Apple Mac Pro MA970LL/A Desktop (Two 2.8GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon Processors, 2 GB RAM, 320 GB Hard Drive, 16x SuperDrive)

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Apple Mac Pro MA970LL/A Desktop (Two 2.8GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon Processors, 2 GB RAM, 320 GB Hard Drive, 16x SuperDrive)

Start your engines, all eight of them. Eight-core processing power was once only top-of-the-line. Now it comes standard. This time around, performance is more phenomenal than ever - up to two times faster than the previous standard-configuration Mac Pro. And with the multi-core technology enhancements of Mac OS X Leopard, the new Mac Pro is a force to be reckoned with. For what ever your working on, either Photoshop or Final Cut Pro enjoy up to 1.8 times faster processing power with this new Mac Pro. All-new high-performance graphics cards from ATI make Mac Pro graphics technology even more cutting edge. ATI Radeon HD 2600 XT with 256MB of GDDR3 memory, PCI Express 2.0, and two dual-link DVI ports - provides great performance for typical creative applications. The Mac Pro has four 3.5-inch internal hard drive bays that allows for an enormous amount of internal storage, up to 4TB. These bays are direct-attach and cable free, just attach the drive carrier to a Serial ATA hard drive and slide the drive into place. Another smart design allows you to install more memory in a snap. Mac Pro has two memory riser cards with four fully buffered DIMM slots each. Just slide out the riser cards and snap in the memory. With a total of eight DIMM slots available, you can install up to 32GB of 800MHz ECC DIMM memory. If you're looking for a powerful and a sweet looking desktop this is the one for you. ATI Radeon HD 2600 XT 256MB GDDR3 video memory SuperDrive with double-layer support Bluetooth 2.0 + EDR Two independent 10/100/1000BASE-T Ethernet Front ports - FireWire 800, FireWire 400, 2 USB, Headphone minijack and speaker Back ports - FireWire 800, FireWire 400, 3 USB, Optical Digital Audio In/Out TOSLINK ports, Stereo line-level input/output, 2 RJ-45, 2 DVI ports Expansion slots - 2 PCI Express x4, 1 PCI Express 2.0 x16 Drive bays - One open optical drive bay for optional second SuperDrive, 4 internal 3.5 Mo

Boost your productivity with the Apple Mac Pro desktop PC--the fastest Mac Apple has ever made. Combining two of Intel's new 64-bit, 45-nanometer Quad-Core Xeon 5400 processors running at 2.8 GHz, the Mac Pro is an unbelievably powerful workstation that can handle even the most intensive graphics rendering. Its industrial-style enclosure offers improved functionality with a cable-free installation process and massive upgrade ability--up to 32 GB of 800 MHz RAM and four hard drive bays for up to 4 TB (that's right--terabytes) of storage under the hood. And while it comes standard with a 16x SuperDrive (compatible with burning DVD±R/RW and CD-R/RW discs), you can also add a second writing SuperDrive.

Additionally, the Mac Pro MA970LL/A features a 320 GB hard drive, 2 GB of installed RAM, and the ATI Radeon HD 2600 XT (two dual-link DVI ports) graphics card with 256 MB of video RAM, both FireWire 400 and 800 slots, optical digital audio input and output, Mac OS X v10.5 Leopard, and iLife '08. The Mac Pro also includes a DVI to VGA adapter and an Apple keyboard and Mighty Mouse.

Smart design makes installing massive amounts of memory, adding expansion cards, and increasing storage surprisingly simple.

Processor
Based on Intel's next-generation Core micro-architecture, the two 2.8 GHz 64-bit quad-core Intel Xeon 5400 processors are based on state-of-the-art 45nm Intel Core microarchitecture. With a new high-bandwidth hardware architecture, 12 MB of L2 cache per processor (each pair of cores shares 6 MB), and dual-independent 1600 MHz front side buses, the new Mac Pro achieves a 61 percent increase in memory throughput. These 64-bit buses give each processor a direct connection to the system controller and deliver improved processor bandwidth of up to 25.6GB per second--20 percent greater than the previous Mac Pro. Every Intel Xeon processor features an enhanced SSE4 SIMD engine. Capable of completing 128-bit vector computations in a single cycle, SSE4 is ideal for transforming large sets of data, such as applying a filter to an image or rendering a video effect.

Because Intel designed this dual-core Xeon to be more efficient, it consumes less power than similar workstation-level processors, so your system fans don't have to work as hard to keep them cool. Working with Mac OS X Leopard, it also continues the tradition of enabling 64-bit computation. Ideal for scientific applications, the 64-bit Intel Xeon processors can express the extreme precision needed for floating-point mathematics and to express integers up to 18 billion.

The Mac Pro incorporates a 256-bit-wide, fully buffered memory architecture with Error Correction Code (ECC), which corrects single-bit errors and detects multiple-bit errors automatically. These features are especially important in mission-critical or compute-intensive environments. Apple designed a more stringent thermal specification for the Mac Pro FB-DIMMs, so the internal fans spin at slower speeds and keep the system quiet.

Graphics
This Mac Pro comes standard with the new, high-performance ATI Radeon HD 2600 XT graphics card with 256 MB of GDDR3 memory, PCI Express 2.0, and two dual-link DVI ports. GDDR3 (Graphics Double Data Rate, version 3) is a graphics card-specific memory technology that's better able to deliver fluid frame rates for even the most advanced games and applications. It provides great performance for typical creative applications, and you get dual 30-inch Apple Cinema HD Display support out of the box. With support for up to four graphics cards, the new Mac Pro can drive up to eight 30-inch displays at once for advanced visualization and large display walls.

Hard Drive
This Mac Pro (model MA970LL/A) comes loaded with a single 320 GB hard drive. It comes with four 3.5-inch internal hard drive bays for an enormous amount of internal storage--up to 4 TB. These bays are direct-attach and cable free, so it's easy to add or remove drives. Just attach the drive carrier to either a Serial ATA 3Gb/s or Serial Attached SCSI 3Gb/s drive, and slide the drive into place. There are no connectors or cables to contend with. Lock the drives with the side door latch, and you're done.

You can also choose ultrafast 15,000-rpm Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) 3Gb/s drives with 300GB of capacity for the highest in disk I/O performance. Together with the Mac Pro RAID Card, these drives provide 250MB/s of RAID 5 disk I/O performance. That's enough data to play back one stream of 10-bit uncompressed HD content. It's the ultimate storage solution for highly demanding data transfer situations like editing uncompressed HD video content or updating ultra-high-resolution images.

The Mac Pro is loaded with connectivity options.

Using Mac OS X, you can stripe two, three, or all four hard drives in a RAID 0 array to increase performance and create a massive volume for video editing; or create a RAID 1 mirror for protecting your critical digital media assets against a drive failure. For the ultimate in data protection and enhanced performance, add the optional Mac Pro RAID Card with 256MB of RAID cache, a 72-hour cache-protecting battery, and hardware RAID levels 0, 1, 5, and 0+1. Apple's RAID Utility software makes setting up and managing the RAID card easy.

Memory
While this Mac Pro comes loaded with just 1 GB of 667 MHz DDR2 RAM--which is satisfactory--this Mac Pro has two memory riser cards with four fully buffered DIMM slots each. Just slide out the riser cards and snap in the memory. You don't have to dig around inside the computer or wrestle with wires or cables. With a total of eight DIMM slots available, you can install up to 32GB of 800MHz ECC fully buffered DIMM memory.

Expansion and Connectivity
The Mac Pro features four full-length expansion slots, including a high-performance PCI Express 2.0 graphics slot, with up to twice the bandwidth of PCI Express. The graphics slot is double-wide, so it doesn't cover up an adjacent slot. In addition, three available expansion slots, one PCI Express 2.0 and two PCI Express, provide room to grow. And thanks to a tool-less PCI bracket, you can take out cards as fast as you put them in.

• Two FireWire 800 ports (one on front panel, one on back panel)
• Two FireWire 400 ports (one on front panel, one on back panel)
• Five USB 2.0 ports (two on front panel, three on back panel)
• Two USB 1.1 ports on included keyboard
• Front-panel headphone minijack and speaker
• Optical digital audio input and output Toslink ports
• Analog stereo line-level input and output minijacks

Preloaded with Leopard, you'll enjoy enhanced productivity and a clutter-free desktop (thanks to the redesigned 3D Dock with Stacks).

