Apple Updates Mac Pro With Up to 12 CPU Cores

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[citation][nom]Jordanjorannadanna[/nom]Now price a PC with similar specs and see who can get the lowest price. Winner gets free couch insurance!![/citation]
No such thing as a peecee with similar specs. Compare a workstation, with Xeon CPU's (or RISC equivalent) and Registered ECC memory, running a UNIX operating system. The Mac Pro is way cheaper than comparable AIX, HP-UX, and SGI workstations. Workstation != Peecee. This machine is not for you, move along and play with your kiddie peecee.
 
[citation][nom]scook9[/nom]Considered it is a fully warranted dual xeon workstation, I have to admit, this is less overpriced then Mac stuff usually is....And Tom's did an article a year or so back showing that the Mac Pro is within like 5% of a comparably built system with ots parts - so get off that high horse.The processors alone are about $1500 each.[/citation]
Wow - you really do think like Apple. The 6-core processors cost about $1050. Way to inflate the price.
 
[citation][nom]wotan31[/nom]No such thing as a peecee with similar specs. Compare a workstation, with Xeon CPU's (or RISC equivalent) and Registered ECC memory, running a UNIX operating system. The Mac Pro is way cheaper than comparable AIX, HP-UX, and SGI workstations. Workstation != Peecee. This machine is not for you, move along and play with your kiddie peecee.[/citation]

Yes, this is a workstation and needs to be compared with other workstations.

If you do want to compare Apple products with PC's loaded with Windows, then lets compare iMacs then. Actually a real comparison would be to conect my laptop to a monitor. Because iMacs are basically laptops in a not easily transportable form. With all of the problems laptops have with none of the advantages a tower has.
 
[citation][nom]wotan31[/nom]No such thing as a peecee with similar specs. Compare a workstation, with Xeon CPU's (or RISC equivalent) and Registered ECC memory, running a UNIX operating system. The Mac Pro is way cheaper than comparable AIX, HP-UX, and SGI workstations. Workstation != Peecee. This machine is not for you, move along and play with your kiddie peecee.[/citation]
You need to move along Apple fanboy. First, Apple isn't even offering the 6-core Xeon yet if you configure the Mac Pro online. The best configuration I could get (for comparison) is this:

# Two 2.93GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon
# 16GB (8x2GB)
# Mac Pro RAID Card
# 1TB 7200-rpm Serial ATA 3Gb/s
# 1TB 7200-rpm Serial ATA 3Gb/s
# 1TB 7200-rpm Serial ATA 3Gb/s
# ATI Radeon HD 4870 512MB
# One 18x SuperDrive
# Apple Mouse
# Apple Keyboard with Numeric Keypad (English) and User's Guide

Final price: $8000.

Now, let's compare it to a non-Apple pre-built Linux workstation with 2x 6-core Xeons and a >REAL< workstation grade video code with 1.5GB:

Dual Intel Westmere Xeon X5660 (2.80 GHz) Six Core CPU w/ 12 MB L3 Cache
24 GB Samsung DDR3-1333 ECC/Reg DIMM Memory (Up to 96 GB)
Supermicro X8DAi Intel 5520
2 PCI-E 2.0 x16, 3 PCI Slots
3x WD RE3 1TB 32MB Cache Hard Disks in RAID 5
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 480 PCI-E 2.0 Graphics w/ 1536 MB Memory

Final price? $7822.

So, I pay about $200 less for the 12-core configuration than Apple's comparable 8-core configuration.

Let's be fair though. What if I change my online Linux configuration to use the 2.93 Quad Core Xeons?

Changing just my 2x 6-core Xeons to 2x quad-core brings my final price to $5161. That's a savings of roughly $3k. 5% difference between Apple and other OEM's?? I think not.

Let's make it MORE interesting. Let's take Apple's configuration and my 2x quad core Linux config and bump them to 32GB ECC (max offered by Apple):

Mac Pro price: $11,199
Pre-built Linux PC price: $6,113.

5%? I think not again. The Apple product is 1.83x more expensive.

In closing, I can get >TWO< 32GB Linux-based workstation class 2x quad core Xeon systems for the price of your one Mac Pro. Not only that, the hardware in my systems will be BETTER with workstation-grade graphics cards.
 
[citation][nom]wotan31[/nom]No such thing as a peecee with similar specs. Compare a workstation, with Xeon CPU's (or RISC equivalent) and Registered ECC memory, running a UNIX operating system. The Mac Pro is way cheaper than comparable AIX, HP-UX, and SGI workstations. Workstation != Peecee. This machine is not for you, move along and play with your kiddie peecee.[/citation]
thats because they know businesses don't use apple crap in the work industry, so its all about demand and quantity. imagine if people actually bought these apple workstations. if they ran out of quantity like HP did, they would hike the prices to triple. and besides, These workstations are actually meant for RAID controlling and such, and have the room for upgrades. These apple workstations just stick SSD's in there and call it a RAID. its not a workstation, its a desktop; despite it having ECC memory or not. Hell, i've seen laptops with Xeon processors. doesn't really mean anything. And with all that being said, everyone would still be smarter buying a Non-workstation PC and having it perform better than a workstation PC.
 
dear lord. these arn't your custom built gaming machines. these are wonderful WORKSTATIONS. anyone that uses workstations everyday is drooling over these specs for the small amount of money they cost. businesses usually buy these. not pimply teenagers who play SC2.

get over the whole I HATE APPLE THING guys. they are an evil tech company just like the next.

from a "technical" perspective, go on newegg right now and try to build one for that cost. you can't. oh, and remember, xeon, not core.
 
