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diglloyd's 2.93GHz 'Nehalem' Mac Pro Review!

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Power usage is amazingly good for this class machine. Past Mac Pros would hit the 550 watt range under full load; the MP09 maxes out at about 350 watts under the most severe load.

Wow very impressive.
 
jjahshik32 said:
Power usage is amazingly good for this class machine. Past Mac Pros would hit the 550 watt range under full load; the MP09 maxes out at about 350 watts under the most severe load.

Wow very impressive.
Click to expand...

At least there's something positive in the review ;)
 
jjahshik32 said:
Power usage is amazingly good for this class machine. Past Mac Pros would hit the 550 watt range under full load; the MP09 maxes out at about 350 watts under the most severe load.

Wow very impressive.
Click to expand...


I have to admit, the power consumption and lack of sufficient drive bays are my only real complaints about my machine. Not like I can't live with 'em, but let's face it: I complain a lot.
 
Disappointing, to say the least. Wait for Nehalem 4-core and 8-core/2.26GHz benchmarks start surfacing... it will not put the 2009 lineup in a good light. It seems more and more like this update was about increasing the price instead of increasing performance.
 
Seems to fall in line with comparisons of core i7 and its predecessor. The performance is very targeted to certain applications. I wonder how snow leopard would change this if any...
 
I'm wondering about how Snow Leopard, as well as future, updated apps, will affect things myself. I can't help but look back at when dual-processors came out. People complained that there weren't any apps that would use them. Those apps came. Remember the first Macs with USB and Firewire? I do. Same thing..."there's nothing to use it with." Now, there's hardly anything that doesn't use USB somehow. Who remembers ditching the floppy disk drive? For SHAME!!! :rolleyes:

One thing I would have liked to have seen, though, is the '09 compared to the '08 using the same amounts of RAM. Ok, so most people aren't ready to drop the extra thousands needed to max out any '09 octo's RAM just yet, but how would it have compared if the '08s had 12-16G of RAM in them as opposed to 32? That part of the comparisons kinda ticked me off, I have to say. :mad:

So, if you look at it really, when the 2.93 octo '09 did out-performe the 2.8 and 3.2 octo '08 models, it did it with HALF the RAM or less! Not only that, but it did it using LESS power?!? :eek: I find that VERY impressive. I'm more disappointed about not knowing how it performs maxed out with RAM like the '08 was. I mean, we should compare Apples to Apples, right?


Personally, I'm getting quite tired of the '09 bashing. I'm finding that the single biggest factor of 'disappointment' in the '09 models is that people feel that they should perform 'better' for the money. I have to wonder how much of that translates into "I want the biggest and best, but can't afford it." Frankly, I doubt that there are more than a handful of people here that actually need the extra performance that the top model provides. I'm sure we'd all love to have the 2.93 octo, (hey, I would) but if it doesn't fit your needs, and that includes financially, get the machine that does and be done with it. The price is the price. Now can we please stop whining about it.

/rant
 
Lucibelle said:
Now can we please stop whining about it.
Click to expand...


Nope.

Everyone else, resume complaining at your leisure.

I personally don't have a problem with the price of the 2009s. If you're making money from them, it's not a big deal. If you're buying one to show off to the neighbour, start saving so you can prove you're out of your mind.

My only problems with the 09s are:

1. That the quadcore is so limited for memory. That doesn't hurt me any, since the quadcore would be a step back in performance, but those people who need heinous amounts of RAM more than heinous amounts of CPU speed are likely to be unhappy because their entry price just skyrocketed. The fact that a professional workstation maxes at the same amount of RAM as a laptop is shameful.

2. Neither 4 slots nor 8 slots are divisible by 3 for triple channel memory, Apple. Less time making glossy displays, more time with the abacus. Either that or get your dunce caps.

3. GPU options still suck. This is only partially Apple's fault, though.
 
grue said:
Nope.

Everyone else, resume complaining at your leisure.

I personally don't have a problem with the price of the 2009s. If you're making money from them, it's not a big deal. If you're buying one to show off to the neighbour, start saving so you can prove you're out of your mind.

My only problems with the 09s are:

1. That the quadcore is so limited for memory. That doesn't hurt me any, since the quadcore would be a step back in performance, but those people who need heinous amounts of RAM more than heinous amounts of CPU speed are likely to be unhappy because their entry price just skyrocketed. The fact that a professional workstation maxes at the same amount of RAM as a laptop is shameful.

2. Neither 4 slots nor 8 slots are divisible by 3 for triple channel memory, Apple. Less time making glossy displays, more time with the abacus. Either that or get your dunce caps.

3. GPU options still suck. This is only partially Apple's fault, though.
Click to expand...

I hear you. I guess my main gripe was aimed more at the octo models, as the only real gripe I hear about the quads is the same one you mentioned...RAM. But then, that tends to lead into the '09 octo price complaint.

I wonder about the RAM configuration as well. I also wonder if the extra slots help multi-app performance in any way. I honestly wouldn't know. But I also don't pretend to understand just why even-numbered cores are showing better results with odd RAM configurations. I'm just seeing the benchmarks with everyone else.

GPU... you're right, nothing new there. :rolleyes:

And to everyone else, I'm going to enjoy my new Mac. I suspect I'm going to enjoy it even more in about 6 months. :)
 
grue said:
Nope.

Everyone else, resume complaining at your leisure.

I personally don't have a problem with the price of the 2009s. If you're making money from them, it's not a big deal. If you're buying one to show off to the neighbour, start saving so you can prove you're out of your mind.

