Apple Introduces New Mac Pro with Nehalem Xeon Processors

louden said:
I think this is a pretty good way to look at the numbers. Even if there is an investment in the boards and case redesign, some marketing muck at Apple should take a look at a Laffer curve and figure out how to better maximize revenue and profit on these things... Maybe supply is short right now and they don't care about demand.
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I would think supply is short, they aren't released and production hasn't been official "ramped" to my knowledge. Maybe Apple did get really good prices on previous processors, or maybe they don't think the prices will put any one off and they can charge them. I'm sure they do a lot of market research. But we know Apple don't have a history of lowering prices.

My view is that these machines are powerful tools that feature as part of a solution together with OS X and the applications that can perform better on this hardware. I do not think in a business enviroment $3-4,000 is a lot to spend on such a tool, especially in a field of creation.

However they are not "value for money" as far as components are concerned like previous versions were and they aren't cheap for those who want a powerful system to use for amateur projects, as many are doing these days. So they do the job, but they aren't the best choice from a purely hardware perspective.
 
guzhogi said:
You think $3300 to go over 8 GBs is bad? I remember the days when RAM was over $1/MB (yes, MEGAbyte). If you want a deal, go to dealram.com
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sheesh, thats still way cheap. my first mac was 7600 and a 32meg rail was up around a thousand bucks. if I recall. it was a big buyting opportunity when they finally 'dropped;' to $500 a piece!
 
There seems to be a lot of pricing issues here. So, on list prices, Apple seems to be charging over 2.5x markup on the difference to the top of the line. I'm not sure how surprising that really is.

Probably, that top of the line is in constrained supply. If you weren't paying that premium, but had to wait 16 weeks, everyone would be bitching about that.
 
Just bought MAC PRO

After following and waiting for the arrival of the new mac pro and beeing quite happy that it arrived 3 weeks before scheduled, I decided to grab it.

So here it is, I have just bought a mac pro and this is the configuration I choosed to buy:

Two 2.66GHz Quad-Core Intel Xe
16GB (8x2GB)
ATI Radeon HD 4870 512MB
1TB 7200-rpm Serial ATA 3Gb/s
One 18x SuperDrive
Apple Mighty Mouse
APPLE KEYBD/USERS GUIDE-ITA.
Country Kit Mac Pro-INT

The the price is around 5000€ and shipping should be around 3 weeks, but I really hope it will arrive before.

I'm a director/graphic editor. I will mostly use it for heavy photoshop, after effect and final cut jobs.

As soon as it will arrive I will let everyone know the performances charts.

Flavio Parenti
 
I was feeling bad that my 2008 8-core Mac Pro just went obsolete, but after looking at the new ones I have to say "Woa! Those are expensive!"

You're not getting 8 cores for under $3300! Suddenly, I still feel good about my Mac Pro.
 
Flavioparentiq said:
After following and waiting for the arrival of the new mac pro and beeing quite happy that it arrived 3 weeks before scheduled, I decided to grab it.

So here it is, I have just bought a mac pro and this is the configuration I choosed to buy:

Two 2.66GHz Quad-Core Intel Xe
16GB (8x2GB)
ATI Radeon HD 4870 512MB
1TB 7200-rpm Serial ATA 3Gb/s
One 18x SuperDrive
Apple Mighty Mouse
APPLE KEYBD/USERS GUIDE-ITA.
Country Kit Mac Pro-INT

The the price is around 5000€ and shipping should be around 3 weeks, but I really hope it will arrive before.

I'm a director/graphic editor. I will mostly use it for heavy photoshop, after effect and final cut jobs.

As soon as it will arrive I will let everyone know the performances charts.

Flavio Parenti
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You bought HOW MUCH RAM from Apple???? :O
 
I just wanted to reiterate my beef with this announcement.

The Mac Pro no longer has a high-end GPU option. ATI has lowered the price of the 512MB HD4870 to $149. It's a mid-range GPU. The GT120 is a rebranded 9500GT which was a rebranded 8600GT. It retails for about $60 now. What's more Apple is charging $200 to upgrade from the GT120 to HD4870. The entire HD4870 is only worth $150 so Apple is making $100+ pure profit from a $150 GPU by charging the equivalent of $260 for it.
 
BlizzardBomb said:
Why isn't Apple shoving down my throat that this is hyper-threaded so the eight-core model allows 16 threads to run. That's the one piece of information I would be willing for Apple to shove down my throat on the Mac Pro store page. Instead you have to click "Learn More".
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I don't understand it at all.

This morning I was underwhelmed and disappointed when I just read the specs on the store page. However, when I read a bit more and did some research I have to admit I'm more than pleased. Eight cores for $300 bucks LESS than what I paid in 2008 for my 8-core Mac Pro and a ridiculously powerful 16 Core Mac Pro.

Once the independent benchmarks start showing up it will all be clear what this beast has to offer but, Apple should update the information on the site and put these Core specs front and center just the same.
 
