Mac Pro and Xserve go bump in the night
Apple quietly bumped the specs on its Mac Pro desktops last night to include an optional 3.33GHz quad-core processor. It also added optional 2TB hard drive configurations to the Mac Pro, doubling the maximum hard drive capacity from Apple to 8TB. The Xserve also gets the option of 2TB drives for a 6TB maximum.
The upgraded processor in the Mac Pro is a $1,200 upcharge over the base model quad-core 2.66GHz tower and a $800 premium over the 2.93GHz model. At $3,699 the 3.33GHz quad costs $400 more than the company's 8-core Mac Pros which start at $3,299 (2 x 2.26GHz).
What's a shame is that Apple is charging $350 to upgrade from the standard 640GB HDD to 2TB on the Mac Pro. On the Xserve Apple is charging $550 for 2TB drives, because none are included by default. That seems excessive to me given that 2TB raw drives can be found for around $150 online.
Apple is also rolling out 4GB RAM modules pushing the maximum RAM to 32GB (8x4GB) in the Mac Pro (an extra $3,700) and 48GB (12x4GB) in the Xserve ($5,850).
Tip: MacRumors