When will a new Mac Pro arrive?

[Ron Marshall]

There are many rumours, and Apple is always tight lipped, but just in case, has anyone heard anything definate,or at least plausible,as to when the next gen Mac Pros will be released?

[msk2193]

Keep an eye out on this site....
http://buyersguide.macrumors.com/#Mac_Pro

[John NYC]

Evidently the chips are not avail. in sufficient quantity yet, and that is the holdup. Can't imagine it will be too much longer. I am waiting to buy myself.

[jim kitchen]

Gentlemen,

My sources indicate that sixteen cores will be within the next box, along with all the bells and whistles... :)

jim k

[Scott Knowles]

Great, all I need now. Looking at replacing my (2006) PPC with a Mac Pro, and getting everything down to order one, and now this, a newer one. The question is if they'll drop the price on the current models?

[msk2193]

Scott, up to now Apple has never lowered the price on current or (very soon to be) obsolete models. They do provide refurbished machines though that are a bit less pricey and covered under full warranty. Check their website.
The store people usually do not find out there is a new product until FedEx delivers the product to be put out on display that night!

[Scott Knowles]

...The store people usually do not find out there is a new product until FedEx delivers the product to be put out on display that night!

Thanks. I stopped by our (new) local store to ask about configuring a Mac Pro and outside of basic stuff (memory and HD's), much of which anyone can do, they can't or won't set one up for you. They pretty much advise you to buy it on-line and bring it in if you have the one-to-one service and have questions or problems. After that I only wanted to know the best way to transfer all my files and applications to the new Mac.

[Ron Marshall]

Thanks. I stopped by our (new) local store to ask about configuring a Mac Pro and outside of basic stuff (memory and HD's), much of which anyone can do, they can't or won't set one up for you. They pretty much advise you to buy it on-line and bring it in if you have the one-to-one service and have questions or problems. After that I only wanted to know the best way to transfer all my files and applications to the new Mac.

Sometimes Amazon sells new Apples below their suggested retail price.

There are cheaper options for memory and storage:

http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/memory/Mac-Pro-Memory#1066-memory

[Paul Kierstead]

A new Mac Pro will be introduced shortly after you buy one.

I bought mine as a refurb, though, so didn't feel bad at all having saved several hundred dollars (and several hundred more buying more memory from a 3rd party)

[jim kitchen]

I only wanted to know the best way to transfer all my files and applications to the new Mac...

Dear Scott,

OSX has a feature to transfer old files to the new Mac, as long as you have OSX 10.1 running on your older unit, and where you must activate the transfer during the startup of your new Mac, via Firewire. If you do not have that OS running on your older Mac, then you can transfer all your files to an external HD and import them onto the new Mac at your leisure... :)

You could touch base here, for a few answers: http://support.apple.com/kb/ht3322

I always do a clean software install, and I always uninstall important software from the older computer first, but the migration assistant does work well. I would not hesitate to uninstall any Adobe software from the older Mac prior to the transfer to the new Mac. The uninstall process will short circuit any potential reinstall issues with Adobe software going forward, because Adobe software always, always makes a phone call home to check the computer's ID.

Contact me directly, if and when you think you are going to have an issue, or might have an issue with the process.

jim k

[Jeffrey Sipress]

The Mac migration assistant is absolutely one of the best pleasures of upgrading a Mac. And when the new models are out, the previously current model will be available used at a great savings.

[antinapple]

along with all the bells and whistles...

[PenGun]

It seems that the 7500 series Xeons will be out soon. That will give you 8 cores and 16 threads per processor..

It's likely these will be the new Mac Pro CPUs.

You will of course pay about twice what you should for Steve's special sauce edition. Hi ho.

[PenGun]

Here is the new Mac Pro's competition. Well this is real sporty so maybe not. ;)

http://www.evga.com/articles/00537/

Which you can buy now. The 5520 chipset is most probably what the Mac Pro will use. It's just an Intel server in real life. I will do the math when it appears to show the price difference which, as I said, is about twice usually.

