Built from the ground up and as a successor to the PowerMac, the Mac Pro continues Apple's tradition of offering the speed and performance the professional user demands but most importantly, requires.  Note that the MacPro can be much more that the average non-professional would ever need.  Therefore, unless you're working in one of the above mentioned fields, the Mac Pro may be too much to bite into.  Your wallet will be better served by the iMac. The Mac Pro is now on it's third product cycle, or in other words, it's second revision.  The following is a list of the Mac Pro release dates:

• Original Release: August 7, 2006
• First Revision: April 4, 2007 8-core system
• Second Revision: January 8, 2008 - Penryn processors - standard 8-core system
  

In the Box

Design - Don't Let the Aluminum Case Fool You
At first glance, the Mac Pro case with it's exposed ports on the front and back looks like a simple machine.  But behind that beautiful aluminum case sits one of the most powerful workstations money can buy.  Built with the latest and most capable Intel Xeon Processors, workstation graphics, PCI Express 2.0, storage capacity, optional dual optical drives, ports, expansion slots, and expansion options, the MacPro can be configured to meet just about any professional demands by offering millions of possible configurations.  The design offers owners the ability to easily expand the machine as usage requirements change or exapnd.

The Ultimate Desktop Mac - 8 cores or 4 cores
The Mac Pro can be configured with two Quad-Core Intel Xeon “Harpertown” processors running up to 3.2GHz giving the system groundbreaking 8-core power.  These are the fastest quad-core Xeon processors available from Intel.  The standard configuration ships with two 2.8GHz Quad-Core processors.  Regardless of the configuration, the Mac Pro will deliver advanced performance.

8-core Mac Pro features include:

• Two 2.8GHz, 3.0GHz, or 3.2GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon 5400 series "Harperton" processors
• Enhanced Intel Core microarchitecture

Quad-core Mac Pro features include:

• One 2.8GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon 5400 series "Harperton" processor
• Enhanced Intel Core microarchitecture

All Mac Pro's feature:

• 12MB of L2 cache per processor (each pair of cores shares 6MB)
• 128-bit SSE4 SIMD engine
• 64-bit data paths and registers
• Energy efficiency optimization
• 1600MHz, 64-bit dual independent frontside buses

Some of the noteworthy features in the Mac Pro

• 4 hard-drive bays - supporting up to 4TB of internal storage
• Double-wide, 16-lane PCI Express 2.0 graphics slot
• 800MHz DDR2 ECC fully buffered DIMM (FB-DIMM) memory
• Eight FB-DIMM slots supporting up to 32GB of main memory
• 256-bit-wide memory architecture
• One PCI Express 2.0 x16 slot
• Two PCI Express x4 slots
• Optional dual 16x SuperDrive with double-layer support (DVD±R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW)
• Two FireWire 800 ports
• Two FireWire 400 ports
• Five USB 2.0 ports
• Front-panel headphone minijack and speaker
• Optical digital audio input and output TOSLINK ports
• Analog stereo line-level input and output minijacks
• Support for multiple displays
• Multiple graphics card configurations support

Cinema HD Displays are a Perfect Match
Unlike the iMac but similar to the Mac mini, the Mac Pro doesn't come with a display.  That's solved by connecting an optional widescreen Apple Cinema HD Display.  A perfect compliment to the Mac Pro, the displays feature the same anodized aluminum enclosure found on the Mac Pro.  The two look great side-by-side and can be the envy of any computer user.  The shipped graphics card in each Mac Pro supports dual displays and at least one 30-inch Cinema HD dispaly.  If that's not enough, you can configure the Mac Pro to support up to eight displays.

What Can you do with a Mac Pro?
Simply put, just about everything.  The Mac Pro can do almost everything an iMac can do but more.  Note that the Mac Pro doesn't have a built-in iSight camera as found on the iMac, MacBook Pro, and MacBook so you won't be able to video conference out-of-the box.  That's solved by purchasing an external iSight camera.  Mac users can use the full range of Apple software from the built-in applications that ship with Mac OS X to the most demanding titles such as Final Cut Pro, Shake, Aperture, and Logic Pro.  The most demanding third-party software for professional use will run like a charm on a Mac Pro.

Conclusion & Buying Advice
Geared towards professionals, the Mac Pro is the ultimate desktop Mac workstation.  Although no longer sold by Apple, they are not difficult to find.  Unless you need the features offered by the Mac Pro such as PCI Express, Quad processing, and greater than 3GB RAM, you're better off settling for an iMac.  But hey, don't let this article discourage you.   If you want the ultimate desktop offered by Apple, have the extra cash lying around, or wanna brag to your friends that you have the ultimate Mac, get the Mac Pro.

Updates
January 8, 2008

• Updated information about new Penryn based systems and content revision

April 4, 2007

• Added information about 8-core Mac Pro and content revision