I’m a Mac Pro kinda guy. I do my video editing, development, and crunch all kinds of numbers doing research for said development, on this machine—horsepower is important to me, and mobility is not (I have a 13” MacBook Pro for that).

But this update seems like just another speed bump…

What I wanted, and got, in the update:

• More cores (8 -> 12 physical cores, 24 logical now)
• Even faster RAM (867MHz -> 1333MHz)
• A 2560 x Whatever LED backlit display to match

What I wanted, and didn’t get:

• More RAM capacity (I’d like to keep the machine a while…)
• Wider GPU choice (Only 2 ATI card choices right now? Seriously??)
• eSATA connectivity (I do my video editing stuff on an external RAID0)
• SDXC card slot in the display (My HD camcorder records to SD)
• Pricing to match Early 2008—8 cores for $2xxx

I’ve got an ADC Select discount burning a hole in my pocket until January 18th, so I still have a lot of time to think about this. But for the money (and utter pain in the ass) to make the switch, it’s not going to be a dead-simple decision…

At least the display won’t be a hard decision—my 30” Dell has all the ports and slots I need (but alas, no SDHC support), wide gamut, and 160 more vertical pixels. Also, it’s gloss-free, and has height adjustment!