Mac Pro Update ?

fixmdude

I don't see much talk on here about the Mac Pro so I'm starting a new post.

I've always been a PC person, mainly because of the hardware. I've never owned a Mac because I couldn't build it myself and then rebuild it again later. Times, and technology, have changed. PC parts and software manufactures have gotten sloppy. Windows has always crashed but at least the hadware was reliable and easy to repair. Then Windows XPsp2 became reliable. And we had one or two great years.

Since then, you either stick with your old machine or you sacrifice reliability. New boards are flakey, Vista is even flakier, SLI may or may not work the next time you wake up the machine, so many parts have so many issues with so many other parts and drivers and bioses and softwares that you either have to buy it prebuilt or suffer the consequences.

Buying it prebuilt means you either get a stripped down shell of a machine or you get a second mortgage on your house.

Then came the new Mac Pro. A $5000 quad Xeon PC for $4000 that can run OSX too so you could use that side for your iPod or iPhone (another Vista incompatibility). I need Windows for work, can't run work apps without it. But here's the promise of a Mac that can run windows apps potentially more reliably than that "PC", for less money, and you get the Mac apps on top of it.

Everytime I try to wake up my cutting edge 2.66 Core2Duo PC with 7950 gx2 SLI from Vista's sleep mode and I get nothing but a black screen, I'm ready to toss the thing out the window and go buy one of these Mac Pros, put in a second hard drive, and load Windows natively to make it a dual booter. (I love the size of the mac mini but I go nuts waiting for it to do anything.)

So here's my question, which no one knows the answer to or it would have been posted already; since the base Mac Pro has had the same parts and same price since August of 2006. Isn't it time for an upgrade or price drop? My real question is: when Intel drops their quad core prices at the end of July will that impact the Mac Pros or will Apple just keep on maintaining the same prices like they have since Aug. '06?

The only thing that would sour me on my new, first Mac ever, would be for the price to drop $1000 (or for the same model to go from duo to quad) one week after I get it. Every time you get to a street light it warns you with a yellow before it turns red. Is there a yellow in the Mac world? You know that when Intel says they are dropping prices that PCs will drop in price too. I don't see that correlation with Macs. Is the fact that nothing was announced by Apple a sign that things will stay the same at the end of July? It would be nice if Apple offered one of those 30 day price difference guarantees.

Thanks.

fuzz_ball

Well the Mac Pro line *seems* ready for some kind of change. Really the only significant thing to happen in a long time was the addition of the top end dual-quad-core. So I would *think* the rest of the line is due for something, whether a price drop, an updated video card, or a new mouse; hell it's just do for some kind of refresh.



But really, if you've been in technology for any length of time you know this happens. I have a rule, once I buy a new computer I stay away from this board, ads, looking at computers, etc for 3 months so as to minimize the pain once I actually do find what I bought at a cheaper price later

docprego

Well the speculation is that the entire Pro line may go 8 core. Apparently 8 core prices will soon be so close to quad that there will be a minimal cost involved.



However as with all things Apple, it is a guess. One of the (frustrating) things about being a Mac enthusiast is that you better have lots of patience. They are extremely secretive about product changes and developments.

fixmdude

Quote:

Originally Posted by docprego


Well the speculation is that the entire Pro line may go 8 core. Apparently 8 core prices will soon be so close to quad that there will be a minimal cost involved.



However as with all things Apple, it is a guess. One of the (frustrating) things about being a Mac enthusiast is that you better have lots of patience. They are extremely secretive about product changes and developments.

Hmmm... I would think that the customers most likely to buy the biggest and best machine out there (the pro line) might also be the least likely people to be "patient" about buying a newer computer. That's a dillema. But I do like the thought of an 8 core instead of a quad core. Software is so far behind in being able to properly utilize 8 cores that I'd be well set for a good while.

l33r0y

Quote:

Originally Posted by fixmdude


Hmmm... I would think that the customers most likely to buy the biggest and best machine out there (the pro line) might also be the least likely people to be "patient" about buying a newer computer. That's a dillema. But I do like the thought of an 8 core instead of a quad core. Software is so far behind in being able to properly utilize 8 cores that I'd be well set for a good while.

Does software need to be optimised for a set amount of cores (i.e. 2, 4 or 8), or just multi-core ready (use what evers available)?

karelia

Quote:

Originally Posted by l33r0y


Does software need to be optimised for a set amount of cores (i.e. 2, 4 or 8), or just multi-core ready (use what evers available)?

