Anandtech's mac pro desktop computer is high-end from Apple. It's an incredibly powerful workstation that is capable of running demanding professional applications at a reasonable price. It is also very attractive.
It has a modern, sleek look and feels very solid. It's also quiet, which can be important for professional workstations.
What's more, it's very aesthetically pleasing, something that a lot of other desktops on the market can't say. That's why I was excited to receive one for this review.
A quick tour of the system
Anandtech mac pro uses a single processor board behind the IO panels. This single board supports Intel's newest Ivy Bridge-EP Xeon processors. As long as you have a quality memory upgrade kit, and a motherboard that has PCIe slots, it's easy to upgrade.
It also supports SSDs in the four internal hard drive bays via an optional sled adapter (mid-2010 models and later), or by using a third-party solution for early Mac Pros. Although it's not mandatory to use, a hardware RAID cards is available.
You can upgrade your memory easily as the system comes with 16GB DDR3RAM. However, Apple's FB-DIMM memory modules require special heatsinks to maintain a consistent temperature.
Other than the CPU, the graphics card is another major component in the anandtechmac pro. The new chip features a dual-GPU, with one dedicated to high-end compute work and the other for high-resolution media. This design, loved by many, gives Apple an opportunity to improve its product line and provides significant performance improvements for the existing GPU architectures.
Six-core Mac Pros are now as fast a three-core Mac Pro, and a new GPU makes a twelve-core Mac Pro even faster than a nine core unit. Although this is great news, it doesn’t make a significant difference in more light-weight, threaded applications, such as playing back video or importing images into Lightroom.
Those users will likely find that a more affordable option will be better suited for their needs. Anandtech Mac mini, by comparison, is much cheaper than the anandtech Mac pro.
The anandtech mac mini is the perfect choice for those who don't require a powerful workstation but still need a small desktop. It's not quite as powerful, but it does have a very high-resolution screen and is also extremely quiet.
The anandtech pro is definitely a significant upgrade to the previous model. It has a very attractive look and feel. The new anandtechmac pro's overall design is not ideal for professional use. However, it is very well-designed for its purpose.
A big part of this is the design of the new Mac Pro, which aims to be as small as possible while still providing high-end performance and functionality. While it's unclear if this was ever Apple's goal, it's clear that Apple has a solid commitment to form factors evolution. The Mac Pro is an important step in that direction.