Apple Updates Mac Pro With Up to 12 CPU Cores
The Mac Pro has gotten some spendy hardware updates.
Apple today unveiled a new Mac Pro line with up to 12 processing cores and up to 50 percent greater performance than the previous generation, thanks to the use of Intel's quad-core and 6-core Xeon processors (up to 3.3GHz), all-new ATI graphics and the option for up to four 512GB solid state drives.
The Mac Pro now comes with the ATI Radeon HD 5770 graphics processor with 1GB of memory, and customers can configure-to-order the faster ATI Radeon HD 5870 with 1GB of memory.
Apple also updated its all-in-one iMac line with the latest Intel Core i3, Core i5 and Core i7. The dual core chips run up to 3.6 GHz, while quad-core speeds are up to 2.93 GHz. Discrete graphics include the ATI Radeon HD 5750.
The new Mac Pro will be available in August and the iMacs are available now. Check out the prices and configs for the Mac Pros below:
The new quad-core Mac Pro, with a suggested retail price of $2,499 (US), includes:
one 2.8 GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon W3530 processor with 8MB of fully-shared L3 cache;
3GB of 1066 MHz DDR3 ECC SDRAM memory, expandable up to 16GB;
ATI Radeon HD 5770 with 1GB of GDDR5 memory;
two Mini DisplayPorts and one DVI (dual-link) port (adapters sold separately);
1TB Serial ATA 3Gb/s hard drive running at 7200 rpm;
18x SuperDrive® with double-layer support (DVD±R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW);
four PCI Express 2.0 slots;
five USB 2.0 ports and four FireWire® 800 ports;
AirPort Extreme® 802.11n;
Bluetooth 2.1+EDR; and
Apple Keyboard with numerical keypad and Magic Mouse.
The new 8-core Mac Pro, with a suggested retail price of $3,499 (US), includes:
two 2.4 GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon E5620 processors with 12MB of fully-shared L3 cache per processor;
6GB of 1066 MHz DDR3 ECC SDRAM memory, expandable up to 32GB;
ATI Radeon HD 5770 with 1GB of GDDR5 memory;
two Mini DisplayPorts and one DVI (dual-link) port (adapters sold separately);
1TB Serial ATA 3Gb/s hard drive running at 7200 rpm;
18x SuperDrive with double-layer support (DVD±R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW);
four PCI Express 2.0 slots;
five USB 2.0 ports and four FireWire 800 ports;
AirPort Extreme 802.11n;
Bluetooth 2.1+EDR; and
Apple Keyboard with numerical keypad and Magic Mouse.
Configure-to-order options include:
one 3.2 GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon W3565 processor for the quad-core Mac Pro;
one 3.33 GHz 6-core Intel Xeon W3680 processor for the quad-core Mac Pro;
two 2.66 GHz 6-core Intel Xeon X5650 processors (12-cores) for the 8-core Mac Pro;
two 2.93 GHz 6-core Intel Xeon X5670 processors (12-cores) for the 8-core Mac Pro;
two ATI Radeon HD 5770 cards with 1GB of GDDR5 memory;
one ATI Radeon HD 5870 card with 1GB of GDDR5 memory;
up to 16GB of DDR3 ECC SDRAM memory for the quad-core Mac Pro;
up to 32GB of DDR3 ECC SDRAM memory for the 8-core Mac Pro;
up to four 512GB solid state drives (SSD); or
up to four 1TB or 2TB Serial ATA hard drives running at 7200 rpm;
Mac Pro RAID card;
dual-channel or quad-channel 4Gb Fibre Channel card; and
up to two 18x SuperDrives with double-layer support.
Accessories include: Magic Trackpad, Apple Battery Charger, wired Apple Mouse, wireless Apple Keyboard, Mini DisplayPort to DVI Adapter, Mini DisplayPort to Dual-Link DVI Adapter (for 30-inch DVI display), Mini DisplayPort to VGA Adapter, the AppleCare® Protection Plan; and pre-installed copies of Mac OS X Snow Leopard Server; iWork®, Logic Express 9, Final Cut Express 4 and Aperture 3. Complete options and accessories are available at www.apple.com/macpro.
- Jane Strips Down StarCraft II Collector's Edition
- Rambus Wins Brutal Patent Fight Against Nvidia
- EverQuest 2 Getting Free-To-Play Starting August
- Deals for July 27: FREE Pepsi Max!
- Warpia Easy Dock Turns Laptops into PCs
- MSI's GT660 Gaming Notebook Heads to U.S.
