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Apple Updates Mac Pro With Up to 12 CPU Cores

By - Source: Tom's Hardware US

The Mac Pro has gotten some spendy hardware updates.

Apple today unveiled a new Mac Pro line with up to 12 processing cores and up to 50 percent greater performance than the previous generation, thanks to the use of Intel's quad-core and 6-core Xeon processors (up to 3.3GHz), all-new ATI graphics and the option for up to four 512GB solid state drives.

The Mac Pro now comes with the ATI Radeon HD 5770 graphics processor with 1GB of memory, and customers can configure-to-order the faster ATI Radeon HD 5870 with 1GB of memory.

Apple also updated its all-in-one iMac line with the latest Intel Core i3, Core i5 and Core i7. The dual core chips run up to 3.6 GHz, while quad-core speeds are up to 2.93 GHz. Discrete graphics include the ATI Radeon HD 5750.

The new Mac Pro will be available in August and the iMacs are available now. Check out the prices and configs for the Mac Pros below:

The new quad-core Mac Pro, with a suggested retail price of $2,499 (US), includes:

one 2.8 GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon W3530 processor with 8MB of fully-shared L3 cache;
3GB of 1066 MHz DDR3 ECC SDRAM memory, expandable up to 16GB;
ATI Radeon HD 5770 with 1GB of GDDR5 memory;
two Mini DisplayPorts and one DVI (dual-link) port (adapters sold separately);
1TB Serial ATA 3Gb/s hard drive running at 7200 rpm;
18x SuperDrive® with double-layer support (DVD±R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW);
four PCI Express 2.0 slots;
five USB 2.0 ports and four FireWire® 800 ports;
AirPort Extreme® 802.11n;
Bluetooth 2.1+EDR; and
Apple Keyboard with numerical keypad and Magic Mouse.

The new 8-core Mac Pro, with a suggested retail price of $3,499 (US), includes:

two 2.4 GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon E5620 processors with 12MB of fully-shared L3 cache per processor;
6GB of 1066 MHz DDR3 ECC SDRAM memory, expandable up to 32GB;
ATI Radeon HD 5770 with 1GB of GDDR5 memory;
two Mini DisplayPorts and one DVI (dual-link) port (adapters sold separately);
1TB Serial ATA 3Gb/s hard drive running at 7200 rpm;
18x SuperDrive with double-layer support (DVD±R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW);
four PCI Express 2.0 slots;
five USB 2.0 ports and four FireWire 800 ports;
AirPort Extreme 802.11n;
Bluetooth 2.1+EDR; and
Apple Keyboard with numerical keypad and Magic Mouse.

Configure-to-order options include:

one 3.2 GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon W3565 processor for the quad-core Mac Pro;
one 3.33 GHz 6-core Intel Xeon W3680 processor for the quad-core Mac Pro;
two 2.66 GHz 6-core Intel Xeon X5650 processors (12-cores) for the 8-core Mac Pro;
two 2.93 GHz 6-core Intel Xeon X5670 processors (12-cores) for the 8-core Mac Pro;
two ATI Radeon HD 5770 cards with 1GB of GDDR5 memory;
one ATI Radeon HD 5870 card with 1GB of GDDR5 memory;
up to 16GB of DDR3 ECC SDRAM memory for the quad-core Mac Pro;
up to 32GB of DDR3 ECC SDRAM memory for the 8-core Mac Pro;
up to four 512GB solid state drives (SSD); or
up to four 1TB or 2TB Serial ATA hard drives running at 7200 rpm;
Mac Pro RAID card;
dual-channel or quad-channel 4Gb Fibre Channel card; and
up to two 18x SuperDrives with double-layer support.

Accessories include: Magic Trackpad, Apple Battery Charger, wired Apple Mouse, wireless Apple Keyboard, Mini DisplayPort to DVI Adapter, Mini DisplayPort to Dual-Link DVI Adapter (for 30-inch DVI display), Mini DisplayPort to VGA Adapter, the AppleCare® Protection Plan; and pre-installed copies of Mac OS X Snow Leopard Server; iWork®, Logic Express 9, Final Cut Express 4 and Aperture 3. Complete options and accessories are available at www.apple.com/macpro.

