It's been a long time coming, but Apple has finally announced updates to the iMac and the Mac Mini today.  Along with this long anticipated news came the announcement of a new Mac Pro featuring Intel "Nehalem" Xeon processors and high-performance graphics.

The New Mac Pro

"The new Mac Pro is a significant upgrade and starts at $300 less than before. [It] features an advanced system architecture, new faster processors and our best-ever graphics options to deliver a faster, more powerful system that our professional customers are going to love," said Phil Schiller, Apple's senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing.

The new Mac Pro includes Intel Xeon processors running at speeds up to 2.93GHz, each with an integrated memory controller with three channels of 1066MHz DDR3 ECC memory that, the company claims, delivers up to 2.4 times the memory bandwidth while cutting memory latency up to 40 percent. Every Mac Pro comes standard with the NVIDIA GeForce GT 120 with 512MB of GDDR3 memory, a high-performance graphics card which the company says provides nearly three times greater performance when compared to the previous generation system.

The new Mac Pro features an updated interior that provides easy access to all components for expansion. The Mac Pro includes four direct-attach cable-free hard drive carriers for installing up to 4TB of internal storage when using 1TB 7200-rpm Serial ATA drives.  An optional cable-free Mac Pro RAID card delivers performance up to 550MB/s and allows the four internal drive bays to be set up in RAID 0, 1, 5, or 0 + 1 configurations for improved disk performance and redundant data protection.

The iMac

Apple has given the 24-inch iMac twice the memory and twice the storage and, to the cheers of consumers everywhere, has dropped the price.

The iMac line starts with the 20-inch iMac ($1,199) with a 2.66GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor, 2GB of 1066MHz DDR3 memory, a 32GB Serial ATA hard drive and NVIDIA GeForce 9400M Integrated graphics.  The 24-inch iMac starts at $1,499 and features a 1920-by-1200 pixel widescreen display.  The 24-inch model includes up to a 3.06GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor, 4GB of 1066MHz DDR3 memory, a 640GB or 1TB Serial ATA hard drive, and a variety of graphics technology from NVIDIA GeForce 9400M integrated graphics to the NVIDIA GeForce GT 130 or ATI Radeon HD 4850 discrete graphics for ultimate performance.

The Mac mini

Starting at $599, the Mac mini is available in two models.  It features a 2GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor, up to 4GB of DDR3 1066MHz memory, up to 320GB Serial ATA hard drive, five USB 2.0 ports, FireWire 800 and a SuperDrive.  It also features NVIDIA GeForce 9400M integrated graphics, which the company claims is up to five times better than the previous model.  The new model also has dual display support for Apple or third-party displays with Mini DisplayPort or DVI connections.

Apple's Commitment to Green

Apple claims that the Mac mini is "the most energy efficient desktop in the world" due to the fact that it uses less than 13 watts of power at idle (10 times less power than a typical desktop PC).  All three updated models are said to exceed Energy Star 4.0 requirements, use PVC-free internal components and cables and contain no brominated flame retardants.

Check out the specs and prices of the new machines below:

MacPro

Quad-core Mac Pro with one 2.66GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon 3500 series processor with 8MB of shared L3 cache, 3GB of 1066MHz DDR3 ECC SDRAM memory, NVIDIA GeForce GT 120 graphics with 512MB of GDDR3 memory, 640GB Serical ATA 3Gb/s hard drive, $2,499

8-core Mac Pro with two 2.26 Quad-Core Intel Xeon 3500 series processor with 8MB of shared L3 cache per processor, 6GB of 1066 MHz DDR3 ECC SDRAM memory, NVIDIA GeForce GT 120 graphics with 512MB of GDDR3 memory, 640GB Serical ATA 3Gb/s hard drive, $3,299

iMac

20-inch 2.66GHz iMac with 2GB 1066MHz DDR3 SDTAM, NVIDIA GeForce 9400M Integrated graphics, and 320GB Serial ATA hard drive, $1,199

24-inch 2.66GHz iMac with 4GB 1066MHz DDR3 SDTAM, NVIDIA GeForce 9400M Integrated graphics, and 640GB Serial ATA hard drive, $1,499

24-inch 2.93GHz iMac with 4GB 1066MHz DDR3 SDTAM, NVIDIA GeForce GT 120 with 256MB GDDR3 memory, and 640GB Serial ATA hard drive, $1,799

24-inch 3.06GHz iMac with 4GB 1066MHz DDR3 SDTAM, NVIDIA GeForce GT 130 with 512MB GDDR3 memory, and 1TB Serial ATA hard drive, $2,199

Mac mini

2.0 GHz Mac mini with 1GB of 1066MHz DDR3 SDRAM, NVIDIA GeForce 9400M Integrated graphics, and 120GB Serial ATA hard drive, $599

2.0 GHz Mac mini with 2GB of 1066MHz DDR3 SDRAM, NVIDIA GeForce 9400M Integrated graphics, and 320GB Serial ATA hard drive, $799

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