Usually, it's either single-core or multi-core, no specifics needed. A lot of it is the operating system, as well. Tiger, as great as it is, doesn't take very good advantage of multi-core CPU's. Watching the Activity Monitor reveals that most heavy apps sit one one core, so on a quad-core Mac Pro, for instance, one core will be at 100%, while the others hover at about 2-4%. Supposedly, Leopard will remedy this, which, even by itself, is enough for me to warrant the upgrade. Getting it free helps, too .

onlooker

Being that the last update was really unimpressive to most Mac Pro users, and we are mostly all waiting for a complete upgrade not just a "processor drop in" update on the machine. I think (and pray nightly) that we'll see one at MWSF. They must have something for us. I can not imagine waiting for WWDC for one. That is just way too long. AFAIAC MWSF is too long, but they probably shouldn't update it any sooner as to not piss off the users that did buy the 2x quad core machine.

bryan fury

i got bored with waiting so got a maxed out 2.66



ok , it'll be out of date by the year end , but that's life



apple really seem to be so preoccupied with this iphone thing they've let everything else slip to a crazy level

drboar

Intel seem to back of from FBDIMMs and will use RDIMMs instead so we can expect lower latency DIMMS at lower prices.



The time to leave my G4 tower from 2000 seem to get closer

royboy

Quote:

Originally Posted by bryan fury


i got bored with waiting so got a maxed out 2.66



ok , it'll be out of date by the year end , but that's life



apple really seem to be so preoccupied with this iphone thing they've let everything else slip to a crazy level

Seems to be "the same old same old" story. Almost like when IBM/Moto were making the processors for Apple. I thought, at least with the switch to Intel, Macs would keep a faster pace of change, more choices similiar to the Win/Tel guys. Doesn't seem to be that way though.

rich-myster

man, we've come quite a ways with all the technology we've come up with in such a short amount of time. I remember when i was like 5, computers were so rare and expensive and unheard of, and now everyone has one. and think about it, now i'm 17,12 years later, and they have an octo core processer coming out, and these beastly machines have 16 gb ram. my dads old computer just untill recently had less than 100mb ...

bryan fury

yeah , i was checking out how much i paid for ram when i bought a quadra in 1994



16 megs cost me £400



now you can get 4 gigs for that



i did a quick calc and that's £25 per meg in 94 and 10p a meg now !!!



in other words , 4 gigs in 94 would have been ONE HUNDRED THOUSAND POUNDS !!!!!

duddits

I think Apple is eager to drop the price on the quad core. At the time it was released, Apple was forced to raise the price of their top desktop to levels it hadn't been at for a long time. While they needed to offer this machine, given their pricing strategies for the past couple of years and their efforts to combat the perception of an Apple price premium, I think they prefer to offer the basic top-of-the-line desktop for less.

fixmdude

Best Buy's website has had the Mac Pros labelled as Sold Out. You'd think an organization that big would have one available somewhere for purchasing online. I'm speculating that maybe they didn't re-order because a new model is coming out at the end of the month? Smaller computer stores aren't told about such changes until they happen. But Best Buy might get special treatment at the top, just for the people who do the ordering for the whole organization. Something to wonder about.

karelia

Quote:

Originally Posted by fixmdude


Best Buy's website has had the Mac Pros labelled as Sold Out. You'd think an organization that big would have one available somewhere for purchasing online. I'm speculating that maybe they didn't re-order because a new model is coming out at the end of the month? Smaller computer stores aren't told about such changes until they happen. But Best Buy might get special treatment at the top, just for the people who do the ordering for the whole organization. Something to wonder about.

I just have one question...



Why in God's name would you purchase a Mac from Best Buy? Hell, I won't buy ANY computer from Best Buy.

fixmdude

Quote:

Originally Posted by Karelia


I just have one question...



Why in God's name would you purchase a Mac from Best Buy? Hell, I won't buy ANY computer from Best Buy.

I didn't say I would. We're just using ancient native american tracking methods to determine where the Mac Pro is going.

philbot

Can't seem to be able to order a Mac Pro from UK Apple Store at the moment - is it just me or is this the same for anyone else?



I can't order an XServe either??

walter slocombe

Quote:

Originally Posted by philbot


Can't seem to be able to order a Mac Pro from UK Apple Store at the moment - is it just me or is this the same for anyone else?



I can't order an XServe either??

The UK site is showing ready to ship in 24 hours for me.



I've been waiting on new hardware all year (I mean REALLY new enough to make me spend) not this incremental stuff we've had to put up with.



Roll on Leopard and a new iMac AT LEAST!



pretty please Apple?

buddha

I'd expect the next update to bump up the bottom line CPU option and to include a more up-to-date graphics card. This will probably occur anytime between October (around Leopard's release which has an updated version of Open GL) and January.

onlooker

Quote:

Originally Posted by buddha


I'd expect the next update to bump up the bottom line CPU option and to include a more up-to-date graphics card. This will probably occur anytime between October (around Leopard's release which has an updated version of Open GL) and January.

That's a decent enough Idea, but I would rather wait for January and see a full upgrade. The entire machine is screaming for it.

karelia

I'd like the chance to toss an nVidia GeForce 8800 in there. And a reasonably priced one at that. I'm sick of, say, a $125 graphics card costing me $350 because someone spent five minutes flashing the firmware for a Mac.