Mac Pro Reviews and Video

[MacRumors]

As the Mac Pro starts arriving in the hands of users, more reviews are starting to emerge about the latest Apple tower.

• Mac Pro Review - Macintouch
• Mac Pro Review - Arstechnica
• Video of Mac Pro - Macworld
• Mac Pro Benchmarks - Macworld

From the Benchmarks article:

The standard configuration of the Mac Pro outperforms its PowerPC-based G5 predecessors by a wide margin, helping to justify Apple’s 2005 decision to switch to processors from Intel. What’s more, the system powered by two dual-core 2.66GHz Xeon chips narrowly missed becoming the first machine to ever record a Speedmark score of over 300.

 

[amac4me]

I expect more and more reviews to hit the wires over the next few weeks.

 

[Unspeaked]

"What’s more, the system powered by two dual-core 2.66GHz Xeon chips narrowly missed becoming the first machine to ever record a Speedmark score of over 300."

Which means the two dual-core 3.0Ghz Xeon chips would probably do *very* well...

 

[kainjow]

My friend works at Apple as a tech support rep, and he said they got a Mac Pro in and somebody selected every application in the Applications folder and opened them, and it was practically instant.

 

[IlluminatedSage]

I think the ArsTechnica writer has it right when he said that the graphics card is under-powered for a tower like the Mac Pro.

Apple could have done better there and installed bluetooth in every model.

aside from that, great computer.

 

[MaxPower2k6]

My friend works at Apple as a tech support rep, and he said they got a Mac Pro in and somebody selected every application in the Applications folder and opened them, and it was practically instant.

Yeah, I did that, too. 53 applications in the folder opened in about 45 seconds. This was a 2.66 with 3 gigs of RAM.


Can't wait for the ATI machines to start shipping so I can get mine...

 

[danielwsmithee]

I think the ArsTechnica writer has it right when he said that the graphics card is under-powered for a tower like the Mac Pro.

Apple could have done better there and installed bluetooth in every model.

aside from that, great computer.

As long as they let you remove them as a BTO option. Many companies would not allow bluetooth, and many applications do not need a good graphics card. It would have driven up the price of the base config to put that in so I am OK with it the way it is and just upgraded to the X1900.

 

[dcboucher]

No mention of the case

I found it interesting that no review has mentioned anything about the size of the case. Another generation that's not rack mountable? Oooh the inside is so spacious!!! Who cares. Cut us pro users an inch so we can get that 20.1" hunk of burnin' love into our industry standard 19" racks. Some of us travel with these beasts and custom cases leave out the flexibility we need.

 

[ebuc]

The hard drive bays sound just great as they screech out. You think with Apple they would roll in and out on ball bearings. We'll just have to wait to Revolution B.

 

[iGary]

The hard drive bays sound just great as they screech out. You think with Apple they would roll in and out on ball bearings. We'll just have to wait to Revolution B.

Wow, I am glad someone said something first (I automatically get pegged as a Mac pro hater because I have a Quad). I was really unimpressed with the screeching sheet metal, too.

 

[truz]

Why would you need ball bearing rollers for the hard drive bays? How often do you plan on taking them out??

 

[iGary]

Why would you need ball bearing rollers for the hard drive bays? How often do you plan on taking them out??

I think the point he is making is the drive carriers are reminiscent of the old sloppy PM G4's, not the new "refinement" the PM G5 offered.

 

[xUKHCx]

Yeah, I did that, too. 53 applications in the folder opened in about 45 seconds. This was a 2.66 with 3 gigs of RAM.


Can't wait for the ATI machines to start shipping so I can get mine...

I did that with my iMac G5 1.8 ghz with 1 gb of ram, took 43 minutes to open all of my 170 applications.

Lets just say i am a student on his summer holidays without a job so nothing better to do.


Rich

 

[ebuc]

Why would you need ball bearing rollers for the hard drive bays? How often do you plan on taking them out??

