Apple Quietly Adds 3.33 GHz Quad-Core Option to Mac Pro

This just means that that the new Mac Pro is coming out sooner than you think.  Updating products with a little extra to keep you satisfied is routine.  Like when, let’s say Honda, updates their line with a new special edition, you know the next year the car is completely redone. So now apple has added another optional processor configuration in the quad-core line. If you configure a quad-core Mac Pro from the Apple Online Store, you’ll find that you can now add a 3.33GHz Intel Xeon processor to it for $1,200 extra (over the base configuration that comes with a 2.66GHz Intel Xeon).

If that’s not expensive enough or fast enough for you, you can always look towards the eight-core side of the lineup, the fastest configuration it sports being two 2.93GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeons. Apple does not, however, offer two 3.33GHz Intel Xeons as an option on this machine. The second new option, and one that is available for both models, is the ability to load each hard drive bay on these machines with a 2TB hard drive spinning at 7200 rpm. Each of these cost $350 over the base configuration and double the maximum storage capacity of the Mac Pros to 8TB.

Apple also showed some love to the server side of their lineup, endowing Xserves with the same optional 2TB hard drive upgrade, taking the total potential capacity of these machines up to 3TB. What’s more, you can now also outfit all six slots with 4GB RAM modules, which will leave you with 24GB of RAM to work with. Of course, it will also leave your wallet significantly lighter, what with having spent $2,850 on memory upgrades alone, but hey, it’s the holiday season, isn’t it?

Recent reports have suggested that Intel’s new 6-core “Gulftown” processor could be headed to the Mac Pro in a future upgrade. The new Xeon processor is said to be nearly 50 percent faster than the current quad-core Xeons, while also using 50 percent less power.

source:macrumors