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intel powermac

bigboi00069
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bigboi00069
bigboi00069
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I want to switch to an intel mac because i like doing gaming on windows and using a mac for everything else. For this reason i am waiting for the intel powermac (or whatever they will call it). When is it going to come out? I want one because i want something expandable, and not have a built in graphics card. When will it come out?

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SockToy
SockToy
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Be wary. I was in the applestore this past weekend and they told me, in no uncertain terms, that having Boot Camp on my macbook meant they would not support me, at all, even in warranty period, 'because a windows virus might have done something', and it was beta software.

 

They even offered to show me the page on apple.com that disclaims any support for your entire mac.

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bofors
bofors
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Of course, this is all pure speculation, but it does seem logical.

 

Intel is releasing their new Xeon chip (Woodcrest) later this month and Conroe in July.

 

If Apple fails to announce the Mac Pro by August 7, the first day of the WWDC (when Steve speaks), something is seriously wrong and Mac people will get very pissed off.

 

In no way is this "pure" speculation, my estimation (and the overwhelming consensus of the Mac-rumor community) of this likelihood approaches a probability of 100%.

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INFNITE
INFNITE
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Be wary. I was in the applestore this past weekend and they told me, in no uncertain terms, that having Boot Camp on my macbook meant they would not support me, at all, even in warranty period, 'because a windows virus might have done something', and it was beta software.

 

They even offered to show me the page on apple.com that disclaims any support for your entire mac.

 

you can always uninstall BootCamp if you need tech support. When Leopard comes out, they'll probably be more lenient on the policy

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bofors
bofors
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This is as much "pure speculation" as the Macbook was.

 

I would say this is much more expected than than MacBook, timing wise. This is a sure thing, we know basically what it will be, a dual Woodcrest (2 x 2, Quad) and when it is coming, announced by August 7.

 

The only real questions detail exactly what the Mac Pro is going to be, specifically:

 

- Will some single processor Woodcrest configuration of Mac Pro be available or will they all be Quads?

 

- Will Apple introduce a new case design, perhaps with more drive bays?

 

- Will the Mac Pro support SLI or CrossFire with dual 16x PCIe slots?

 

- Will Mac Pro sport eSATA ports?

 

 

Moreover, the big questions are:

 

- Will Apple announce a new mid-tower line based on Conroe?

 

- Will it or the Mac Mini be the basis for the Mac Media Center?

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Pippin
Pippin
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I would say this is much more expected than than MacBook, timing wise. This is a sure thing, we know basically what it will be, a dual Woodcrest (2 x 2, Quad) and when it is coming, announced by August 7.

 

The only real questions detail exactly what the Mac Pro is going to be, specifically:

 

- Will some single processor Woodcrest configuration of Mac Pro be available or will they all be Quads?

 

- Will Apple introduce a new case design, perhaps with more drive bays?

 

- Will the Mac Pro support SLI or CrossFire with dual 16x PCIe slots?

 

- Will Mac Pro sport eSATA ports?

Moreover, the big questions are:

 

- Will Apple announce a new mid-tower line based on Conroe?

 

- Will it or the Mac Mini be the basis for the Mac Media Center?

 

Only Apple knows the answers, and we don't know anything until they tell us.

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Shimms
Shimms
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Be wary. I was in the applestore this past weekend and they told me, in no uncertain terms, that having Boot Camp on my macbook meant they would not support me, at all, even in warranty period, 'because a windows virus might have done something', and it was beta software.

 

They even offered to show me the page on apple.com that disclaims any support for your entire mac.

 

I'm not questioning thats what they told you, but I very much doubt it is the case.

 

Good luck them telling me they wont replace the MB because I had Windows installed on it, the hardware is covered by a warranty. When you take it in they tell you they can't ensure your data wont be lost - IE: if they have to they just restore the machine, or replace it with a new one.

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bofors
bofors
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Another question about the Mac Pro. How upgradable will it be?

 

I think people are basically expecting it to be socketed (as opposed to soldering the CPU on the motherboard), now that the Mac Mini has gone that way. However, it Apple offers a single Woodcrest model, they will probably leave the second socket off those motherboards. We can expect that it will have 8 RAM slots and support up to 32 GB.

