The today we hear about the new Mac Pros and now we get this game conversion tool. For the first time Mac Fans can acutually start entering the PC gamming community. However, notice I say "MAC FANS". I do not think the high end PC rigs are in any competition as yet.

Memory - Ok. great! the new Mac Pro can upgrade to 16Gigs. But there are 2 issues here. (1) No current games including "PREY, and even "Oblivion" need more than 2gigs so putting more ram (over 2 gigs) is not going to make your game experience any better. (2) Speed - If you look closely to the specs ( http://www.apple.com/macpro/specs.html), you see that the memory is running on 667MHz speed). My memory in my rig is runnning at 800Mhz but I *CAN* OC it if I want!

CPU - It is a Xeon! Correct me if I am wrong but isn't this CPU customized for servers? I am sure it is fast for Video editing but I do wonder if it can bit a overclocked 6800 Core2 Extreme where the architecture of this CPU is needed. Also, I do not think you can overclock a Xeon, not alone a Xeon in an Apple rig. Yes - I know it is a QUAD but again, the architecture is different for what games required from a CPU.

Customized Rig - Well, this is part of the whole FUN of this hobby is to go to your PC shop and select unique parts to customized your PC (just like a car). How can I do this with an Apple rig? Where can I put those cool fans and lights and see through windows? A custom rig is *PART* of the life-style of a serious gamer! Period!

All said and done, I am happy to see Apple trying to move a little more toward gamming but they still have a long ways to go before I would move to an Apple WS for my gamming plateform!

BTW - Do you know how much it will cost you to build a new Mac Pro with all the options inside? $16,934.00 (Yipes!)

Tairc bitter. Tairc was really close to buying a new Mac Pro. Tairc saved 2600$, and was planning to buy the "1999$" version, with 4GB RAM, and be very happy.

But Apple not make 1999$ version. Apple decide Tairc really need FOUR cores. Four very large cores. Apple decide Tairc need either crappy video and integrated 20" monitor, or quad-core uber system.

Why Apple hate Tairc so? Why Apple not want Tairc's business?

Tairc demand new product release at Mac Expo in Europe this fall, or Tairc be yet sadder.

Ah, dual dual-core Opteron system FTW?

yes?

no?

ok fine.

Has anyone actually priced out the equivalent Dell 690? I have, I did it immediatley when the comparison picture was posted. Jobs IS correct: the Mac Pro at 2x 2.66 ghz IS cheaper than the Dell -- by nearly the margin he shows on that page.

How the hell can Apple sell a Xeon based workstation cheaper than Dell? Didn't Intel try to get the "no preferred" pricing thing for OEMs? Sure as hell seems that it's NOT working for Dell at this point.

When anyone goes to the Dell site, make SURE you add the second 2.66GHZ cpu, get the 667Mhz ram (default is 533), up the HDD to 500GB AND get a 256Meg video card (the FX550 is 128meg). Somewhere, somehow, Apple's box is cheaper than the Dell for Xeon 5150s.

I guess my biggest problem, that I've always had, but never truly realized, is the insane amount of pure bullsh*t smugness their ad conpaigns have always had. I dislike this attitude of we're better because we tell you we are, and I think I always will.

If the estimated ship times of 1-3 business days for the 2.66 GHz and 3-5 business days for the 3GHz models are believable and correct, I wonder why we haven't seen any reviews of these Mac Pros? Or have I missed them?

And once again, there is no sensible Mac :/
There is the useless Mac mini.
There is the unupgradable iMac.
And there is the insane Mac Pro. (Xeon ? FB-DIMM ? ...)
Where the hell is the sensible Mac, a nice tower with more standard desktop components (Conroe/DDR2?) that has sane options. (no GeForce 7600GT or similar in Mac Pro ...)

*sigh*

bah. Typical Apple, all those pretty pages and I cant find something as basic as which chipset they use.

Farwell "G" Moniker!!! We'll Miss You!

What's the next gen going to be. The Mac Pro 2?

How times change. I just caught myself thinking that was a nice Mac, without reservations. wow. It goes without question that its bloody expensive.

Why do they have a video card selection of 4x 7300Gt's???

Looks like we may have a crash. Relaunches.

Did he have anything to say about he stock options???

http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Lay.../Article_Type1&call_pageid=971358637177&c=Articl...[r.com]

Wow -- killer workstation.

If they can come up with a way to play Windows games without a reboot, then just maybe I'll consider one of these next year (yes, yes, I know it's not a machine for gamers, but just because I might be able to use this for work-related stuff, doesn't mean I don't want to play games, too, and I'd rather have one machine than two, and no I don't want a console, so just frickin' leave me alone you preachy strawmen!)

I think they should have called the Mac Pro GX....

Anybode else wish Intel had dropped the 'xeon' codename with the core microarchitecture. At least call it the xeon2 or something like that.

The price of the Mac Pro is good, but nothing special about that 10.5, feels more like Vista 0.2 than 2.0