It’s almost that time of year again, friends. New movies are terrible, kids are sucking down popsicles and my office is like a moist toaster oven. It’s nearly back to school time!
That means in our little trivial world that it’s time for new gadgets and the Internet rumor mill is lining up quite a big showing from Apple. Of course it’s always this way. The rumors state Apple will do no less than reverse the rotation of the Earth and then Steve Jobs simply introduces a new high-speed interface. But let’s dance anyway. → Read More
Don’t tell the kids this, but it’s almost back to school time and Apple is reportedly gearing up for a major push this August. Apperently several large hardware refreshes are on tap with both the Mac Pro and Mac mini set to get new innards.
It’s about time, too. The iMac got in on the Intel Sandy Bridge party just last month with the top of the line model now packing more computing might than a much more expensive Xeon-packing Mac Pro. Intel’s latest chips are just that good. But this refresh isn’t just about the processor. Oh no, it’s a whole lot more than that. → Read More
The Mac Pro isn’t exactly known for being a terribly loud computer, but I guess you can make it even quieter by adding liquid cooling. Of course, it’s not Apple approved so adding this type of technology will no doubt void your warranty, but it would give you the ability to overclock your machine. In fact, this is exactly what someone from Asetek did; added liquid cooling to an 8-Core Mac Pro, and then overclocked it from 2.8Ghz to 3.16Ghz. The end result? An extremely fast workstation that generates almost no noise. Check out the video (with a performance comparison) after the jump: → Read More
The Apple Store went down for a bit this morning and when it came back, the 12-core Apple Mac Pro was suddenly available. Pricing is right where its supposed to be with the single 2.8GHz Quad-Core rig starting out at $2,499 and the 12-core bad boy costing at least $4,999. Of course you can get frisky and check all the available options for hardware and software. That order will only cost $25,673.85 — but it includes the new Apple Battery Charger! → Read More
Can’t say we didn’t see this coming. It seemed like each day there was another random source or sign that Apple was preparing to update the iMac and Mac Pro. Well, most of the rumors were right. The changes aren’t really all that special and simply evolutionary in nature. Still, we’re not one to turn away new components. → Read More
The Internet has been quietly turning out Apple rumors over the last few weeks. Something about new Mac Pros here and new iMacs there and a multi-touch desktop trackpad thingie. It might all come to the surface tomorrow if John Gruber of the Internet is believed. → Read More
In case you haven’t noticed, the MacBook Pro line is starting to get a little stale with just a lowly Core 2 Duo CPU. Even the Mac Pro with it’s Quad-Core Xeon isn’t the fastest kid in town anymore with the six-core Core i7-980X making the rounds. Hopefully all this fuss concerning a supposed leak of new Mac pricing that’s a bit higher than the current MSRPs foreshadows updates coming in the near future. → Read More
And you thought that Apple finally drove the front running clone maker off of a cliff. Nope. Psystar successfully navigated the bankruptcy courts and is back at its old game of annoying Apple. The ongoing lawsuit is still in play, but bankruptcy no doubt allowed the company to shed some debt and reorganize under Chapter 11 guidelines. Now the company is back and just released a new Core i7 clone. → Read More
Two new Mac Pros today with some pretty serious power configurations and very-serious price tags. There’s a quad-core version that starts at $2499 and an eight-core version that starts at $3299. → Read More
Lets look at the big picture here: MacWorld is in January, the Mac Pro’s are need for a CPU bump, and Intel is planning on releasing new Xeon server CPUs early next year. It sure looks good that the Mac Pro’s should receive a CPU upgrade soon but the question becomes, what CPU will Steve-O slap in the the Mac Pro? Chances are Apple will stick with the Xeon line up and the Core i7, or Nehalem, is the next logical step-up. Even though this upcoming CPU runs at comparable clock speeds as the current generation, benchmarks have soon a reasonable performance boost. Depending on the rest of MacWorld’s news, this might get pushed to a simple press release later on or it could be featured along with other Mac Pro upgrades – Blu-ray burner, anyone? → Read More
