Apple intros new Mac Pro with "Nehalem" Xeon processors

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  • Reply 141 of 506
    seek3rseek3r Posts: 179member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Virgil-TB2 View Post


    I didn't say it was Apple's fault, but has there *ever* been a time when the processors could be upgraded?



    My mac pro can be upgraded, any xeon 5400 series proc will drop right in, and as time goes on I'll probably be able to find the faster processors for cheaper and upgrade the machine...



    Quote:

    I'm just saying there is a disconnect between the perceived upgradeability of this machine and the reality. It's a tower, but it's simply not upgradeable in the same sense as any other tower.



    how so? I build a lot of machines. I also buy a lot, from many manufacturers (I maintain a cluster and it's associated servers and workstations). The mac pro is just as upgradeable, assuming you want to void the warranty (and if you think *that's* unique, take a look at dell's pricing on HDs for their disk arrays and servers ::shudders every time he looks at the MD1000 that sits above him in the machine room:: )



    Quote:

    Exactly, so my "old" machine (hardly a year old) is using incompatible memory and processors from this "new" one. And every time this happens, someone posts to the effect of how happy they are that the new machine is so fantastically "upgradeable" when in fact we might be in the same spot talking about the same thing next year.



    The old ram will be made for *long* time, there are many shops that are using xeons that will need FB-DIMMs in the future, but yes, eventually it will be obsolete and prohibitively expensive to find replacement ram <i> just like every other machine</i> ::glares at sun ultrasparc 60 under his desk::





    Quote:

    With WiFi, eSATA, and the advent of ZFS, they would be better off offering a much smaller sealed box with just the processors and memory that manages remote or connected storage and put the graphics in the monitor on a small replaceable board IMO



    You are apparently *not* the target market for this machine.



    Quote:

    That way, since the processors and memory are hardly ever upgradeable separate from the motherboard, they can be bought (and tossed) as one unit.



    which would be great if most people buying a mac pro were on a yearly upgrade cycle, this is a workstation, and those of us who use such machines are usually on a 3-5 year upgrade cycle, where you typically do small upgrades (ram/disk) then replace the entire machine at the next cycle (though I may drop in faster procs in mine if I get the chance :-p).



    Again, you are clearly not the target for this machine (or any other made by sun, dell, lenovo, HP, acer, etc in its class), go buy/build a cheap PC or buy an imac or mac mini and stop grouching
  • Reply 142 of 506
    benroethigbenroethig Posts: 2,782member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by maxijazz View Post


    This is clearly price increase, not decrease.

    I understand Apple, however don't like the decision.

    They increased Mac Pros price for double socket as previous edition (Harpertown) was eating high-end iMac sale. Harpertown with 2 sockets was incredibly attractive, so many of you confessed.



    That and you can pass any price hike you want when you're the only game in town for your platform.
  • Reply 143 of 506
    bwikbwik Posts: 565member
    I just wish this new computer had a cupholder and over 4 gigahertz. It is so slow. Also it has no serial port to connect to my keyboard. HELLO APPLE already bought a good keyboard from you 20 years ago! They keep changing the standards.



    There aren't any Philips screws holding the new processor on. How can I detach it? All you guys act like processors are so complicated now. Plus there is no floppy drive? Are you kidding? And where is the joystick? No preloaded Donkey Kong?
  • Reply 144 of 506
    You people are all bitching about the updates. How do you think I feel. I had to buy a MacPro on Sunday as my G5 died a horrible death and I was left machine-less. I knew the new MacPro was due out soon but didn't think it would be less than 48 hours from my purchase date. Luckily Apple offers a 14 day return policy so this puppy is going back. And for all the price bitchers out there, you have to admit the new RAM prices are incredible, unless of course you want 32GB. The additional $5000 is a little steep.
  • Reply 145 of 506
    oodlumoodlum Posts: 40member
    The Australian prices are utter insanity. Exchange rates aside, I'm talking about relative affordability. Consider that average wage here is about the same as in the USA, and check these out.



    Two 2.66GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon A$ 8,449.00

    Two 2.93GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon A$ 10,599.01



    Yes - that's A$ 10,599.01 without any upgrades to RAM, drives, graphics...
  • Reply 146 of 506
    As a long time PC guy (commodore 64 ring a bell) I have been ready to make the jump to the Mac Pro for some time, but was waiting to see the new updates. Trying to stay in the $2400 to $2800 range, do I get the previous gen dual quad core 2.8 which my local store still has, or do I go for the new single quad core 2.6? I am having a terrible time with this one. My local store is now discounting the previous gen to $2499 by the way. I am not real crazy about being limited to 8gb of ram, but hey what do I know? Photography is my main useage, lightroom, photoshop, etc. Any help?
  • Reply 147 of 506
    doughboydoughboy Posts: 47member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by melgross View Post


    I have never bought an Apple monitor either for my business or personally, after they discontinued the crt Studio series.



    Hi melgross,



    If you were to purchase a 20-24" monitor for personal use, which one(s) would you recommend?



    Regards,

    Sean
  • Reply 148 of 506
    Stupid question, could someone please tell me why they did not include a 2nd on board graphics chip for OpenCL?



    I am going to wait for SL to come out and get a 32 nm Westmere system.
  • Reply 149 of 506
    nikon133nikon133 Posts: 2,600member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by melgross View Post


    I know it's seems like a minor point, but a lot of people are making the error, and it leads to confusion.



    The i7 is Intel's brand for desktop chips.



    The Xeon is intel's brand for workstation and server chips.



    There is no i7 Xeon.



