| HP Workstation xw6400 | Mac Pro | |
| Processor | Intel Dual Core Xeon 5130 | Intel Dual Core Xeon 5130 |
| Cache | 4 MB | 4 MB |
| System bus speed | 1333 MHz | 1333 MHz |
| Memory | 1 GB expandable to 16GB |
1 GB expandable to 16GB |
| Type of memory | 667 MHz DDR2 ECC SDRAM | 667 MHz DDR2 ECC SDRAM |
| Video card | nVidia Quadro NVS 440 | nVidia GeForce 7300GT |
| Video memory | 256 MB | 256 MB |
| Video bus | PCI Express x16 | PCI Express x16 |
| Hard drive | 250 GB 7200 RPM (room for two more) |
250 GB 7200 RPM (room for three more) |
| Hard drive bus | SATA 3GB/s | SATA 3GB/s |
| DVD±RW | 16x | 16x |
| Audio support | Integrated HD with Jack Retasking (whatever that's supposed to mean) | Toslink input/output for digital audio |
| FireWire | $79 extra for FW800 ports | 2 FireWire 800 2 FireWire 400 |
| USB | 7 2.0 | 5 2.0 |
| Ethernet | 1000BaseT | Dual 1000BaseT jacks |
| Mouse and keyboard | Included, but crappy | Wired keyboard; Mighty Mouse |
| Expansion slots | 1 PCIe x16 2 PCIe x8 2 legacy PCI |
3 open full length PCIe 300w combined max for all slots |
| Size | 17.3 by 6.5 by 17.3 inches Weight unknown |
20.1 by 8.1 by 18.7 inches 42.4 pounds |
| Warranty | 3 years next business day | 1 year parts and labor 90 days phone support |
| Price (inc. King County, WA sales tax + cheapest possible shipping) | $3440 | $2201 |
In short: Finally, a Mac that's demonstrably cheap! It's going to be interesting to see how this affects the PC "workstation" market - even with the same processor, you can't really do an apples-to-apples comparison as PC "workstations" just don't come with the same video cards Apple builds into its machines. I suspect either PC manufacturers will start offering the same cards (to make it clear they're only ripping you off by an extra 30% or whatever), or else the pricing will come down on the "workstations," or else you'll see Intel's high end processors start showing up in "consumer" hardware.
All in all: very interesting! [Pricing was valid as of 8:30 PM; this includes the Microsoft employee discount on Apple hardware and plain vanilla HP pricing from their Web site.]
