Apple today unveiled the new Mac Pro, a quad Xeon, 64-bit desktop workstation featuring two new Dual-Core Intel Xeon processors running up to 3.0 GHz and a new system architecture that delivers up to twice the performance of the Power Mac G5 Quad. With advanced performance, greater expansion, higher performance graphics options and unprecedented customization, the newly designed Mac Pro is the ideal system for the most demanding user. The introduction of the Mac Pro marks the completion of a rapid and seamless transition for Apple, with the entire Mac family now using Intel’s latest processors.
“Apple has successfully completed the transition to using Intel processors in just seven months — 210 days to be exact,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO, in the press release. “And what better product to complete it with than the new Mac Pro, the workstation Mac users have been dreaming about.”
The new Mac Pro features the new Dual-Core Intel Xeon 5100 series processor based on the revolutionary Intel Core microarchitecture, delivering breakthrough performance and power efficiency. The new Mac Pro is up to twice as fast as the Power Mac G5 Quad running industry standard benchmarks and features two Dual-Core Intel Xeon processors running up to 3.0 GHz, each with 4MB of shared L2 cache and independent 1.33 GHz front-side buses. With 667 MHz DDR2 fully-buffered memory, the Mac Pro also boasts a 256-bit wide memory architecture for amazing bandwidth.
With more than 4.9 million possible configurations, the Mac Pro delivers unprecedented customization to meet even the most demanding performance, expansion and storage needs. The newly redesigned Mac Pro features an all new, direct attach storage solution for cable free, snap in installation of up to four 500GB Serial ATA hard drives for a total of 2TB of internal storage — the most ever on a Mac — and support for two optical drives to simultaneously read and/or write to CDs and DVDs. Every Mac Pro includes three full-length PCI Express expansion slots and one double-wide PCI Express graphics slot to support high-powered, double-wide graphics cards without sacrificing multiple slots. Providing quick and convenient access to connect the most popular external devices, the front panel of the Mac Pro includes a FireWire 800 port, a FireWire 400 port and two USB 2.0 ports with additional FireWire 800, FireWire 400 and three USB 2.0 ports on the back panel. Mac Pro also includes dual Gigabit Ethernet ports, optical digital input and output, analog audio input and output, and optional built-in support for AirPort(R) Extreme and Bluetooth 2.0+EDR.
Every Mac Pro comes standard with the NVIDIA GeForce 7300 GT with 256MB of video memory, providing built-in support for dual-displays and Apple’s 30-inch Cinema HD Display. The ATI Radeon X1900 XT and the NVIDIA Quadro FX 4500, both with 512MB of video memory, are available as build to order options and provide built-in support for up to two 30-inch Apple Cinema HD Displays. The Quadro FX 4500 also includes a stereo 3D port to connect goggles for stereo- in-a-window applications and is ideal for the most demanding animation, special effects and scientific visualization applications. The Mac Pro supports up to four PCI Express graphics cards to drive up to eight displays at once for advanced visualization and large display walls.
The latest release of the world’s most advanced operating system, Mac OS(R) X version 10.4.7 Tiger, comes with every new Mac Pro, including Safari, Mail, iCal and iChat AV, running natively. Tiger includes an innovative software translation technology called Rosetta that lets customers run most Mac OS X PowerPC applications seamlessly. Intel-based Mac customers have more than 3,000 Universal applications to choose from including all of Apple’s own consumer and professional applications. Universal Mac software includes versions of Xsan, a high performance, enterprise class Storage Area Network (SAN) file system and Mac OS X Server, Apple’s award- winning server operating system. An updated list of Universal applications for Mac OS X is available at http://guide.apple.com/universal and is growing each day with hundreds of developers announcing support for Mac OS X Intel-based applications.
Apple’s award-winning widescreen flat panel Cinema Displays offer the perfect match for the Mac Pro and are now more affordable than ever. The 30-inch Cinema HD Display with an industry-leading 2560-by-1600 pixel resolution and the 23-inch Cinema HD Display with a 1920-by-1200 pixel resolution, ideal for editing High Definition Television (HDTV) content, are now priced at $1,999 and $999, respectively. The 20-inch Cinema Display is now just $699 and offers a 1680-by-1050 pixel resolution, more than enough space to edit full size images with plenty of room for on-screen palettes.
The Mac Pro is shipping today with the standard prebuilt configuration, including two 2.66 GHz Dual-Core Intel Xeon processors and priced at US$2,499, through the Apple Store, Apple’s retail stores and Apple Authorized Resellers. The 20-inch Cinema Display, 23-inch Cinema HD Display and the 30-inch Cinema HD Display are available through the Apple Store, at Apple’s retail stores and Apple Authorized Resellers for a suggested retail price of $699, $999 and $1,999, respectively.
The Mac Pro, with a suggested retail price of $2,499 (US), includes:
• two 2.66 GHz Dual-Core Intel Xeon processors
• 1GB of 667 MHz DDR2 fully-buffered ECC memory expandable up to 16GB
• NVIDIA GeForce 7300 GT with 256MB of GDDR2 SDRAM
• 250GB Serial ATA (3Gb/s) hard drive running at 7200 rpm
• 16x SuperDrive(TM) with double-layer support (DVD+R DL/DVD+/-RW/CD-RW)
• four PCI Express slots: one double-wide graphics slot and three full-length expansion slots
• ships with Mighty Mouse and Apple Keyboard
In addition to the standard configuration, the Mac Pro offers more than 4.9 million build-to-order options including: two 2.0 GHz or 3.0 GHz Dual-Core Intel Xeon processors; up to 16GB of 667 MHz DDR2 fully-buffered ECC memory; up to four 500GB Serial ATA hard drives running at 7200 rpm; up to two 16x SuperDrives with double-layer support; ATI Radeon X1900 XT and NVIDIA Quadro FX 4500 graphics cards, both with 512MB of GDDR3 SDRAM; AirPort Extreme module, Bluetooth 2.0+EDR module; Apple USB Modem; Apple Wireless Keyboard and Apple wireless Mighty Mouse; Mac OS X Server Tiger; Apple Xsan; and Apple Fibre Channel PCI Express Card. Complete build-to-order options and pricing are available here.
Ooops! Wrong OS version. None posted on the preview site yet?
Just spec’ed a Dell similar to the standard Mac Pro and it came in around $3000. Har.
Gthing, I agree the remote would’ve been nice, but the Mac Pro may have the IR. If so, the remote is only $29.
Apple’s reasoning is probably because the Mac Pro is basically geared towards Pro workstation users. I read sometime back about Apples reasoning for not including wifi and bluetooth as standard on their pro desktops and it was a logical explanation. I’ve somehow forgotten what that explanation is 🙁
At any rate, I’m not gonna gripe. The pricepoint and specs of this machine are gonna make a lot of people very happy.
This is a brilliant way of avoiding direct price comparisons to cheap POS Wintel towers.
If people want a cheap Mac, get an iMac when it gets Core 2 Duo in the next month.
If you REALLY want a tower for some reason, but you also want a cheap Mac (getting weird at that point), seriously just get a clue and buy an iMac. Or get a job, then buy a Mac Pro.
I like how these support up to 8 displays. Holy crap.
Wasn’t there a backup program similar to Time Machine called Rewind in the pre-OS X days? I have vague memories of this app.
Yawn….
Next!
Hey “MacSuck” or Static Mesh or Sputnik or whatever name your spewing with today.
Feeling left out are you?
You poor dear, why don’t you put in some extra hours at blockbuster so you can save up your pennies for a brand new Mac.
Come back here after and you can post under a name you can be proud of.
I promise we’ll forgive you.
It’s like your sick but want to get better.
Please get well soon.
$12,228 for a maxed-out Mac Pro
this is just all hardware upgraded, no additional software, no monitors, and no AppleCare
gthing, the Mac Pro will NOT be sitting in a convenient location … like, under your monitor/camera.
Leopard will be released in the Spring and will include the software you and others have been moaning about. Don’t you think by then they will ‘bump’ their monitors? Maybe iSight will be part of that ‘bump’?
Anyone know what sort of cooling mechanism these new machines have? From Apple’s pics there’s no visible fans and I’m hoping they got rid of them fluid-cooled rads.
Pardon me, $12,990… the price hadn’t completely updated before.
No Front Row Remote — Because its for work not play. I don’t want my employees watching videos on my work systems.
No Bluetooth or WiFi — Don’t use wifi for my workstation, too slow to move and share the big files we work on. Don’t use bluetooth either. And If I want one with Bluetooth ( for wireless keyboard action in the confrence room). I’ll add it to that one.
