Mac Pro 2011 "Sandy Bridge E" everything we know

[Tutor]

Tweaked 1P Sandy Bridge processor (i7-3960X and i7-3930K) performance is something to behold. They are beginning to displace older 2P+ systems, such as the top of the line 2P 2010 Mac Pros, even those with the 5690X processor swap, for top Geekbench 2 scores. These new SBs are yielding Geekbench 2 scores in excess of 27,000. What is even more amazing is that the i7-3930k can be had for under $600 and a pair of 5690X processors will set you back over $3,000 or five (5) times as much. These tweaked SBs yield Cinebench 11.5 scores in the 13 to low 14 point range. They have comparably priced Xeon equivalents for those needing ECC ram support - Xeon 1660 and Xeon 1650 -> More bang for the buck!

 

[tl.Mob]

Sorry tutor, AppleHDA for ALC898 is not open source yet, but it will be in a few weeks. Ethernet support is via a ported kext, AppleIntel1000e.kext. Chameleon 2.1 can be downloaded via buildbot, insanelymac, wherever. It is just a standard release and you can even use a .pkg installer.

Other than that I fixed cosmetic errors in System Profiler with dummy kexts and edited the DSDT to fix other minor issues--most notably onboard USB 3.0. Everything other than AppleHDA was fairly easy after doing this for 4 years.

I am surprised that no considers the hackintosh as a viable business model. So you don't want to spend 30 hours working on something. I get that--you have a job to do.

However, why not just pay someone so that it is their job to make a functional MacPro6,1 6-core that will be 20% faster than anything Apple makes for 50% of the price? 50% of the Apple price leaves the system builder plenty of profit.

Oh, and you also get it 4 months before the rest of the Apple world and can then upgrade your hardware without artificial constraints.