Is your current 8-core Mac looking long in the tooth? Then we’ve got great news! Apple has announced new Mac Pros with up to 12 cores of rockin’ processing power. Models with four, six, eight, or 12 cores are available (for a performance boost up to 1.5x over a last-generation 8-core Mac Pro), with up to 6GB of RAM stock, up to 5x faster standard graphics, up to 8TB of internal storage in four hard drives, and the option to install up to four 512GB solid-state drives for extreme performance – Apple says video encoding can increase in speed up to 2x with solid-state drives. The new Mac Pros also feature “Turbo Boost” technology, which increases processor clock speed when required by a task or workload – up to 3.33GHz on a 12-core or 3.6GHz on a 6-core machine. For maximum performance, a Hyper-Threading allows two threads to run at once on a core, allowing, for example, a 12-core Mac Pro to appear as a 24-core machine to OS X. Four FireWire 800 ports, five USB 2.0 ports plus two more on the included keyboard, TOSlink optical I/O, headphone output, analog stereo I/O, and multi-channel audio through the Mini DisplayPort round out the connectivity.
As if that weren’t enough, Apple has also announced the latest member of their LED Cinema Display family, a 27-inch widescreen model. With a 16:9 aspect ratio, backlighting, 2,560 x 1,440 resolution, and built-in iSight camera and microphone and ambient light sensor – plus 49 watts of stereo power through two built-in speakers – this display is ideal for all computer tasks, as well as immersive gaming and movie watching. It has three USB 2.0 ports and a MagSafe connector for powering and charging a MacBook, a MacBook Pro, or a MacBook Air. And it’s compatible with any Mac with a Mini DisplayPort. It’s also the “greenest” Mac display ever: highly recyclable, free of toxins, and energy efficient.