New Mac Pro appears to kick ass

[ElFenix]

Originally posted by: theprodigalrebel
I just configured this:

Specifications
* Two 2.66GHz Dual-Core Intel Xeon
* 2GB (4 x 512MB)
* 250GB 7200-rpm Serial ATA 3Gb/s
* ATI Radeon X1900 XT 512MB (2 x dual-link DVI)
* 1 x SuperDrive
* Apple Keyboard and Mighty Mouse - U.S. English
* Mac OS X - U.S. English

$3,149 (Moving up to Two 3GHz processors is an extra $800)

I actually thought it's kinda well-priced. I was expecting some VoodooPC-style $8000 machine. Two 2.66GHz Woodcrest CPUs cost $1521.99 on Newegg. Throw in a premium, dual-socket Xeon motherboard...maybe $1900. hard drive & memory brings it to $2,200. Graphics Card brings it to $2500. Optical Drive, Keyboard & Mouse...$2600. Operating System...$2800. Not bad. Apple only charging $300 extra bucks? Outfit it with a nice LCD and you have a pretty well-priced Dual CPU Dual-Core System (as they call it, Quad-Core). This is nothing compared to what Falcon NW or VoodooPC would charge for a uber-PC.

Of course, it says 3-5 weeks for delivery. But I'm impressed with the price.

that's not even counting the best chassis in the industry.

:Q

 

[ElFenix]

Originally posted by: ultimatebob
I'm curious... How does the performance of the Woodcrest Xeons compare to the Core 2 Duo? Has anyone benchmarked them against each other yet, just to see if the performance boost of the Xeon is worth the extra cost?

i'm guessing the difference is that you can run the xeons in quad processor setups like this apple, while regular c2d stuff is limited to regular single socket setups.


what quad processor gets you, i don't know.

 

[Kaido]

The Time Machine feature looks pretty neat, like System Restore but one that actually works (about 1/2 way down the Engadget page).

 

[Excelsior]

Originally posted by: Deeko
Plus its hideous.

 

[Fenixgoon]

Originally posted by: ElFenix

Originally posted by: theprodigalrebel
I just configured this:

Specifications
* Two 2.66GHz Dual-Core Intel Xeon
* 2GB (4 x 512MB)
* 250GB 7200-rpm Serial ATA 3Gb/s
* ATI Radeon X1900 XT 512MB (2 x dual-link DVI)
* 1 x SuperDrive
* Apple Keyboard and Mighty Mouse - U.S. English
* Mac OS X - U.S. English

$3,149 (Moving up to Two 3GHz processors is an extra $800)

I actually thought it's kinda well-priced. I was expecting some VoodooPC-style $8000 machine. Two 2.66GHz Woodcrest CPUs cost $1521.99 on Newegg. Throw in a premium, dual-socket Xeon motherboard...maybe $1900. hard drive & memory brings it to $2,200. Graphics Card brings it to $2500. Optical Drive, Keyboard & Mouse...$2600. Operating System...$2800. Not bad. Apple only charging $300 extra bucks? Outfit it with a nice LCD and you have a pretty well-priced Dual CPU Dual-Core System (as they call it, Quad-Core). This is nothing compared to what Falcon NW or VoodooPC would charge for a uber-PC.

Of course, it says 3-5 weeks for delivery. But I'm impressed with the price.

that's not even counting the best chassis in the industry.

:Q

case is up in the air... i find that a case is a case, regardless of how much it costs, pleases aesthetically, or is quiet. i have an X850XT with the giant turbofan cooler and it's not loud at all, even under heavy load

 

[JackBurton]

Oooo, that's nice!

 

[loup garou]

Originally posted by: Kaido
The Time Machine feature looks pretty neat, like System Restore but one that actually works (about 1/2 way down the Engadget page).

More like System Restore + Shadow Copies, which Vista has as well. I wasn't too impressed with the Leopard info. Of course, they mentioned some "top secret" stuff, guess we'll have to wait and see.

