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Mac Pro 2011 "Sandy Bridge E" everything we know

Hellhammer said:
Some people also dislike the iMac's screen a lot and are ready to pay more not to be limited to it. Sure, external monitor can be used but come on, not everyone has space for two or more +27" monitors.
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You're spot on. I am currently in the market for a Mac Pro, even though an iMac is more than sufficient for my computing needs. I don't purchase RAM, memory, SSDs, etc from Apple, and I would personally find it daunting to open up an iMac to upgrade it, so therefore I am willing to spend a bit more for the upgradeability the MPs offer.
 
Hey Jude said:
I don't purchase RAM, memory, SSDs, etc from Apple, and I would personally find it daunting to open up an iMac to upgrade it, so therefore I am willing to spend a bit more for the upgradeability the MPs offer.
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RAM on an iMac is a separate door with two (or four?) screws. It isn't any more daunting than the Mac Pro.

Storage drives? Yes there is a difference.

Obviously, there is a difference on monitor panels and GPUs.

The other factor being glossed over here is that you can pay someone to open and install some parts for you. For example, if you are going to spend $900 more on a Mac Pro and installation services cost $90 per part type you can install 5 parts and save $450 with an iMac. You don't have to "save money by doing it myself" if you have paid less in the first place.

The higher end iMacs have a smaller price gap so the savings goes down, but there is a big gap between the low-to-mid range iMac and the Mac Pro which can be used to pay for lots of stuff; including some upgrades.

Some people like opening the box and banging around inside tinkering. That is an OK preference. The problem is when folks put a 'future proof" or "upgradability" cover story on top. It is a spend more issue to tinker issue not the others.
 
Hi Gang. I'm pretty new here and have been reading this forum with interest because I'm in the market for a new desktop. The posts here have been very helpful.

Hellhammer makes a very good point about monitors. I'm an avid photo guy and visual interface was decision #1 for me. While one of the new imacs would probably suit me fine from a computing standpoint, the glossy screen with limited ergonomic adjustments just won't work for me. I doubt that I'm alone in this.

Once the monitor decision was made I had a choice of staying with a pc or moving to a mac pro. There are a lot of pc options and the discounted prices are attractive, but I've grown tired of virus issues, crashes and the difficulty of getting a plethora of windows devices in a home environment to play well together. My decision was a mac pro for me and imacs for the wife and kids with a time capsule for networking and backup.

The mac pro may be more than I "need" but with its easy ability to upgrade memory, storage and GPU it just makes sense. Besides, "too much" today will probably be "just right" in a couple of years.

Now, I just need to see the new offerings to see if a 2011 (or, heaven forbid, a 2012) mac pro is attractive or if a 2010 will do the trick. We'll see.
 
Kimmo said:
Now, I just need to see the new offerings to see if a 2011 (or, heaven forbid, a 2012) mac pro is attractive or if a 2010 will do the trick. We'll see.
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The "2011" aren't out yet, so if you need a desktop now I would suggest getting a 2010 MP.

You need to ask yourself the following question :

"Does the 2010 MP satisty my needs?"

If the answer is yes, buy it!
 
In my situation it all about SSD!!

I have install intel 80GB SSD on My previous mac (8x2.8 pro 3,1).
now i don't need mac that slower than that.
But i don't want to open iMac to replace it myself.
and at $2199 iMac have tempt offer. (system cost is only $1200)

That the only problem for me.
 
Hellhammer said:
Yeah, I know that. But so does P67 and H67 ;) Aren't those lanes usually used for stuff like USB 3.0, Thunderbolt and other onboard controllers? Usually the lanes from the CPU are the only free ones and meant for GPUs and other PCIe cards.
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Of course the other chipsets in that particular family also have the PCIe lanes :p, and the reasoning behind it is primarily as a means of connecting up peripheral components (USB 3.0, additional SATA/eSATA,...) for additional features as you suspected (actually a necessity since PCI isn't included).

But the designers may not use all of them for that, so could potentially implement lanes not used by embedded peripheral components for slots.
 
VirtualRain said:
Curious... why do you think this?
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Newer processors use usually better algorithms for floating point and integer computations. This makes them faster. And some processor parts can run at higher clock speeds. Other hardware specific changes can also improve the data throughput.

Faster computations means less power consumption, less power consumption means less heat, and less heat means higher TurboBoost 2.0 frequencies.
 
Umbongo said:
I doubt there will be a Mac pro with more than 6-cores running at more than a 3GHz clockrate based on what we've seen so far from LGA 2011 rumours and Intel's treatment of the Xeon platform over the past 2 and a half years.
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You're probably right. I did not take into account any TDP requirements just wishful thinking.
 
