Apple Mac Pro workstation
The new Mac Pro completes Apple’s line-up of re-released computers with Intel processors at their core. It might not look any different to the old G5, but it’s faster, much faster
The Mac Pro is the last in Apple’s line of Macintosh computers to be relaunched with Intel rather than IBM processors. Gone is the G5, and in are 64-bit dual core Xeon chips, which Apple promises offer blistering performance and hope is the Mac that Photoshop professionals have been waiting for.
Externally, the Mac Pro looks identical to the previous generation of G5 Power Macs: the huge body is made from brushed aluminium and has two handles for moving it from one place to another. This probably won’t be something you do very often as the Mac Pro is a beast: it weighs a ton (actually it weighs very nearly 20kg). The reason for this is that while it is designed to be a powerhouse of a computer, it’s also extremely expandable.
Whereas the G5 was so hot in use that it had to have a liquid cooling system and heatsinks that looked like they were designed by NASA, the Mac Pro is much more heat efficient. With its cooling system much reduced there is room inside for four internal hard drive bays, each capable of taking a 750GB drive. That gives a whopping 3TB of potential storage and enables the creation of raid arrays to either increase speed or make your images more safe by creating instant backups as you work. The Mac Pro can also accommodate up to 16GB of RAM, which should be enough for anyone at the moment, four PCI cards and two CD/DVD drives.
Performance wise, the Mac Pro is every bit as amazing as its price tag would lead you to believe. Our test model (which comes in at £3169) ran on two dual core 3GHz Xeon processors and contained 4GB of RAM and a 250GB hard disk. Unsurprisingly then it made light work of anything we threw at it, and performance with ‘native’ applications was frankly astonishing. As with other Intel models in the Mac range, older software runs using a behind-the-scenes emulator which means the full power of the system is not realised. On newer applications, written especially for the Intel architecture, the full speed of the system is unleashed.
Running the new beta version of Photoshop CS3 (which is Intel native) gave an insight into what a formidable combination of hardware and software this will be when Adobe issues the final release. A 400MB layered image, originating from a Hasselblad H3D, was thrown around on screen as if it was 7MB JPEG from a three-megapixel compact. In fact the system is so fast that we often thought that a filter or effect hadn’t been applied when we selected it; in actual fact it just happened so quickly that there wasn’t time for a progress bar to pop up. Raw users will be happy with the Mac Pro’s performance too. Converting a Raw file from a 16-million pixel Canon EOS 1Ds Mark II took just three seconds in PhaseOne’s Capture One software, and unsurprisingly Apple’s own Aperture software runs very well too.
There are many possible configurations of Mac Pro available from Apple, the cheapest of which costs £1699. Adding RAM at the Apple Store is an expensive affair so we’d advise you go to an alternative source, such as Crucial or Kingston.
Apple has always been clued up on connectivity, and this is no exception. There is every type of port and socket you could desire on the Mac Pro, with some duplicated around the front of the machine for easy access. It’s a mystery why WiFi (aka Airport) and Bluetooth are still optional though. At this level, wireless technology should be included for standard. It’s a bit like buying an Aston Martin only to find that it doesn’t have electric windows.
All in all then, this is probably the best desktop computer ever made, and absolutely perfect for professional photographers. Try as we might, there really isn’t anything to moan about, except perhaps the price, but then that’s Apple for you – expensive, but not so expensive as to be out of reach. Remember that Macs can be set up to run Windows too these days, so this really might be the only computer you ever need.
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We are dreading having to give the Mac Pro back to Apple. It makes working on images a breeze, and hence frees you to be more creative in your workflow. Apart from the slightly steep price (made worse by having to fork out £50 for wireless networking) there isn’t much to critisise. Some day all computers will be like this. Until then, we have the Mac Pro.
| Handling | ***** |
| Features | ***** |
| Performance | ***** |
| Value for money | **** |
| Overall | ***** |
Price: From £1699
Processor: 2x 2GHz, 2.66GHz or 3GHz Dual-Core Intel Xeon 5100 series processors with 4MB shared level 2 cache per processor
Memory: Eight FB DIMM slots supporting up to 16GB of main memory
Graphics and displays: Double-width 16-lane PCI Express graphics slot with support for a variety of graphics cards; multiple graphics card configurations including two, three or four NVIDIA GeForce 7300 GT card and support for up to 8 displays; dual-display support for extended desktop and video mirroring modes
Storage: Four independent 3GB/s Serial ATA cable-free hard drive bays offering up to 3TB of internal storage. Up to two 16x SuperDrive (DVD+R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW)
Connectivity: Two10/100/1000BASE-T Ethernet interfaces; optional AirPort Extreme wireless networking and Bluetooth 2.0; two FireWire 800 ports; two FireWire 400 ports; five USB 2.0 ports
Dimensions and weight: 20.6x51.1x47.5cm; 9.2kg
