Apple Takes Desktops and Servers to Intel
August 07, 2006 | by Geoff Duncan
Apple has unveiled its Mac Pro desktop line, offering dual Xeon-based minitowers with oodles of configs and competitive prices.
At its annual World Wide Developer Conference (WWDC) today, Apple Computer finally transitioned its computer product line away from PowerPC processors to Intel-based systems, introducing the new high-end Mac Pro Xeon-based desktop systems along with revamped Xserve one-unit servers. Apple's new Mac Pro line of desktop towers looks very much like the high-end PowerPC G5 quad systems they replace, but the insides are a whole new beast, sporting two of Intel's new dual-core Xeon 5100 processors at speeds up to 3.0 GHz, each with 4 MB of L2 cache: according to Apple, the new Intel-based Mac Pros deliver 1.6 to 2.1 times the real-world performance of the fastest PowerPC G5 systems Apple shipped. And the Mac Pros offer substantial expansion and customization options, with two optical drive bays, room for up to 2 TB of storage on four internal hard drives (all with tool-free drive carrier installation) and support for up to 16 GB of RAM. The Mac Pros also sport four PCI Express slots, with a double-wide slot at the bottom to accommodate large graphics cards. Apple says numerous build-to-order options will be available—including ATI Radeon X1900 and FX4500 graphics cards, up to 16 GB of RAM, Bluetooth and AirPort wireless connectivity, and more. Apple's base configuration for the Mac Pro will be offered for $2,499, featuring dual 2.66 GHz Xeon processors, 1 GB of RAM, ATI GeForce 7300 GT graphics, and a 16× SuperDrive—Apple claims a comparable system from Dell would cost $1,000 more but we're sure folks will contest that claim. The new Mac Pros are available immediately. Apple also revamped its line of Xserve rack-mount servers, converting from PowerPC chips to Intel Xeons, keeping the 1U form factor, and adding a redundant power supply (yay!) and support for up to 5 TB of storage. The new Xserve base configurations start at $2,999 ($300 cheaper than a comparable Dell, if you believe that sort of thing). The new Xserve systems will be available in October.
Post Your Comment...Comments
Ian Bell on Aug 7th, 2006 at 12:31 PM:
They want $300 dollars for (4) 512mb of memory, thats way too expensive. For that price I would want (2) 1GB sticks.
Jason Howard on Aug 7th, 2006 at 7:42 PM:
Never buy memory add-ons from Apple. Just get them from Crucial or something. Way cheaper.
Man, I want one of the Mac Pros soooooo bad. I love how expandable they are.
Shoeman on Aug 9th, 2006 at 7:47 AM:
I'd like to get me some of those fancy-schmancy new ATI 7300GT cards ... the rest of the system is too blah!
Jason Howard on Aug 9th, 2006 at 10:53 PM:
You must be joking? This system will rock for doing video work on. Why do you think it's too blaa?
Derek Gould on Aug 10th, 2006 at 10:11 AM:
Shoeman, the 7300gt is made by nvidia, and i'm not quite sure if youre being sarcastic about the "fancy-schmancy" part, but it's a budget card, nothing to be excited about. in fact, my old ati radeon 9700 could probably do better. what apple needs to offer rather than the pointless multi-card 73gt's is something mid-range, like a 7600gt or x1600xt.
I'm one of those "on the fence" people, i would like a mac, but my pc offers so much more for less money, and i think it's just hilarious that everyone is going crazy because apple added an extra 5.25in drive bay, and 2 extra 3.5in drive bays. innovation i tell you!
Also, i refuse to support a company who only knows how to spread propaganda to dupe people into buying their computers. HP and Dell, even though i dell, have much better ad campaigns focus more on the strengths of their machines rather than the supposed weaknesses of their competitors. It almost feels like a political race. You have the one candidate that would rather keep things positive, then theres the candidate who wants to tear every moral fiber of their opponent, which i feel makes them more immoral than their victim.
oops, this kinda turned into a rant.
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Backi on Aug 7th, 2006 at 12:28 PM:
http://www.apple.com/macpro/
Pretty impressive!