The Mac Pro is nice, and the price is impressive, but you can bet Dell will rapidly drop their comparable workstations to undercut.

 

[iamwiz82]

Hmm.. You can get it it down to $2,100 with the 2Ghz and 160GB HDD. If it ran windows well enough to play games, this might be something to buy. I mean, the only reason I keep my current desktop is to play games.

 

[Baked]

Mac Pro
Part Number: Z0D8
Both Bluetooth 2.0+EDR and AirPort Extreme
Apple Wireless Keyboard and Apple wireless Mighty Mouse - U.S. English
1 x SuperDrive
Accessory kit
Two 3GHz Dual-Core Intel Xeon
4GB (4 x 1GB)
250GB 7200-rpm Serial ATA 3Gb/s
Mac OS X - U.S. English
NVIDIA Quadro FX 4500 512MB, Stereo 3D (2 x dual-link DVI)
Estimated Ship: 2-4 weeks
Remove $6,188.00 $6,188.00
Apple Cinema HD Display (30" flat panel)
Part Number: M9179LL/A
Estimated Ship: Within 24 hours
Remove $1,999.00 $3,998.00
AppleCare Protection Plan for Mac Pro/Power Mac (w/or w/o Display) - Auto-enroll
Part Number: S2301Z/A
Estimated Ship: 1-2 business days
Remove $249.00 $249.00

Cart Subtotal: $10,435.00
Free Shipping: $0.00
Estimated Tax*: $886.98

Estimated Total: $11,321.98

Now to convince my boss to let me buy this thing.

 

[LethalWolfe]

Originally posted by: notfred

Originally posted by: Fenixgoon

Originally posted by: notfred
Once again, video-game-addicted kids on ATOT come to complain about professional workstation machines being too expensive. No sh!t - they're designed for people who make thier living with them. When you're pulling down $100k+/year producing music for Sony/BMG or editing hollywood movies, you're going to get whatever computer you find most productive, even if it's $500-1000 more than some other machine.

who puts a 7300GT on a $2500 machine? if it's a workstation, give it a workstation card!

People who don't do heavy graphics work? If you're doing modelling for Pixar, you'll upgrade to the Quadro FX 4500 card. If you do audio editing, what do you need the upgraded video card for? Or if you're doing data mining or statistical alalysis or anything else that requires a lot of processing but not any special video capabilities.

To expand on this for the people that think the base 250gig HDD is too small. How big does the system drive need to be? I doubt gfx or music people are gonna use the system drive as a scratch/media drive, and I sure as hell know the video people won't.


Lethal

 

[sniperruff]

Originally posted by: LethalWolfe

Originally posted by: notfred

Originally posted by: Fenixgoon

Originally posted by: notfred
Once again, video-game-addicted kids on ATOT come to complain about professional workstation machines being too expensive. No sh!t - they're designed for people who make thier living with them. When you're pulling down $100k+/year producing music for Sony/BMG or editing hollywood movies, you're going to get whatever computer you find most productive, even if it's $500-1000 more than some other machine.

who puts a 7300GT on a $2500 machine? if it's a workstation, give it a workstation card!

People who don't do heavy graphics work? If you're doing modelling for Pixar, you'll upgrade to the Quadro FX 4500 card. If you do audio editing, what do you need the upgraded video card for? Or if you're doing data mining or statistical alalysis or anything else that requires a lot of processing but not any special video capabilities.

To expand on this for the people that think the base 250gig HDD is too small. How big does the system drive need to be? I doubt gfx or music people are gonna use the system drive as a scratch/media drive, and I sure as hell know the video people won't.


Lethal

because the people who made those comments are 14-year old's who think the perfect workstation for any industry has to have 4x 500GB HD's in RAID-0 and quad 7900GTX's, liquid nitrogen cooling, a SB Fatal1ty sound card, ratzpad mousepad, and a set of logitech Z-5450 playing the latest 50-cent mp3's.

