Rumors stated the new Mac Pro would have been released this past Monday, but actually the official release was this morning. Pricing starts at $2999 for the basic model, but like the MacBook Pro there's not much room for upgrades after the purchase. So to purchase the best right out of the gate, you're sitting close to $9600.
The basic $2999 model comes with a 3.7 GHz Xeon E5 quad-core processor, 12GB RAM, 256GB PCI-e based flash storage, and a Dual FirePro D300 Graphics card.
For about $9600 dollars, the best you can upgrade to is a 2.7 GHz Xeon E5 12-core processor, 64GB RAM, 1TB PCI-e based flash storage, and a Dual FirePro D700 Graphics card.
Keep in mind, this is a desktop that will still require a display. You can opt in for a single Thunderbolt display tacking on another $1K, but this beast was really designed for 4K output. Apple offers to throw in a Sharp 32" 4K monitor for an added $3600 dollars. Congratulations, you're now sitting at $13,200 for a 4K desktop system they say will last you for the next 10 years [with enough horsepower to add another two 4K monitors]
So has anyone already committed to getting the new Mac Pro? Check out Apple.com for more info on the new Mac Pro Desktop (click here)
Jason
I think everyone is overlooking one key thing here.
It only has a 450w power supply.
IF you max it out at 12core xeon and a dual GPU setup, there is no way in hell this thins is running at full speed. Extreme throttling is what $10k buys you.
I was so optimistic for this until I discovered that..wow I dunno how they're publishing those benchmarks..
Al Gardner
ZF 2 AMD D700's only cost $1400 bucks
You could actually build a comparable PC for $4400 and have $2400 to put towards a 4k Monitor.
AMD D700's only cost $1400 bucks
32 gigs 1866MHZ DDR3 DIMM ECC$410 bucks
3.0GHz 8-core with 25MB of L3 cache $1950
512GB PCIe-based flash storage $500
ASUS Z87-DELUXE/QUAD LGA 1150 Intel Z87 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard $340
Power supply and case $300
Alex Campbell
When you look at all of the factors, this is not such a bad deal. Ifixit did a teardown and found that the RAM, storage and processor are all upgradeable. I have built a hackintosh in the past, but when you look at the specs, you would be hard pressed to build an optimized machine with the specs of even the lowest end MP for less than 2K. Also take into consideration that 4 years from now, your 3K MP is still worth probably $1500+ used. (ever look at the prices of a used Macbook Pro?) The MP is also designed for external storage, which means that you really only need a 500GB HD anyways. All of this together with the insanely small form factor and the fact that it will most likely be another 5 or 6 years until 4K is adopted heavily at the consumer level, meaning that the base model is still extraordinary for 1080p editing, I don't think that the price is a valid argument. I would much rather have a client point to my near silent 10 inch trashcan looking computer and say "Is that your computer?" than look at my noisy, blue glowing LED, transparent gaming looking thing and asking "Is that your computer"
ZF
I built a non-cheap hackintosh a while back with a high-wattage power supply and a ton of PCIe lanes just to be able to operate more than one high-powered GPU for use with DaVinci Resolve. The hackintosh works all right, with some quirks and occasional bout of instability (possibly because I'm overclocking the intel i7-3930K), and I have to be ready for a couple of days of downtime every time I update the OS while I figure out what new kernel extension is conflicting with the non-standard hardware. Contrary to the other commenters, I'm psyched to soon be able to replace it with the new Mac Pro. I'm getting too old to deal with this hacky stuff, and the new Mac Pro seems like a surprisingly-hot deal for those in my line of work.
A single AMD FirePro W9000 graphics card for PC costs around $3200. A new 8-core Mac Pro with 32Gb of RAM, 512Mb of PCIe SSD, and two D700 graphics cards (which have been built to order for Apple but closely match spec-wise with the W9000) costs $6799. So as expensive as it sounds, for those who run professional GPU-intensive applications and have considered cards like the W900, the new Mac Pro with 2xD700 is equivalent to buying those two top graphics cards and getting a very capable computer thrown in for free. If you don't see the value here, then it's not the computer for you, but if you need that power you're just not going to be able to build a hackintosh with that graphics hardware for less.
Lemo
WOW Apple I used to love you you used to inspire me but c'mon on you guys are confused? First you complete change FCP and give us something similar to iMovie for 299$, now you doulbe-triple the price of your CPU"s? Yeaaaaaa Im good buddy! Blackmagic Magic Lantern CAME and others alike are great companies Generation Y DIY type of companies and I will ride it out with them keep your high prices and subpar NLE.
Kay O. Sweaver
I just built my first Hackintosh a few weeks ago for $1500 and look forward to upgrading it as the years go by. Thanks but no thanks Apple.
apostolos
My 2c on the subject. I've been a long time user of Macs and I love the elegance of the Mac interface. But recession and post-recession economic reality has forced me to use both Macs and PCs. I shoot both photo and video, and for photo I use Photoshop which exists in both platforms, but for video, I'm using more and more Premiere, because Final Cut limits you to the Mac hardware. What bugs me about these prices is that the only reason the price of the top-of-the-line Mac is the insane $9600 is the theoretical capabilities of the unit (and the industry anticipation) to deal with 4k and RAW, etc. So, if you're trying to push me towards a better video standard, you should do it at prices competitive to what I'm currently paying, otherwise it's not progress. If you're trying to gouge every penny out of me by repackaging or overpricing the same or marginally better technology (can you say Sony in the mid-2000s or Canon post 5dmk2) someone will come along and offer disruptive technology (BlackMagic, Hackintosh, Magic Lantern, GH2 hacks), which, unfortunately for the "repackagers" and "overpricers," spreads like wildfire through the internet. So, I'll pass Apple. The Hackintosh sites will post reliable Hackintosh builds (I've been using a Hackintosh for the past four years) which are legal, btw, as you buy the Mac OS legally. Until your prices become a bit more sane, you're not getting any of my hardware money Apple. And if anyone believes that this new Mac is a good investment "because the hardware is going to last ten years" I have a bridge I'd like to sell him. It will be obsolete in two to three years like any other video-related hardware.
Anthony
I went Hack Pro about six months ago and the system has been faultless. Running the full CS6 suite it sings along without a glitch and the best part is that it's fully upgradable.
apostolos
"Congratulations you're now sitting at a 13k system" It actually made me laugh out loud! Hackintosh all the way baby. Gigabyte (and one or two more brands) are already offering Thunderbolt 2 motherboards for the rest of us.
MN
Hey, it's good for folks making their living off after effects and high res editing. It's truly a PRO system.
Still, now that video production PC hardware/software is more reliable, I think I'd go for cobbling together a nice LAN collection of PC's for video editing at that price tag. I remember when I tried building something that 15 years ago. It wasn't robust enough. It's why I use FCP and Macs today.
So, now it's 15K for a full blown Mac hardware set-up? Hmm.
It's relatively a lot, but you would't want to know what was paid for the lousy Media100 system I was cutting on back in '96. Oh, man. And that was the "cheap" non-linear editing solution.
Marc B
You are so right about workstation hardware's useful life expectancy being much lot longer than in the past, but 10 years seems overly optimistic. The only factor that gives me pause in that projection is the speed of Thunderbolt 2. For daily 4K RAW editing, I'd want something with higher theoretical and actual throughput, and that will probably be available with TB3. I can't wait for your forthcoming review.
David
WTF
Hackintosh I'm coming