New Nehalem Mac Pro still preys on the old

The age-old Apple mantra: Beautiful? Definitely. Easy to use? Indeed. Powerful? Just as much as you need. Price versus performance? No way in hell.

Enter the new Nehalem-based Mac Pro, Apple’s new iteration of their high-end desktop workstation, updated with Intel’s new chip series that’s smashing benchmarks all over the place. Together with Mac’s tried and true design and build quality, working in tandem with OS X, a base offering of $2499 seems just where you’d expect it to be.

Well, not so fast - with the rate that computer hardware is being upgraded these days, it’s important to see if the Mac Pro’s specs are at least comparable to similarly-priced PC offerings:

- 2.66GHz quad-core Intel Xeon
- 3gb RAM
- 640gb 7200RPM HD
- NVIDIA GeForce GT 120 w/ 512mb RAM

Wait, what? $2499 for a desktop with the weakest Nehalem chip (about $300), the minimum amount of memory rated for Nehalem systems, only one hard drive, and a throwaway graphics card? I know people get tired of hearing this, but a custom-built PC with similar specs would run for under $1200, less than half of Mac’s price point. Even with the extra cost of Apple design and R&D, it’s unlikely we’ll get anywhere close to $2500.

Apple’s iMac, MacBook and iPod have undergone significant changes throughout the years to make themselves more appealing and applicable to the mainstream consumer, both in innovative features and price. But in the high-end graphics and video production workstation industry, the Mac Pro seems uninterested in retaining some semblance of affordability or value. And yet, they can get away with it quite easily - the only real market for Mac Pros besides Apple diehards would be studios like LucasArts or other places that would rather spend the extra thousands than spend the time searching for other alternatives.

Then again, what alternatives are there? If you want a high-powered OS X-based computer, the Mac Pro is the only choice. Unless, of course, you invest the time in building a Hackintosh for half the price, but then it won’t look anywhere near as nice…