Preloaded with Leopard and iLife '08
The biggest Mac OS X upgrade ever, the Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard operating system features over 300 new features, including:

• Time Machine, an effortless way to automatically back up everything on a Mac
• A redesigned Finder that lets users quickly browse and share files between multiple Macs
• Quick Look, a new way to instantly see files without opening an application
• Spaces, an intuitive new feature used to create groups of applications and instantly switch between them
• A brand new desktop with Stacks, a new way to easily access files from the Dock
• Major enhancements to Mail and iChat

Time Machine lets you easily back up all of the data on your Mac, find lost files and even restore all of the software on their Mac. With just a one-click setup, Time Machine automatically keeps an up-to-date copy of everything on the Mac. In the event a file is lost, you can search back through time to find deleted files, applications, photos and other digital media and then instantly restore the file.

The Mac Pro also comes with the iLife '08 suite of applications that make it easy to live the digital life. Use iPhoto to share entire high-res photo albums with anyone who's got an email address. Record your own songs and podcasts with GarageBand. Break into indie filmmaking with iMovie and iDVD. Then take all the stuff you made on your Mac and share it on the Web in one click with iWeb.

Dimensions
It measures 20.1 x 8.1 x 18.7 inches, and weighs 42.4 pounds.

What's in the Box
Mac Pro, Apple Keyboard and Mighty Mouse, DVI to VGA adapter, USB keyboard extension cable, install/restore DVDs, printed and electronic documentation

Apple Mac Pro MA970LL/A Desktop (Two 2.8GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon Processors, 2 GB RAM, 320 GB Hard Drive, 16x SuperDrive) Accessories

AppleCare Protection Plan MA516LL/A for Mac Pro (w/ or w/o display)
VMware Fusion
Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac Home & Student Edition
Mac OS X Leopard: The Missing Manual
Apple Cinema 23" HD Flat-Panel Display
Apple Mac OS X Version 10.5.1 Leopard
Apple MacBook MB403LL/A 13.3" Laptop (2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo Processor, 2 GB RAM, 160 GB Hard Drive) White
Apple Cinema 30" HD Flat-Panel Display
Apple AirPort Extreme Base Station (Gigabit) MB053LL/A
Apple .Mac 5.0 [OLD VERSION]

Apple Mac Pro MA970LL/A Desktop (Two 2.8GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon Processors, 2 GB RAM, 320 GB Hard Drive, 16x SuperDrive) Reviews

Adding more Ram and such is suggested based on what you need it for. This Mac gives you what you pay for. It runs quiet and the only problems I have are due to the software. It works great right out of the box.

Chris Boyd. I expect this will by my workhorse computer for some time. www.windwardnetworks.com.

I purchased the item from Amazon b/c i'm a Prime member, quick shipping. I upgraded the standard build to have an additional TB of hd space (www.macsales.com) and added 8gb of ram. the thing is wicked fast. The sound of the machine is also very low, which is great.

I have parallels running my windows vm's (xp and vista) and am now testing out fusion. All in all, i used to be a Dell guy and now for the money i'm definately happy with the Mac Pro b/c for about 1k less i have an 8 core power house. I added a 2nd video card (same as the one it came with) and now have 3 monitors (fusion beta 2.0 support multi monitor) but i'm not super happy with the speed of the machine which i exported (using the fusion VM Ware export tool). I think it could also be a beta thing.

I recommend this computer without hesitation. This is a well-built, fast, quiet machine. Perhaps tomorrow's will. The fit and finish of the computer is unparalleled. I know of nothing better in a desktop computer, if the price is not an issue. Adding or changing hard drives is a moment's work. The machine has 8 cores but today's software does not really make use of all this power. It runs applications quickly.

For that, you need a lot of RAM, a lot. It is fast for general works, not so much when running APPL's motion.

Once I booted, OS X stated a drive was not formatted and that I needed to format the drive. Programs like Yummy FTP and Coda, to edit HTML, are all out there. I highly recommend 4 gigs of RAM if you are using a VM, especially if that VM is Vista. Again, installation was a breeze. Find the files you want and click the spacebar to get a preview. That's it. (will Apple have a water-cooled Mac Pro). -You can still watch your WMV files on OS X.

