Source: Tom's Guide US | Keywords: mac, pro, imac | Themes: Laptops and Notebooks, Desktop Computers, Business
- 1. Introduction
- 2. Analysis Of The 2007 Mac Minis
- 3. The IMac: Apple's All-In-One Solution For The Desktop
- 4. Apple's High End 24
- 5. Analysis Of The 2007 IMacs
- 6. The 17
- 7. Apple's Top-Of-The-Line Desktop: The 2007 Mac Pro
- 8. Analysis Of The 2007 Mac Pro
- 9. Where Apple Shines
- 10. More on this topic
7. Apple's Top-Of-The-Line Desktop: The 2007 Mac Pro
Apple’s highest-end desktop, the 2007 Mac Pro is just a little older than its siblings, the Mac Minis and iMacs. The 2007 Mac Minis and iMacs were released in August 2007; the Mac Pro has been available for about four months now, having been released in April 2007. Since the Mac Pro was never reviewed here at Tom’s Hardware Guide, a closer look is appropriate:
The Mac Pro, side view, case open: It’s a desktop tower with expandability and aesthetics. But is it worth the price?
As mentioned above, the default Mac Pro configuration sells for $2,499.00. The flexibility of being a tower enables the Mac Pro to have many configuration options. Anyone can configure an "I-just-won-the-lottery" system, but that’s not very realistic. So instead, I’ll also configure what I feel is a modest upgrade toward a more appropriate video editing / 3D rendering / gaming workstation, and see what see I end up with as a final price.
Mac Pro Configurations
| Hardware | ||
|---|---|---|
| Model | Default | My Upgrade (Changes in Bold Type) |
| Processor | Two 2.66 GHz Dual-Core Intel Xeon processors
(Total of 4 Cores) |
(No Changes) |
| L2 Cache | 4 MB shared L2 cache per processor | (not configurable) |
| Front Side Bus | 1.33 GHz, 64-bit dual independent frontside buses | (not configurable) |
| Memory | 1 GB of 667MHz DDR2 SDRAM (2 x 512 MB) ECC
Upgradeable to 16 GB (8 x 2 GB) |
4 GB of 667MHz DDR2 SDRAM (4 x 1 GB) ECC
+$699 |
| Hard Drive | 250 GB 7200 RPM SATA
Upgradeable to 500 GB or 750 GB |
500 GB 7200 RPM SATA
+$129 |
| Second Hard Drive | None | 500 GB Second Hard Drive
+$329 |
| Hard Drive Options & RAID Accessory | A third and fourth drive may be added. A 500 GB drive is $329, a 750 GB drive is $499. No 1 TB drives are available for the Mac Pro. A Mac RAID card with 256 MB cache and 72-hour cache battery backup is available for $999.