[citation][nom]smlong426[/nom]Wow - you really do think like Apple. The 6-core processors cost about $1050. Way to inflate the price.[/citation]

The x5570 (the top option) is $1440 each if you buy a thousand at a time.....
http://ark.intel.com/Product.aspx?id=47920

These are not i7 980x's, they are binned and more capable xeons, nevermind they are 95W parts....do some research idiot

I would not invest this much in a box to get a less than top performing part. And I don't think like Apple I think like any business.
 
[citation][nom]linwin2010[/nom]2500 Linux vs 2500 Windows vs 2500 mac![/citation]

To be fair the linux system will be very similar to the windows one just with slightly better parts due to the lack of need to buy the os.
 
[citation][nom]wotan31[/nom]Because you can't buy an equivalent Windows system for less cash. This isn't a peecee with consumer grade cpu's and memory. This is a real workstation with Xeon server chips, and registered ECC memory. Equivalent workstation offerings from HP, Sun, IBM, and SGI cost the same or more. Heck, go to Newegg and check it out yourself - the six core Xeon chip is more than $1700.00 just for one chip, and this Mac Pro has two of them.[/citation]

Agree completely. This is a WORKSTATION machine, not some machine you built to play video games with. I can tell you that this machine can render frames in After Effects faster than any i5 can. Therefore it should be compared to other workstations.

Having said that, the quad-core Mac Pro is MUCH more reasonably priced than the 8-core Mac Pro. It should be around $500 more for the extra processor and memory, not $1000.
Anyway, I just built the quad-core machine on Newegg for $2100, $400 less than what Apple is selling it for. Having said that, $400 is about the inflation that all computer companies sell their servers/workstations for. Inflation for the average customers is usually MUCH less than inflation for business customers.

Edit: So was zooming on the Apple website, and once you start adding those extra options, the price gets WAY out of control really quickly.
 
These system prices are outrageous. I don't know how some of you people can honestly come on here and try to say that this is in any way shape or form a good deal. Where do you people buy your computers? Oh yea...Mac stores.

System 1 showed up top
Processor - $320 on amazon.
http://www.amazon.com/Processor-Intel-W3530-LGA1366-Socket/dp/B003COF5C4
Ram - $154 on newegg. Wait thats 4gb and the system only comes with 3.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820134943
Video - $180.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102858&cm_re=hd_5770_1gb-_-14-102-858-_-Product

System 2
the main difference is the processor. $390x2
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819117234


To say there is no windows machine with similar specs is just plain silly. Mac used to be different it so many aspects with their hardware. Now they use the same hardware as everyone else with a different operating system.

Come on. Are people this blind. You can build system1 for about 1100 after all is said and done.
 
Just configured this PC in CANADA for $5,013.09

Dual Xeon 5650 @ 2.66GHz
EVGA Classified SR-2 MOBO WITH SATA3 and USB3.0
24GB DDR3-1333
4x WD Caviar Black SATA3 6Gbps 64MB Cache Dual Proc 1TB HDD's
1200 watt Corsair 80PLUS Gold PSU
NZXT Whisper E-ATX Full Tower Server Case
EVGA Geforce GTX460
Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit
PC Assembly


all for the low low price of $5,013.09

Now if I'm not mistaken, Apples BASELINE 12 core is going to be $6K US?

That means probably baseline config of these 2 procs, but with only 8GB of RAM and 1x 1TB HDD or something like that.


Already almost $1K cheaper and already more powerful.
 
dear lord. these arn't your custom built gaming machines. these are wonderful WORKSTATIONS. anyone that uses workstations everyday is drooling over these specs for the small amount of money they cost. businesses usually buy these. not pimply teenagers who play SC2.

get over the whole I HATE APPLE THING guys. they are an evil tech company just like the next.

from a "technical" perspective, go on newegg right now and try to build one for that cost. you can't. oh, and remember, xeon, not core.
Click to expand...


Are you kidding me? I just built a dual xeon X5670 6-core system with the following specs, for less than $5,000.

2x Xeon X5670 6-Core CPU
24GB (6x4GB DDR3-1333 ECC Registered) Memory
1x 2TB SATA III Hard Drive
DVD Burner, 24X SATA
Radeon HD 5870 1GB Video Card

Now, considering that the 8-core version of Mac Pro with the following specs is $6949.00..

Two 2.93 Quad-Core Intel Xeon
16GB of RaM
2TB SATA II Hard Drive
Radeon HD 4870 512MB
18X DVD Burner

O wait..you said that you CAN'T build an equivalent workstation for that cost. I must have done something wrong...
 
