Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Nehalem... when?
- Thread starter ObiMcD
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
You do not need FB-DIMMS to be able to use ECC memory. The 975X, X38 and X48 Core2 desktop chipsets support ECC DDR2. The X58 chipset for Nehalem desktops will also support ECC.
The reason why Apple uses FB-DIMMS is because that is the only type of memory supported with the 5000X and 5400 series chipset which the 5100 and 5400 series Xeon processors used in the Mac Pro require.
Apple could use the X58 chipset in the Mac Pro with the Gainestown processor and offer DDR-3 with ECC.
They will be updated with something by the end of this year, going by their 6 month cycle of updating the portables (won't be nehalem but a bump).
If you need a Mac Pro so bad, get one now. I don't see the need to wait an entire a year when the performance that can be had now is amazing.
Apple will use Gainestown in the Mac Pro, not Beckton processors. Beckton isn't for workstations, The ONLY reason to use them is to have 4 processor systems. They will also probably start at about $1500 for speeds that will probably be no better than the current 2.8GHz Harpertowns.
Forget about the FB-DIMM issue, as CWallace has said on a number of occasions, Apple went with it because it was the only option. Yes Intel's Nehalem lineup and naming conventions are confusing, it's what they do best, but Gainestown replaces Harpertown and Apple will do the same and there is no reason to think otherwise.
Yeah, Montevina. But he wanted to know about Nehalem. It's strange, though, that the portable Nehalem is coming out so much later than Montevina. We've gotten used to processor updates happening an average of every 4.5 months in the MacBooks and MacBook Pros. Can you imagine the complaints when there won't be anything until Nehalem? Or will there be higher-clocked processors in an update after Montevina's out?
It might be driven by capacity issues. Intel has only one fully-functional 45nm fab and that fab needs to pump out millions of Penryns and Xeons in addition to Nehalem. Their next two 45nm fabs will not be ready until Q1 and Q2 of next year.
And with AMD not really much of a threat on the mobile side, I would not be surprised to see Intel having performed some "triage" and determining the mobile Nehalem's are both not an immediate need and would be so expensive (due to capacity constraints) that their market appeal at those prices might be very low.
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 2_0 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/525.18.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/3.1.1 Mobile/5A345 Safari/525.20)
another interesting point:- redesigned mac pro? There were quite a few decent mockups posted around the release of the harpertowns, and discussion at the time suggested only nehelem was an update significant enough for a redesign!
another interesting point:- redesigned mac pro? There were quite a few decent mockups posted around the release of the harpertowns, and discussion at the time suggested only nehelem was an update significant enough for a redesign!
Why does a workstation computer need a redesign? What purpose would it serve? The thing's completely silent right now; Apple's obviously doing cooling right.
They have enough room for everything inside, as well. A redesign would be for aesthetic purposes only, and what could possibly replace the cheese grater?
No, seriously, show me something that could possibly be better.
The "cheese grater" does allow a lot of air into the case to keep the inside cool, but it also allows a lot of dust into the machine. A new design to reduce the amount of dust allowed into the internal part of the Mac Pro while at the same time not reducing cooling effectiveness would be desirable.
Agreed. Functionality is much more important than style in a workstation. A choice of the full line of professional video cards from Nvidia and ATI for example instead of few outdated comsumer cards and one $2,500 professional card.
I don't see a foam filter as an option on the Mac Pro, so perhaps Apple would have to design that in or otherwise a home job would probably look terrible.
Bingo.
That's because you put it on the outside.
Seriously, there has to be some room between the front of the case and the components, and you can get very thin dust-blocking material nowadays.
I never said it needed a redesign; just that it was hot topic before the Harpertowns were released.
Agreed. Functionality is much more important than style in a workstation. A choice of the full line of professional video cards from Nvidia and ATI for example instead of few outdated comsumer cards and one $2,500 professional card.
I'm looking for midrange workstation cards for MCAD (FireGL V7700/V8600 or Quadro 1700/3700) under Bootcamp/Parallels. I don't have need for a Quadro 5600 and I sure don't want to pay for it.
Nehalem in a similar configuration as Penryn Mac Pro's will be a big hit, but please Apple, option a Blu-Ray video compliant burner.
tom
Apple will release the new Mac Pro between January and June of 2009.
And they WILL use Gainstown, a dual processor variant. They cannot use Beckton because it will need 4 CPUs. If each CPU is about $800, then the CPUs alone for the machine would cost over $3000.
Intel will release a dual CPU Gainstown in September, which uses DDR3 ram. Therefore, Apple should release the new Mac Pro in January. That is the only logical solution.
Tallest skill, Apple won't come out with Beckton because it is too expensive. The current equivalent to Beckton is Tigerton, and Apple did not release a Tigerton based Mac Pro. Your info is messed up.
So, expect an 8 core, 16 thread, DDR3 based Mac Pro in January. That's it.
And they WILL use Gainstown, a dual processor variant. They cannot use Beckton because it will need 4 CPUs. If each CPU is about $800, then the CPUs alone for the machine would cost over $3000.
Intel will release a dual CPU Gainstown in September, which uses DDR3 ram. Therefore, Apple should release the new Mac Pro in January. That is the only logical solution.
Tallest skill, Apple won't come out with Beckton because it is too expensive. The current equivalent to Beckton is Tigerton, and Apple did not release a Tigerton based Mac Pro. Your info is messed up.
So, expect an 8 core, 16 thread, DDR3 based Mac Pro in January. That's it.
If Beckton will be as expensive as you say, then you're absolutely right; they won't use Beckton and we can expect to see Nehalem Mac Pros right before MacWorld 2009.
The current 2.8 quad that the Mac Pro uses costs about $750-$850. Apple gets it cheaper, but still.
There is no way Apple will use Beckton because:
- Too expensive ($3000+ for CPUs alone)
- Too little space inside the current case for 4 large heatsinks
- Too much power would be used (130w x 4 + 100w for mobo)
- Too much heat generated at full load in a relatively small case
- The replacement to Nehalem, Westmere, is launching within 6 months of Beckton.
Agreed. Functionality is much more important than style in a workstation. A choice of the full line of professional video cards from Nvidia and ATI for example instead of few outdated comsumer cards and one $2,500 professional card.
I suppose part of the problem is that the software vendor support for "workstation class" applications is a great deal smaller for OS X then it is for Windows (or Unix, for that matter) which means the Mac Pro doesn't need the wide variety of video cards tailored to various niches.
On the flip side, that lack of support does undermine the case that Apple needs a workstation and doesn't need a less-capable and less-expensive "Mac Mini Tower".
I suppose the relative stability of the mobile and workstation product lines at Intel nicely matches with Apple's 12 month (major) product revision plans. The desktop line sees a lot of churn (thanks to volume), so Apple would have to be much more aggressive in product updates which would impact revenues either by making too little product (and thus running out) to keep backlogs low, or making too much product and having large backlogs they have to churn through to get rid of as the new product enters the channel.
Also the Tigerton processors that have 6 cores (Rumored several months ago) were running at very low clock speeds, because they're server chips, which don't need the same kind of raw horsepower.
It'd be a tough sell for Apple to come out with a new mac pro with "Speeds up to 2.2Ghz!!!!!!!!!!!" or something similar.
It'd be a tough sell for Apple to come out with a new mac pro with "Speeds up to 2.2Ghz!!!!!!!!!!!" or something similar.
You could've put a little more effort into that
Here's what I think the Nehalem Mac Pro will look like: