“Yesterday, I took delivery of a new Mac Pro. Replacing a Mac mini, about two and a half years old, this is only the second time that I’ve opted for Apple’s top-of-the-line computer,” Kirk McElhearn writes for Kirkville. “Back in 2006, I bought the first Mac Pro, and kept it for more than two years. I especially liked that computer because it could hold four hard drives and two optical drives.”
“But, today, with Thunderbolt and USB 3, there’s only a small advantage to having internal storage. With an SSD for startup disk, and all my files that aren’t documents – my music and video files – on external disks, I don’t need the speed of internal hard drives,” McElhearn writes. “The Mac pro is a small but hefty device. As always, Apple’s packaging is up to the standards of their design. The compact box contains the computer, and a rolled-up power cord, and a few bits of paper: there’s a brief quick-start document, and some guarantee papers. And, you get black Apple stickers with the Mac Pro.”
“When running, the Mac Pro is essentially silent. It makes about the same amount of noise as my Mac mini, which is a very quiet computer, but what impresses me is that, even when the Mac Pro is working hard with all eight cores, the fan noise is barely noticeable. Compare that to the Mac mini, which sounds like an exhaust fan when it’s working hard,” McElhearn writes. “The Mac Pro is also quite cool; it gives off less heat in normal operations than my Apple 27″ Thunderbolt display.”
Read more, including how McElhearn’s new Mac Pro has something wrong with the Thunderbolt interface on my Mac Pro and he’ll be getting a replacement from Apple ASAP, in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: If you’re going to replace a Mac mini, you might as well go all the way!
I love the Mac Pro design but it would be nice to not have to pay the extra amount for server parts, when I’m only going to use it as a consumer desktop.
Uhhh… Get a Mac mini. It’s a consumer desktop, and it doesn’t have any server parts in it you have to pay for.
hahaha – just beat me there. Uhhh… vs. Ummmm…. and mini vs. iMac – what was hard about that?
Ummmm…. There’s an iMac for that. Nice, new, low price point to go with it, too.
And for those who want to reply with “But he likes the *design*,”, I say “Ikea has a trash can for that.” Seriously. Call the iMac your monitor, and the trash can your Mac Pro. Or don’t put anything there, and tell them you have a developer version of the upcoming model made of transparent aluminum. Couldn’t get more cool than that.
Uh Oh!
It is Made in the USA after all. Wouldn’t be the same without some sort of manufacturing problem.
I can’t believe we’re still getting reviews of Apple’s “new” Mac Pro eight months after it was revealed.
I initially thought the same, but decided I hope I can have a new Mac Pro some day. I’ll call it new, too.
The shipping time has dropped to within 24 hours.
Much better than than the initial 2-3months.
I would sell my blood to make money and buy one!
Makes me wonder if Apple will let this redesigned model ride a couple of years before updating. Or if the user can simply snap in new mother boards. My old Mac Pro is doing the things I want but I wouldn’t be a Mac pro fan if I didn’t have my eye on one of the new ones. Had to buy a new Mac Book Pro for work purposes first (I love it – what a portable machine!).
Having said that i know the new machine as is will be an embarrassment of riches for some time to come.
Actually I went the other way. Back in 2004 I bought my first Apple computer – a PowerMac G5 Dual 1.8. I decided upon this machine because coming from the Windows world, I thought internal upgradability was of prime importance. (I was wrong.)
In mid 2011 I retired the PowerMac for a Mac Mini (Quad core server edition – now with 16 GB) and have been happy ever since. However, for professionals, the Mac Pro is probably the way to go.