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Impressive Performance, Design, Usability, Price, and Size!
Pros
Impressive Design, Features, Performance, Flexibility, Ease of use, Service. Solidly built and easy to upgrade.
Cons
Too Big. Too Expensive. Even more expensive if also running Windows. Too few RAM slots.
Recommended it?
Yes
The Bottom Line:
Rather than buying a Windows desktop, give yourself a break and purchase the Mac Pro. If you think it's too expensive, save up. You'll thank me later.
Expensive But Worth it
Though much more expensive than comparable PC's or the most powerful iMac, the many advantages you get with this computer make it worth it. This is the lowest-priced of the recent Mac Pro's, but it is still so powerful and has so many features that it beats the competitors easily. With this purchase, we completed the transition in our house from all Windows to an all-Mac environment. We'll never go back.
Purchase Refurbished & Get a Warranty
We purchased a refurbished model of this computer for $2150, saving $350, just as we did with our earlier MacBook Pro notebook (see my epinions review). Apple's refurbished program is excellent, and there was no evidence whatsoever that the product was not perfectly new. This was also true for the Apple Cinema Display, which we also purchased refurbished.
Customer Service is Great
By purchasing a Display with this computer we got Apple Care Warranties for two items at the price of one. However, if experience with the two MacBook Pro's we have is any gauge, we'll never use the warranty to send it in for service (like I did with my Vaio several times). On the other hand, we have taken advantage of the quick and friendly phone support, and will probably continue to do so -- not because of hardware problems, but just to find out how to do certain things. The only thing I've ever been disappointed in was their inability to troubleshoot a problem I had with iMovie, but I figured out a work around.
Expandability: 4 Hard Drive Bays
One of the big advantages of the Mac Pro Desktop is that it is highly configurable. In addition to being attractively designed, it is obviously engineered to be easily upgraded. For example, adding or removing a hard drive is incredibly easy. You open the side with a flip of a latch, slide out one of 4 trays, screw the drive to the tray, and slide it back in. This is particularly important these days since, as data storage needs become increasingly important, internal hard drives are the highest-performing and most cost-effective ways to add space. With our 250GB iPhoto Library continually growing, and several computers to back up, we needed some way to store all that data.
Better than the iMac - Provides a Backup Solution
Indeed this issue is so important that it became the deciding factor when comparing this computer to the highest-end iMac. The iMac only has one hard drive, and is very limited in terms of upgradability. In addition to the 640GB drive which comes with the Mac Pro, we added two 1.5TB drives, and one 320GB drive removed from a WD MyBook case. One of the 1.5TB drives backs up everything, and the other is a duplicate regularly taken off site (to work) in case of disaster. This is automatically done using Carbon Copy Cloner. If you compare this approach with other backup solutions, such as multi-bay hard drive enclosures (see my Drobo review), you'll see that a lot of money, space, and hassle is saved by having so many hard drive bays.
Future Upgrades
The Mac Pro will also be easy to upgrade in the future. The RAM is readily accessible, although unfortunately three of the 4 slots come filled -- 1GB of RAM in each. Even though the epinion's detailed specs indicate a maximum of 8GB RAM for this box, you can actually configure it with 16GB. But unless the cost of memory reduces significantly, I doubt we'll upgrade that much.
There are also plenty of other upgrade options including 3 PCI slots for high performance graphic cards, RAID cards, etc... plus space for an additional optical drive, ability to support up to 8 monitors, etc...
Plenty of Ports
There are also plenty of ports to plug in every imaginable external device: 2 ethernet ports, 5 USB ports on the box plus 2 more on the keyboard and (even more with the display), 4 firewire (800) ports, as well as display and audio ports. Admittedly, it lack eSata and firewire 400 ports.
Quad Processor - Plenty of Power
Although we did not purchase this computer for its muscle, it may come in handy if demands increase in the future. The big jump in processing power that started a couple of years ago with the new dual processors is doubled here, and then some. There is a much more expensive Eight-Core version of the Mac Pro, but if you read performance reviews you'll find that hardly any typical owners need such a thing. If you think you do, read the reviews and consider purchasing more RAM instead. Another big advantage is that as an Intel processor, Windows can be run natively allowing for the ultimate in compatibility and speed. Other computers can't touch this kind of flexibility. On the other hand, to run Windows you must purchase a copy of that operating system, which is not cheap, and you also need to purchase emulation software if you don't want to reboot each time you run Windows. I've done both, and I recommend rebooting each time: it's cheaper, faster, and offers better compatibility with Windows programs.
