8-core MacPro announced

It’s been a long time coming, but Apple has finally released its 8-core MacPro workstation. At the heart of this super system are two 3.0-GHz quad-core Intel Xeon processors that should run circles around other systems out there. The system has two FireWire 400, two FireWire 800, and four USB 2.0 ports, and it supports up to 16 GB of RAM.

The two quad-core processors offer 8MB of Level 2 cache each – for a total of 16MB – as well as a 1333MHz FSB (front side bus). Apple is also offering the Mac Pro with a total of 16GB of RAM and a total of four SATA (Serial ATA) hard drives that can support up to 3TB of data.

The Mac Pro also features a doublewide, 16-lane PCI Express graphics slot that can support:

At present Apple offers multiple choices of Graphics Cards on MacPros:

1, 2, 3, or 4 NVIDIA GeForce 7300 GT 256MB,
or
ATI Radeon X1900 XT 512MB
or
NVIDIA Quadro FX 4500 512MB, Stereo 3D (2 x dual - link DVI)

The desktop can also support up to eight displays, according to Apple’s Web site.

The 8-core MacPro workstation is sure to be a hit with 3D animators, HD editors, and motion graphic artists who need a lot of processing power to get the job done, and might just be overkill for playing games like World of Warcraft. If you’re still salivating and need to buy one today, the price starts at $2,499, but climbs to a staggering $15,717 if you opt for all the system upgrades.