I am just happy to have a machine with a reasonable base price that I can customize to my needs. I am happy to to have to uneccessary items bundled adding to the base model cost.
Mac Pros are for business. If you buy one for home use, than you are going to have to coin up for the extra stuff that YOU need.
gthing
it’s impractical to put an IR port and cam on the Mac Pro… it’ll probably be sitting on the floor, or in a cabinet…
FrontRow is still completely usable without the remote. I use it all the time without the remote on my MacBook. Just press command+Esc and you’re there. No need to wait for Leopard.
Apple doesn’t include wi-fi/ bluetooth as standard on pro desktops for good reason. Most clients using a workhorse like the Mac Pro don’t use wifi, they are generally hardwired to a highspeed network. If they need wifi, they can get it as a reasonably priced add-on. This is not a consumer machine folks. Apple isn’t being stubborn, they are being logical.
The IR sensor wil probably be included in updated dispays, so you can use the Apple remote with them.
FrontRow, as mentioned before will be included in Loepard.
This is a Pro machine. For professionals. People use this to earn a living. Are you going to make a living using this machine specifically? No? Then this is not for you.
Only the base config is available for shipping now. Three to five weeks if you upgrade components like the graphics to an ATI X1900XT. It is going to be a long three or more weeks until my Quad 3 ghz machine arrives!
Love the new Mac Pro, but the memory options absolutely suck. I understand the 1GB option having 2 512MB chips, but look at the 2GB option. Only one way to get it. And thats with 4 512MB chips. Stupid, Apple. I bet a lot of people will be buying their systems with only 1GB and then buying third party memory to bump it up.
Looks like those ‘shopped pictures with the power supply up top were pretty realistic…
The case has evolved nicely. I like it. But I rather expected more than 2x boost over previous Quad. BTW, not impactical for the IR port. With 4 drive bays, why can’t I use my MacPro for something other than “work”? I’d love Front Row on this. An IR port probably adds a buck to the price. Or, if an Apple monitor can receive IR and relay the singal, that would work for me.
And, if your employees are using this for work editing videos, then they are watching movies at work. Please… hire responsible folks if you are so worried. And both of us shouldn’t be on this site.
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Front Row could be useful for client presentations of video.
I couldn’t figure out how cooling is managed, could any of you?
I’m struck by the staying power of the G5 when considering that, according to Apple, the new 2.66Ghz Mac Pro is only “up to 40% faster” than the Mac G5 Quad 2.5Ghz. In real world situations, the new Mac Pro will probably be only a bit faster than the old Quad G5.
Those G5s were pretty awesome while they lasted. I like that Macs switched away almost instantly once Intel overtook the G5. Apple has excellent strategy sometimes.
Now we just have to wait for Core 2 Duo MacBook Pros next month.
I expect that Apple will soon upgrade their cinema displays to include both an IR port and iSight camera. Should come with an Apple remote. That would make more sense than having the IR port in the tower.
“Too Hot!”:
The Core 2 Duo runs FAR cooler than the G5. It won’t need an elaborate cooling system, some some well-placed fans and reasonably-sized heatsinks.
Notice that the Mac Pro only weighs 42lbs, while the G5 Quad weighed 45lbs.
…. But I am actually off today… ( took a vacation day as I was approached BURNOUT )
I get why some people, especially home business users, would want their Mac to do Front Row after hours and on weekends. Hopefully as youe predicted Apple will add a separate dongle or add them to the displays. Either that or some smart 3rd party (like Griffin Technologies) will add an ir dongle fo the MacPro to their product line.
For me, FrontRow had always seemed to belong in the living room and is the perfect match for either the mac min ( for home use) or on a Mac laptop (for on the road entertainment).
Anywhoo, I still stand by my original statemnet that as business (or Pro) machines that the omission of bluetooth, WIfi, and an ir port for Front Row makes logical sense.
I beleive we will continue to see pple distance the Pro lines from the home lines when it comes to their products. And with the popularity of the iMac. MacMini, and MacBook I think they have it right.
I expect that Apple will soon upgrade their cinema displays to include both an IR port and iSight camera. Should come with an Apple remote. That would make more sense than having the IR port in the tower.
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I personally don’t think this will happen. Most pro users have multiple displays… That means if they buy 2 or more Cinema displays, they will also be getting two or more iSight cams. That’d be dumb… I think the external iSight cam is going to stick around for pro users.