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 - Fast, stable, quiet, reliable = best mac I've owned!This has to be the best Mac I've owned yet. It is much quieter (the only thing I hear every once in a while is the DVD drive), much more stable, much faster, and better constructed than my Dual G5 (the liquid cooled version). It has yet to crash after over a year of use! I couldn't be happier! Rating: - The best keeps getting betterI've been using Macs since 1987, with my first Mac being a Mac SE. Apple has come a long way since then and has led the way in innovation and pushing the envelope in product development. I'm probably preaching to the choir here, but for me, it's obvious that Apple's dedication to engineering and creating highly functional and elegant product design continues to improve. As a graphic designer, I have purchased "desktop" or daily use "workhorse" Macs about one every 4 years, and I have worked with printing companies and web development teams on a wide range of projects, so I have hands-on experience with a number of Macs over the years. I make a living doing high-end graphics and pre-press work, so I am a demanding computer user. I purchased the Mac Pro as a replacement for my 4+ year old Mac G5. This review is primarily a comparison of the two Macs, and if you are currently using a G4 or G5 Mac, this review should be useful. With both machines side by side, the cases look the same, but on closer examination there are many differences. The biggest difference is how quiet and how much cooler the Mac Pro is in comparison to the Mac G5. I purchased additional RAM for the Mac Pro and when I opened the case, as with the G5, it's very easy to get to the RAM slots and to add cards to the computer if needed. I especially like the four drive bays (which are now filled) and how simple it is now to slide in an internal drive into it's slot without having to deal with connection cables inside the computer (in the G5 there were only two drive slots and short cables made it hard to change out the drives easily). The simplicity and ease of adding drives with the Mac Pro is huge plus when compared to the G5. There are also more Firewire connectors on the Mac Pro than the G5, and an extra ethernet connection for connecting a hub, a network device or another Mac. There is an extra CD/DVD drive bay. This will be of use when Blue Ray drives come down in price and if I need to add it to the computer. Also, as with the G5, there are expansion slots for adding internal PCI cards. Though we live in a wireless world, I have a lot of USB and Firewire cables running behind my computers and a card or two will help cut down on the clutter. As with previous desktop computers from Apple, there are plenty of RAM slots inside and room to add more RAM as your needs increase. Personally, I have never maxed out the RAM on any of the "work horse" Mac desktops. But I am sure there are other applications or uses which are more demanding than pre-press. Like the G5, you can support dual monitors right out of the box. I run a Samsung 22" and a Sony 19" monitor. As a rule of thumb, I work with about 4x the ram that comes with the computer, and if RAM is cheap at the time, I may add more. No company is perfect, but I must say that for me, I continue to see Apple's care and attention to detail in every product. Lastly, I have NEVER purchased any sort of extended warranty or the Apple Care and I have never had any sort of catastrophic failure with any of the Macs I have owned. Hard drives can and do fail, which are made by various manufacturers, but having a good backup strategy will help you to deal with that, if it should happen. I am not saying that the Apple Care is not necessary or needed--for some customers, it may be worthwhile. Rating: - Mac Pro MA356LL - Still Astounding!After using this Mac Pro for a few months now having come over from the PC world, here's my initial impressions: First and foremost, it's a BARGAIN! There's no way I could build a PC to these specs for the price I paid for this last-years model Quad-core Xeon. Please don't think about comparing it to a Core2Quad system.... it isn't one. This is a professional-class heavy duty Workstation with Dual Processors and Quad-Channel memory, and if you don't know the difference, you probably won't buy one. To keep the price low, Apple gives us only 1GB memory, a smaller Hard Drive and a relatively weak Video Card. These are easily upgraded when convenient. I've got 8GB iRAM, 4 HDDs and a hand-me-down ATI HD2600 from a 2008 8-core in mine. Leopard has been easy to learn and very stable for me. It's not as pretty as Vista, but is far more useful and secure. Fortunately, my video editing software has a Mac version that runs well on Leopard. Boot Camp works well for me with one exception: Windows only seems to work with the front-panel Audio Port, completely ignoring any speakers plugged into the rear port.. Windows itself runs flawlessly and very fast. Physically, the Mac Pro is a work of ART! The case is well-finished, the internal cabling is extremely tidy and well-thought out, the Hard Drive Caddies are flawless, everything runs cool and extremely quiet. The system is virtually SILENT in any normal room. On the technical side, the Mac Pro uses the newer EFI system instead of the antiquated (mid 80's) BIOS that most PCs use. The end result is more stability, faster boot up, shut down and sleep operations. If you are looking for a powerful, well made, silent and well thought-out system that should last a long time, buy one of these or one of the new 8-core Mac Pros. If you absolutely must have Windows, this system runs it extremely well, though I use it less and less as I learn Leopard. I just finished my first 2-hour video project on this machine. The Mac Pro is ALL ABOUT RENDER SPEED! I cannot believe how fast this thing rendered 2 hours of source DV to DVD (under Leopard). It's roughly 4 times faster than my previous dual core PC workstation running XP. It makes no sense to me.... I must have done something wrong. Or maybe right? Have Fun, Keri Rating: - Mac Pro 266 GHz I love it, very fast easy to up-grade hard drives and ram and is fairly priced! Rating: - Switching from PC to Mac was my best move EVER in computingNo more CTRL>ALT>DELETE! Far less worry over rampant viruses. Power, power, power! Plus, no complaining that all applications don't work on a MAC. With the inexpensive Parallels software, you can run both Windows and Mac applications AT THE SAME TIME. Do I need to say I love my MAC?
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