Talk:Mac Pro

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This is the talk page for discussing improvements to the Mac Pro article.
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Contents

[edit] Comment

"At the 2006 Macworld Conference and Expo, Steve Jobs said that the company wanted the word 'Mac', referring to Apple Macintosh, in the names of all their computer products. Following the pattern of their release of the MacBook and its professional counterpart, the MacBook Pro, it seems logical that the professional desktop Macintosh will use the name Mac Pro." This conclusion is a little dumb... It already had "Mac" in it´s name, why would they wan´t to change it?

Delay 20:32, 20 July 2006 (UTC)

Maybe because the word "Power" in "Power Mac" refers to the PowerPC and they are using Intel processors now. Duh – (empoor) 11:20, 1 August 2006 (UTC)

i like future product wikis!. like vapourware until it is released, it causes alot of excitement.

Visik 14:25, 29 June 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Terrible Image

Doesn't anyone have a better image? This one looks terrible, with all the yellow and stuff. For example, this one is much better:

http://img.kakaku.com/images/productimage/fullscale/00109018423.jpg

[edit] Announcement!

MacRumors.com's live coverage of the WWDC confirms the Mac Pro as the successor to the PowerMac G5! Let the editing begin.

--68.199.31.28 17:14, 7 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] "Models" section removal

Simple lists of features and statistics does not an encyclopeda article make. Wikipedia is not an indiscriminate collection of information. Thanks and regards! —Celestianpower háblame 18:32, 7 August 2006 (UTC)

I think it should just be revised, like the iMac article. Compressed and condensed. –- kungming·2 | (Talk·Contact) 23:24, 12 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Comment at the end

I hope everyone likes the edits -- the history will prove that one way or the other -- but I am curious if I have gone too far with that last statement? Is that reasonable, or does it seem like rumor mongering? Maury 20:06, 8 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Is the price comparison fair?

The price comparisons with PC vs Mac on the Mini, iMac, iBook etc... are all debatable. I'm not sure if the statement about the price is appropriate.

I only left it there because it was already there when I started editing. I kinda agree, but only to an extent. Certainly the current mini is by no means comparable in price to a similar PC, but the Mac Pro appears to be within a few percent. This is a big change, perhaps worth mentioning. That said I can understand removing it, at which point you're still left with the points about the industrial design, which I think everyone would agree are worth pointing out (notably the card slots, tip-o-the-hat for that one Apple). Maury 21:10, 8 August 2006 (UTC)
We shouldn't be doing competitive market analysis on Wikipedia. It creates unnecessary argumentation and friction in articles and it doesn't really contribute anything of encyclopedic value. Let's focus on what the Mac Pro is as a computer. -/-

Warren 23:59, 8 August 2006 (UTC)

PC-Fan :how did he get that kind of price, i tried to replicate it on dell.com with a coupon and i got somewhere around $3500 with the specs the editor of footnote 5

also i customized the mac pro to it's full power and did the same with an Dell Precision 690 and this is what i got
   mac pro
   * Two 3.0GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon
   * 16GB (8 x 2GB)
   * 750GB 7200-rpm Serial ATA 3Gb/s
   * 750GB 7200-rpm Serial ATA 3Gb/s
   * 750GB 7200-rpm Serial ATA 3Gb/s
   * 750GB 7200-rpm Serial ATA 3Gb/s
   * NVIDIA Quadro FX 4500 512MB, Stereo 3D (2 x dual-link DVI)
   * Apple Cinema HD Display (30" flat panel)
   * Apple Cinema HD Display (30" flat panel)
   * Two 16x SuperDrives
   * Apple Wireless Keyboard and Apple wireless Mighty Mouse - Western Spanish
   * Mac OS X - U.S. English
   * AppleCare Protection Plan for Mac Pro/Power Mac (w/or w/o Display) - Auto-enroll
   *cost:$15,946.00

  Dell Precision 690

My System Details

  • Quad Core Intel® Xeon® Processor X5355 (2.66GHz, 2 X 4MB L2,1333)
  • Quad Core Intel® Xeon® Processor X5355 2.66GHz, 2 X 4MB L2,1333
  • Genuine Windows® XP Professional, SP2 with Media
  • SLI config w/ 2 X768MB PCIe x16 nVidia Quadro FX4600 cards in graphic riser
  • 4GB, DDR2 SDRAM FBD Memory, 667MHz, ECC in Riser (4 DIMMS)
  • 48XCD AND 48X CD-RW/DVD Combo with Cyberlink Power DVD™
  • C1 All SATA drives, Non-RAID, 1 or 2 drive total configuration
  • 750GB SATA 3.0Gb/s,7200 RPM Hard Drive with 16MB DataBurst Cache™
  • SATA/SAS Integrated Card - For Connecting Internal Hard Drives
  • 750GB SATA 3.0Gb/s,7200 RPM Hard Drive with 16MB DataBurst Cache™
  • 500GB SATA 3.0Gb/s,7200 RPM Hard Drive with 16MB DataBurst Cache™
  • 500GB SATA 3.0Gb/s,7200 RPM Hard Drive with 16MB DataBurst Cache™
  • Free 19 inch E198WFP Flat Panel
  • Dell High Color 30 inch UltraSharp Widescreen Monitor
  • Dell High Color 30 inch UltraSharp Widescreen Digital Flat Panel
  • 3Yr Ltd. Warranty- Advance Exchange


