Real Kato Blog: Apple Watch: New Mac Pro and XServe Models

Apple announced speed bumps to the Mac Pro and the XServe, a week in advance of the MacWorld Expo.

The Mac Pro now starts at $2799 with eight processing cores standard (two 2.8GHz quad-core Intel Xeon 5400s), compared to the previous entry level quad-core model which started at $2499. Actually, you can still get a quad-core model as a build-to-order option, knocking the starting price down to $2299. I'm not sure why Apple isn't hyping that more... maybe they plan to introduce something new in the mid-level range next week, and they want to focus the Mac Pro on the high level market exclusively.

2GB RAM is now standard, up from 1GB previously.

Graphics card options have improved; the low-end is now the ATI Radeon HD 2600 XT with 256MB, with the NVIDIA GeForce 8800GT (512MB) and NVIDIA QuadroFX 5600 (1.5GB) as build-to-order options. Previously, the line featured the aging NVIDIA GeForce 7300GT, with the ATI Radeon X1900 XT and NVIDIA Quadro FX 4500 as build-to-order options.

Meanwhile, the XServe received similar upgrades, with available eight-core processing and 2GB RAM standard.

Neither the Mac Pro nor the XServe received form factor changes.

The interesting part about this announcement is that it comes a week before Steve Jobs' keynote address at the MacWorld Expo, where new products are normally introduced. Many people take this to be a sign that Apple did not want the announcement to be lost among the sure-to-be-more-significant product introductions next week. Sub-notebook? Mini-tower? We shall soon find out.

Permalink