"the upgradeability and expandability of the Mac Pro should not be overlooked"
Not so fast mister....
We don't know how upgradable the new Mac Pro will be. Apple has flubbed this quite often in the past, even for Mac Pro models.
I remember trying to buy dual 30" cinema displays for my 3,1. I couldn't because the video card upgrade I needed was no longer available. Apple stopped selling it four months after the 4,1 was released. This was a blatant example of forced obsolesce.
Apple has a very bad track record of forced obsolesce. I wouldn't be surprised if the 7,1 was forced into obsolesce in 18 months if an mp 8,1 "update" appears in a year or so.
I believe this will happen because the 7,1 will fail due to excessive base price. Apple will need to develop a "cost reduced" mac pro - this of course will happen as upgraded Intel CPUs will arrive (or Intel will die from AMD competition), and new video tech. AMD will also put price pressure on Intel. Intel can't survive by selling only lower power higher priced CPUs for Mac Pros.
EDIT + insert line: see post directly ^^^^ above...
3,1 - decent machine even though it was the last "Front side Bus" architecture MP. But Apple had to kill it = FAIL.
[45],1 - reasonable comprise (e.g. single, dual processor tray options) = successful version.
6,1 - Designed into "thermal corner" = fail (as predicted on MR within a year after release, then admitted by Apple C-levels 5 years later).
7,1 - Designed into "Price Point" corner = fail.
8,1 - compromise?? maybe?? but maybe too late to matter.
