The Art of Refinement
While the Mac Pro 2.8 GHz (January 2008) model looks pretty much the same on the exterior, it provides substantial internal design refinements. The Intel “Harpertown” E5462 processor provides twice the performance while requiring slightly less energy. The new memory design provides significantly faster performance and third party memory is inexpensive. The new front fan removal procedure provides easy access to the dual on-board SATA ports and the iPass connector. The new rubber washers on the hard drive tray screws reduces noise. Increased cooling is provided to the HD/PCIe subsystem. The 64-bit PCIe bus provides additional bandwidth. The combination ATA/power cable sleeve provided in the DVD bay provides additional protection to the power connectors. The computer is compatible with a large variety of third party SATA host adapters and seems slightly quieter than the original Mac Pro model.

The Mac Pro 2.8 GHz is a joy to use and easy to upgrade. These refinements show that Apple has been looking for ways to decease noise while increasing cooling and performance. This attention to detail has allowed the Mac Pro to evolve into a clean, well thought out, ultra-high performance computer. The ability to use Boot Camp or Parallels for accessing Microsoft Windows applications expands the computers use to multiple operating systems. It seems that there is no computing environment that the Mac Pro cannot tackle with ease. With that said, if I were the designer of the Mac Pro, I would include a few more upgrades.

#1 – I would replace the FireWire 800 ports with FireWire 3200. I would also make sure that the FireWire 400 ports are not located on the same bus as the FireWire 3200 ports.

#2 – I would add two external SATA PM ports to the rear of the Mac Pro as shown in the mock up image on the right. These ports would provide hot swap and SATA port multiplier capability. SATA is the best way to expand storage and it is time that the Apple Mac Pro included basic external eSATA expansion ports.

#3 – I would add hot swap support to the Mac Pro internal hard drive interface and I would sell additional Mac Pro hard drive carriers in a 4-pack for under $60.

#4 – I would add four small white internal hard drive access lights to the Mac Pro so that internal RAID users can visually see which hard drive has failed and replace it.

These modifications would help expand the capabilities of the Mac Pro. FireWire 3200 should be included on the Mac Pro as soon as possible. FireWire 800 is old and tired and performs miserably with large RAID sets. FireWire 3200 may breath life back into the FireWire protocol. External SATA PM ports would be inexpensive to add and provide more functionality than any other external storage port that Apple could offer. The Mac Pro is a great product and including some or all of these features would enhance functionality and add value to the Mac Pro while costing Apple very little.

Pros
Intel “Harpertown” E5462 processor provides twice the performance.
Mac Pro 2.8 GHz requires slightly less energy than Mac Pro 2.66.
Easy access to motherboard SATA ports and iPass connector.
Supports four tray internal 3.5″ SATA hard drive system.
Enhanced PCI and hard drive cooling characteristics.
Advanced system keeps Xeon 5400 processors cool.
64-bit PCIe bus provides additional bandwidth.
Provides faster memory performance.
Third party memory is inexpensive.
Rubber washers on HD tray screws.
Can compress AVI video files using Handbrake at 332 fps.
Can compress H.264 video files using Handbrake at 139 fps.
Supports dual FireWire 800 connections.
Optical audio inputs and outputs.
Two ethernet ports for advanced networks.
Standard ATI radeon HD 2600 XT has dual DVI connections.
Sleep mode uses 6 watts instead of 7 watts with original Mac Pro.
Can be used to run Windows.
Dual optical drive bay.
Fast boot capability.
Very quiet operation.

Cons
Internal HD backplane connections do not support hot swap.
No FireWire 3200 ports.
No built-in external SATA ports or port multiplier support.
Pioneer DVR is not provided.
Uses 136 watts just to play a song in iTunes.
Additional hard drive carrier trays are not sold by Apple.
Apple ATI Radeon HD 2600 XT Firmware update increases Mac Pro 2.8 GHz energy use by 22 watts while idle and may increase video card fan noise.
Apple Mac Pro 2.8 GHz gets 5 AMUGs out of 5!
The Apple Mac Pro 2.8 GHz provides double the processor power of the original Mac Pro 2.66 for only $300 more. The base model is $2799 and can be found at Amazon for $2599 after a mail in rebate. While AMUG members can purchase the new Mac Pro directly from Apple and pay significantly more, I find purchasing the computer from Amazon, the memory from Trans International and additional hard drives from Newegg can provide significant savings.

Apple also sells a Mac Pro 3.0 GHz version for $800 more or a 3.2 GHz version for $1600 more. However, the Mac Pro 2.8 GHz model performs so well that it is difficult to justify paying 28% more for 7% additional processor power in the case of the Mac Pro 3.0 GHz or 56% more for 14% additional processor power with the Mac Pro 3.2 GHz model. If you study the Mac Pro (January 2008) cost to performance value equation, the Mac Pro 2.8 GHz model is a clear winner.

No matter which Apple Mac Pro model the user selects they will find that it is well built, pleasing to look at, quiet, has a great cooling system and provides amazing performance. The vast number of upgrades included inside the January 2008 Mac Pro computer makes it one of the best designed systems that I have ever had the pleasure to use.

Special thanks to Samsung for providing the 1TB hard drives used in this review. The new Samsung 1TB SATA hard drives provide ultra-high performance, low energy usage and are amazingly quiet. AMUG will provide a separate detailed review of these 1TB hard drives in a future review.

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