When will the New Mac Pro Desktop be released?

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The last post this AM was deleted, you know why.

It has been asked a dozen times and threads are still here.

This is user to user tech support, nothing more or less.

Not Apple but some will ask a moderator perhaps to delete rather than leave threads that are speculative, or violate the TOS.

My thoughts on the technical side:

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3446202

Intel isn't ready with LGA 2011 socket for new Ivy Bridge, PCIe 3.0 was formally adopted this fall, and Intel announced Thunderbolt to be available in 2012 on other platforms, which will help drive costs down (they have been too high).

Same about SATA III / 6G, we need it, it has been rather a rough road getting there, even PC motherboards, using Marvel chipset, have not been all that great and you needed a 4x 4-port card to use just two of today's SSDs.

But it could be the best thing.

In a year once you have 2nd revision chips, an OS build or two under the belt. Not that there is anything wrong with today other than say you want the new AMD 6970 (or wait for 7xxx series might make more sense).

So while the lowend got TB, outside of monitors, and you can buy a lot equal or better, the W3680 and the rest of the Mac Pro may not have the 3.6GHz of a desktop Sandy Bridge i7-2600K but really, you can add PCIe just not for TB but not a killer. Good solid fast SAS controllers will perform and do fine.

Which is why it is hard to outgrow it seems a workstation. They last and even that 2006 model can be upgraded with dual 5355s and still perform more than adequately.

Software to make better use of even a 2010 Mac Pro's potential is slow(-ly) catching on.

Can't do or say anything bout iOS and iCloud, they can be convenient. But won't it always require a workstation to actually create content?

It is said to see that a Mac Pro new can only boot Lion, up until recently it was nice to have the choice of still having PowerPC/Rosetta support. Not anymore.

The hatter wrote:

It is said to see that a Mac Pro new can only boot Lion, up until recently it was nice to have the choice of still having PowerPC/Rosetta support. Not anymore.

I'm not sure I follow. Are you saying that if you buy a new Mac Pro, it will only boot Lion? You can install Snow Leopard?

Typically any new Mac will require a system that is as new or newer than the system that existed when it was made. A 2009 mac won't typically boot off a 2008 OS. That is even true for revision. A machine made with, say, 10.6.4 won't boot from a 10.6 if I recall correctly. A machine made when Lion is out won't typically boot from a Snow Leopard disk. But that wasn't actually the point being made. The point that was being made was that Lion does not support any PowerPC/Rosetta software, so if you have Office 2004 and buy a new MacPro that requires Lion you will have to buy a new version of Office. That is,also true for any machine you "upgrade" to Lion. You lose all PowerPC/Rosetta support. Moving to Lion was the death knell of Eudora for me personally. Sad to see it go.

Not to speculate, but I have just recently heard that Lion 10.7.3 beta drivers contain hints towards an updated Mac Pro, so don't give up hope just yet.

Are you saying that if you buy a new Mac Pro, it will only boot Lion? You can install Snow Leopard?

For security reasons many offices cannot use Lion. I know of several cases where recently purchased Mac Pros had Snow Leopard installed after the purchase.

A search online will show various techniques for installing Snow Leopard on new Macs.

But the latest info filtering out this weekend, late last week, was the a new Mac Pro ships with Lion (not new) but that it now supports/sports new Lion net-install and will panic if you try Snow.

up until then they shipped with Lion but would take any 10.6.8 system from another Mac Pro incl. from a 1,1.

And even though they shipped with builds post-10.6.3, but not really 10.6.4 yet, they would and the 2009s will boot the retail 10.6.3 DVD (the last issued).

It does not take techniques or google, just slap in or boot from SnowL - I would of course always keep the shipped drive and OS 'as is' and pull/swap it for the system drive - or clone it if that isn't possible.

But the latest info filtering out this weekend, late last week, was the a new Mac Pro ships with Lion (not new) but that it now supports/sports new Lion net-install and will panic if you try Snow.

Has this new non-Snow Leopard capable Mac Pro started to ship yet? Is there a way with serial numbers or model numbers to differentiate the Mac Pro that can run Snow Leopard from a Mac Pro that cannot run Snow Leopard?

I ask this because our office may need to “load up” on Snow Leopard capable Mac Pros.

There are many Mac Pros available used, if I want the last models may that shipped with Snow Leopard what should I look for?