Apple just responded to the report claiming Mac Pros produced before 2008 can give off leukemia-causing benzene by stating through a spokesman spin-doctor to Macworld the following: We have not found anything that supports this claim, but continue to investigate it for the customer. While we would love to give Apple the green light on this, what company would openly admit that they products could literally kill you? Independent reports will no doubt populate quickly as the Mac Pros in question more than likely power the labs that test for these types of toxins anyway. How hard would it be for a lab rat to point his atmosphere sniffing thingie at the computer he works on all day. Don’t expect this story to go away any time soon. → Read More
But at what cost? This tool from ZDNet allows for super-easy overclocking of your Mac Pro. Until recently, overclocking has been one of the few remaining legs Windows users had up on Mac users, from an objective standpoint at least. The OC tools I’ve used on XP have ranged from the graphic to the obscure, and from the stable to the ridiculous. This ZDNet tool looks pretty simple, but being simple, it’s not really comprehensive. This is evident from the fact that multiple errors occur reliably while using the tool: the time gets messed up, it can’t restart without crashing past certain speeds, and the clockspeeds reset themselves when your machine goes to sleep — among other issues. → Read More
Earlier in the year Corsair launched the low-latency RAM geared specifically for the Penryn-based MacBook and MacBook Pro, which I currently have on my MBP, and now they’re kicking out some kits for the Mac Pro. The new Mac Memory kits buffer at 800MHz and work alongside the MP-specific heat sinks and whatever else to unleash the beast that is your Mac Pro. A 4GB DIMM kit retails for $250 and all Corsair Mac memory are put through the ringer at Apple Test Labs. → Read More
What the hell? I’m all for modularity and being able to upgrade components individually in a powerhouse computer like the Mac Pro, but $279 for an 8800GT? The card you’re getting is fully $100 cheaper on the street even for a good brand like XFX or PNY (nice deal there). Reminds me of the infamous Xbox 360 hard drive markup. I know many people will gladly pay a premium for Apple hardware, but this really isn’t even Apple hardware. → Read More
Attention, owners of old Mac Pros. You can now, if you so desire, upgrade your graphics card to the Nvidia 8800GT for the reasonable price of $279. Apparently there was some sort of hullabaloo earlier this year because the previously released 8800GT only worked with just-released Mac Pro. Owners of older systems complained and complained, Steve Jobs apologized (sorta) and told them the upgrade was coming. And now it’s here. To freedom! via MacRumors → Read More
[photopress:nvidiateslac870.png,full,center] News from the rumor mill (read that again… yes, it’s contradictory) is that Nvidia is developing a GPGPU for Apple. GPGPU stands for general-purpose computing on graphics processing units and, in English, is a GPU that’s able to carry out CPU instructions. A GPU that can crunch non-graphics numbers, in other words. Or you can read all the tech specs at Le Wiki. Nvidia just sent out an SOS looking for a Mac programmer to help code the drivers for the new cards. While certainly not set in stone, AppleInsider thinks Apple would most likely use the new card as a built-to-order option on the Mac Pro. Given that Apple just updated the Mac Pro a few weeks ago, it’ll be a while before the card is available. Nvidia working on first GPGPUs for Apple Macs [AppleInsider] → Read More
[photopress:08mp_display.jpg,full,center] A prelude of things to come next week at MacWorld? Apple speed bumped the Mac Pro and Xserve today; both now use Intel’s recently-released Penryn processor. The revised Mac Pro, what every little Mac Head wish he had the money for, has: – two 2.8 GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon processors with dual-independent 1600 MHz front side buses; – 2GB of 800 MHz DDR2 ECC fully-buffered DIMM memory, expandable up to 32GB; – ATI Radeon HD 2600 XT with 256MB of GDDR3 memory; – 320GB Serial ATA 3Gb/s hard drive running at 7200 rpm; – 16x SuperDrive(TM) with double-layer support (DVD+/-R DL/DVD+/-RW/CD-RW); – two PCI Express 2.0 slots and two PCI Express slots; – Bluetooth 2.0+EDR; and – ships with Apple Keyboard and Mighty Mouse. That’ll set you back $2,799. As for the $2,999 Xserve… → Read More