 

Again, I think the real question is what Apple with do with the fact Conroe and Woodcrest are different platforms (requiring completely different motherboards, chipsets and RAM). This a completely different situation than the G5 and moreover, Woodcrest chips (and chipsets) are much more expensive than the G5.

 

If Apple splits the PowerMac line into two, a real professional work station, the Mac Pro, based on Woodcrest and then some Conroe mid-tower line for consumers, we could see the Mac Pro double the number of drive bays.

 

Either way, the graphics card will be upgradable of course and we should expect the entry level card to be an ATI x1600, an ATI x1800 or 1900 option and the option of an NVidia Quattro for graphics professionals. The question will be whether Apple gives us SLI or not this time around. I think the answer will be yes.

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bofors
bofors
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I think Apple will raise the price at the top of line. A Quad 3 GHz Pro Mac will probably list at about $3599 (up from $3299 for the Quad 2.5 PowerMac). This is simply because Xeon chips (Woodcrest) and their chipset is much more expensive than the G5.

 

However, it is unclear what that bottom of the Pro Mac line will look like. It could be a single Woodcrest for about $2199. Again, this would leave a gaping hole in the Mac line, between say $1000 (the Mac Mini) and $2000 (the Pro Mac). This could be filed with a Conroe based mid-tower line that doubles as the Mac Media Center.

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Bearcat
Bearcat
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Intel is releasing their new Xeon chip (Woodcrest) later this month and Conroe in July.

Just want to clarify a little.

 

We have 4 machines in the lab here, which are developer machines.

 

2 machines are Dual-Socket "Dempsey" Dual Core Xeons (Netburst Architecture, with Hyperthreading). This means there are 4 cpu cores per box, plus 4 virtual cores for the hyperthreading. Performance meters show 8 cpus.

 

2 machines are Dual-Socket "Woodcrest" Core 2 Duo (Core Architecture). These are 4 cpu cores per box.

 

Both these architectures should be releasing soon, but they are different.

 

Not sure if the motherboards are the final form factor, but these puppies are big, even bigger then the PowerMac case. Final form factor may be smaller, as these are server boards and have 16 ram slots (800mhz).

 

I suspect Apple will use the Woodcrest Core 2 Duo chips in their high-end Mac Pro, with a small form factor motherboard, but that's only my speculation.

 

Let me say that if Apple uses the Woodcrest in the high-end Mac Pro, you will not be disappointed.

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Bearcat
Bearcat
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Dempsey chips have already been released, they are for sale at NewEgg: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?...N82E16819117072

Ya, sorry, we've had the Dempsey's for about 3 months. The Woodcrest we just got about 3-4 weeks ago.

 

So, umm... which ones run OSx86??? :D

 

Have you tried it on Woodcrest yet?

lol, knew someone was going to ask me that eventually.

 

I cannot install OSX86 on these machines, they are for other product testing purposes. However, I have a USB laptop drive with an installation of OSX86 on it, that I use for recovery purposes.

 

The Woodcrest machine booted off the USB drive into OSX. It has some issues with recognizing the bus speed, but seems to be ok with respect to the processor. Probably just can't handle the chipset yet.

 

Here are screenshots of About, Info, and an xBench of just the processor and threading speed.

 

cheers,

 

 

post-19987-1150280475_thumb.jpg post-19987-1150280518_thumb.jpg post-19987-1150280545_thumb.jpg

 

EDIT: Just some play with numbers

 

This Woodcrest CPU test is 133.03 and is running at 2.67 ghz. My 2.0 ghz MacBook Pro scores a 76.41 on the cpu test.

 

Doing my simple math of (133.03-76.41)/76.41*100 = 74.1% faster with only a 33% increase in clock frequency (for each cpu core).

 

Not bad.

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  • 3 months later...
Bearcat
Bearcat
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Bearcat,

What board are you using when you ran it? Also what did/didn't work from your testing?

I didn't get a chance to do any testing. As far as I could tell, most everything worked, except the recognition of the bus speed, but I was only using a 10.4.4 kernel.

 

As for boards, If I remember correctly they were S5000PSL boards, but I'm not 100% certain. These use the S5000 server chipsets.

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