[PenGun]

Oh well wrong again. They went with the cheaper 5600 Xeons. You get a maximum of 6 cores for a possible 24 threads on the hypered dual processor.

The 8 core 7500s are $3000 so I guess it's not surprising. They appear to be 4 processor parts too.

You do get a reasonable video card instead of a joke though.

Prices are a bit hard as I have no good 5600 prices. I doubt they will be different than present 5500 though.

[mervynyan]

they have one 12 processors for $4999

[Allen in Montreal]

Seems they launched today.

"Apple’s new Mac Pro line comes with up to 12 processing cores and up to 50 percent greater performance than the previous generation. Featuring the latest quad-core and 6-core Intel Xeon processors, all-new ATI graphics, and the option for up to four 512GB solid state drives (SSD), the new Mac Pro continues to deliver amazing performance and expandability for the most demanding consumers and professionals."

[PenGun]

Seems they launched today.

"Apple’s new Mac Pro line comes with up to 12 processing cores and up to 50 percent greater performance than the previous generation. Featuring the latest quad-core and 6-core Intel Xeon processors, all-new ATI graphics, and the option for up to four 512GB solid state drives (SSD), the new Mac Pro continues to deliver amazing performance and expandability for the most demanding consumers and professionals."

Yesterday actually. Your 1000 th post was a cut and paste ad. Nice.

[Allen in Montreal]

Yesterday actually. Your 1000 th post was a cut and paste ad. Nice.

?
I posted the day Apple sent out a notice they were available in store,
someone asked a question, when do they hit the ground, I answered it.

[PenGun]

?
I posted the day Apple sent out a notice they were available in store,
someone asked a question, when do they hit the ground, I answered it.

They hit the ground in August sometime. You cannot buy a new one on their web store yet.

Anyway here is your 6 core processor:

http://techreport.com/articles.x/19196

Nice piece.

[PenGun]

August 9.

[SamReeves]

16? I'm still dogcrap happy with four. :)

[8x10 user]

FYI, Apples 12 core machine is now available. Personally I might hold out until next year for the 16 core version with 50 GBPS QPI vs the current 6.4 GBPS.

[Ron Marshall]

FYI, Apples 12 core machine is now available. Personally I might hold out until next year for the 16 core version with 50 GBPS QPI vs the current 6.4 GBPS.

I'd like to wait also, but my current machine is seven years old.

Ordered a quad core Mac Pro today.

[PenGun]

Stock Mac Pro

CPU Xeon W3530 2.8 Ghz My cost $340
Motherboard not sure typically $200. $300
1 Terra HD Drive $100
DVD burner $35
3 Gig Ram DDR3 $100
ATI Radeon 5770 $180
It's a nice case + PSU $250

So about $1280 and change. They charge you double what it's worth, well what I can buy the same parts for that is.

Hi ho.

[8x10 user]

Yeah, I couldn't wait tell next year so I'm building a PC. I've got the time and patience to tweak with it to get optimal performance, and I want to avoid the apple premium. I'm sure my decision is influenced by my negative experience with the quad core G5.

I did find out the Xeons are not bad at all. They are the same as the I7's only with an extra QPI except; for the W models, I believe. According to Toms hardware duel 3.3 ghz quad or six Xeons is faster then a six core I7 on photoshop. Of course the Xeons cost more due to the extra QPI link.

I decided to go for a well rounded build with liquid cooling (non conductive), 24 GB of performance ram, PCIe SSD, and generally awesome parts. I was looking at a duel xeon but then I figured an i7 was probably fast enough for now since I will probably swap out the CPU and motherboard in Q3 2011.

Some of the things that I don't like about the mac are:

*1033 mhz limited ram speed (yes I know its ECC, but my ram is 2000mhz cas 8)

*no performance cooling options.

*overpriced and limited SSD stock. No support for PCIe SSD's

*overpriced and limited video card and CPU options (on google shopping you can get the 2.93 GHZ hex core for $300 more then the 2.66, apple charges $600 per CPU)

*Liquid cooling a PC improves over-clocking capacity to the point were you can get a 40% performance increase. Overclocking is not an option on a mac.