- Valve Owns Up To Modern Warfare 2 Error
- DC Universe Online Trailer is a Real Fan Pleaser
- Toshiba Releases 2.5'' HDD with 7,200 RPM
- Intel to Stunt Overclocking on Sandy Bridge CPUs
- BOXX 'World's Fastest Single-CPU Workstation'
- Deals for July 28: 80% Off Restaurant.com GC
- Nvidia Demonstrates Interactive Ray-tracing
- Nvidia Launches Fermi-based Quadro GPUs
- Super Talent Also Releasing Dual Interface SSD
- Intel's 50Gbps Laser Light Beams Are the Future
- These Countries Hold the Keys to the Internet
- Action-packed Ghost Recon: Alpha Movie Teaser
But i can buy a windows system thats more powerful, for less cash, right?
how are people still buying these things...
wow a $2500 dollar computer with 3gbs of ram....that's not even the standard.
Ummmm looking at configurations on Apple's website it seems they forgot hardware that is newer than two years - except the processor.. Hold on, $3000+ what?
But i can buy a windows system thats more powerful, for less cash, right? how are people still buying these things...
bull's eye!!~~
$2500 for an HD5770 + ~i5-ish build!? Epic rip-off.
The IQ of Mac customers seriously worries me.
But i can buy a windows system thats more powerful, for less cash, right? how are people still buying these things...
macmaniacs
But i can buy a windows system thats more powerful, for less cash, right?
Nope. Or maybe for a bit less. These are in line as far as Xeon based workstations go.
I'd rather have a "normal" i7 based minitower though.
Or actually I'd prefer an AMD solution, hence my Phenom II tower at home.
2500 Malaysian ringgit for that spec and I'll buy it,
lol apple is stupid
"But i can buy a windows system thats more powerful, for less cash, right? "
You have to be technologically illiterate and logo-desperate to buy the kind of crap Apple puts out.
They still donõt use USB3, eSATA... stupid!
All the Macs listed above:
$600-$900 for everything inside the MAC
$1500 - $2300 for the shiny case and Logo
Bout sums it up in hardware cost......
Damn I wish I had Apple's Marketing Genius.....I'd be ripping people off too. You gotta admit...Apple's Marketing team is 1337!!!
I'm from Canada and this is the cheapest Mac Pro on their website
One 2.66GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon
3GB (3x1GB)
640GB 7200-rpm Serial ATA 3Gb/s
NVIDIA GeForce GT 120 512MB
One 18x SuperDrive
Apple Mouse
Apple Keyboard with Numeric Keypad (English) and User's Guide
For only $2,899.00 CAD or approximate $2800.00 USD. YES ONLY
I went to the Apple online store and configured the following options:-
Two 2.93GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon
12GB (6x2GB) (not greedy, just being realistic)
2TB 7200-rpm Serial ATA 3Gb/s (just 1 HDD, and no SSD)
ATI Radeon HD 4870 512MB (a 2 year old card)
One 18x SuperDrive
Ordinary mouse & keyboard
No software, no care plan, no raid card, NO MONITOR!!!!
Grand total? £5373 ($7500)
POS!
can Tom maybe do a benchmark price comparison?
$2500 Mac Pro vs $2500 Windows based system
anyone dare to post the results on Apple forums?
Good for final cut pro
Now price a PC with similar specs and see who can get the lowest price. Winner gets free couch insurance!!
Does it even have 6gig sata? Only a complete moron would get a new system with out the newest connections on the MB (even if your not going to use them right away)
At that price I can buy the same thing and put the Mac OS for more than 1/2 the price! Woot! But I'll stick with my windows that is completly customizable, can be troubleshooted without a genius bar, and can actually play games!
2500 Linux vs 2500 Windows vs 2500 mac!
But i can buy a windows system thats more powerful, for less cash, right? how are people still buying these things...
Because you can't buy an equivalent Windows system for less cash. This isn't a peecee with consumer grade cpu's and memory. This is a real workstation with Xeon server chips, and registered ECC memory. Equivalent workstation offerings from HP, Sun, IBM, and SGI cost the same or more. Heck, go to Newegg and check it out yourself - the six core Xeon chip is more than $1700.00 just for one chip, and this Mac Pro has two of them.
geez... makes their laptop line look like a steal in comparison.
They still donõt use USB3, eSATA... stupid!
