Best Modern Alternative to the Mac Pro 5,1

It’s safe to say that the Mac Pro 5,1 will reach the end of the line at some point in the next few years – even in terms of user base extended support such as patching tools that have allowed Catalina (and now Big Sur) to be installed keeping these Macs up to date for […]

The Mac Pro 3,1 to 5,1 Gets Thunderbolt 3

Expansion and I/O Challenges with Older Macs Imagine the average 8-12 year old Mac sitting on your desk today.. Many are getting long in the tooth and have limited external upgrade potential or simply can’t even keep up with the best options offered today in terms of approaching optimal throughput for external graphics (also known […]

‘Low End’ Means Good Enough

Low End Mac began 20 years ago as a way to share my knowledge of the earliest useful Macs with other Mac users. At that point I considered the Mac Plus – the first Mac with SCSI for adding a hard drive and expandable memory – to be the oldest practical Mac. Interesting thing is, […]

Best Mac Pro Prices

Apple completely overhauled the Mac Pro in 2013, eliminating things like drive bays and expansion slots in favor of a radical new design that includes two video cards along with the fastest SSDs available. For those who need drive bays or expansion slots, there are lots of older Mac Pros to pick from starting below $200!

Now Is the Time to Bring Back the 17″ MacBook Pro

I still love my Early 2011 17″ MacBook Pro, as do many others despite its potential to exhibit a known graphics fault (see Apple Recall regarding discrete GPU failure), and it continues to be my daily driver and likely will remain that way for the next 4-6 years – unless Apple decides to reverse its course on a few […]

Mac Pro (2013)

Although it received some relatively minor updates in 2012, the previous Mac Pro received its last real update in 2010, and by the time the 2013 Mac Pro shipped in December 2013, that model was well over three years old. The 2010/2012 Mac Pro was the last Mac to run OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard, […]

Is the New Mac Pro the Next Cube?

I must admit to having Mac Pro lust for the new Late 2013 Mac Pro that Apple has promised to deliver “later this year”. From its radical styling and cutting edge features to its sheer power, this Mac in a black can is definitely lustworthy.

Maximizing a 2006 Mac Pro

Now that Apple has kicked the first version of the Mac Pro out of the family, I think it’s safe to say that it’s now part of our family – a low-end Mac – yet one with extraordinary power waiting to be uncorked.

Death of the Mac Pro? I Think Not

2011 – Yesterday’s hot Mac rumor, since picked up by just about every site covering Apple news, is that Apple is questioning the future of the Mac Pro and may be discontinuing its most expensive (and undoubtedly most profitable per unit) computer.

Mac Pro (Mid 2010)

It’s been over 15 months since Apple rolled out the 2009 Mac Pro, and the 2010 Mac Pro is yet another big step forward: every configuration uses quad-core Intel Xeon Nehalem or quad-core and even hex-core Westmere CPUs for even more power. Each core has its own 256 KB Level 2 (L2) cache, each quad-core […]

Mac Pro (Early 2009)

It’s been 14 months since Apple introduced the 2008 Mac Pro, and the 2009 Mac Pro is a big step forward: every configuration uses quad-core Intel Xeon Nehalem CPUs for even more power. Each core has its own 256 KB Level 2 (L2) cache, and each quad-core CPU shares an 8 GB Level 3 (L3) […]

Mac Pro (Early 2008)

It’s been 17 months since Apple introduced the original Mac Pro, which shipped with two dual-core processors (an 8-core model with two quad-core CPUs was introduced in April 2007), and the new Mac Pro is a big step forward: every configuration uses quad-core Intel Xeon CPUs for even more power.

Mac Pro (Mid 2006)

Apple introduced the Mac Pro as a fully customizable quad-core computer. The buyer can choose from two dual-core Intel Xeon Woodcrest at 2.0, 2.66, or 3.0 GHz. As little as 1 GB of RAM or as much as 16 GB. 160, 250, or 500 GB in drive bay one, and optionally 500 GB in bays 2-4.