Mac Pro Review

First impressions

If you’ve had the good fortune to work with a Power Mac or previous generation Mac Pro, you’ve every right to find the latest incarnation an exciting prospect. If you haven’t used one of Apple’s best machines before, you’re in an even better position. The Mac Pro second generation is like nothing you’ve ever experienced. It may not be as stylish as other Macs but it has such incredible power it demands your full attention.

This combination of admiration and enthusiasm is fully justified. From the moment you switch on the Mac Pro, you get the feeling this is the ideal computer. And if you’re matching it with a 30 inch Apple Cinema HD Display, you cannot help but think this is as good as it gets.

Basics

“Basics” isn’t really the right word to use about the Mac Pro. This is an outstanding, incredibly efficient computer that you can use for the most sophisticated applications around.

To support the applications, Apple is offering extraordinary Quad Core Intel Xeon processors up to 3.2GHz. These combine with exceptional memory, storage capability, frontside bus and PCI Express options.

Along with these is a long list of features you’d expect from a flagship computer designed for professional use. Highlights are seven USB ports; four FireWire ports; Bluetooth 2.0 + EDR; support for up to eight 30 inch monitors; and support for digital resolutions up to 2560 x 1600 pixels.

Customisation

The standard model comes with two 2.8GHz Quad Core Intel Xeon processors; 2GB of RAM; 320GB of storage; an ATI Radeon HD 2600 XT 256MB graphics card; and a 16x SuperDrive with double-layer support (DVD±R; DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW).

For the price, these specs are excellent, but it’s the possibilities of customisation that really impress. You can, for example, replace the two 2.8GHz Quad Core Intel Xeon processors with two 3.0GHz or 3.2GHz Quad Core versions. You can also increase the memory to 32GB, and boost your storage to 1TB in each of four hard drive bays.

Other options include a Mac Pro RAID card with 256MB cache and 72 hour cache battery backup; an Apple Dual-Channel or Quad-Channel 4GB Fibre Channel PCI Express Card; AirPort Extreme wireless networking; and upgraded graphics cards.

Professional users are more than likely to opt immediately for one or more of these options to get the best from their applications. But how straightforward is it to start with a standard model and fit the options at a later date as you need them?

The answer is that it couldn’t be easier to install additional hardware. Suppose you want to increase your storage capacity, you

- remove the side of the tower

- pull out the hard drive carrier

- place it on you new hard drive

- fasten the four screws

- push the carrier back into the tower

The same simplicity applies to the PCI expansion slots and the installation of a second optical drive.

Software

A lightning fast computer such as the Mac Pro requires an operating system to match, and Mac’s OS X v10.5 Leopard is up to the job. The pre-installed software that comes with Leopard, including iLife ’08, is of course standard across the range of Mac models. What really puts the Mac Pro to the test, however, is demanding multimedia software such as Final Cut Pro (video); Photoshop CS3 (imaging and graphics); Logic Pro 8.0.1 (sound); and Maya 2008 (3D).

The benchmark for any improvement in running such software is Mac’s previous powerhouse, the Power Mac G5 Quad Core 2.66GHz. A comparison of this with the new Mac Pro 3.2GHz model gave the following results:

With Final Cut Pro, the Mac Pro 3.2Ghz was 1.8 times faster
With Photoshop CS3, it was 1.6 times faster
With Logic Pro 8.0.1, it was 2.6 times faster

This is not to take anything away from the standard Mac Pro 2.8GHz. In a test using Maya 2008, the Mac Pro 2.8GHz was 2.1 times faster than the Power Mac G5 Quad Core 2.66GHz.

Performance

Any discussion about software inevitably spills over into the area of performance because this is what the Mac Pro is all about. Performance rules, and at the heart of it are the two 2.8GHz, 3.0GHz or 3.2GHz Quad Core Intel Xeon 5400 series Harpertown processors. These not only perform incredibly well, they have remarkable energy efficiency. This is thanks to Intel’s 45 nanometre Core microarchitecture. In other words, the Harpertowns are the latest embodiment of Intel’s cutting edge processor technology.

A great computer, however, needs to capitalise on processor power and allow the user and the applications to take full advantage of it. Apple achieves this, and improves on previous top of the range Macs, by giving the Mac Pro faster system buses and speedier memory.

The buses are 1600MHz dual independent frontside units that provide 20% more processor bandwidth than before. The memory is 800MHz DDR2 ECC fully-buffered DIMM, and is different from the standard DIMM Apple has used in the past because it employs a serial interface between the controller and the advanced memory buffer. In a nutshell, you get a significantly faster, more responsive machine.

One possible area of concern is the limitation of the standard model to 320GB of hard drive storage and 2GB of memory. You can upgrade both with ease, however – and you’ll probably want to if you’re running a particularly challenging multimedia application.

Another feature the professional user will always check thoroughly is the graphics card. The standard ATI Radeon HD 2600 XT has 256MB of GDDR memory and two dual-link DVI ports. If you can’t resist an Apple 30 inch LCD monitor, this card will serve you well and provide good results for a lot of software and games. The problems start if you run complex 3D applications. If so, you may want to look at one of the five card upgrades Apple can offer. The NVIDIA Quadro FX 5600 1.5GB, for instance, will meet just about all of your 3D needs.

Conclusion

Is the Mac Pro the ideal computer? The average user will doubtless love it but frankly can obtain more than enough power, performance and style from the iMac. The multimedia professional, on the other hand, has some of the highest expectations in the computing world and needs the best that’s available. The Mac Pro won’t disappoint.

Pros

- There’s plenty of opportunity to upgrade and customise the Mac Pro

- You can easily install under-the-hood extras such as additional storage and memory

- There’s excellent build quality and attention to detail

- The Mac Pro provides multimedia professionals with everything they need

- All in all, an extremely fast, powerful and reliable machine: for the price, there’s little that comes anywhere near it

Cons

You may need to upgrade the storage, memory and graphics card on the standard model, depending on your needs