Big Advantage: Hardware & Software Working Together
But perhaps the biggest advantage of owning this computer is how seamlessly the software integrates with the hardware. The Mac OS X operating system is so well designed that once you get used to it, you'll dislike going back to Windows. It simply works for you, rather than demanding that you work to understand it. I've covered many of these advantages in my epinions reviews of the MacBook Pro, Time Capsule, and iLife '09 suite, so I won't repeat those here. To summarize: it is MUCH simpler to plug virtually anything into a Mac (such as external hard drives, wireless devices, audio/visual devices, etc...) and simply watch it work. There's a whole ethos surrounding Mac software that encourages ease of use as the highest virtue. But that's not to say it's a novice device: the underlying Unix console is there for those who like to tinker.
Family Friendly
Some really nice features are present in the latest Mac OS X (Snow Leopard) in terms of multiple users and parental controls. I found it easy to set up accounts for all the adults, teenagers, and toddlers in our house. Things can be set up so you can easily switch between accounts, controlling exactly what software each user can access, and even what web sites they can or cannot access, with full logs being recorded for every website anyone even attempts to visit.
Size
This computer is surprisingly large at about 20" in both height and depth, 8" wide, and 40 lbs. It's too big to place on any desk, so make sure you have plenty of room underneath to hide the thing.
Conclusion
There are so many other things that could be mentioned because the things that computers can do these days are almost endless. The high quality of freely available and open-source software, and the ability to run Windows natively on a Mac are taking away many of the old reasons for avoiding them. The only thing I find I need Windows for are highly specialized programs related to work, and the Microsoft Office Suite, which is still too important and feature-packed for competitors to touch. The only remaining issue is price, and I must agree this is a significant problem.
As with my other epinions reviews, I'll update this one, especially if there's something to complain about.
This computer has a 2.66GHz processor, 3GB of RAM, and a 640GB hard drive. By comparison, the choices epinions provides for describing the processor speed (>1GHz), amount of RAM (256MB), and Hard Drive size (>50GB) at the end of a review are more than 5 years out of date!
Though much more expensive than comparable PC's or the most powerful iMac, the many advantages you get with this computer make it worth it. This is the lowest-priced of the recent Mac Pro's, but it is still so powerful and has so many features that it beats the competitors easily. With this purchase, we completed the transition in our house from all Windows to an all-Mac environment. We'll never go back.
Purchase Refurbished & Get a Warranty
We purchased a refurbished model of this computer for $2150, saving $350, just as we did with our earlier MacBook Pro notebook (see my epinions review). Apple's refurbished program is excellent, and there was no evidence whatsoever that the product was not perfectly new. This was also true for the Apple Cinema Display, which we also purchased refurbished.
Customer Service is Great
By purchasing a Display with this computer we got Apple Care Warranties for two items at the price of one. However, if experience with the two MacBook Pro's we have is any gauge, we'll never use the warranty to send it in for service (like I did with my Vaio several times). On the other hand, we have taken advantage of the quick and friendly phone support, and will probably continue to do so -- not because of hardware problems, but just to find out how to do certain things. The only thing I've ever been disappointed in was their inability to troubleshoot a problem I had with iMovie, but I figured out a work around.
Expandability: 4 Hard Drive Bays
One of the big advantages of the Mac Pro Desktop is that it is highly configurable. In addition to being attractively designed, it is obviously engineered to be easily upgraded. For example, adding or removing a hard drive is incredibly easy. You open the side with a flip of a latch, slide out one of 4 trays, screw the drive to the tray, and slide it back in. This is particularly important these days since, as data storage needs become increasingly important, internal hard drives are the highest-performing and most cost-effective ways to add space. With our 250GB iPhoto Library continually growing, and several computers to back up, we needed some way to store all that data.
