ram, ouch.
Everyone else:
Has Apple ever released stuff like this a week before Macworld? What does this mean for the Keynote? Are they leaving more time for more major important announcements?
I think it was simply a matter of this being a relatively minor update.
Has Apple ever released stuff like this a week before Macworld? What does this mean for the Keynote? Are they leaving more time for more major important announcements?
I think it was simply a matter of this being a relatively minor update.
This is the German Store:
The direct link works:
http://store.apple.com/Apple/WebObjects/germanstore.woa/wa/
OMG! What a bunch of ungrateful little bastards!
Am I the only one that is thrilled with the new Mac Pro!
Sure BluRay would have been nice, but come on, give me a break. You know it's going to be a BTO, and it will be twice the price as going 3rd party.
Am I the only one that is thrilled with the new Mac Pro!
Sure BluRay would have been nice, but come on, give me a break. You know it's going to be a BTO, and it will be twice the price as going 3rd party.
SAS would be a better option than SATA (faster drives). 2 8800GT's should work, Although I'll admit they probably pull more power than 2 2600's. With everything else that is in the system I am not sure a 1kW PSU is enough.I like the new system it offers a lot of value. I have 3 quibbles with it however.
1. The graphics card in the machine is of a very old low-end variety. In my opinion the 8800GT should be the standard option at the systems price point.
2. HD Optical Drives. It has a second drive bay and that should be utilised better by offering a Bluray or HD-DVD reader/burner as a BTO option. I know it can be "Added in later" but honestly any part of the system can be added in later including the Processors and RAM. It's just nice to have them do it for you especially if your willing to pay them for it.
3. Drive space, ever since the original G5 was released with 2 drive bays I've always felt the Mac Pro being the size that it is should ship with a minimum of 4 drive bays and an optimum 6. The Intel systems brought about the 4 drive bays and although that is good it's not great and I really think a system of this class should have the capability of 6 internal drive bays. Make the system taller by a few inches or reshuffle the wasted bottom-space just fit in some more drive bays!
I like the Case I love the design as I always have since way back when the first G5 introduced it. The new Harpertown processors are monsters and I like how much RAM the system can take. It's hard not to buy the new Mac Pro but I'll stick with what I got until they improve on some of the points above.
My ideal Mac Pro would have the following specifications:
2x SATA Optical Drive bays
6 to 8 3.5" Hard Disk Drive bays (SATA wired)
4xPCIe connectors (Atleast 2 should be x16 PCIe 2.0 or higher)
2x LGA771 Xeon sockets with 1600FSB support
2x1000T-Base Ethernet connectors with Jumbo frame support
Around that core I would like 2x2.8GHz Quad Xeons, 2x8800GT (To drive 3 of my Monitors) 8GB of DDR2 ECC FB-DIMM RAM 2x4x1TB Hard Disks (RAID 0+1 or 5 depending what I need more total reliability or speed). That to me would be great.
As it stands for most of this stuff I'd need to modify the case of the Mac Pro or get a NAS for the storage and I don't even know if the Mac Pro will power 2x8800GT I'm guessing it doesn't as they do not offer that BTO option only the x1600's.. Guess I'm stuck with my Windows machines that I build.
Bluetooth?
Did anyone noticed that there is no bluetooth option? Am I missing something? I use BT a lot to connect my cell phone to my mac.
Did anyone noticed that there is no bluetooth option? Am I missing something? I use BT a lot to connect my cell phone to my mac.
Good point. Maybe now that there is a bigger gap, maybe they'll plug the hole on the 14th?!
Last time Apple did this using the same board design with the G5, they left off the socket completely on the single CPU machines.
Smart move by Apple, getting the pro machines out of the way before the big keynote.
That eliminates one/2 updates to talk about.
Now focus shifts to ultra-portable touch screen laptop and whatever Steve is hiding under his sleeve.
The fact that the Mac Pro now supports SAS drives right out of the box is a massive plus point. Add in the fact that they now have quad core CPUs, an Nvidia 8800 GT or 5600 Quadro option for graphics and you have an incredibly powerful workstation.
I, for one, am just hoping that Apple release the 8800 GT for the old Mac Pros. If not I'll hope that someone figures out how to flash a PC 8800 GT to the Mac firmware promptly.
I, for one, am just hoping that Apple release the 8800 GT for the old Mac Pros. If not I'll hope that someone figures out how to flash a PC 8800 GT to the Mac firmware promptly.
The nVidia Quadro FX 5600 is the most powerful professional video card nVidia makes. They are used to both create and edit films, so video editors and CG animators will be pleased with it.
I think that says more about the shallowness of your clients. If they're technically competent enough to understand the hardware necessary to produce the content they want, then they would care only that you have it on-site and not how it's packaged.
Most production professionals use equipment from companies like HP, Sun, IBM and Dell and none of that is particularly "fresh" in terms of design. But it is fresh in performance and capability and since it is the content they produce that pays their salaries, they seem to be okay with a bit of staleness.
RAM and boards
It seems quite obvious that AAPL is not interested in selling lots of RAM. They have to offer it as they have to offer different graphic cards as they pretend having a "normal store". But offering this kind of products at actual market prices would force them to fill their warehouse with products that loose value every day - that does not make sense for a producer. It's not their 'unique selling position'.
The real message you can read in Apple's price list is: Buy our computer here at our prices and buy the rest at the next discount store.
It seems quite obvious that AAPL is not interested in selling lots of RAM. They have to offer it as they have to offer different graphic cards as they pretend having a "normal store". But offering this kind of products at actual market prices would force them to fill their warehouse with products that loose value every day - that does not make sense for a producer. It's not their 'unique selling position'
.The real message you can read in Apple's price list is: Buy our computer here at our
prices and buy the rest at the next discount store.
SAS drives are faster however I need storage over read/write performance.
If I was going with SAS I'd bottle out around 300-350GB per drive. Giving me only around 2.8TB total (8x350GB) Wheres I could fit in 8TB of storage (4TB usable 4TB backup) if I was dealing with a tower that had 8 drive bays all SATA.
Also about the 8800GT thing I think they need a separate PCIe 6-Pin Power connector each. Perhaps the Mac Pro only has 1 of those? I guess we wont know until someone gets one and guts it to check. 1000-Watt would be enough for that system with 2x8800GT though.