These options are not selected in the default configuration; I’ll leave them unselected in the upgrade configuration. |
|
| Optical Drive | 16x "SuperDrive" with 8x DL
(CD-RW DVD±R DL DVD±RW) |
(No Changes) |
| Second Optical Drive | None | 16x Second Optical Drive
+$99 |
| Graphics | Nvidia GeForce 7300 GT with 256 MB GDDR2 SDRAM
Three open PCIe 16X expansion slots, see note at bottom of configuration table*. Upgradeable to up to 3 additional Nvidia GeForce 7300 GT 256 MB GDDR2 cards: +1 card for +$149, +2 for +$299, +3 for +$449. Upgradeable to ATI Radeon X1900 XT 512 MB GDDR3 SDRAM + $249 Upgradeable to Nvidia Quadro FX 4500 512 MB GDDR3 SDRAM + $1649 |
ATI Radeon X1900 XT with 512 MB GDDR3 SDRAM
+ $249 |
| Display | None
Upgradeable to Apple Cinema 20" Flat Panel +599, 23" HD Flat Panel +899, 30" HD Flat Panel +1799 |
Apple Cinema 20" Flat Panel
+599 |
| Second Display | None
All Video Cards Support 2 Displays |
(No Changes) |
| Audio | Front-panel headphone minijack and speaker, Optical digital audio input and output TOSLINK ports, Analog stereo line-level input and output minijacks | (not configurable) |
| Video | None | (not configurable) |
| Ports | Two FireWire 800, Two FireWire 400, Five USB 2, Two USB 1.1 on Keyboard | (not configurable) |
| Network | Wired: Two 10/100/1000 BASE-T Gigabit Ethernet
Wireless (optional): AirPort Extreme (802.11 a/b/g/n) +$49 Wireless (optional): Bluetooth 2.0 + EDR +$29. Both Wireless Options + $79 |
Airport Extreme
Bluetooth 2.0 + EDR +$79 (Interesting, when choosing both wireless options, instead of getting a discount, you get to pay an extra $1). |
| Warrantee | 90 days free phone support, one year limited warrantee | |
| Fibre Channel Card Accessory | A Fibre Channel PCI Express card is required to connect Xserve (Apple server) RAID to your Mac Pro. There are two PCI Express card options:
Dual-channel 4Gb Fibre Channel PCI Express card: This card runs at full bandwidth in a four-lane or eight-lane PCI Express slot. +$599 Quad-channel 4Gb Fibre Channel PCI Express card. This card runs at full bandwidth in an eight-lane PCI Express slot. +$999 |
|
| Accessories | None | Wireless Keyboard and Mouse
+$59 |
| Software | Mac OS X 10.4.10 Tiger Operating System, iLife ’08 (including Microsoft Office Demo), iWork ’08 (30 day trial) | |
| Price | $2,499.00 | $4,741.00 (with Display)
$4,142.00 (without Display) |
* The "Four PCI Express X16 Lanes" are mechanical connections only. As with all pre X 38 series Intel motherboards, there is only one 16X electrical connection. Quoting from "The Mac Pro has 16 PCI Express lanes from the North Bridge and 12 PCI Express lanes from the South Bridge."
I’d say these were some very modest improvements in my hypothetical upgrade model. No CPU upgrade, 4 GB of RAM, two 500 GB hard drives, a second16x optical drive, a good graphics card (certainly not the ultra high end Nvidia that I had my eye on), a 20" display (Apple’s smallest), wireless networking and a wireless mouse and keyboard added $2,242 to the price of this system. Even if I were to remove the display from this package, my very modest upgrades would still have added $1,643 to this system’s price.
Apple’s upgrade pricing may be subject to question, but what I really want to do here is take a closer look at the $2,499.00 default standard configuration pricing of the new 2007 Mac Pro, which I’ll do on the next page.
- Previous page The 17
- Next page Analysis Of The 2007 Mac Pro
It is a pro system and as such no mainstream graphics card should do the bussiness.
For 2d graphics a 7300 is no worse than a 8800, and for 3d a 8800 is no better than a quadro FX.
I see your point but try thinking like a pro when you review such a system.
Of course that doesn't change your "over-priced" conclusion.
What really kills me is that when you look at any of these "Mac comparisons" then there is a gigantic hole in the lineup because Apple doesn't make a basic tower system. Some people don't need a $3000 quad core system and don't want an integrated monitor glued on an un-upgradeable system.
I've been in the market for a $1000 "Mac Desktop" for several months but in the end just gave up and reluctantly got a nice cheap Dell. I would have definitely preferred a Mac but if they refuse to make an "ordinary" product for us "ordinary" people then I'll throw my money elsewhere.
BTW, for less than $600 this is what I got from Dell C2D/2GB/250GB/DVDRW/x1300/22"LCD = $600. What's odd is that Apple would easily charge $1100 for these specs so people should really quit making fun of PC's because if Apple ruled the world then we'd all be broke.