3 Year On-site Economy

cost: 11,083

the dell one costs 30%less without a coupon(u can find those anywhere online) the comparison shows that the only place the dell lacks is RAM, who needs 16gigs anyways, it's superori in almost every single aspect

Lets see you configured the dell with 1/4 the memory (reducing the memory alone brings the prices to only about a grand different), slower processors, 500GB less hard drive space and it looks like neither drive is a DVD writer (compared to both being DVD writers in the mac pro). The only area in which your dell config seems to be supirior is graphics.
One thing I will say though is that computer manufacturers like to rip users off on build to order options. Very often it is cheaper to replace a part than it is to upgrade it with build time options (as an extreme example it is cheaper to buy a 32GB upgrade kit for the mac pro than it is to buy the machine with 16GB from the factory).Plugwash (talk) 14:41, 20 November 2007 (UTC)
The real issue with the mac pros price is not that it is unreasonable for the hardware you get. It is the fact that you have to buy and pay for a monster machine to get a mac with basic upgradability. Plugwash (talk) 14:47, 20 November 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Comparisons to the G5 Power Mac

Hello all, thanks for adding in the citation for the Mac Pro's low noise. I removed the bit about the G5's noise being "extremely quiet"; not because I think it's a loud machine, but I felt that the G5's article would be a more appropriate place to talk about this.

Also, is it good wiki-etiquete to modify an article and then justify your reasoning behind the edit, or should one talk about a proposed edit before performing it? Just wondering as I am a relatively new wikipedian. Thanks!

Hoff10000 00:38, 12 August 2006 (UTC)

See Wikipedia:Be bold in updating pages. Guy Harris 01:09, 12 August 2006 (UTC)
Just go ahead and modify the article! Don't forget to write an edit summary stating what you did... your fellow editors will appreciate it. Apart from Guy Harris's suggestion there, another good article to read is Wikipedia:The perfect article, which is a concise summation of everything we should aim for when writing articles. Don't worry about making mistakes, they can always be fixed,. -/- Warren 01:18, 12 August 2006 (UTC)


[edit] some mistakes

there are some, misnomers in this page.


"The Mac Pro does not support SLI or CrossFire, limiting its ability to use the latest "high-end gaming" video card products."

not disagreeing with what this statement is saying, so much as how it is said. macs have traditionally been workstations or high end desktops. but not gaming machines. SLI/Xfire would be useless anyway. because neither fireGL nor Quadro video cards support Xfire/SLI. neither do i think an informed person would use the terminology "high-end gaming" video card products.", something more like "the Mac pro chipset does not support either SLI or Xfire". the statement comes out as a misnomer in my opinion.

"The PCI-Express slots are also not backwards compatible with earlier PCI slot specifications and hardware, such as PCI-X"

(possibly) insinuating that PCIe SHOULD be reverse compatible with "PCI", or PCIx, when in fact it is a totally different protocol, and bus logic, and has more to do with RAM controllers then legacy PCI slots. again, it seems mostly the wording more then the point of the statement. in this case the statement is not needed.

The statement about PCI Express is in a section named "Compatibility"; the intent is to indicate that if you have add-on PCI cards in your PowerMac G5, you won't be able to plug them into your Mac Pro, i.e. the Mac Pro isn't compatible with PCI or PCI-X add-on cards from a G5 (or the cards aren't compatible with the Mac Pro). As such, the statement is correct (i.e., not a mistake), conveys arguably useful information (especially to users who might not know the technical details about different system busses), and does belong in that section. Guy Harris 23:00, 18 November 2006 (UTC)
Or, rather, one of the statements is in the Compatibility section; the one you cite isn't, but, again, the intent is the same.
What, BTW, "has more to do with RAM controllers then legacy PCI slots"? "PCI Express" is not the correct answer to that question, as PCI Express is an expansion bus, not a main memory bus. Guy Harris 23:11, 18 November 2006 (UTC)

Not having the ability to use sli/crossfire doesn't mean it can't use those cards. There are motherboards for PCs that can't use crossfire/sli either, but they can still use the cards. 71.57.247.120 (talk) 21:01, 11 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Quad Processor?