AtariKee said:
Just like it will be tomorrow, next year, and the next ten years. Get over it. YOU WILL NOT GET A CHEAP HEADLESS MAC. Buy a PC if you want cheap junk.
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Basically. Do I think there should be a cheap headless Mac? Absolutely. I just don't think it'll ever happen.
 
brisbaneguy29 said:
You took the words out of my mouth. We will be getting 2, to replace an iMac G5 and a Quad G5. The cost spread over the next 3 years is negligible when I consider that 2 of these might cost me AUD$15,000 and they will produce in excess of AUD$600,000 in income. I still think that is a f@#king great return on my investment.
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I have to agree with this. Apple's target for the MP is business purchases for use by highly skilled creative professionals. These professionals produce revenue for their businesses. A hackintosh is not an option in this type of business environment. Most of these professionals have been using macs for years, this is just a simple upgrade decision at the business level for most of the purchasers.
 
BenRoethig said:
The Xeon 3500 and the i7 are the same chip.
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So the 5500 in the 8cores are even better/faster/sexier then the 3500? That explains the increase in price.

As I see it, and I admit reading barefeats on this one, I get more power for the same price. I bought an entry-level 8 core 2008 for the same price as an entry level 4-core, but now it is actually much and much faster, with more ram and more HD.

That counts as a pricedrop for me. It's still very expensive, but I guess that if you see all the specs, then you have to admit that the nehalems are a good upgrade. I've been waiting for this.

I will wait for some real world benchmarks (do you know other sites that does good benchmarks? Other then barefeats?) before I make my comments, but from what I have read these MP's look like more power for less money. But if you're a core-head, then off course you don't see it that way.

I use it for Logic, Motion, Final cut, word and Photoshop (not mentioning iTunes and so on), I'm not a full pro (I make small cash with this), but I'm really happy to open all these apps and not even notice any speeddrops. I tried it on a iMac and although it was possible, I did notice the speeddifferences. I could do it on a 2008 4-cores, so I can only imagine that rendering, opening plugins, filters and the likes will be much smoother now.

Thanks Apple. More power for the same price.
 
AtariKee said:
Just like it will be tomorrow, next year, and the next ten years. Get over it. YOU WILL NOT GET A CHEAP HEADLESS MAC. Buy a PC if you want cheap junk.
Click to expand...

and if you want that exact same junk to be more expensive and in a more shiny box Apple will always be there for you

edit: oh and i'm sure the 3d professional artists/ CAD engineers looking forward to upgraded professional 3d cards might have a word with you since i'm sure they aren't happy about a mid range value card like the 4870 being the top card
 
J the Ninja said:
You bought HOW MUCH RAM from Apple???? :O
Click to expand...

Is it my imagination, or do the Apple prices for RAM seem a bit more reasonable than they used to be? To go from 6GB to 16GB costs $500. Considering that you'd have to throw away the 6x1GB modules to populate it with 16GB from a third party vendor, $500 doesn't seem that bad (compared to the outrageous prices they used to charge).

Anyone know how much third party RAM will cost for these new models?
 
8 vs 4 cores Nehalem vs top of the range Xeon

Hi Guys,

looking at the new models for roughly £2500 you can get either:

New model 2.9 GHZ 4 Cores (+ 8 gig + ATI graphics)

or

New Model 2.26 GHZ 8 Cores (standard config)

or

Old Model 3.2 GHZ 8 core (from refurbished - standard config)

Can I have some feedback on what you think would be the best purchase. I'm a music producer / composer using Logic and lots of sofware instruments and disc / RAM streaming samples?
 
X38 said:
So whatever happened to getting past the 3 GHz barrier anyway? I thought that was the big reason everyone was so excited about the Intel switch? But here we are still topped out at 3 GHz and only if you choose the gazillion dollar options. And just barely catching up with where Altivec was several years ago.
In the meantime, POWER 6 is at 5 GHz now and well on its way to 6.
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Yeah. Remember apples PPC 'toasting' intel processors? That even while the ppc had a way slower clock value they really were faster.

Now its the other way 'round. Whats the new excuse? :D
 
Oh and ehm ... a word to all those, I get more power for less money with dell and HP and stuff like that ... I have to admit, I was furious a few months ago and i said the same.
But then I was able to work on some off those things. Fast i7's, loads of RAM, anything you want. Still costs 2400 euro (the 4-core costs 2299).

But then you have to work with windows ... ouch ... good luck with the switch guys. Been there, done that, ran back as hell to Mackintoys.
 
drsmithy said:
OS X's locking is not as fine-grained, which leads to relatively poor scalability. They've been making steady improvements, but even as recently as Tiger were still getting spanked by Linux. Here are some numbers that demonstrate it.

Basically, it *is* a factor of time. Multiprocessor systems have been around since the '60s, so the low-level problems are well known and understood. However, actually implementing all the theory to deliver excellent scalability takes time, both for the implementation itself, and for the vast amount of QA that must be done to avoid breaking badly-written software. One also needs to consider that SMP hardware has been much more wideavailable in the PC world, and for longer. That is why "how long they've been in the game" is an extremely relevant factor.
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OK, now I understand what you are saying; you were right.

I was actually pretty shocked by those benchmarks you linked to. I guess the question now is how much this will have improved by the time Snow Leopard comes around.
 
Anyone else think it's ridiculous that you can spec up a Mac Pro to $15,000 and still have to pay $50 for a wifi card?
 
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