I agree with mini-boss totally.I can either build or buy a Dell Desktop for half the price of any Mac that has the same specs.I recently built a PC for under $500 that can play any game out there on the highest settings. I am looking for performance not some externally pretty machine.
miniboss-
While I totally understand your shopping method, I think its important to realize there is more to the computing experience than cheap hardware. I'd gladly pay 1200 for an iMac (2x what your dell costs) just so that I could have the iLife software and OS X. The iLife software is the best software for ordinary folks I've ever seen. Nothing touches it on any platform, including OS X. As for the OS, I guess basic file management can be had on any system, but I love the fact that I don't have to deal with virus/spyware/zombieware on my Mac. That last point alone is worth paying a measly $600. So, maybe Apple does not have the widest selection of hardware at the cheapest prices, but the actual experience of using it is worth far more than the cash you saved.
In my daily work, I use 5 machines, 2 are Macs. My home computer is a Mac.
miniboss-
While I totally understand your shopping method, I think its important to realize there is more to the computing experience than cheap hardware. I'd gladly pay 1200 for an iMac (2x what your dell costs) just so that I could have the iLife software and OS X. The iLife software is the best software for ordinary folks I've ever seen. Nothing touches it on any platform, including OS X. As for the OS, I guess basic file management can be had on any system, but I love the fact that I don't have to deal with virus/spyware/zombieware on my Mac. That last point alone is worth paying a measly $600. So, maybe Apple does not have the widest selection of hardware at the cheapest prices, but the actual experience of using it is worth far more than the cash you saved.
In my daily work, I use 5 machines, 2 are Macs. My home computer is a Mac.
I know.. I accidentally posted twice. shame the system won't allow me to erase the phantom post.
I was investigating the Mac Pro recently but couldn't bring myself to part with $2500. Instead I spent $1100 and built the following:
Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 Processor(2.40GHz, 4x2MB, 1066MHz FSB)
ABIT IP35-E Motherboard (P35 Express, 8GB DDR2, 1333MHz FSB)
G.Skill 4GB PC2-6400 DDR2 DIMM Dual Channel Memory
ASUS GeForce 8500GT 256MB GDDR3 PCI Express x16 HDCP Ready Video Card
Seagate Barracuda 320GB Hard Drive(Serial ATA-300, 7,200 RPM, 16MB)
Lite-On Dual Layer DVD±RW Writer (8x DVD±R DL)
Antec SOLO Silver/Black Mini Tower (ATX, 8 Bays)
Antec EarthWatts EA-430 430W Power Supply
Acer Black 19" Widescreen LCD Monitor (19", 1440x900, 5ms)
Microsoft Business Keyboard / Mouse Combo
Windows XP Professional x64
And for an extra $200 I am considering another 4Gb of RAM and a second hard disk. All this for less than half the price of the comparable Mac Pro model. My GPU is not spectacular but I'm not a gamer and it is easily upgraded. My next endeavor is to run Leopard on one of this systems' drive partitions. I'm not too crazy about Apple's hardware either. But Tiger running on my 21" iMac G5 2.1Ghz machine has been next to flawless.
I agree with minibus. I just built a system based on the Athlon 6400+ for under $800 (core system). And as far as spending an additional $600-$1,000 for OS X, hey if you have money to burn and love OS X so much, be my guest.
On the matter of the Mac Mini: Not only it uses Intel integrated graphics, it uses *last-generation* Intel integrated graphics! In fact probably the only thing in the current Mac Mini that was changed from the first Intel Mac Mini is the processor!
On the matter of the Mac Pro: Yep, another Mac model that was not updated in any way other the processor for about 15-18 months! Only in Jan 2008 has there been a real update to the Mac Pro.
However, keep in mind that the fact that Apple owns the OS allows Apple to make special releases of Mac OS X for new Macs, and though that it is a good thing Macs don't need separate driver CDs for Mac OS X, it also may mean lag time while Apple write the drivers for the new hardware.