I was hoping this would be added in 10.5.3, but it was not. Additionally, not everything is moved over. -The #1 reason I am running Vista is because of Outlook. -Adium is a great and free instant messaging client that will work with almost any service out there. The installation was very easy, though it did require one more step than standard RAM installations.

Every user will have their own experiences. Spotlight indexes your entire computer without reading and writing to the hard drive as much as Vista. -An extremely small issue, but using Command to copy and paste is frustrating being left-handed, since the keys are so close to each other. Everything connected seamlessly out of the box. Overall Firefox is a better browser. Though the RAM and processor speeds well exceed the recommended specs, the video card of the Mac Pro is not up to it. There is no good way (one program, called Little Machines, was able to transfer the files, but without any attachments, though it did work pretty well) of bringing my PST file from Outlook to either Mail or even Microsoft's own program, Entourage. -Great support by Mac.

Every single program that needs to be installed, installs the exact same way. I can barely hear the system, even when running many applications. If you use Windows XP, 1 gig should be fine, but Vista uses a lot of RAM. -No need for defragmenting.

There are instructions of how to convert the file, but you will have to make large concessions. It's obvious that the initial person answering the call has limited knowledge, but she asked many times that I could be transferred to another, more experienced technician. I'd expect at least 16mb of cache and possibly even a 10,000 RPM drive. I hope there will be a native way of transferring those files over, with their attachments, seamlessly. The same # of steps, the same process, and the same results. There are certain specialized programs that will not work, but with time, these should be added as well, as the OS X market share grows. Though Firefox does have a memory issue, those should be solved in version 3. I called once, and the support was quick and easy.

-I do like the keyboard that the system comes with. On the other hand, Vista has crashed on me since installing it, but this could be due to it being setup as a VM, so I cannot completely fault Vista. There isn't a native defragmenter in OS X. I do not invert my keys, so I still use the right part of the mouse as my right-click. Now try with your right hand, it will always work. Try clicking on the right side and 90% of the time, nothing will happen. The mighty mouse is not useable for me, because I'm left-handed. -The system just does not crash.

You cannot see a cable, and the air flow of the system is unbeatable. I do feel like I made a mistake going with Vista instead of XP. If you use Vista, you'll hear the hard drive indexing every so often, whereas on OS X, you will not hear a blip. I thought most of the other reviewers were exaggerating about the quietness, but they were not at all. There is no native way of bringing the QDF file to Mac. CONS. (Unfortunately, a PC will be a must as a second computer for some time). There are similar ports on the front though.

Use the built in screws and push the tray back in. I would not recommend running Vista with just 1 gig. -First and foremost, do not expect to play games like Cyris on this system. Without Boot Camp, I would have never purchased the Mac Pro. Additionally, you can quickly and easily find a program, files, etc., using Spotlight. -Time Machine is simply the easiest backup solution.

-A shortage of USB ports on the back. I paid $125 for Kingston RAM (instead of $500 from Apple). You must use a VC flashed with the Mac Bios. The RAM was displayed in the OS X system info right after booting. This book contains a lot of information not found elsewhere while containing shortcuts and info in one convenient book. Before ever using the Mac Pro, I did think the system would feel slightly faster than it is, but checking the "Activity Monitor," the processors are barely used, so it could be the lack of dual quad support for most of the programs I'm using. The Force Quit application, much like CTR-ALT-DEL, is something I have not used in the over a month of using my Mac Pro. I then installed Parallels to run a virtual machine of the Boot Camp partition.

I highly recommend the book Mac OS X Leopard: The Missing Manual. I should point out that setting up multi monitors on Vista took about 4 minutes, even though I have been using Windows all of my life. -I also added a second hard drive to the system to use as my Time Machine backup. -As stated above, I did upgrade to 4 gigs of RAM.

-Installing programs is a breeze. For example, the mouse moves from one OS to the other without any button presses. Interestingly, I found that many products have multiple competitors, where you'd think OS X wouldn't have that many programs written for it. You can also open Vista programs on OS X programs and vice versa. I'm writing this review from the perspective of a power Windows user, switching to OS X after 20 years of Windows.

