Apple Mac Pro review

On the plus side, if raw graphical power isn’t a requirement but display flexibility is, it's possible to specify up to four GT 120s in the system, for £313 before VAT, giving you the potential to run eight 30in TFTs from a single system. You’ll also find a Displayport connection on the cards, enabling you to use the latest displays.
But as impressive as the core specification is, Apple's most impressive work is the design. Reach into virtually any other desktop case and you're all but guaranteed to catch a painful burr on the way out. The Mac Pro is made from beautifully-machined (and, Apple is keen to point out, recyclable) aluminium, and is completely modular.
The processor and RAM are on a daughterboard, which connects to the motherboard via a sliding tray. Unlock the catches on the daughterboard and it slides out. It's wireless, tool-free, and virtually impossible to put back incorrectly. Up to four hard disks live horizontally near the top of the chassis, each in its own metal housing. Sliding them out is simple and the SATA connectors are attached directly to the motherboard, so they mate with your disks without the need to blindly fiddle with cables. Apple claims, in fact, to have eliminated six feet of cabling since the last version of the Mac Pro, and the system is strikingly spare inside. The only place you'll see cabling is on the back of the DVD writer.
The front of the chassis is broadly featureless, but there's no mistaking this for anything other than Apple-designed. The front has a pair of USB ports and two FireWire 800 ports, and things are similarly sparse on the back. A pair of Gigabit Ethernet ports, two 3.5mm audio ports for audio in and out, and optical S/PDIF in and out ports. There are two more FireWire 800 ports, making this the first Mac Pro not to have a single FireWire 400 port; a potential annoyance for anyone with incompatible hardware. The only other disappointment is the USB ports - just three on the back makes a total of five, meaning anyone with a healthy complement of external hardware might swap ports a few times a day. On the plus side, the slim-but-solid keyboard has a pair of USB ports built in.
The let-down, inevitably, is the price. The Mac Pro costs £1,703 before VAT, and for that it's pretty fair to expect a PC to do anything. This Mac Pro, though, doesn't even include a screen, and our review unit has limited capacity for high-definition.
However, price isn't the top-line consideration when it comes to workstations. Ease of maintenance, after-sales support and computational capacity all trump initial price. The limited graphical prowess may limit its appeal as a workstation for CAD work but as a first rate power desktop machine it certainly cuts it.