All new MacPros are quads!!

[johnnytluxury]

Why do we need a quad core, it's difficult enough to write software that can use all the power of a dual core (and balances out the cpu use to the two cores)?

Ahh, ye of such limited vision. Never say never. Back in the day the CEO at IBM once said something along the lines of "why would one ever need more than 1 mb of memory" The idea is the same, its not that we dont have use for it now, its so that IF we do need it, its there...

[jouni]

Why do we need a quad core, it's difficult enough to write software that can use all the power of a dual core (and balances out the cpu use to the two cores)?

Frankly.. if one can make properly written program to take advantage of dual core, it's breeze to make it support more cores. That is if the design is (as it should be and usually becomes such due the "rules" how to do multithreading) scalable for any number of cores.

[Warp69]

Hi,

Im quite impressed with the new Mac Pro - since I need the performance.

Some clarification regarding the cpu used in the Mac Pro :

Woodcrest = Xeon 51x0 series - Those chips are based on the same technology as Core 2 Duo/Extreme, but have a frontside bus freq at 1333MHz instead of 1066MHz which Core 2 Duo/Extreme have.

A decent MacPro, spec'd to my liking, will cost me Au$11,174. With a 500mb SATA HDD costing an extra Au$659 it all adds up rather quickly. I spec'd up a similar BOXX box and, with international pricing, it came out more than a KORG microX cheaper at Au$9465..........

I would prefer the Mac Pro, but if Im able to get the BOXX much cheaper, then I can live with Win XP

Unfortunately the BOXX is quite expensive compared to a similar spec'd Mac Pro - I might do something wrong here.

The only BOXX model that supports the woodcrest is the new 8300 Series and with the following spec I get these prices :

BOXX 8300 : Dual 5150 2.66GHz, 2GB FBDIMM RAM, 1x500GB SATA HD, Nvidia FX4500 = $7,821.00
Mac Pro : Dual 5150 2.66GHz, 2GB FBDIMM RAM, 1x500GB SATA HD, Nvidia FX4500 = $4,709.00

Could someone please verify this?

Thank you in advance.

Cheers

[BONES]

I was pricing something a little more grunty.

Can i listen to music? out of curiousity only.

You got ears? I believe you can buy tracks from i-tunes now but I think you need the software to access it or soemthing equally stupid. And our albums are available from amazon.com. We have snippets o nour site, though.

[Lagrange]

It just looks mean!

[chrisj]

that's a nice paperweight... where did you get it??

[ludwig]

Why do we need a quad core, it's difficult enough to write software that can use all the power of a dual core (and balances out the cpu use to the two cores)?

Ahh, ye of such limited vision. Never say never. Back in the day the CEO at IBM once said something along the lines of "why would one ever need more than 1 mb of memory" The idea is the same, its not that we dont have use for it now, its so that IF we do need it, its there...

Ok, that's true, but for the moment, i don't want to pay for a quad core where some core will do nothing most of the time...

[egbert]

This thread needs a good thwack upside the head with the proverbial clue stick.

The MacPros have 2 x Woodcrest CPUs. Woodcrest is the multiprocessor capable version of Intel's new Core 2 Duo (necessary for more than one CPU socket on the mainboard).

The new Woodcrest Xeons also have a faster FSB than Core 2 Duos (1333 vs 1066). There is no mystery about the Xeon nomenclature - Intel calls any of its multiprocessor versions Xeons - just as AMD calls their multi-processing capable CPUs Opterons.

Anyone who failed to make the connection between the launch of the MacPro machines with Intel's release of Core 2 Duo should do a bit more homework before they start spouting online about Xeons.

(Edit: not you Warp69 - you've got your facts together)

Dell already supply dual 3.0 GHz Woodcrest machines and they have been benchmarked today on the Nuendo hardware forum - screaming is the word.

[Lagrange]

that's a nice paperweight... where did you get it??

Who ever is trying to ask Y you would need quad processing.. remember what happened to you in Doom when you got quad powa?

[OMU]

bones, bones...

[nagal]

I did a bare bones pricing of a MacPro with 2x 3 GHz, 1 160 GB drive, 1 GB Ram nothing else and it came to $3500. Not bad prices at all for what you get. I can take my existing dual 21" LCD monitors to use on it, buy more ram a hell of a lot cheaper than they offer and re-use my 160GB and 250GB SATA drives from my current system.

I was very tempted to order it until I saw it had no PCI slots so I would have to budget for a new sound card.

edit: My thinking would be I could use BootCamp to run all my Windows apps & Games until I learned my way around OSX.

[Borogove]

A decent MacPro, spec'd to my liking, will cost me Au$11,174. With a 500mb SATA HDD costing an extra Au$659 it all adds up rather quickly. I spec'd up a similar BOXX box and, with international pricing, it came out more than a KORG microX cheaper at Au$9465..........

Not to keep beating the... well actually yes, to keep beating the dead horse: what does that price differential work out to if you buy third-party memory instead of Apple memory? I cheerfully concede that Apple way overprices its RAM.

[johnnytluxury]

But f**k all, the damn SATA drives slide out for the sides!! OMG!!! I mean, I wanna do the case.. there I said it, I wanna do a MACPRO UNTIL MY PENNIE WENNIE COMES OUT ALL NETWORKED AND I NEED THERMAL GREASE TO SCRATCH MY ITCH.
I mean damn, the SATA DRIVES, MAN!

[johnnytluxury]

Not to keep beating the... well actually yes, to keep beating the dead horse: what does that price differential work out to if you buy third-party memory instead of Apple memory? I cheerfully concede that Apple way overprices its RAM.

Oh but all retailers overpirce their memory. Its like Xbox, theyll sell the console not for profit, but so that you buy the over-priced accessories and games. Next time any yall buy a retailers setup get the smallest hard drive, memory, and what not. Then head to pricewatch.com to find the deals.

[DHR53]

It just looks mean!

Looks heavy...