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  • 0
    hemburger , July 28, 2010 4:27 PM
    A Mac desktop seems a bit overpriced... although I'll admit I do like the iMacs, pretty.
  • 2
    machvelocy , July 28, 2010 4:39 PM
    A 6 core pc with similar hardware costs $1899 (1299 if the procs are amd). That means mac pro pretty casing cost more than $1000.....
  • 0
    jamie_macdonald , July 28, 2010 4:52 PM
    what a waste of good money, could easily outclass that with a nice lian-li case for so much cheaper...
  • 0
    Silmarunya , July 28, 2010 7:15 PM
    The iMac still remains overpriced and continues to lack a potent graphics card. A 5750 as top of the line GPU for a 2560x1440 display? Forget gaming, forget heavily GPU assisted software. Still, it's pretty and seems a good choice for people with lots of money, a bit of style and no need for high end hardware.

    If all you do with a PC is browsing the web and typing reports/presentations/contracts and such things, you might consider one, but even then it's too overpriced imo.

    The MacPro seems to be suffering the same problem: it's overpriced, especially options like additional HDD's or a GPU upgrade are sold for an insane amount of money.
  • 3
    andybird123 , July 28, 2010 8:37 PM
    Macs are computers for people who don't like / don't know / don't want to know how to use a computer. For an extra $1000 you get an operating system that is configured out of the box to work with one limited set of hardware, a handful of software programs and a one button mouse, and you don't even really need antivirus software because so few people use them that no one bothers writing virus' for them. Although they would be by far easier targets as by buying a Mac they've already demonstrated they have more money than sense and very little sense at that.
  • -3
    anonymous@guest , July 28, 2010 11:12 PM
    I don't think it's entirely justified to compare the cost of a mac to that of a PC purely on the basis of hardware. You have to remember that Macs come with a lot of good software for video editing etc. and that these things would cost you extra on a PC.
  • 1
    mofnet , July 29, 2010 1:32 AM
    the mac pro is probably the best value mac computer apple sell, to build a pc using the same hardware (intel xeons, dual processor setup) wouldn't cost a great deal less.. comparing the mac pro to a single cpu pc is madness, even comparing the mac pro to a none xeon based pc is still madness and doesn't make much sense... the upgrades are insane however, you would buy the default spec (unfortunately buying the processor upgrade u were after) then add the rest from aftermarket sellers, other world computing for example).

    i have to admit tho, the imac has always been in my view the worst value for money apple product.... it's basically a desktop with a laptops price and performance!! not good..
  • 2
    machvelocy , July 29, 2010 1:33 AM
    jimb0678You have to remember that Macs come with a lot of good software for video editing etc. and that these things would cost you extra on a PC.

    LOL...

    dude, the cost for the preinstalled softwares will be added to the macs price, in other word, it'll squeeze your wallet even more.
  • -2
    anonymous@guest , July 29, 2010 4:29 AM
    wasted some time at dell's site and quickly came to the conclusion that for a similar machine to the 12 core mac it would be about $7,000. those processors aren't cheap!
    http://configure.us.dell.com/dellstore/config.aspx?oc=bw1s15b0&c=us&l=en&s=bsd&cs=04&kc=workstation-precision-t7500

    give it a whirl and see what you come up with.
  • 3
    LePhuronn , July 29, 2010 4:37 AM
    jimb0678I don't think it's entirely justified to compare the cost of a mac to that of a PC purely on the basis of hardware. You have to remember that Macs come with a lot of good software for video editing etc. and that these things would cost you extra on a PC.


    Final Cut Studio comes bundled with a Mac? AWESOME!! Now I don't have to spend any more money to be totally out-of-line with the professional media world.
  • 2
    hollett , July 29, 2010 4:42 AM
    Why would you team up a pair of 6 core Xeons with a cheap consumer graphics card. Also whats with the stupidly low 32GB ram limit.

    This is going up againts the likes of the HP Z800 or the Dell T7500 witch can take dual 6 core chips, large SAS/Sata arrays workstation graphics cards and support up to 192GB ram.

    This is just a half arsed product with no real market, other than fanboys who like to brag.
  • 1
    gamesmachine , July 29, 2010 4:51 AM
    jimb0678I don't think it's entirely justified to compare the cost of a mac to that of a PC purely on the basis of hardware. You have to remember that Macs come with a lot of good software for video editing etc. and that these things would cost you extra on a PC.


    Yeah...but not $1000 more...
  • 0
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  • 0
    runningbot , August 27, 2010 1:48 AM
    What are you doing that you would need that much number crunching prowess? Rendering Toy Story 4?
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