High-end Macs get a speed boostHigh-end Macs get a speed boost

The Mac Pro and Xserve were updated today with faster processors, faster bus, and faster memory. While most business Macs probably are the less-expensive iMac and MacBook models, we can expect that these improvements will soon be trickling down to the typical end user.The Mac Pro is the tower Mac, much more powerful than an iMac. The Mac Pro has two processor slots, and Apple now offers quad-core 3.2GHz Intel Xeon processors for those slots.

That means that you can have eight cores in a single box  ideal for someone doing heavy lifting with graphics, video, numeric processing or software development. Not only are the new chips faster, they also have 12MB of cache per processor. According to Apple, the new Mac Pro could be up to 2x faster than the previous model.

The system side bus on the Mac Pro has been boosted from 1333MHz to 1600MHz. Memory is faster too, running at 800MHz. A Mac Pro can now contain up to 4TB of storage. That should be enough for all your MP3 files.

The Xserve upgrade is similar, because the Mac Pro and Xserve are fundamentally the same computer. However, at the present time, Apple is only offering up to 3.0GHz clock speeds, and 3TB internal storage. For a server, thats plenty.

What about iMacs and MacBook/MacBook Pro models? Apple had nothing to say about them at this time, but it shouldnt be long before they also see a boost perhaps to quad core as well. However, it probably won't be the exact same specs, since these "consumer" models use much lower-wattage processors that require less cooling. Still, we should see an upgrade pretty soon. The MacBook Pro is especially due for a boost.