The Mac Observer

Apple Unveils 8-core Mac Pro Ahead of Macworld Expo [Updated]

January 7th, 2008 at 2:00 PM - News by Jeff Gamet

Apple announced the immediate availability of the new Mac Pro with eight processor cores on Tuesday a full week ahead of CEO Steve Jobsis keynote presentation at Macworld Expo 2008 in San Francisco. The eight core Mac tower sports two of Intelis new 45 nanometer Quad-Core Xeon 5400 processors running at up to 3.2GHz.


Appleis new 8-core Mac Pro

The new Mac Pro includes 12MB of L2 cache per processor and dual independent 1600MHz front side busses, indicating that the tower is using Intelis Harpertown chips instead of the Penryn model.

It also comes with up to 32GB of 800MHz DDR2 ECC FB-DIMM memory, an ATI Radeon HD 2600 XT video card with 256MB of memory, a PCI Express 2.0 graphics card slot that supports the latest video cards from NVIDEA, and supports four graphics cards to drive up to eight 30-inch Cinema Displays.

The eight core Mac includes four internal hard drive bays with direct-attach cable-free connectors that support up to 1TB hard drives, it can support two SuperDrives, and it also includes an option for 15,000 RPM SAS drives with RAID 5 support and 250MB/s I/O performance. It also ships with five USB 2.0 ports, two FireWire 400 and two FireWire 800 ports, optical and analog audio in and out, dual Gigabit Ethernet ports, a headphone jack, built-in Bluetooth 2.0, the new aluminum Apple Keyboard, and Mac OS X 10.5 pre-installed.

The standard configuration includes two 2.8GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon processors, 2GB of RAM, a 7200 RPM 320GB Serial ATA hard drive, and 16x SuperDrive for US$2,799. Build-to-order options include one 2.8GHz, two 3.0GHz, or two 3.2GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon processors, up to four 1TB SATA hard drives, up to four 300GB SAS hard drives, a Mac Pro RAID card, NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT or NVIDIA Quadro FX 5600 graphics cards, AirPort Extreme 802.11n, Apple USB Modem, Apple wireless Aluminum Keyboard, Apple wireless Mighty Mouse, and Mac OS X Server Leopard.

Apple typically holds new product announcements for Macworld Expo, especially when the release date is only days ahead of the event. The unexpected early Mac Pro update could mean that Apple has even bigger surprises in store for next weekis keynote -- some that may require the horse power that the new eight core Mac Pro provides.

[This article has been updated with additional information about the Mac Pro processor.]

  • Related Entries
  • Email This
  • Tweet This
  • Jeff Gamet on Twitter
Login. Need an account? Register here.



Auto-login on future visits

Show my name in the online users list

Forgot your password?


Commenting is not available in this section entry.
 

Recent Headlines - Updated November 10th

Tue, 8:16 AM
News - Apple Releases Security Update 2009-006 for Leopard, Snow Leopard
Mon, 7:20 PM
Rumor - Apple May Update iPod touch in December
6:45 PM
Product News - MacUpdate Desktop Updated to 5.0.1 with New Features, Bug Fixes
5:16 PM
Apple Releases Mac OS X 10.6.2 - Guest Account Bug Fixed, Much More
4:12 PM
Games - New For iPhone: Star Rangers, Air Force Supremacy, Blood Beach, More
2:51 PM
Apple Stock Watch - Radio Shack Jumps 14% on iPhone Deal, Apple Up 3%
2:25 PM
Games - EA Scoops Up Social Games Publisher Playfish
1:51 PM
Deal Brothers - Western Digital 1TB SATA Intellipower Hard Drive:  $84.99
10:58 AM
News - StarHub Signs Singapore iPhone Deal
10:36 AM
Hot Forum Topic - Reader Speculation: What’s in Apple’s Tablet?
10:08 AM
News - Apple Kicks Off New Credit Program
9:26 AM
News - Apple Launches Reserve and Pick Up Program
 

The Mac Observer Reader Specials

  • TypeStyler For Mac OS X is Now Shipping! Download The Free Fully Functional 60 Day Tryout at www.typestyler.com
  • RamJet Memory: Mac Pro 8-core 8GB Kit $199.99, 4GB Kits $109.99! Sale on MacBook and MacBook Pro 8GB kits $549.99! New MacBook DDR3 2GB for $49.99. iMac and Mac mini 4GB Kits for $79.99! 1TB SATA Hard Drives for $109.99! Click here
  • OWC: Mercury On-The-Go FW800+USB2 up to 1.0TB. Bus Powered, no external power supply needed. Macworld ‘Editor’s Choice’, CNET ‘Very Good’ Starting from $99.97, 500GB $159.99. Click here
  • Poker Mac If you're using a Mac, then you've gotta check out Full Tilt Poker for Mac. This Full Tilt Poker bonus code does the unthinkable, it actually rewards!
  • For the latest Apple products use Ciao, a price comparison website, to find laptops like MacBook Air. Then find the best prices on MP3 players and use our comparison tool to evaluate mobile phones like the Apple iPhone.

  • Laptop Hardware Provided by TechRestore - Overnight Mac & iPod Repairs.
  • Buy Stuff, Support TMO!
  • __________
  • Macworld Expo 2010 Hotel Deal
  • TMO on Twitter!

Apple Stock Quote

  • AAPL: $201.46. Change: 0.00.
  • (Prices delayed up to 20 minutes.)
  • Discuss in our Apple Finance Board

Hot Topics

TMO Express

Join the TMO Express Daily Newsletter to get the latest Mac headlines in your e-mail every weekday. Find out more!

Top Deals From DealBrothers.com

Recent Features