Exclusive Deal While supplies last, save 40% off over 40 iPhone 5 and iPhone 4/4S cases and chargers as well as Samsung S III cases at Kensington.com. Use coupon code 'SAVE40%' at checkout to receive this exclusive discount.      
toggle

AAPL Stock: 445.15 ( + 3.01 )

http://www.macnn.com/articles/06/07/17/ars.on.mac.pro.specs/

Ars Technica on "Mac Pro" specs

updated 12:10 pm EDT, Mon July 17, 2006

 

Ars on Mac Pro specs


A quad-core "Mac Pro" will likely prove an expensive venture for Apple, according one report detailing predictions about Apple's forthcoming Mac Pro. Ars Technica has offered a detailed tally that includes 1GB of RAM, an ATI X1900 XT graphics card, 250GB hard drive, motherboard, six SATA-II ports, five PCI slots (2 PCIe, 3 PCI-X, 1 PCI), power supply, Apple's Mighty mouse with a keyboard, DVD burner, and two Xeon 5150 CPUs running at 2.66GHz. The cost totaled $3,269.44, which included the OEM prices of most manufactured components. With a discount of 12.5 percent and mark up margin of 20 percent for Apple, the quad's cost would be amount to a hefty $3,493.23. The report also reinforces recent rumors surrounding the enclosure of the Mac Pro, suggesting that Apple's new enclosure will remain similar to its current Power Mac G5.

Woodcrest will likely arrive in both Apple's forthcoming "Mac Pro" and Xserve models, while the company utilizes Intel's Conroe chips in the low end Mac Pro and iMacs, according to Ars. Apple will probably use Intel's Merom chip in its MacBook Pro, MacBook, and Mac mini models due to heat requirements, as the Conroe chip would be too hot for the Mini and consume too much power for usage in notebooks. The Mac Pro is expected to roll out this August at WWDC.


by MacNN Staff

Post tools:

TAGS :

 Apple
toggle

Comments

  1. Chris Paveglio

    Fresh-Faced Recruit

    Joined: Jul 2002

    0

    always been this way

    Apple's top of the line, or all desktop units, have had the same price for the last several years. Prices never go up or down, but specs go up for each new model. Top of the line will always hover around 32-3400.

  1. mitchcohen

    Fresh-Faced Recruit

    Joined: Aug 2005

    0

    No surprise

    Agreed - the top of the line MacPro will be $3000-$3500 so that's in the right range. Current top PowerMac is $3299.

    I would not expect six SATA ports (four max; the PowerMac only had two), nor six slots (four max, one used by video card).

    I would hope the middle and high end both sport quad cores, to separate them from the almost complete lineup of dual cores. Depends on pricing of course.

  1. christophersj

    Fresh-Faced Recruit

    Joined: Jan 2003

    0

    Enclosure

    Good to hear about the enclosure keeping much the same. Its awesome. If it aint broke....

    -CJ

  1. paulc

    Junior Member

    Joined: Aug 2000

    0

    Sense?

    It can't be just me, some of those specs seem quite odd. If one accepts the "2 optical bay" speculation, where will they make room for 6 hard drives? I think SATA controllers are not very expensive items, so for there to be more than 2, that means they've made provision for more than 2 drives (unless they have a pair of eSATA connectors externally, that might be interesting).

    Slots are another matter, the last series of machines were ALL PCIe, putting a PCI-X and a plain PCI doesn't seem to make much sense.

    Then there was all the talk about "more efficient" Intel chips. That sure seems to imply cool running; several folks I know who have MacBooks and MacBook Pros tell me they are mini thermonuclear reactors (run very hot).

    Not much matter to me as I have a plan... the next OS rev I don't think is going to have much Intel exclusive stuff, so it's the one after that. The towers will be on their second or maybe third gen architecture, so end of 08 is my target.

  1. porieux

    Baninated

    Joined: Mar 2001

    0

    re: sense?

    >> Slots are another matter, the last series of machines were ALL PCIe, putting a PCI-X and a plain PCI doesn't seem to make much sense.

    It makes a lot of sense actually. Apple messed up by moving to PCIe too soon. This is a bigger issue in the professional market where pros really need to use cards that may not be available in the newer format.

Login Here

Not a member of the MacNN forums? Register now for free.

 
close
Photo
toggle

Network Headlines

toggle

Most Popular

MacNN Sponsor

Recent Reviews

MaxUpgrades MaxConnect for 2006-2008 Mac Pro

Nobody outside of Cupertino's privileged bunch knows the future of the Mac Pro line for sure. Despite Apple's reluctance to tell us wh ...

Brother HL-3170CDW LED Printer

We've mentioned before that we are far from a paperless society. For now, at least, there are tasks that require a piece of paper for ...

HTC One

It is hard to overstate just how critically important the HTC One is to the Taiwanese company’s fortunes. Despite its alarming decline ...

toggle

Most Commented