Look at this system... $4,800 and it includes 2 3.33 ghz six core xeons (not even available on the mac yet), 16 GB ram and 2 15,000 RPM SAS drives. Much better deal in my opinion then the new apple.

http://cgi.ebay.com/DELL-WORKSTATION-T5500-2-X-XEON-6-CORE-X5680-3-33GHZ-/190426560623?pt=Desktop_PCs#ht_2613wt_1109

Although... this system still uses a server motherboard and ram. For best performance nothing will be a top end custom PC rig with the Classified SR-2 motherboard.

http://www.evga.com/articles/00537/

[8x10 user]

Also are there only 4 Dimm slots on the new mac? My motherboard has 6 and the SR-2 has 12. More slots is good because you can use a lower capacity and higher speed 2GB sticks or for the 4 GB ones for extreme ram levels. Just stay away from the 8GB sticks, as they don't perform all that well, yet apple uses them for the 32GB configuration... Go figure.

I like how apple talks about all the new technology such as the integrated memory controller on the CPU... As if the same technology hasn't been out on windows computers for a year.

[8x10 user]

If someone is stuck on buying a mac they should keep an eye on ebay. A lot of movie studios will buy a computer for a project and then sell it for a loss at the end of production. You can still buy applecare for used macs and this would be a good way to save some cash.

[8x10 user]

Someone on a budget may want to also consider a PC powered by AMD processors. For $300 you can get a six core AMD processor.

[PenGun]

Yup killer hardware is pretty cheap these days alright. ;)

[8x10 user]

I was wrong about the number of DIMM slots, the duel cpu macs have 8 DIMM slots.

[Paul Kierstead]

I like how apple talks about all the new technology such as the integrated memory controller on the CPU... As if the same technology hasn't been out on windows computers for a year.

They aren't trying to sell the computer to Windows people, they are trying to sell it to Mac people and are giving them a reason for upgrade. The status of windows computers is irrelevant to the sales pitch.

I use two powerful desktops daily; a dual CPU Xeon (8 cores total, 8GB) Dell, and a dual CPU Xeon MacPro (8 cores total, 16GB), similar vintage. They cost about the same (actually, I think the dell might have been more expensive, but we bought the memory from Dell but 3rd partied the Apple mem, so that is likely why) and perform very similarly both in CPU power and in things like quietness, etc. The Mac has a small edge in case design; I prefer its cable-free drive carriers. But those are more like comparing Apples to apples (heh). Comparing some off-brand 8 core CPU machine with a crap case and components to a MacPro is definitely comparing Apples to something else that isn't equivalent. If one were fond of Windows, I generally like the Dell and use it heavily every day with Win7x64. But it sure as hell ain't cheap.

[PenGun]

Dell ... you gotta be kidding.

I fix computers around here. I build my own because I use them for three years then pass em' on usually to my daughter. They need to run for 6 years at least ... and do. I got an 10 year old Athy 800 still out there doing fine for a friend.

I guess the Dells are no worse than the HPs I have to fix but they are not a quality item. They just coughed up I believe 100 million in fines for their capacitor fiasco. I would not recommend a Dell.

[8x10 user]

The capacitors were a problem for the G5 macs as well... Seems like a lot of bad ones around that time.

I understand Pauls point about windows people and mac people. It does seem like there is a learning curve to windows, but I don't really know, the last windows OS I used was XP. I assume things have gotten better in the last 10 years... At least I hope so.

As for the computer case issue... Thats one of the reasons why I am building my own. I do like the option to select each part for quality and performance. There are many fine computer cases out there that will help with cable management issues and offer extremely nice cooling.

Of course with a mac everything is done for you so you don't have to worry about making decisions regarding components.

Sounds like the next apple case will really be something though... They bought up the rights for that cool "liquid metal" alloy... When are we going to see some cameras made by this stuff?

The company (liquid metal technologies, http://www.liquidmetal.com/) has another cool metal that if dented will return to its original form after being heated.

[Jeffrey Sipress]

New MacPros announced today.


apple.com

[Ron Marshall]

New MacPros announced today.


apple.com

I ordered mine Monday!