 

[Kaido]

Originally posted by: sniperruff

Originally posted by: LethalWolfe

Originally posted by: notfred

Originally posted by: Fenixgoon

Originally posted by: notfred
Once again, video-game-addicted kids on ATOT come to complain about professional workstation machines being too expensive. No sh!t - they're designed for people who make thier living with them. When you're pulling down $100k+/year producing music for Sony/BMG or editing hollywood movies, you're going to get whatever computer you find most productive, even if it's $500-1000 more than some other machine.

who puts a 7300GT on a $2500 machine? if it's a workstation, give it a workstation card!

People who don't do heavy graphics work? If you're doing modelling for Pixar, you'll upgrade to the Quadro FX 4500 card. If you do audio editing, what do you need the upgraded video card for? Or if you're doing data mining or statistical alalysis or anything else that requires a lot of processing but not any special video capabilities.

To expand on this for the people that think the base 250gig HDD is too small. How big does the system drive need to be? I doubt gfx or music people are gonna use the system drive as a scratch/media drive, and I sure as hell know the video people won't.


Lethal

because the people who made those comments are 14-year old's who think the perfect workstation for any industry has to have 4x 500GB HD's in RAID-0 and quad 7900GTX's, liquid nitrogen cooling, a SB Fatal1ty sound card, ratzpad mousepad, and a set of logitech Z-5450 playing the latest 50-cent mp3's.

Your post made me LOL :thumbsup: Liquid nitrogen cooling, hah!

 

[imported_goku]

Originally posted by: Goosemaster

Originally posted by: notfred

Originally posted by: Goosemaster

Originally posted by: goku

Originally posted by: FrustratedUser
You can run both OSX and Windows on it. 1200 bucks for each rig is pretty OK.

One of the dumbest statements I've heard in a long while.

Ok,
I just got a PIII 800mhz system!! It's awesome, I'm running Windows XP, ME, 2000, Server 2003, 98, 98SE, 95, 3.1, Linux, OS2 warp, Dos, NT 3.51, NT 3.1 all one system!!!!! Only for $200! Thats only 15 bucks for each rig is pretty OK.

now why in the HELL would you run all of those?

You totally missed his point.

I know

It's goku though

Sorry but that doesn't give you the license to be stupid.


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Yours truely,
Customer Relations Board.

 

[SampSon]

Apple's pc market is little more than OS development now.

 

[ChAoTiCpInOy]

How many times do I have to say this? Apple is a HARDWARE MANUFACTURER. They make Mac OS X to sell their HARDWARE. But seriously though, those comparisons with those dell workstations are pretty sweet. Cheaper and it will probably run most OSes known to man. And I mean come on now, this is not a gaming PC. Last I checked, the Quadro is a workstation graphics card. And what are you going to do with 4 nvidia 7300 GTs. I mean is that some quad sli already. Can you use that for gaming?

 

[revnja]

Originally posted by: manly

Originally posted by: adambooth
They look nice, but I've had my heart set on the iMac Intel Core Duo for some time now. Was waiting until this week to see if Steve was going to announce an upgrade to the line. Think I'm gonna go ahead and buy one now.

Bah, wait for the Core 2 Duo which probably lands before the end of summer. Will ATI have a new mid-level GPU to replace the Radeon X1600 by then? Apple will probably use Conroe instead of Merom.

Only reasons to get an iMac or MBP right away is if you need one, or want to get the iPod nano promo for students.

I don't really care about the nano promo, I'm just wondering if it'll be worth it to hold out for a tiny speedbump. I would like a BTO option for the higher-end graphics card on the 17" model, though. The current iMac model is tried and true, and doesn't have any hardware bugs in it.

I'm usually not one to be an early adapter (I usually wait for Rev. X models), but perhaps it will be in my best interest to wait until Sept/Oct since the iMac line is pretty overdue for an update.