You'll learn the equivalents of Task Manager, keyboard shortcuts, etc., specific to OS X in no time and be a switcher from Windows to Mac. Even the power plug is designed to fit seamlessly in the port. -Simply, the Mac Pro is very fast. -I installed Vista using Boot Camp, for programs not yet available for the Mac. Using Parallels to run Vista and OS X simultaneously since there is a seamless integration of both operating systems when moving from one to the other. -Setting up the Mac Pro was very easy. When programs start to take advantage of dual quads and quad cores in general, I do think the system will feel even faster. The system comes with 3 USB ports on the back.

I wish there was a way to alter the keyboard shortcuts. One recommendation for using Vista on Parallels is to upgrade to 4 gigs of RAM. -A system as expensive as this should not only have a fast hard drive, it should have a fast top-of-the-line hard drive. I'd like to have an external backup as well, just in case of a power spike causing both hard drives to fail internally. You can change the icon in the Dock, where I have Yoda Duck as my icon. I feel Safari has some catching up to do. -To start off, as everyone else in their reviews has stated, the Mac Pro is whisper quiet. The bottom line is that I've switched and I'm looking forward to the time when I can delete my Windows partition and move to OS X full time.

Just drag and drop the single file from the Applications folder to the trash, and it's deleted. I hope to see an updated version shortly, even if Safari is at version 3 itself, the updates seem slow and Apple is pretty quiet regarding its Safari plans. Unfortunately, this is not the case. 2 gigs for Vista and 2 for OS X. PROS:. Once the email and Quicken issues are hopefully solved, I will be using the Mac Pro and OS X full time.

There is also a Coherence mode, where you can have both Vista and OS X running seamlessly together in one window. The ATi VC is pretty weak in this respect. Much like Boot Camp, I hope Apple comes up with a solution, even if Microsoft does not. The integration of a program called Growl takes instant messaging to a new level. -The Mac Pro, though pretty large, looks fantastic and also has nice handles on the top, so you can lift the system pretty easily.

Download Flip4Mac straight from microsoft.com and those files will open with Quicktime. Though there are defrag utilities in the Apple support docs, it states that defragging could even decrease performance. Opening the system and taking a look inside, the design of the Mac Pro is a work of art. (I called to confirm if Time Machine was not available with my NAS drive). The Mac Pro uses a 7200 RPM hard drive with 8mb of cache. -Though Safari is a nice browser overall (the web clip feature, for example) I'd like to see a more complete browser, with constant updates, like Firefox. You lose too much information for a program in which every bit of information is important.

Time Capsule, Apple's own NAS, is supported. The phone support should be longer, but you can purchase more time if you feel the need. Since my printer was networked, all it took was a username/password to connect. Pretty low by today's standards. The installation of the RAM was extremely easy.

-Working with the Finder is quick and easy. -The same transfer issue applies to Quicken. If you expect to game, I'll suggest the Nvidia 8800GT which can now be bought outside of Apple. Hit a button and pull out the tray. It types very well and is very quiet. I just had to do a quick configuration for my multi-monitors, which took about 30 seconds. A quick click and 5 minutes later, I had an extra 320 gigs of space.

Installation was a breeze and Parallels is a great program, as long as you're using build 5604+, since a flickering issue was present with.3 and parallels prior to that version. -Though hard drives are cheap, there isn't an option to use Time Machine with my previously purchased NAS drive, even if I were to format in the native OS X file system. Apple recommends that if you feel you need to defrag, a system restart will do it. How can a $2,700 system not have a faster hard drive. You do hear the hard drive, especially after adding a second drive, but the sound is minimal. I did not have to change any network settings to connect to the internet, my PCs, my NAS drive, or my printer.

I'm using dual monitors, but you can use Spaces for a virtual multi monitor setup and still have the seamless integration between OS X and Vista. I have mentioned many cons, but none of them are a deal breaker. My printer's picture even shows up when printing and viewing the details. On the other hand, the pros make the switch a must. Also, the VC options in general are limited. If you want to sell someone on the the Mac Pro or any Mac, show the recovery of a file using Time Machine. -If you want a program, chances are it exists in OS X.

Click a button to turn it on, choose a hard drive, and that's it. For example, all category names must be 15 characters or less. I have 2 gigs worth of email and losing everything to move to Entourage was too much. Most programs don't include an uninstaller (of course, Office Mac does). I never use Firewire, even though there are two of them. If you have been using Windows, I'm hoping this review will help you with your transition to the Mac.