Meet the latest addition to the Mac Pro family: The world’s first 3.0GHz, 8-core Intel Xeon-based Mac Pro. Consider the bar officially raised.So the Mac Pro is a complete BTO product, the low-end model will be powered by a 2.0 GHz Dual Core Woodcrest Xeon, then you will have option to 2.66 and 3.0 GHz Woodcrest Xeon, then the high-end model will feature 3.0GHz Quad Core Clovertown Xeon.
Having Quad Core 3.0GHz Xeon instead of Dual Core 3.0GHz Xeon will cost you around US$700, not so expensive for doubling the number of physical cores.
The 8 Core Xeon Mac Pro is currently only available from the US Apple Store.
[update]: when looking back at Intel CPU roadmap, on can spot that the Quad Core Xeon 5355 is not officially available! Let's see how Intel will react.
In one of our previous 8 Core Xeon Mac Pro-dedicated article, we tested the Quad Core Xeon 5355 clocked at 2.66GHz, this CPU is not offer as a BTO by Apple. One reason could be that the price would then be very similar to the one of a previous high-end 3.0GHz Dual Core Xeon Mac Pro model.
[update]: Apple did not update its specification/comparison charts for the Mac Pro, so if you want to have an idea regarding the raw power provided by doubling the cores and how it can be used, have a look at our recent article: Evaluating Performance of a Xeon 5355-based Mac Pro