 

[theprodigalrebel]

Originally posted by: ElFenix

Originally posted by: theprodigalrebel
I just configured this:

Specifications
* Two 2.66GHz Dual-Core Intel Xeon
* 2GB (4 x 512MB)
* 250GB 7200-rpm Serial ATA 3Gb/s
* ATI Radeon X1900 XT 512MB (2 x dual-link DVI)
* 1 x SuperDrive
* Apple Keyboard and Mighty Mouse - U.S. English
* Mac OS X - U.S. English

$3,149 (Moving up to Two 3GHz processors is an extra $800)

I actually thought it's kinda well-priced. I was expecting some VoodooPC-style $8000 machine. Two 2.66GHz Woodcrest CPUs cost $1521.99 on Newegg. Throw in a premium, dual-socket Xeon motherboard...maybe $1900. hard drive & memory brings it to $2,200. Graphics Card brings it to $2500. Optical Drive, Keyboard & Mouse...$2600. Operating System...$2800. Not bad. Apple only charging $300 extra bucks? Outfit it with a nice LCD and you have a pretty well-priced Dual CPU Dual-Core System (as they call it, Quad-Core). This is nothing compared to what Falcon NW or VoodooPC would charge for a uber-PC.

Of course, it says 3-5 weeks for delivery. But I'm impressed with the price.

that's not even counting the best chassis in the industry.

:Q

Not just the case...I even forgot to include the Power Supply! Who would spend less than $150 on a dual-CPU Woodcrest system? Slap on an Apple Warranty & Support (which I hear is great) and this Mac looks like a killer value for someone who really needs the hardware! But I must say that RAM upgrades are pretty pricey on the Apple website.

 

[Falloutboy]

of course these things are expensive. Your paying for a workstation machine you gotta take the cost of the parts (which tbh if bought alone would cost atleast 75% of what these things cost) then your paying for the OS, al the included software, Support and Warrenty. Plus the fact that tbh Final Cut is up there with Avid (Avid is better in some ways but Final Cut is better in others) as prolly the best Video Editing Suite Avail.

When you make money of a machine you don't want to have to trouble shoot something when your on a deadline you want it to work and if it doesn't have someone to call and bitch at if it doesn't

 

[SLCentral]

Originally posted by: ChAoTiCpInOy
How many times do I have to say this? Apple is a HARDWARE MANUFACTURER. They make Mac OS X to sell their HARDWARE. But seriously though, those comparisons with those dell workstations are pretty sweet. Cheaper and it will probably run most OSes known to man. And I mean come on now, this is not a gaming PC. Last I checked, the Quadro is a workstation graphics card. And what are you going to do with 4 nvidia 7300 GTs. I mean is that some quad sli already. Can you use that for gaming?

The 4 nVidia 7300GT's are not in SLI, but they're in individual PCI Express (I'm thinking x16, but I'm not sure) slots to power multiple displays. No SLI-loving in the Mac Pro.

 

[codeyf]

Since the switch to Intel procs, can you really still call Apple a H/W manufacturer??

 

[So]

Originally posted by: codeyf
Since the switch to AMD procs, can you really still call Dell a H/W manufacturer??

Now does your question sound crazy?

 

[Legend]

I built a computer with a GPU better than than for $2000 about 2 years ago.

 

[AMDZen]

Originally posted by: codeyf
Since the switch to Intel procs, can you really still call Apple a H/W manufacturer??

They were never a HW manufacturer. They've always been a 3rd party advertisement company.

 

[So]

Originally posted by: Legend
I built a computer with a GPU better than than for $2000 about 2 years ago.

I built a computer with a network card better than that for $500 five years ago! OMG! :Q

Seriously people. I'm not Mac fan, but these criticisms are jut weak.

 

[Legend]

Originally posted by: So

Originally posted by: Legend
I built a computer with a GPU better than than for $2000 about 2 years ago.

I built a computer with a network card better than that for $500 five years ago! OMG! :Q

Seriously people. I'm not Mac fan, but these criticisms are jut weak.

How is that weak? Apple always sells outdated technology for an extreme premium. And network card? How is that anywhere near as important as a GPU?