    Hm... there is new Xeon based on i7 architecture, isn't there..?
  • Reply 150 of 506
    awoodawood Posts: 1member
    I'm need to buy a new tower. What's the best bang for the buck?



    My application focus is Photoshop, Aperture, Final Cut Pro, VMware, and Windows XP (Autodesk AutoCAD, Revit, and Quantity Takeoff).



    - Quad 2.93 Gz, 6 GB ($3149)



    or



    - Oct 2.16 Gz, 6GB ($3299)



    Hopefully, we'll have some benchmarks soon.
  • Reply 151 of 506
    hmurchisonhmurchison Posts: 12,419member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by nikon133 View Post


    Hm... there is new Xeon based on i7 architecture, isn't there..?



    No the Xeon 3500 is the Server/Workstation equivalent to the Core I7 enthusiast desktop.



    The architecture is Nehalem. I know...clear as mud.
  • Reply 152 of 506
    hmurchisonhmurchison Posts: 12,419member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by awood View Post


    I'm need to buy a new tower. What's the best bang for the buck?



    - Quad 2.93 Gz, 6 GB ($3149)



    or



    - Oct 2.16 Gz, 6GB ($3299)



    Hopefully, we'll have some benchmarks soon.



    The Octo.



    Nehalem isn't fast enough to overcome the lack of 4-cores and the ondie

    memory controller is good but they typically don't strut their stuff until you

    have 4 socket systems which we don't have here.
  • Reply 153 of 506
    benroethigbenroethig Posts: 2,782member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by nikon133 View Post


    Hm... there is new Xeon based on i7 architecture, isn't there..?



    The core i7 and Xeon 3500 are the Bloomfield variant of Nehalem (same chip, consumer versions have ECC-support disabled.)

    The xeon 5500 is the gainestown variant of nehalem
  • Reply 154 of 506
    sybariticsybaritic Posts: 340member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by scrApple View Post


    The 24" Cinema Display is beautiful, but not so useful for photographers and graphic designers. It's not about reflections. It's about some degree of accuracy when going to print.



    Right on. As wonderful a company as they can be, from time to time Apple's decisions prove perplexing.
  • Reply 155 of 506
    haggarhaggar Posts: 1,568member
    The Mac Pro page no longer mentions the ability to use SAS hard drives. When configuring the Mac Pro on the Apple Store, SAS hard drives are no longer an option. The Apple RAID card still does not support external connections.



    There is still no mention of Crossfire or SLI support on the Mac Pro. A pair of high end Nvidia Geforce cards running SLI can provide better performance and cost less than a single Quadro card. But any time someone mentions a pair of SLI cards being a better value than a single Quadro card, some Apple apologist always responds with "Quadro is for professionals". So the Mac Pro does not support SLI because "Quadro is for professionals". Exactly how does that address the issue at all? And what if those "professionals" want more power than a single Quadro card can provide? On PCs. multiple Quadro cards can be used in SLI configuration. If a single Quadro card is so "professional" then wouldn't multiple Quadro cards running SLI be even more "professional"?



    But according to Apple apologists, the Mac Pro does not support Geforce SLI or even Quadro SLI because "Quadro is for professionals". Also note that an Nvidia Quadro card is no longer an option for the new Mac Pro. How "professional" is that?
  • Reply 156 of 506
    nowayout11nowayout11 Posts: 326member
    Yay, a price increase. Sounds like Apple's suffering from their OWN reality distortion. Apparently "innovating through a recession" means innovative accounting.
  • Reply 157 of 506
    solipsismsolipsism Posts: 25,726member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by hmurchison View Post


    No the Xeon 3500 is the Server/Workstation equivalent to the Core I7 enthusiast desktop.



    The architecture is Nehalem. I know...clear as mud.



    I'm not sure which naming convention is more confusing. Intel's seemingly, mostly random alpha-numeric model names or their Tolkien-ish code names.
  • Reply 158 of 506
    haggarhaggar Posts: 1,568member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by freakboy View Post


    the new chips have 3 memory controllers, so they run fastest w/ the ram chips in sets of 3. It is weird that the ram slots aren't in sets of 3. On core i7 MBs, they mostly have 6 ram slots.. max 24 gigs. (if you can find the 4 gig ram chips).



    Intel's own Core i7 motherboard has 4 RAM slots.
  • Reply 159 of 506
    melgrossmelgross Posts: 33,510member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Bert Reed View Post


    As a long time PC guy (commodore 64 ring a bell) I have been ready to make the jump to the Mac Pro for some time, but was waiting to see the new updates. Trying to stay in the $2400 to $2800 range, do I get the previous gen dual quad core 2.8 which my local store still has, or do I go for the new single quad core 2.6? I am having a terrible time with this one. My local store is now discounting the previous gen to $2499 by the way. I am not real crazy about being limited to 8gb of ram, but hey what do I know? Photography is my main useage, lightroom, photoshop, etc. Any help?



    Believe it or not, 8GB RAM is plenty, unless you are doing large composites. As long as Photoshop efficiency is at 100%, then more RAM serves no purpose. You need to have enough to run the plug-ins as well, but that is read in the efficiency line in the small window menu when you choose it.



    If you are running 1GB images or composites, then I would recommend more, but we were running 1GB files on G4's with 1.5 GB RAM. not pleasant, but it worked.
  • Reply 160 of 506
    melgrossmelgross Posts: 33,510member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by DoughBoy View Post


    Hi melgross,



    If you were to purchase a 20-24" monitor for personal use, which one(s) would you recommend?



    Regards,

    Sean



    Ah, what exactly do you do with your "personal use"?
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