Umbongo said:
I doubt there will be a Mac pro with more than 6-cores running at more than a 3GHz clockrate based on what we've seen so far from LGA 2011 rumours and Intel's treatment of the Xeon platform over the past 2 and a half years.
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Westmere and Sandy Bridge-E are both under the 32 nm process as well.
 
Umbongo said:
I doubt there will be a Mac pro with more than 6-cores running at more than a 3GHz clockrate based on what we've seen so far from LGA 2011 rumours and Intel's treatment of the Xeon platform over the past 2 and a half years.
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There probably will. Only it will be in Turbo mode (with some cores turned off).

If go back to post 132
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1178019/

The 1660 has most of the cache turned on and only missing two cores and still under 130W. While the base rate may not top 3 for the very high priced , 8 core , E5 2600 options should be close to the border to "jump over" in turbo mode ( sleep 4 cores and hit turbo).


The Xeon 5687 was well up over 3GHz.

http://ark.intel.com/products/52578...X5687-(12M-Cache-3_60-GHz-6_40-GTs-Intel-QPI)

So it should be possible to do SB version of it. Apple just isn't likely to use it because it costs $1,600+ and when paired you are looking at dissipating 270+W out of the CPU cooling zone.

The 5670 was close a 2.93 GHz
http://ark.intel.com/products/47920...X5670-(12M-Cache-2_93-GHz-6_40-GTs-Intel-QPI)

Is 0.07 GHz under the 3 mark really a huge deal???? I think the bigger issue for vast majority is paying 2 x ( $1450 + apple's 30% markup) to fall "just so close under 3 ". For 8 cores they could slide back as far as 2.63 on the baserate but with a 0.4 jump still land at 3.03.
 
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deconstruct60 said:
apple's 30% markup
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Unfortunately, their Gross Margin is higher than that (front page had it at ~41% the last time).

41% on nearly $3k of CPU's alone isn't going to be pretty at all (actual gross margin would be $1189 on your example). So the only way they'll be able to tame the MSRP's IMO, is by selecting lower clocks since I don't see Apple budging on their margins, given recent history.
 
I've been reading this thread along with the related ones for fairly long while now, keeping up with the rumours etc. I'm after the new Mac Pro for University which I start at the beginning of October, I could probably get by for a couple of months using the University's own workstations until the new Pro's surfaced but anymore is pushing it.

Let's say Sandy Bridge-E arrives in November as some rumours are suggesting, that's great and all but....by the time Apple acquires the SB-E, implements it into the new Pro along with all it's other components, tests it and puts it into production, surely we'd be looking at another agonising wait for Apple to actually get the new Pro's onto the market?
 
ENVY16 said:
I've been reading this thread along with the related ones for fairly long while now, keeping up with the rumours etc. I'm after the new Mac Pro for University which I start at the beginning of October, I could probably get by for a couple of months using the University's own workstations until the new Pro's surfaced but anymore is pushing it.

Let's say Sandy Bridge-E arrives in November as some rumours are suggesting, that's great and all but....by the time Apple acquires the SB-E, implements it into the new Pro along with all it's other components, tests it and puts it into production, surely we'd be looking at another agonising wait for Apple to actually get the new Pro's onto the market?
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Not sure.

In previous years Apple have had access to the new chips before Intel officially released them.

Truth be told, I'd be happy with the current Mac Pro, but I don't want fork out a large amount of money if a redesign is close. That and the addition of TB is making me wait.
 
ENVY16 said:
I've been reading this thread along with the related ones for fairly long while now, keeping up with the rumours etc. I'm after the new Mac Pro for University which I start at the beginning of October, I could probably get by for a couple of months using the University's own workstations until the new Pro's surfaced but anymore is pushing it.

Let's say Sandy Bridge-E arrives in November as some rumours are suggesting, that's great and all but....by the time Apple acquires the SB-E, implements it into the new Pro along with all it's other components, tests it and puts it into production, surely we'd be looking at another agonising wait for Apple to actually get the new Pro's onto the market?
Click to expand...

I would put my 2009 Mac Pro on the fact that Apple has the next Mac Pro in a test environment in Apple HQ.

It's just a case of waiting until Intel have actually released the chips in sufficient volume.

As for Uni, find a second hand 2009/2010 Mac Pro and upgrade the CPU to a W3580/W3680 as they are getting rather tastily cheap. It is what I'll be doing if the SB-E isn't that fast per £/$. Although I suspect it might be!
 
Gigabyte's Patsburg mono w/8Dimm slot was shot.

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