Someone make mention of quad processor to be soon released, 124.189.227.80 10:15, 7 January 2007 (UTC)

That's a major rumor. I want it, but it hasn't been announced yet. job's said, "see you soon" at the end of his keynote. Tip-off? maybe. But there is no conclusive evidence. Even if it would rock. -The Walkin Dude 19:04, 21 January 2007 (UTC)

Looks like your wish has come true. --71.36.251.182 22:02, 4 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] How many SATA and PATA ports?

Can someone please confirm how many SATA and PATA ports the main-board offers. The description sounds like 6 SATA and 1 PATA channel (with up to two drives). Also, could we list the operating systems this nice computer works with and the drivers required (eg. for Linux and Vista). THANKS -- Michael Janich 09:23, 3 April 2007 (UTC)

^^^I've updated the wiki entry to reflect the actual number of SATA ports on the Mac Pro (there are two SATA ports that aren't connected to drive bays). not 8:13, 26 May 2007

Are you sure? The picture in the cite given for the two that are "not connected to drive bays" has them labeled as "odd sata" which i interpret as optical disc drive sata. I'm thinking theese may be the pair of ports that are meant to be used for connecting sata optical drives. Can anyone with a mac pro they are prepared to poke arround inside clarify the situation? Plugwash 02:30, 6 August 2007 (UTC)
I checked Apple's website and it confirmed what I thought in that it has 4 SATA2 ports for the hard drives. However I am not sure what kind of connection the DVD drives use I believe that it is ATA-7. The sstem info utility on my MacBook only says the the drive is on an ATA bus. Gamefreak2413 (talk) 23:43, 10 March 2008 (UTC)
My understanding is there are four sata ports wired out to the drive trays and two more sata ports on the motherboard not connected to anything presumablly intended for use with SATA optical drives though third parties. The optical drives are on a shared IDE channel. Can anyone with a mac pro confirm this? Plugwash (talk) 21:20, 30 April 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Start class?

I don't know about all of you, but this definitely seems better than start class to me! It's succinct, yet at the same time contains an excellent technical summary, it's very well organized, reads wonderfully top to bottom, and has ample references, ones that are even on-topic. I'd say this is a FA, by any measure.

I can't see anything about the rating process or the reasons it was given start. I personally don't think the ratings are worth the space they take up on the talk page, but apparently other people do, so I'd be very interested in moving this process along.

Maury 20:30, 2 May 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Mac Pro and one CPU

run with only one cpu installed? Plugwash (talk)

Sign your posts with four ~. Second it doesn't matter as you aren't allowed to take Macs apart and you can't buy them iwth only 1 cpu. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Joeking16 (talk • contribs) 12:05, 7 November 2007 (UTC)
Umm, you can configure it with only 1 cpu... 206.219.74.132 (talk) 18:37, 11 January 2008 (UTC)
You couldn't until recently when they switched to using quad core chips exclusively. As for being allowed to take macs apart if I buy a machine I have every right to take it apart and given apples ludicrous prices for build to order options I suspect many people do. Plugwash (talk) 21:59, 15 January 2008 (UTC)
You're certainly allowed to add certain pieces of hardware such as PCI cards and RAM without warranty invalidation. The mac pro has clearly been designed for this and even the mac pro manual tells you how to do it! Grazer (talk) 18:00, 28 April 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Blu-Ray

Should something be included about the Mac Pro being so customizable but not offering Blu-Ray as an option?Brett 91091 01:06, 7 August 2007 (UTC)

Apple doesn't offer any Blu-Ray drives so why would it need to be mentioned? If Apple did, then the absence of an option for a Blu-Ray drive would be an issue.--_ BaRiMzI _ 01:11, 7 August 2007 (UTC)
Apple is part of the Blu-Ray Association and Blu-Ray in computers is becoming more common is higher quality systems.Brett 91091 03:23, 7 August 2007 (UTC)

[edit] "Hardware RAID"?

In the Description section is the following sentence:

The Mac Pro now offers hardware RAID circuitry[14]

This doesn't match my understanding: the four internal drive bays support SATA-300, but if you buy a Mac Pro RAID card then all four bays support SAS drives and hardware RAID. So, I believe this should be changed to something like

With the addition of a Mac Pro RAID card, the Mac Pro will support hardware RAID using SAS drivesj (note that you cannot mix SAS and SATA drives).

(I'm not sure, so I don't want to make the change myself.)

That looks like it was copied directly from Apple's web site. Furthermore you forgot to sign your comment.(It happens to everybody. In fact I did it a few minutes ago.) Gamefreak2413 (talk) 23:53, 10 March 2008 (UTC)