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Review:
The New Mac
Pro
Powertool
for Mac Developers, Designers, Animators, Film Editors and (of course)
Gamers
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The Super-Expandable Mac (what a
concept!)
Macs may not be known as the
most easily expandable computers, but nothing could be farther from the truth with Apple’s professional model.
The Mac Pro is as
beautiful,
well-designed and uncluttered on the inside as it is on the outside.
You won't find a rat's nest of wires or sharp-edged components here. You
don't even need to turn the system on its side to get at it. The side
panel removes with a simple lift of a lever (which is lockable, by the
way) and the processor slides out like one of those modules in the
movie "2001: A Space Odyssey." Two drive bays also slide out for
storage, and with another sliding motion you could change up to four
expansion cards at once.
For
external expansion, the Mac
Pro provides two FireWire 800 ports, two USB 2.0 ports, and a headphone
minijack conveniently upfront for easy accessibility. On the back
you'll find three USB 2.0, two FireWire 800, optical audio in and out,
analog audio in and out, and dual Gigabit Ethernet ports.
To upgrade, you simply slide a retention bar to free up the four
expansion card slots. A thumbscrew PCI bracket lets you swap out cards
without tools (By the way, all four slots are PCI express 2.0). And the
graphics slot in the Mac Pro is double-wide so your graphics card won't
cover an adjacent slot.
Four 3.5" drive bays offer up to 8 TB of storage. The Mac Pro can be
configured with up to four solid-state drives if you want superfast
access to your data. The drives are easy to add or remove with no
connectors or cables to mess with -- you just attach a drive carrier to
a drive and slide the drive into place.
Similarly, you can slide out the processor tray to install new memory,
with no snarl of wires to get in your way. The single-processor Mac Pro
has four slots that support up to 16GB of DDR3 ECC SDRAM, while the
dual-processor Mac Pro with its eight slots supports up to 32GB.
Includes
Next-Generation Processors
Take your choice of processor options, from Intel, of course.
At entry level you'll find the Quad-Core Intel Xeon “Nehalem” processor
in a single-processor, quad-core configuration at speeds up to 3.2GHz.
Next up is the “Westmere” series, Intel’s next-generation processor
based on its latest 32-nm process technology.. You can get that in both
quad-core and 6-core versions.
If money is no object, you could have a 6-core Mac Pro at 3.33GHz, an
8-core system at 2.4GHz, or even a 12-core system at up to 2.93GHz.
What about speed? The Mac Pro is optimized for it. For example, the
multicore processor is composed of a single die, so that cache data
does not have to travel outside of the processor to get from core to
core. The 8MB or 12MB of L3 cache is readily available to each core.
In addition, Intel Xeon “Nehalem” and “Westmere” processors feature an
integrated memory controller so system memory does not have
to be connected to the processor through a separate I/O Controller, so
the Mac provides faster access to data. In plain English, the Mac Pro
is fast!
As well, the Mac pro sports an integrated memory controller, fast
DDR3 ECC SDRAM at either 1066MHz or 1333MHz and Error Correction Code
(ECC) for mission critical error detection. The turbo boost
feature adjusts the processor clock speed based on workload. And
hyperthreading allows two threads to run simultaneously on each core.
The Mac Pro is also energy-efficient, meeting the stringent energy
standards set by the EPA and qualifying for ENERGY STAR status. This
not only makes it more environmentally friendly but easier on the
utility bills.
Graphics Power for Motion Graphics, Rendering, Animation and 3-D
Modeling
The graphics card is made by AMD and offers technology up to five times
faster than previously. This allows improved performance for motion
graphics, rendering, animation and 3-D modeling. ATI Radeon HD 5770
with 1GB of GDDR5 memory comes standard. The graphics are upgradable to the ATI Radeon HD 5870 with 1GB of GDDR5
memory.
Want multiple displays? The graphic card includes three display ports.
A dual-link DVI port connects a 30-inch Apple Cinema HD
Display or other DVI display. With support for two ATI Radeon HD 5770
cards you can connect up to six displays in total.
And of course the Mac Pro doesn't fall short when it comes to storage.
It features four 3.5 inch drive bays for up to 8 TB of storage if you
install four 2 TB serial ATA 3Gb/s drives.
Now you can also add up to four 512GB solid-state drives, which,
while pricier, have no moving parts and greater speed then standard
hard drives -- in fact, twice as fast. This is great for demanding
tasks like video encoding.
Optical discs are not dead, and far from it. Two optical drive bays on
every system allow you to backup your data to double-layered DVDs at
once or burn Aperture projects to one DVD while you import music from a
CD into your iTunes library.
And of course, MacOS X is engineered to get the most out of the
advanced architecture of the Mac Pro with its rocksolid UNIX foundation
and true 64 bit performance
Mac OS X UNIX Foundation
For developers, the
Mac Pro's UNIX foundation allows it to compile and
run all existing UNIX code. And of course MacOS X takes full advantage of the 64-bit architecture
of the Intel Xeon processors in the Mac Pro.
Core Animation is the technology behind many of MacOS X's stunningly
fluid visual effects, such as the cascading windows of Time Machine or
the reflective animation of the 3-D Dock. For developers, the multicore
processors of the Mac Pro and advanced graphics hardware, combined with
Core Animation, open up the power to create animated user interfaces
and
visualizations utilizing text, 2D graphics, QuickTime and OpenGL
rendering.
In addition, Apple's Xcode, the graphical development environment, is
optimized to take advantage of the Mac Pro’s multicore Intel Xeon
processors and system memory. And, with Mac OS X server, the Mac Pro
can serve as a powerful small-workgroup server.
New 27-Inch Cinema Display Also Available
A beautiful, fast
machine like the Mac Pro should not be without a
display to match. Enter the new 27 inch Cinema Display with
LED backlight technology. The display, sold separately, features a cinematic 16:9
aspect ratio and an astonishing 2560-by-1440 resolution. LED
backlighting allows for greater control of screen brightness for
adjustment to suit the ambient light in any room.
A display technology called in-plane switching (IPS) Gives bright, true
colors even when viewed from an angle. An ambient light sensor even
adjust the brightness of the screen to match the room conditions.
As far as sound goes, a built-in 49-watt speaker system includes an
integrated subwoofer that delivers booming, full-range sound
for music, movies, and games. And of course you get such niceties as a
built-in iSight and microphone for video chats, teleconferencing and
web videos.
(The display works with other Macs too, such as any of the current iMac
notebooks or desktop computers, MacBook, MacBook Pro, MacBook Air,
iMac, Mac mini, and Mac Pro thanks, to its Mini DisplayPort connector.)
Three powered USB ports on the back of the display are a handy way to
connect a printer, camera, iPod, I phone or other device.
While the Mac Pro maybe overkill for most Mac using Internet marketers,
it sure is a nice thing to have! And for graphic artists, video
producers and editors, animators and hard-core gamers (or those who
like to engage in a little hard-core gaming on their off hours) the
extra power of the Mac Pro is an awfully handy thing to have, indeed.
Included software:
Mac
OS X Snow Leopard
Includes
iTunes, Time Machine, Quick Look, Spaces, Spotlight, Dashboard, Mail,
iChat, Safari, Address Book, QuickTime, iCal, DVD Player, Photo Booth,
Front Row, and Xcode Developer Tools.
iLife
Includes iPhoto, iMovie, iDVD, iWeb, and GarageBand. Learn more about
iLife |
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