There's a bit of sarcasm in my suggestion even though I could imagine someone like Apple doing it. I would just not expect any part of an Apple computer to make loud screeching noises during any part of the "Apple Experience."

 

[milo]

Another generation that's not rack mountable?

That's a tiny niche within a tiny niche. Most people who want rackmount will just use the x-serve.

Very impressive batch of reviews, the only consistent complaint seems to be the video card. And since going to the next video card would just raise the price of the base model (with the cheap card available as a downgrade) I don't really see much difference either way.

 

[omenamato]

Yeah, I did that, too. 53 applications in the folder opened in about 45 seconds. This was a 2.66 with 3 gigs of RAM.


Can't wait for the ATI machines to start shipping so I can get mine...

I did this with my ibook 1.2 Ghz and 256 ram 49 programs.

It beachvollied for a few hours and then the battery ran out.

 

[iBunny]

I did this with my ibook 1.2 Ghz and 256 ram 49 programs.

It beachvollied for a few hours and then the battery ran out.

lol

I am going to try this when I get home on my 2GHz Core Duo iMac / 2GB DDR2-667. Should be fairly fast. Deffinatly faster than my old 1.33Ghz G4 iBook.

As soon as the X1900XT becomes more available, I will get a Dual 3GHz Mac Pro w/ 4GB Ram.... Until then, I guess I can wait.

 

[dan-o-mac]

As long as they let you remove them as a BTO option. Many companies would not allow bluetooth, and many applications do not need a good graphics card. It would have driven up the price of the base config to put that in so I am OK with it the way it is and just upgraded to the X1900.

I don't understand your comment about many companies not allowing bluetooth. Isn't it standard on all other Apple computers?

 

[greenstork]

I found it interesting that no review has mentioned anything about the size of the case. Another generation that's not rack mountable? Oooh the inside is so spacious!!! Who cares. Cut us pro users an inch so we can get that 20.1" hunk of burnin' love into our industry standard 19" racks. Some of us travel with these beasts and custom cases leave out the flexibility we need.

As an aside, can anyone recommend a nice under desk or side-desk (underneath) mount for the Mac Pro? I have a 19.5" tall enclosure that I'm basically going to have to toss, which is a bummer since it had a side drawer with room for cables, CD's etc.

 

[Multimedia]

Me Likey

Nice Box.

 

[Killyp]

As an aside, can anyone recommend a nice under desk or side-desk (underneath) mount for the Mac Pro? I have a 19.5" tall enclosure that I'm basically going to have to toss, which is a bummer since it had a side drawer with room for cables, CD's etc.

Those MacPro handles sure do look like they could be flattened with a hammer!

 

[chatin]

Bargain system

If you subtract the retail price of the CPU's the 2.6 costs around $1K. 60% of the price goes for hudge processing power.

My only problem is the price of the RAM. I've found another 1GB for $200 (2*512MB)

 

[jicon]

There is a great article on anandtech.com about the Mac Pro. No mention of speeds, but analyzes the configurations.

Highlights:

Video card is underclocked - though likely not a concern.

Memory should theoretically be installed in sets of four sticks on the Intel chipset. Note the stock RAM has heatsinks, and likely would be required on any RAM purchased in the future.

Still no support for hardware RAID5 on the Mac Pro.

Quad core coming this fall/winter.

http://www.anandtech.com/mac/showdoc.aspx?i=2811

 

[WildPalms]

If you subtract the retail price of the CPU's the 2.6 costs around $1K. 60% of the price goes for hudge processing power.

My only problem is the price of the RAM. I've found another 1GB for $200 (2*512MB)

$200 for 1GB of FB ECC DIMMS? Thats FB ECC DIMMS, not standard DDR or otherwise...

 

[McBain2]

Why would you need ball bearing rollers for the hard drive bays?

Are you kidding? It's all ball bearings nowadays. Maybe you need a refresher course.