Apple announce new pro desktops in advance of Macworld...

In a somewhat unusual move, Apple revamped its pro desktop line today, introducing new Mac Pros, with a new "Harpertown" Intel processors. With Macworld just around the corner (January 15th), most would have guessed that new desktops would be part of Steve Jobs' keynote presentation. However this may indicate that the keynote contains other laptop news, bumping the Mac Pros to their own press release a week in advance.
The new models come with the following standard spec, but can be customised to suit the user:

• Two 2.8GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon “Harpertown” processors
  • 2GB memory (800MHz DDR2 fully-buffered DIMM ECC)
  • ATI Radeon HD 2600 XT graphics with 256MB memory
  • 320GB Serial ATA 3Gb/s 7200-rpm hard drive1
  • 16x double-layer SuperDrive

The main change is that the new faster Mac Pros now come with 8 cores as standard (2x4 cores), whereas this was a custom-build option in the previous models. Other options include processors up to 3.2Ghz, and new ATI & NVIDIA graphics cards.
More details available from Apple Store for Ireland or the Apple Store for the UK.
Simon Spence/2008