Launched in the United States last month, the new 64-bit Mac Pro workstation featuring two Dual-Core Intel Xeon 5100 series processors, running up to 3.0 GHz, was finally launched in Manila last week. It completes Apple’s transition to Intel processors and boasts of speed double that of the Power Mac G5 Quad that it replaces with its quad-Xeon – four processors to be exact – that are actually designed for servers and high-end workstations.
"Apple has successfully completed the transition to using Intel processors in just seven months or 210 days to be exact. What better product to complete it with than the new Mac Pro, the workstation Mac users have been dreaming about," said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO.
But Apple draws the line when it comes to users doing their own processor upgrades. Melvyn Chen, desktop product marketing manager of Apple for the Asia-Pacific, said users can only order their processors when they purchase. "They can’t upgrade it themselves. There’s no DIY (Do It Yourself) with the processor. It’s Apple’s way to ensure quality," Chen said.
The Mac Pro, with a suggested retail price of P159,190, includes two 2.66 GHz Dual-Core Intel Xeon processors; 1GB of 667 MHz DDR2 fully buffered ECC memory expandable up to 16GB; NVIDIA GeForce 7300 GT with 256MB of GDDR2 SDRAM; 250GB Serial ATA (3Gb/s) hard drive running at 7200 rpm; 16x SuperDrive with double-layer support (DVD+R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW); four PCI Express slots: one double-wide graphics slot and three full-length expansion slots; and ships with Mighty Mouse and Apple keyboard.
Those who prefer the 23-inch Cinema display or the 30-inch Cinema display can have them for an additional P64,490 or P129,690, respectively.
Again, these price tags could be quite staggering for casual users, but not for those whose jobs depend on fast and mean machines like the Mac Pro. They are Apple’s traditional market of graphic artists, designers, moviemakers, musicians, pho-tographers, architects, and engineers.
Chen actually took issue in relation to pricing, saying, "The concept that Macs are expensive than PCs is simply not true." He said that after configuring a Dell Precision 690 to approximate a Mac Pro, the price of the Dell machine came out to be $350 more.
In addition, buyers of Mac Pro would be pleased to know that it comes bundled with some software. The new Mac Pro ships with the latest release of the Mac OS X version 10.4.7 Tiger, Safari, Mail, iCal, and iChat AV. Tiger includes a software translation technology called Rosetta that lets users run most Mac OS X PowerPC applications seamlessly.
Intel-based Mac users have more than 3,000 applications to choose from, including all of Apple’s own consumer and professional applications. But big software brands like Adobe have yet to deliver versions that would tap the power of the new Intel-Mac models.