Better than the iMac - Provides a Backup Solution
Indeed this issue is so important that it became the deciding factor when comparing this computer to the highest-end iMac. The iMac only has one hard drive, and is very limited in terms of upgradability. In addition to the 640GB drive which comes with the Mac Pro, we added two 1.5TB drives, and one 320GB drive removed from a WD MyBook case. One of the 1.5TB drives backs up everything, and the other is a duplicate regularly taken off site (to work) in case of disaster. This is automatically done using Carbon Copy Cloner. If you compare this approach with other backup solutions, such as multi-bay hard drive enclosures (see my Drobo review), you'll see that a lot of money, space, and hassle is saved by having so many hard drive bays.
Future Upgrades
The Mac Pro will also be easy to upgrade in the future. The RAM is readily accessible, although unfortunately three of the 4 slots come filled -- 1GB of RAM in each. Even though the epinion's detailed specs indicate a maximum of 8GB RAM for this box, you can actually configure it with 16GB. But unless the cost of memory reduces significantly, I doubt we'll upgrade that much.
There are also plenty of other upgrade options including 3 PCI slots for high performance graphic cards, RAID cards, etc... plus space for an additional optical drive, ability to support up to 8 monitors, etc...
Plenty of Ports
There are also plenty of ports to plug in every imaginable external device: 2 ethernet ports, 5 USB ports on the box plus 2 more on the keyboard and (even more with the display), 4 firewire (800) ports, as well as display and audio ports. Admittedly, it lack eSata and firewire 400 ports.
Quad Processor - Plenty of Power
Although we did not purchase this computer for its muscle, it may come in handy if demands increase in the future. The big jump in processing power that started a couple of years ago with the new dual processors is doubled here, and then some. There is a much more expensive Eight-Core version of the Mac Pro, but if you read performance reviews you'll find that hardly any typical owners need such a thing. If you think you do, read the reviews and consider purchasing more RAM instead. Another big advantage is that as an Intel processor, Windows can be run natively allowing for the ultimate in compatibility and speed. Other computers can't touch this kind of flexibility. On the other hand, to run Windows you must purchase a copy of that operating system, which is not cheap, and you also need to purchase emulation software if you don't want to reboot each time you run Windows. I've done both, and I recommend rebooting each time: it's cheaper, faster, and offers better compatibility with Windows programs.
Big Advantage: Hardware & Software Working Together
But perhaps the biggest advantage of owning this computer is how seamlessly the software integrates with the hardware. The Mac OS X operating system is so well designed that once you get used to it, you'll dislike going back to Windows. It simply works for you, rather than demanding that you work to understand it. I've covered many of these advantages in my epinions reviews of the MacBook Pro, Time Capsule, and iLife '09 suite, so I won't repeat those here. To summarize: it is MUCH simpler to plug virtually anything into a Mac (such as external hard drives, wireless devices, audio/visual devices, etc...) and simply watch it work. There's a whole ethos surrounding Mac software that encourages ease of use as the highest virtue. But that's not to say it's a novice device: the underlying Unix console is there for those who like to tinker.
Family Friendly
Some really nice features are present in the latest Mac OS X (Snow Leopard) in terms of multiple users and parental controls. I found it easy to set up accounts for all the adults, teenagers, and toddlers in our house. Things can be set up so you can easily switch between accounts, controlling exactly what software each user can access, and even what web sites they can or cannot access, with full logs being recorded for every website anyone even attempts to visit.
Size
This computer is surprisingly large at about 20" in both height and depth, 8" wide, and 40 lbs. It's too big to place on any desk, so make sure you have plenty of room underneath to hide the thing.
Conclusion
There are so many other things that could be mentioned because the things that computers can do these days are almost endless. The high quality of freely available and open-source software, and the ability to run Windows natively on a Mac are taking away many of the old reasons for avoiding them. The only thing I find I need Windows for are highly specialized programs related to work, and the Microsoft Office Suite, which is still too important and feature-packed for competitors to touch. The only remaining issue is price, and I must agree this is a significant problem.
As with my other epinions reviews, I'll update this one, especially if there's something to complain about.
This computer has a 2.66GHz processor, 3GB of RAM, and a 640GB hard drive. By comparison, the choices epinions provides for describing the processor speed (>1GHz), amount of RAM (256MB), and Hard Drive size (>50GB) at the end of a review are more than 5 years out of date!
