The Mac Pro is a stunning machine and there’s nothing on the market that is built with such precision. The aluminium enclosure is the same size as a small family car (206×475x511mm, 18.1kg), but its industrial design is guaranteed to survive a nuclear attack. The combination of high performance, practical expandability (it’s the only machine in Apple’s line-up that lets you change the graphics card or otherwise install internal upgrades beyond RAM), quiet operation and superb mechanical design makes it the system against which others should be measured. The Xeon platform is, however, Intel’s professional offering and is not aimed at more general purpose use. This is why there is a large price and performance gap between the Mac Pro and Apple’s most powerful consumer machine, the all-in-one iMac (from £949). If you have to run Mac OS X for work and can stomach the giddying price, the Mac Pro is untouchable. It is impossible easy to maintain, works like a dream, and is backed up by strong after-sales support. If you want a complete multimedia machine that also allows you to watch HD movies and play games (Apple doesn’t sell a Blu-ray drive because it wants to push its own movie store and SLI/CrossFire isn’t supported), there are much more affordable Windows-based systems on the market if design and image aren’t a factor.



Link: IT Reviewed