Why? No USB devices need USB3 speed except for hard drives, but you'd have to be a moron to use a USB hard drive when Firewire 800 has been standard on every Mac for 4+ years now. Also, this has 4 internal hard drive bays, just pop in another drive if you need more storage. USB is for keyboards and mice.
Considered it is a fully warranted dual xeon workstation, I have to admit, this is less overpriced then Mac stuff usually is....
And Tom's did an article a year or so back showing that the Mac Pro is within like 5% of a comparably built system with ots parts - so get off that high horse.
The processors alone are about $1500 each.
Now price a PC with similar specs and see who can get the lowest price. Winner gets free couch insurance!!
No such thing as a peecee with similar specs. Compare a workstation, with Xeon CPU's (or RISC equivalent) and Registered ECC memory, running a UNIX operating system. The Mac Pro is way cheaper than comparable AIX, HP-UX, and SGI workstations. Workstation != Peecee. This machine is not for you, move along and play with your kiddie peecee.
move along and play with your kiddie peecee. /sarcasm
there i fixed it
Considered it is a fully warranted dual xeon workstation, I have to admit, this is less overpriced then Mac stuff usually is....And Tom's did an article a year or so back showing that the Mac Pro is within like 5% of a comparably built system with ots parts - so get off that high horse.The processors alone are about $1500 each.
Wow - you really do think like Apple. The 6-core processors cost about $1050. Way to inflate the price.
No such thing as a peecee with similar specs. Compare a workstation, with Xeon CPU's (or RISC equivalent) and Registered ECC memory, running a UNIX operating system. The Mac Pro is way cheaper than comparable AIX, HP-UX, and SGI workstations. Workstation != Peecee. This machine is not for you, move along and play with your kiddie peecee.
Yes, this is a workstation and needs to be compared with other workstations.
If you do want to compare Apple products with PC's loaded with Windows, then lets compare iMacs then. Actually a real comparison would be to conect my laptop to a monitor. Because iMacs are basically laptops in a not easily transportable form. With all of the problems laptops have with none of the advantages a tower has.
No such thing as a peecee with similar specs. Compare a workstation, with Xeon CPU's (or RISC equivalent) and Registered ECC memory, running a UNIX operating system. The Mac Pro is way cheaper than comparable AIX, HP-UX, and SGI workstations. Workstation != Peecee. This machine is not for you, move along and play with your kiddie peecee.
You need to move along Apple fanboy. First, Apple isn't even offering the 6-core Xeon yet if you configure the Mac Pro online. The best configuration I could get (for comparison) is this:
# Two 2.93GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon
# 16GB (8x2GB)
# Mac Pro RAID Card
# 1TB 7200-rpm Serial ATA 3Gb/s
# 1TB 7200-rpm Serial ATA 3Gb/s
# 1TB 7200-rpm Serial ATA 3Gb/s
# ATI Radeon HD 4870 512MB
# One 18x SuperDrive
# Apple Mouse
# Apple Keyboard with Numeric Keypad (English) and User's Guide
Final price: $8000.
Now, let's compare it to a non-Apple pre-built Linux workstation with 2x 6-core Xeons and a >REAL< workstation grade video code with 1.5GB:
Dual Intel Westmere Xeon X5660 (2.80 GHz) Six Core CPU w/ 12 MB L3 Cache
24 GB Samsung DDR3-1333 ECC/Reg DIMM Memory (Up to 96 GB)
Supermicro X8DAi Intel 5520
2 PCI-E 2.0 x16, 3 PCI Slots
3x WD RE3 1TB 32MB Cache Hard Disks in RAID 5
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 480 PCI-E 2.0 Graphics w/ 1536 MB Memory
Final price? $7822.
So, I pay about $200 less for the 12-core configuration than Apple's comparable 8-core configuration.
Let's be fair though. What if I change my online Linux configuration to use the 2.93 Quad Core Xeons?
Changing just my 2x 6-core Xeons to 2x quad-core brings my final price to $5161. That's a savings of roughly $3k. 5% difference between Apple and other OEM's?? I think not.
Let's make it MORE interesting. Let's take Apple's configuration and my 2x quad core Linux config and bump them to 32GB ECC (max offered by Apple):
Mac Pro price: $11,199
Pre-built Linux PC price: $6,113.
5%? I think not again. The Apple product is 1.83x more expensive.
In closing, I can get >TWO< 32GB Linux-based workstation class 2x quad core Xeon systems for the price of your one Mac Pro. Not only that, the hardware in my systems will be BETTER with workstation-grade graphics cards.
They might get 50-60 FPS in CSS now. lol