I didn’t expect this announcement for a week yet - but Apple announced upgraded Mac Pros and XServes yesterday. They’re good machines too - with quad-core processors and plenty room for expansion.

I’m reasonably impressed with the pricing, too. A run-your-SME-business-on-this XServe (upgraded from the base model with 3×1Tb disks, RAID and a dual PSU) comes in at just over £3000 ex-VAT. This additionally includes a copy of OSX server unlimited user edition - so you get set up and running right away with no additional expense. That’s a great deal that’s worth £629 in its own right.

Models start at a very reasonable £1999, and go all the way up to around £9250 fully tricked out.

The Mac Pros have also moved to quad-core processors and come with better graphics and expandability. They start at £1216 ex-VAT for the base model with no display, with a power-user model (twin quad processors, 8Gb memory, 3×750Gb disk) coming in at around £3000. Still no display there either.

The Pros will be great for users who really need the shove of the quad processors - those involved in machine-intensive tasks. I still feel that most ordinary users will do just fine with iMacs - and considering a 24″ iMac easily suitable for business use comes in at a grand, the extra money needing spent on the Mac Pros for workstations will have to be justified well.

The XServes on the other hand are simply great - and giving away the OS with them makes them a bargain. I can’t see any reason to fault them for business use. Entirely competent machines with an entirely competent OS in Leopard Server. Highly recommended.

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