Filed under: WWDC
Apple announces Mac Pro - shipping today
"The fastest, most configurable Mac ever" indeed. Today at WWDC 2006 (check out our coverage and the chatcast) Apple introduced the Mac Pro, and it might as well come with a pair of hot pads with all-new features like this:
- Two 2.66GHz Dual-Core Intel Xeon "Woodcrest" processors
- 4MB shared L2 cache per processor
- 1.33GHz dual independent frontside buses
- 1GB memory (667MHz DDR2 fully-buffered DIMM ECC)
- NVIDIA GeForce 7300 GT graphics with 256MB memory
- 250GB Serial ATA 3Gb/s 7200-rpm hard drive1
- 16x double-layer SuperDrive (DVD+R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW)
Also notable: gone are the two or three configuration options from the
_thumbnail.jpg "Take a stroll down memory lane")
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Mike said 2:53PM on 8-07-2006
They cut display prices, too! It's now $699, $999, and $1999 for the 20", 23", and 30" respectively. Mmmm, widescreen...
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Andy said 2:57PM on 8-07-2006
Remember when you could get a powermac for $1999? No Mac Pro for me.
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Pete said 2:58PM on 8-07-2006
The PowerMac G5's also supported 16GB of RAM, it's not new to the Mac Pro.
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Karl Otto Henriksen said 3:00PM on 8-07-2006
I want one!!!
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Brad said 3:01PM on 8-07-2006
I just configured one for $19,000. 16 Gb Ram 1 TB storage and 2 30" displays ahahhahaha this is too cute. Ill just sell my car now and buy one of these babies. (jk)
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rumpel said 3:08PM on 8-07-2006
The store actually supports a 2.0 GHZ version of the quad xeon.
Costs 290 Euro less (German Apple Store)
Which makes the cheapest model 2.089 Euro.
Kai
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JonECat said 3:12PM on 8-07-2006
I am a little disapointed with the default video card for $2500. Not that it is not a great machine, but $350 more for an ATI 1900 is insane.
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Adam said 3:12PM on 8-07-2006
This is the first time you've been able to "downgrade" a Power Mac in a long time (pretty sure since I bought my dual 450 MHz G4 back in 2000).
You can downgrade to two dual-core 2 GHz processors and save $300. You can jump to a 160 GB drive and save $75 more. This drops the entry-level price of a Mac Pro to $2124. With an EDU discount you can get one for under two grand: $1962. Cool.
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Sam W said 3:27PM on 8-07-2006
I dunno, now that the new Intel iMacs can drive a secondary DVI monitor I have little use for a 42 pound box.
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drivebybiped said 3:28PM on 8-07-2006
why the sh*t-tastic video card in the base model apple? Why?
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Tom said 3:32PM on 8-07-2006
I agree the entry price is a bit steep, but you can downgrade it to chop $375 off the price if you wanted to. Re the video card, the default NVidia is an extremely lowend piece for a computer this nice and can be found online for $80. So actually, considering that the ATI card on offer is at its cheapest $350 online, Apple isn't marking it up an insane amount.
I can't imagine any sane person buying RAM or hard drives from Apple though. You can get both those for about half the price elsewhere.
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poitch said 3:39PM on 8-07-2006
Just ordered mine. 3-4 weeks ... am I the only one who will have to wait that long ? no apple store in the area has it yet.
for sure I'll buy hard drives, RAM and video card somewhere else
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Bryan said 3:41PM on 8-07-2006
One thing I'm wondering about - and maybe it's a little naive since this is a workstation - but shouldn't this at least have a remote for Front Row? All work and no play, you know...
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Mac Lover said 3:48PM on 8-07-2006
Remember the Intel speed increase will only appear with a small number of operations in a small number of applications as we saw with the MacBooks and iMac Intel. Most stuff we do will be the same speed. I will stay with my G5. Not impressed with Intel power.
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Justin said 3:49PM on 8-07-2006
Is there a space for a HDTV tuner card or maybe even a CableCard board?
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Wojtek said 3:50PM on 8-07-2006
Huh, Apple's designers took a day off and left the Mac Pro with the good ol' G5 case. Just like Compaq, all their boxes looked the same at some point of time... :(
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Andrew Dunlop said 3:54PM on 8-07-2006
How does Front Row work or is it even incuded. Doesn't come with remote
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JD said 4:52PM on 8-07-2006
add a bluetooth module for 35bux?? you gotta be kidding me. you can buy a generic brand bluetooth dongle for 15 bux or so.
its still a very nice machine though
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Dan said 5:48PM on 8-07-2006
A large number of people and companies buying the Mac Pro
will be using Final Cut Pro on it. This is a Universal app.
So I disagree with the guy above who says it's no good
simply because Adobe doesn't have their stuff converted yet.
These new machines will speed up everything we do with FCP.
Dan
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Randolph Lee said 11:09PM on 8-07-2006
I ordered mine within 10 min or the store coming back up on line! My tower is a very old by todays standards B&W g3 that I now just use as a server and for more than 2 years my main computer has been this 17" 1.333 ghz G-4 powerbook so fo me this will be as big a leap in speed as when I went from the IIfx to the 8500 I am excited by this machine and it in favt will be the cheapest tower mac i have ever bought when adjusted for inflation! the standarde video card is fine for the market that the standard $2,500 config. is aimed at... so I do not understand the keveching about it... get the ATI or get some other card and flog the stock Nvidia on ebay... there will be lotos of folks that will want them for their video walls
while the rest of the order will be here tomorow the Mac Pro will not turn up till Sept 12... due I am told to the huge demand for the ATI video card I need.
I went with the 23" due to the price cut and tossed in Aperture as well... I checked with the usual places about RAM and it seems that none of the ones I called have the special Heatsinked DIMM that the Mac Pro uses yet... (one place I have bought most of my RAM from over the last 20 years said that they thought it might be 4 to 8 weeks before they that the 1 ande 2 gig sticks in stock)so I plumped for the extra gig from apple ( I had a lot of problems with aftermarket RAM on the B&W when OS X came out and it took me a lot of time and effort to get it tracked down and sorted so the extra right now is a large comfort factor for me in 6 months I expect that I will add another 2 to 4 gigs of ram from an after market source... when I get my tax refund next year should be about the right time ;) ) I will though add my own extra pair of 500 gig drives for a total of 1.5 Tera in a raid setup
Cheers
Windy
Mac Pro
Part Number: Z0D8
Both Bluetooth 2.0+EDR and AirPort Extreme
Apple Keyboard and Mighty Mouse - U.S. English
Aperture preinstalled
1 x SuperDrive
Accessory kit
Two 3GHz Dual-Core Intel Xeon
Mac OS X - U.S. English
2GB (4 x 512MB)
500GB 7200-rpm Serial ATA 3Gb/s
ATI Radeon X1900 XT 512MB (2 x dual-link DVI)
Estimated ship: 3-5 weeks
Delivered next business day after shipping
1 $4,527.00 $4,527.00
Apple Cinema HD Display (23" flat panel)
Part Number: M9178LL/A
Estimated ship: Within 24 hours
Delivered next business day after shipping
1 $999.00 $999.00
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