


Even if new case and motherboard designs weren’t ready for release, it sure would’ve been nice if Apple included Thunderbolt and USB 3.0 connectivity via a PCI express card. What the new Mac Pros lack are Thunderbolt, USB 3.0, and new processor technology.

It has two gigabit ethernet ports, built-in Wi-Fi, five USB ports, four FireWire 800 ports, two Mini DisplayPort connectors, and a dual-link DVI connector. In an era where the company has begun using proprietary screws to keep casual DIYers from tampering with their own Macs, the Mac Pro has an easy-to-access case with three free hard drive slots, three empty PCI express card slots, and an extra optical bay. The Mac Pro is still Apple’s most customizable Mac. Both systems have 7200-rpm 1TB hard drives and ATI Radeon HD 5770 PCI Express graphics cards with 1GB of video memory. The $3799 Mac Pro has a pair of 6-core 2.4GHz Xeon E5645 processors, and 12GB of 1333 DDR3 RAM. The new low-end Mac Pro costs $2499 and comes with a 3.2GHz quad-core Xeon W3565 processor and 6GB of 1066 DDR3 RAM.
