Nice addition to my studio

I am a happy owner of the Dual Processor 2.66 Dual Core 1st generation Mac Pro (1,1).

These machines are getting up there in age. EEK! 3+ years old in computer terms is ancient. You can get something that's much faster, but these 1st gen Mac Pro's can still pull their considerable weight (40+ lbs).

If you must have the newest and fastest these aren't for you. I'm using my 2-2.66GHz Dual core Mac Pro as a second machine for rendering and doing some other crunching while I keep working on my main 2-2.8GHz Quad core Mac Pro.

I have installed a Sata card from OWC to use the extra Sata ports on the motherboard. I added a Matrox MX02 card to use this Mac Pro as an injest station for video production. I also added a CompressHD Matrox card to speed up h.264 compression. You can't get that functionality from an iMac (even a brnad new Core i7 one)and that's one of the reasons I like this machine so much - its expandability.

The great thing is you can add more RAM or faster/more hard drives to give these machines more life. I just added a new SSD drive to the mix to be my start up drive and am pleased with the new speed.

The options this Mac Pro gives you really make it a strong contender if you're looking for something that's a little cheaper than the brand new models. There's still plenty of tread on these tires even as the machine moves on from the Applecare years to year 4 and hopefully many more to come.

Apple POWERHOUSE.

I've been spec'ing out a new computer for my small home recording studio and also to do some video editing and DVD burning. I love to work on Macs and have 3 other Apple comptuers (Macbook Pro, Mac Mini) in my house. I knew I needed more power than the iMac but couldn't afford a new Mac Pro from Apple. The MA356LL/A is a few years old, but still specs out MUCH better than anything off the shelf from big box stores. The Xeon processors are server grade. I love this machine, and can't wait to start taxing the processors and getting some use of it's speed.

A major step up in class

Purchased this used and its proven to be a great buy. It shipped with two 2.66ghz dual core Xeons (Quad core), 4 gigs of FB-DDR2 (8 x 512mb) and Nvidia 7300 GT 256mb video card.

Pros:
Build quality is world class.
Whisper quiet, and much more so than my Powermac G5 dual 2.5ghz and any Win PC I've ever owned.
Compatible with a boatload of software, and no preference for Universal or Intel only SW. Shipped with Leopard and had a seamless upgrade to Snow Leopard.
Did I say it's fast! Handles multimedia tasks with ease and even equals or bests my much newer Win 7 Pro 64-bit PC.
Can handle 32gb of ram.
Software updates rock; there are not 100+ options, when compared to the Win world.
Community support is impressive; resources, resources, resources.
Using Parallels Desktop 5.0 and can run OS X and Windows side-by-side.

Cons:
Getting under the hood can be a bit of a drag, requires a few extra steps that seem counterintuitive.
Generates a little bit of heat - to be expected; this thing is BIG.
Stock video card is not impressive, even from 5 years ago - upgrading soon.
Needs a couple more rear USB ports.
If Apple ever embraces bluray, Mac Pro can be a Win PC killer!
Pricey - ouch. (OK, it's worth it, so more about the wallet than the ROI).

Exellent product!

I bought this product to stay up to date with the capacity of a fast processor and massive memory storage. I actually like everything about this product. This product compares to other products and it performance is outstanding..

It is an amazing computer

It is a very powerful computer, it works much faster than a next-generation iMac.
For graphic and web design work there is nothing better than Apple, especially if it is a MacPro