My only problems with the 09s are:

1. That the quadcore is so limited for memory. That doesn't hurt me any, since the quadcore would be a step back in performance, but those people who need heinous amounts of RAM more than heinous amounts of CPU speed are likely to be unhappy because their entry price just skyrocketed. The fact that a professional workstation maxes at the same amount of RAM as a laptop is shameful.

2. Neither 4 slots nor 8 slots are divisible by 3 for triple channel memory, Apple. Less time making glossy displays, more time with the abacus. Either that or get your dunce caps.

3. GPU options still suck. This is only partially Apple's fault, though.
Click to expand...

All good points. There are a lot of factors that have led to moaning (and I have to try and restrict my moaning in this forum as it is of no interest to most people)
i) Apple has gone from producing a bargain (the 08 Pro) to what is probably just a standard priced workstation,
ii) The £ and other currencies have plummeted against the $ and we're getting the hit all at once,
iii) We're in a recession.
But on top of that, there are the three flaws that you point out. Especially the RAM slots given the super-high cost of 4GB modules. Also, though I have no personal interest in high end graphics cards the lack of them makes me feel that Apple is gradually sidelining the Pro/Scientific market which does not bode well for the future.
 
grue said:
Nope.

Everyone else, resume complaining at your leisure.
Click to expand...

ok,will do! :)

It has been quite a dissapointment for a lot of peeps because the hype that was built promised that they would "slash and slay,OMG,100% speedier!" than the previous gen MPs..
Now that the hangover is on,people are shocked when their waited ubermachine isnt that much faster and is far more expensive than they anticipated..

grue said:
I personally don't have a problem with the price of the 2009s. If you're making money from them, it's not a big deal.
Click to expand...

Yup. Kind off...
A bad investment is a bad investment though.
Imagine buiding a new paper mill that cost 50% more than the old one,to witch expansion parts cost 4 times more and STILL produces LESS paper on Thursdays and Saturdays.

The "I am a pro and I can afford it" aint no silverbullet,well,it is but only if you shoot yourself with it.
Pros need to do good and sound investments with their money. If not,they are dumbarses and bad businessmen.



grue said:
3. GPU options still suck. This is only partially Apple's fault, though.
Click to expand...

Well,apple would have couple of better options and quite a few of their PRO aps aint optimized for nVidia cards, so yes : it is apples fault.



It is pity that the pro´s have been taking quite a shafting in the last few years when apple has expanded and concentrated on the consumer market.
Lets see if this economical downturn makes apple to refocus(milk us..) on the pro segment..
 
Macinposh said:
ok,will do! :)


Yup. Kind off...
A bad investment is a bad investment though.
Imagine buiding a new paper mill that cost 50% more than the old one,to witch expansion parts cost 4 times more and STILL produces LESS paper on Thursdays and Saturdays.

The "I am a pro and I can afford it" aint no silverbullet,well,it is but only if you shoot yourself with it.
Pros need to do good and sound investments with their money. If not,they are dumbarses and bad businessmen.
Click to expand...


That's true, but it depends on a few factors. The 8-core is a HORRIBLE buy for someone like me, who already has an 8x3.0. The expenditure necessary to get a significant performance increase over my current box is nowhere near justifiable, because I'd have to get an 8x2.66 at the minimum.

However, to someone squeezing the last breath out of his G5? The 8x2.66 is going to crush it like a fat girl humping a midget, so the finances probably work out if he's doing something CPU-intensive to generate his income, such as video work, etc.
 
Lucibelle said:
So, if you look at it really, when the 2.93 octo '09 did out-performe the 2.8 and 3.2 octo '08 models, it did it with HALF the RAM or less! ....I'm more disappointed about not knowing how it performs maxed out with RAM like the '08 was. I mean, we should compare Apples to Apples, right?
Click to expand...

Don't just look at the pretty graphs, read the text of the review, too . ;)
 
-js- said:
OK. That's it. I've made up my mind. I just ordered a new MP08 from Amazon before they disappear.
Click to expand...

its nice. i doubt youll regret it. you can always get a new one later, or better ,skip a generation or two and get it then..
this one is crippled due to size of the box. (only 8 memory slots, ask tallest skill if you dare)
 
Abidubi said:
I just read the first paragraph and noticed 2 huge typos already. Common. March 2000? We’ll sall these the MP09 and the MP08?
Click to expand...
Kind of ironic, "common" instead of "come on" in a post complaining about typos. I'm just sayin'.
 
-js- said:
OK. That's it. I've made up my mind. I just ordered a new MP08 from Amazon before they disappear.
Click to expand...
I don't think you'd be disappointed. It's actually a better value due the cost of the '09 models (price/performance) IMO, and it can actually be much easier to use a RAID setup if you need one.
 
Ploki said:
its nice. i doubt youll regret it. you can always get a new one later, or better ,skip a generation or two and get it then..
this one is crippled due to size of the box. (only 8 memory slots, ask tallest skill if you dare)
Click to expand...

Could agree more. Still delighted with my 7 week old 3.2GHz (as if you couldn't already tell from my posts). Tee hee. Looking forward to the 2010 or maybe even 2011 refresh.
 
Ploki said:
... this one is crippled due to size of the box. (only 8 memory slots, ask tallest skill if you dare)
Click to expand...
Remind me, how many memory slots in your recommended and supposedly uncrippled MP08? Thanks.
 
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