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Review: Apple Mac Pro

Jun 4, 2009 12:00 PM, By Jan Ozer

New iteration of Apple powerhouse sees a performance boost from Intel Nehalem processor.

Apple was the first out of the gate with an Intel Nehalem-based workstation, in the form of the Mac Pro announced in early 2009. Apple recently provided a 2.93GHz Mac Pro for testing, and in a range of benchmark tests against an older-style 2.8GHz eight-core Intel Xeon-based system, the new Mac Pro showed performance boosts as high as 112 percent, though most tests exhibited improvements in the 30-percent-to-70-percent range. Combine this with comparatively aggressive pricing (if you buy RAM elsewhere), and you’ve got the fastest Mac ever in an affordable and easy-to-service case.

Nehalem

Nehalem is the newest CPU from Intel, and it features much faster throughput between the CPU and memory, the return of Hyper-threading Technology (HTT), and a Turbo mode that kicks in when all cores aren’t being used, over¬clocking the cores in use. As you’ll see, for many digital content creation applications, this is a potent combination of performance and throughput.

Apple offers both single- (starting at $2,499) and dual-processor configurations ($3,299), which both peak at 2.93GHz. Note that you can’t buy a single-CPU system and later add a second CPU. That’s because Apple uses the Xeon 3500 quad-core CPU for single-CPU systems, which isn’t dual-CPU capable. On the dual-processor systems, Apple uses the Xeon 5500 series, which obviously is.

With a single-CPU system, Apple includes a single CPU and memory tray, which has four memory slots. A dual-CPU system has another tray for a total of eight memory slots. In both configurations, the CPU communicates to memory using three channels, so it’s most efficient to concentrate memory in three of the four slots. For example, Apple provided my test system with six 2GB dual in-line memory modules (DIMM)s, three for each CPU, leaving the fourth memory slot free on each CPU.

Note that if you fill the final memory slot, you essentially cut memory bandwidth in half for the controller addressing those slots. In a memory-intensive application that would otherwise have to page to a hard disk, the dynamic memory should still be faster, but you’re better off getting more dense memory for three slots per CPU than filling all four slots with lower-density SDRAM.

As always, if you’re looking to configure a system with lots of RAM, check for alternative sources, as Apple’s RAM is very expensive. In addition, Apple doesn’t let you configure a single-processor system with 4GB DIMMs—though in the right configuration (1066MHz DDR4 ECC SDRAM), 4GB DIMMs should work. In fact, at least one reputable company, Other World Computing (OWC), is already selling 4GB modules for the quad-core system. Note that OWC is currently offering a rebate on memory that you replace with RAM purchased from OWC, so you should definitely check out that company’s website before buying your Mac Pro.

If you’re squeamish about adding memory yourself, don’t be—Apple has redesigned the innards of the Mac Pro for excellent serviceability. The case opens as before, via a latch on the back. Once it’s open, you pull two additional latches to unlock the CPU/RAM compartment, which you pull out for adding memory or swapping out CPUs. All four hard drives fit inside a chassis-specific casing, which you can slide in and out with ease.

The base graphics card for the two Mac Pros is the Nvidia GeForce GT 120 with 512MB of RAM, which should be fine for 2D digital content creation. Apple supplied my test system with an ATI Radeon HD 4870 with 512MB of memory, which added $200 to the cost of the system. With two 1TB hard drives, the total cost of the system came to about $6,799, not counting the Apple LED Cinema Display that I discuss below.

On the outside, the Mac Pro looks similar to previous models, though the ports have changed, and there is no longer a FireWire 400 port. Take a deep breath and get over it; Apple’s decision will make sense in maybe 2012, when you retire your HDV camcorder for a camcorder with a FireWire 800 connector (and FireWire 400-to-800 adapters cost about $20). While I’m on the subject of frustrating Apple configuration decisions, there are still no Blu-ray recording options available for the Mac Pro.

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