Dan, today is your lucky day. You know why? Because at long last, the “Crazy 8’s” Mac is here. Yes, the moment we’ve all been waiting for — a Mac with eight processing cores. And what other Mac could it be besides the turbocharged Mac Pro.
The new Mac Pro, which was released this morning, features what seems to be only one very significant change — updated processors. In addition to the 2.0, 2.66, and 3.0GHz Intel Xeon “Woodcrest” processors that the original Mac Pro had, the updated one now also has the option, for $1498 more, to add two quad-core 3.0GHz Intel Xeon “Clovertown” chips for a total of eight cores.
Besides that, the updated Mac Pro seems to be the same as its predecessor. It still costs $2,499 (of course, if you really want that “Crazy 8’s” Mac, the total becomes $3,997), and still features what seems to be the same configuration options (except for the processors, of course). So while this new Mac Pro is the most souped-up, fastest Mac ever, it still doesn’t explain the problem of getting the software it runs to take advantage of its whopping eight cores.
Update: Commentor Tim points out the updated pricing on the Apple Cinema Displays. The 20” is now $100 cheaper, from $699 to $599, the 23” is also $100 cheaper, from $999 to $899, and the 30” is $200 cheaper, from $1999 to $1799.
Also note one amazing thing happened: the cinema displays droped their price with the 30" now 200 dollars less, which means at education price the 30" is at 1599!!!!!!
The RAM seems to be cheeper to upgrade. Can anyone confirm?
Also, as far as I know, there is no such thing as a 3GHz Intel quad-core Xeon. So is this baby overclocked, or did Apple get something before general release or what?