[citation][nom]scook9[/nom]Considered it is a fully warranted dual xeon workstation, I have to admit, this is less overpriced then Mac stuff usually is....And Tom's did an article a year or so back showing that the Mac Pro is within like 5% of a comparably built system with ots parts - so get off that high horse.The processors alone are about $1500 each.[/citation]

Your high. Theirs two problems. 1 those processors are add ons, So they get charged more when you configure the system. 2 Apple doesn't refresh their lines often enough. So as of right now they are 5 to 10 percent higher. Three years from now right before they refresh the line, they will still want the same amount of money for these systems.
 
It really makes me LMAO to see so many comments on here from the Mac haters. If you don't like this particular computer, fine, don't buy it. Simple as that. But to post mindless insults and false comparisons all in the name of berating the product.... well.... Jealous much? lol.
 
[citation][nom]smlong426[/nom]Not only that, the hardware in my systems will be BETTER with workstation-grade graphics cards.[/citation]
Why such a focus on the stupid graphics card? Who cares about the graphics card. Seriously. Since when all workstations are 3D graphics workstations? The latter is a distinct subclass, not the whole species. Workstation users want lots of CPU horsepower and RAM, with high reliability, which the Mac Pro's deliver nicely.

If users don't want high performance 3D graphics why should they have to pay for them? If they do want them then it's on the options list.

Mac Pro targets audio and video production. Movies, TV, commercials, advertising, studio recording etc. All of these things require a fast 2D graphics card. None of these things require 3D.

This is not a video game console, lol!
 
[citation][nom]scook9[/nom]The x5570 (the top option) is $1440 each if you buy a thousand at a time.....http://ark.intel.com/Product.aspx?id=47920These are not i7 980x's, they are binned and more capable xeons, nevermind they are 95W parts....do some research idiotI would not invest this much in a box to get a less than top performing part. And I don't think like Apple I think like any business.[/citation]
You're almost right, jerk. First, there is no x5570 mentioned anywhere in this article. So, I assume you are referring to the X5670. I was referring to the W3680 in my price comparison since it had the highest clock speed. But I guess you have to get the slower X5670 for SMP.

At any rate, I see the X5670 for $1350 eWiz for quantity of >ONE
 
[citation][nom]wotan31[/nom]Why such a focus on the stupid graphics card? Who cares about the graphics card. Seriously. Since when all workstations are 3D graphics workstations? The latter is a distinct subclass, not the whole species. Workstation users want lots of CPU horsepower and RAM, with high reliability, which the Mac Pro's deliver nicely.If users don't want high performance 3D graphics why should they have to pay for them? If they do want them then it's on the options list.Mac Pro targets audio and video production. Movies, TV, commercials, advertising, studio recording etc. All of these things require a fast 2D graphics card. None of these things require 3D. This is not a video game console, lol![/citation]
Fine. Take out the video card and replace it with the same one used in the Mac Pro and save even MORE money.

What's your point exactly? You focus on one statement I make about the video card and ignore the fact that for the SAME or BETTER hardware, another OEM system is 1/2 the price of the Mac Pro? You must be blind.
 
You know what I find VERY amusing? The Mac fanboys keep voting down any post that shows a clear price comparison. That's classic.
 
[citation][nom]mrjeff[/nom]dear lord. these arn't your custom built gaming machines. these are wonderful WORKSTATIONS. anyone that uses workstations everyday is drooling over these specs for the small amount of money they cost. businesses usually buy these. not pimply teenagers who play SC2.get over the whole I HATE APPLE THING guys. they are an evil tech company just like the next.from a "technical" perspective, go on newegg right now and try to build one for that cost. you can't. oh, and remember, xeon, not core.[/citation]
Wrong. Forget getting on Newegg and "building it yourself." You can get a pre-built system with the same specs for considerably less money.
 
[citation][nom]mrjeff[/nom]from a "technical" perspective, go on newegg right now and try to build one for that cost. you can't. oh, and remember, xeon, not core.[/citation]

Ummmmm, I can get Xeons and dual socket mother boards on Newegg. WTF are you talking about?
 
If I didn't have my gaming rig (thanks newegg) I would be buying a 27" 2.93Ghz core i7 iMac for $2,200. Does it cost too much, I say no.
First try and find a 2560x1440 27" monitor. It is hard. 90+% are at the 1080P (1920x1200) well below the 27" iMac resolution of 2560x1440.
None at Newegg but Dell has a 27" monitor at the same specs as the iMac screen for $1,100
http://accessories.us.dell.com/sna/products/Displays/productdetail.aspx?c=us&l=en&cs=19&sku=224-8284

Now take the balance of the money you have $1,100. OK build a 2.93Ghz core i7 rig with the same specs as the 27" iMac and you will eat this $1,100 up real fast but not have the great iMac design or the great OS X running on it either.

I would bootcamp this with Windows 7 for games. Would be the perfect computer, (drooling) Bootcamp into Windows for some gaming then back into OS X for everthing else.
 
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