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From Our Research Team:

An Amazingly Powerful 8-core Mac Pro!

The Mac Pro 2.8GHz 8-Core computer packs top-of-the-line processing capability into a practical tower CPU for amazing performance, speed, and reliability. Turn your desktop into a powerful audio and video production center with the Mac Pro 2.8GHz 8-Core, which offers 2GB of RAM right off the bat (upgradeable to an astounding 32GB maximum). A high-performance graphics card with dual-monitor support, a 16x SuperDrive, and Apple's incredible OS X Leopard operating system are just a few of the great features the Mac Pro 2.8GHz 8-Core has to offer.

Apple Mac Pro 2.8GHz 8-core Desktop Computer at a Glance:

• More powerful, more efficient
  
• Smarter memory
  
• Massive storage
  
• RAID-ready64-bit support with Mac OS X Leopard

More powerful, more efficient
Inside the new Mac Pro is the latest technology from Intel: Quad-Core Intel Xeon "Harpertown" processors. These processors run at blazingly fast speeds. Based on the new 45-nm Intel Core microarchitecture, these processors deliver amazing performance but still maintain outstanding energy efficiency. A huge amount of L2 cache - 12MB per processor - keeps frequently used data and instructions close to the processor cores and improves overall performance. 6MB of cache is shared between pairs of processor cores, allowing an individual core to use all the available shared cache at any one time. With the fastest Xeon architecture available, the new Mac Pro features 1600MHz dual independent frontside buses. These 64-bit buses give each processor a direct connection to the system controller and deliver improved processor bandwidth of up to 25.6GB per second - 20 percent greater than the previous Mac Pro. With a new system architecture, speedier system buses, and fast 800MHz DDR2 fully buffered DIMM memory, Mac Pro memory throughput is up to 1.6 times faster than before. Every Intel Xeon processor features an enhanced SSE4 SIMD engine. Capable of completing 128-bit vector computations in a single cycle, SSE4 is ideal for transforming large sets of data, such as applying a filter to an image or rendering a video effect.

Smarter memory
The Mac Pro incorporates a 256-bit-wide, fully buffered memory architecture with Error Correction Code (ECC), which corrects single-bit errors and detects multiple-bit errors automatically. These features are especially important in mission-critical or compute-intensive environments. Apple designed a more stringent thermal specification for the Mac Pro FB-DIMMs, so the internal fans spin at slower speeds and keep the system quiet.

Massive storage
The Mac Pro comes with four 3.5-inch internal hard drive bays for an enormous amount of internal storage - up to 4TB when you install four 1TB Serial ATA 3Gb/s drives. Each bay provides its own independent 3Gb/s channel for fast access to data. And thanks to the cable-free, direct-attach installation system, adding (or replacing) hard drives is a surprisingly simple process.

RAID-ready
Using Mac OS X, you can stripe two, three, or all four hard drives in a RAID 0 array to increase performance and create a massive volume for video editing; or create a RAID 1 mirror for protecting your critical digital media assets against a drive failure. For the ultimate in data protection and enhanced performance, add the optional Mac Pro RAID Card with 256MB of RAID cache, a 72-hour cache-protecting battery, and hardware RAID levels 0, 1, 5, and 0+1. Apple's RAID Utility software makes setting up and managing the RAID card easy. PCI Express 2.0 is the latest interface technology available for connecting high-performance graphics cards, and it's new to the Mac Pro. A 16-lane dedicated graphics slot now features PCI Express 2.0 with up to twice the transfer rate of PCI Express.

64-bit support with Mac OS X Leopard
Leopard is the first universal operating system to seamlessly support both 64-bit and 32-bit applications. There's no need to upgrade drivers, and you can even stick with your existing printers, storage devices, and PCI Express cards. Leopard lets you take advantage of 64-bit processing power without having to use command-line applications, servers, and computation engines. Leopard can compile and run all your existing UNIX code. It helps you make the most of multicore systems. It puts a new tabbed-interface terminal at your fingertips. And it gives Leopard the solid groundwork for hundreds of great new features on every Mac Pro. Leopard is designed to take full advantage of eight cores of processing power. The new Leopard scheduler allocates tasks more efficiently across these multiple cores and processors. A new multithreaded network stack speeds up networking. And Mail, Address Book, and Font Utility have all been updated to be fully multicore ready.

Apple Mac Pro 2.8GHz 8-core Desktop Computer Features:

• Two 2.8GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon (8-core)
  
• 2GB (2 x 1GB) - 8 Slots total for max 32GB
  
• 320GB 7200-rpm Serial ATA 3Gb/s - 3 Additional open bays
  
• ATI Radeon HD 2600 XT 256MB (Two dual-link DVI)
  
• One 16x SuperDrive
  
• Apple Mighty Mouse
  
• Apple Ultrathin Aluminum Keyboard (English) + Mac OS X

Includes:

• Mac OS X v10.5 Leopard featuring:
  
• Time Machine
  
• Quick Look
  
• Spaces
  
• Spotlight
  
• Dashboard
  
• Mail
  
• iChat
  
• Safari
  
• Address Book
  
• QuickTime
  
• iCal
  
• DVD Player
  
• Photo BoothFront Row
  
• Xcode Developer Tools
  
• iLife '09 (includes iTunes, iPhoto, iMovie, iDVD, iWeb, and GarageBand)

In the box:

• Mac Pro
  
• Apple Keyboard and Mighty Mouse
  
• DVI to VGA adapter
  
• USB keyboard extension cable
  
• Install/restore DVDs
  
• Printed and electronic documentation

The Apple Mac Pro 2.8GHz 8-core turns your desktop into a powerful production center!

Specification Detail Manufacturer Part Number MA970LL/A