8 core Mac Pro impressions

First impressions installing a new 8 core Mac Pro (2 quad-core CPUs).

Design:

Of course, it looks nice. That's what you expect from Apple anyway. But the internal design is really great and surprised me. Since 2 GB of Apple RAM cost a ridiculous amount of money (around 600 USD or 450 Euros!), I had 2 Kingston sticks to insert. I was not very confident about how this would go. I still remember some insane old Mac from the nineties, where you had to remove the disks, power supply and motherboard so that you could add some RAM! Yes, that was around the time when it seemed Apple would go bankrupt with it's terrible hardware and completely outdated OS. I also remembered an ibook from a few years ago, where getting at the hard disk was so difficult that I gave up. I hope things would have improved, but was still pleasantly surprised at how much things have changed. There is a latch at the back to open the side of the machine (no screws). Then there are 2 cards which can be just pulled out (still no screws), and that's where you put the RAM. The cards slide back easily into place, being guided by plastic rails on both sides. Really cool. While the case was open, I noticed that adding hard drives would be just about as easy. In short, the hardware design is great.

Power:

Obviously, 2 quad-core CPUs suck a lot of power: around 160-170 Watts without doing anything. But the bad part is that even switched off (not in Sleep mode, but shut down), it still uses around 40 Watts! That's a lot for a machine you think is off. That is over 28 kWh per month for a machine doing nothing. Better remove the power cord when you switch off.

Install:

The intsall absolutely obnoxious, but fortunately it is quite quick. There is nothing you can do to avoid the horrible Star Wars welcome messages except looking away, but fortunately you can turn off the sound with the keyboard. Despite the insistence of the machine on trying to get your name, phone, email, sexual preferences or whatever, and trying to enroll you in Mobile Me or whatever, you can avoid all these pitfalls with a few smart clicks on the right buttons. After that, the resulting system is rather cleaner than a new HP or Dell with all the crapware they pre-install. That's it for now. Let's configure this Mac now...