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Mac Pro Server introduced at online Apple Store; starts at $2,999

By | November 5, 2010, 7:53am PDT

Summary: Look at what we have here. Apple has quietly introduced a new member to the Mac Pro desktop line-up: a new Mac OS X server.

Look at what we have here. Apple has quietly introduced a new member to the Mac Pro desktop line-up: a new Mac OS X server.

Powered by an Intel Xeon “Nehalem” 2.8GHz quad-core processor, the Mac Pro Server sports dual 1TB hard drives, 8GB (4 x 2GB) of RAM and ATI Radeon HD 5770 graphics with 1GB of GDDR5 dedicated memory. Buyers will also get a Mac OS X Server unlimited-client license.

Naturally, there are a ton of upgrade options, including:

  • Intel Xeon “Westmere” quad-core and six-core processor options
  • Up to 32GB of DDR3 ECC SDRAM
  • A Mac Pro RAID Card
  • Up to 8TB of hard drive space or a 512GB solid-state drive
  • A dual-channel or quad-channel 4GB Fibre Channel PCI Express card

Shipping within two to four weeks, pricing starts at $2,999. Hey, that includes free shipping! Financing is also available if boosting some of those specs bursts your budget.

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Topics

Apple Macintosh, Apple Mac Pro, Desktops, Servers, Hardware, Rachel King

Rachel King is a staff writer for ZDNet based in San Francisco.

Disclosure

Rachel King

Rachel King has no business relationships, affiliations, investments, or other potential conflicts of interest relating to the content posted in this blog.

Biography

Rachel King

Rachel King is a staff writer for CBS Interactive in San Francisco. Before serving as a contributing editor at ZDNet in New York City for two years, she previously worked for The Business Insider, FastCompany.com, CNN's San Francisco bureau and the U.S. Department of State. Rachel has also written for MainStreet.com, Irish America Magazine and the New York Daily News, among others. Rachel has a B.A. in Mass Communications and History from the University of California, Berkeley and a M.S. in Journalism from Columbia University, where she served as art director for the student magazine, Plated.

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RE: Mac Pro Server introduced at online Apple Store; starts at $2,999
james347 7th Nov 2010
Yeah, let me just go grab some cash off the money tree!
View in thread
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RE: Mac Pro Server introduced at online Apple Store; starts at $2,999
WarhavenSC 5th Nov 2010
Also of note is Apple dropping their 1U rack mount line.
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gee
sportmac 5th Nov 2010
that's nice except for the fact that they've just increased my monthly u price drastically. no way am i going to get the bean counters to ok that. guess i'll run my current xserve's until they're so old i have to switch and then i'll be forced to another platform.
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Oh, you are the one that bought an xserve?
NonZealot 5th Nov 2010
@sportmac
Glad to hear that Apple finally sold one of those things.
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Once again some more still.....
James Quinn 5th Nov 2010
@NonZealot
Do you have any actual information that shows Xserver has not sold or made money for Apple? Now before you rush along to get a figure that shows Dell has sold more servers I already know this. What I'm interested in does you silly reply have any basis in fact? Has sales of XServer's been poor for Apple not Dell. Has the XServer not been profitable?

Pagan jim
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RE: Mac Pro Server introduced at online Apple Store; starts at $2,999
vze29knp@... 5th Nov 2010
@NonZealot
I have been reading some of the junk you have been writing over the past two months and can't believe what I read. ZDNET must pay you just to write this garbage just to get someone to reply. It is truly funny even though its crap. Keep it up, I am enjoying it. Fuuunnyy stuff.
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Some insigt into Apple's server attempts
Qbt Updated - 5th Nov 2010
The following might be a little old by now but I think it pretty much sums up Apple's server attempts (did something change dramatically since then?):

http://www.yugatech.com/blog/anything-apple/why-is-apple-not-winning-the-server-market/

The bottom line is that Apple needs to stick with creating shiny baubles.

EDIT: And before someone points out there is a difference between Xserver and Mac Pro Server, yes that is understood. The point is look at the prices for their support, parts, etc.
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RE: Mac Pro Server introduced at online Apple Store; starts at $2,999
WarhavenSC Updated - 5th Nov 2010
@Qbt ...

This Yuga guy didn't bother to do any research, as is consistent with online opinion articles like this. He completely omits the 1-hour on site service for priority one hardware, and 4-hour on site for priority two hardware, and about 150 other services included with this plan.

He then ******* about $999 for parts to replace "busted RAM chips or HDD," failing to mention the kit also includes a DC card, power supply, motherboard, video card, and NICs. In short, it essentially gives you a second Xserve just for parts so you can replace any failed components (not just RAM and HDDs, thank you very much) on the Xserve ASAP.

Why are idiots like this allowed to call themselves journalists?

[edit]

It used to include NIC and video. Looks like it only includes motherboard, PSU, and fan assembly now. Either way...
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Scalability?
Bit-Smacker 5th Nov 2010
...and, while the rest of the world is moving to cloud-based virtualization, Apple keeps to its vendor lock-in mentality and offers an OS that can only be used on Apple hardware. If they allowed you to install it as an AMI on Amazon EC2, they might have a better acceptance rate. Until then, most people will choose Linux and its non-existant licensing to run cloud applications.
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RE: Mac Pro Server introduced at online Apple Store; starts at $2,999
james347 5th Nov 2010
Sweet!
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RE: Mac Pro Server introduced at online Apple Store; starts at $2,999
thombone Updated - 7th Nov 2010
Hilarious! Third generation hardware which can be assembled at Fry's for about $1k. So Apple is charging two grand for their pretty case and a terrible server OS? What a deal!

P.S. Nowadays you'd have to be pretty daft to choose any server OS that you cannot vitualize and sandbox. OSX server is a non-starter because it is inflexible and tied to hardware that out of the box is already generations old at triple the price. Many Apple freak consumers are dumb enough to buy this garbage, but there is no real value in Apple products anymore.
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clueless idio*
banned from zdnet Updated - 7th Nov 2010
@thombone
a (not even really) comparable system from dell (for example) starts at 3.100 $ without any client licenses to a barebone windows server version.

apple's superb server hardware is an extremely high value even when you install linux or windows server on it. and of course anyone who actually has any idea what he is talking about knows that already.

http://configure.us.dell.com/dellstore/config.aspx?c=us&cs=555&l=en&oc=MLB1212&s=biz
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RE: Mac Pro Server introduced at online Apple Store; starts at $2,999
james347 7th Nov 2010
Yeah, let me just go grab some cash off the money tree!

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