How much noise does the original Mac Pro make compared to the Power Macintosh G5?

The original Mac Pro is very quiet. In an excellent review that should be read in its entirety, MacInTouch remarked that:

The Mac Pro is also whisper-quiet. The subtle sound of ours was drowned out by an eMac ten feet away, and adding three internal hard drives didn't seem to increase fan noise appreciably. The dual-core Power Mac G5 we used for comparison is a pleasantly quiet machine, but the Mac Pro is even quieter.

How much noise does the "Early 2008" (Harpertown/Penryn) Mac Pro make compared to the original Mac Pro?

The "Early 2008" Mac Pro is even quieter than the original Mac Pro, which itself was quiet when compared to the Power Macintosh G5 models that the Mac Pro line replaced.

For more information, please refer to the always excellent BareFeats, which has a special report detailing the noise level and power consumption of the "Early 2008" Mac Pro compared to earlier models.

How much noise does the "Early 2009/Nehalem" Mac Pro make compared to earlier models?

The "Early 2009/Nehalem" Mac Pro models -- the Mac Pro "Quad Core" 2.66 (2009/Nehalem) and Mac Pro "Eight Core" 2.26 (2009/Nehalem) -- are quiet.

In its review, the Engadget blog reported:

We're happy to say that even when taxed, our test system never got overly raucous or forced us to flip on the air conditioning. In fact, we were shocked at just how quiet it remained until we really pressed it in Final Cut Pro; we had to seriously stress it in order to get those fans to be super audible, which is a great, great thing.

In a series of tests, the always superb BareFeats also commented on the ATI Radeon HD 4870 graphics card available via build-to-order, and noted:

The Radeon 4870, unlike the 3870, does not rev up when stressed. Other than the initial whoosh when Starting Up or Re-Starting, it was quite subdued with a low rpm, low frequency fan. I repeat, it's nothing like the 3870 in terms of noise. It is as quiet as the GeForce 8800 GT. With decibel meter 6 inches from the heatsink fan, we never saw higher than 44 decibels even under a load.

Those interested in using an "Early 2009/Nehalem" Mac Pro for audio production work should be quite pleased.

What are the capabilities of the "SuperDrive" provided by the Mac Pro?

All Mac Pro models ship -- or shipped -- with one "SuperDrive" capable of reading and writing both single and dual-layer DVDs.

Also see: What options are available for the second "optical drive bay" on the Mac Pro? How do you install a second optical drive or replace the primary one?

What ports are provided by the Mac Pro?

For complete information on the ports provided by each Mac Pro line, please refer to the ports pages for the original, "Early 2008", and "Early 2009/Nehalem" Mac Pro models.

What AirPort and Bluetooth capabilities are provided by the Mac Pro?

By default, the original Mac Pro was not configured with AirPort Extreme (802.11a/b/g/n) or Bluetooth 2.0+EDR. You could configure an original Mac Pro with AirPort Extreme for US$49, Bluetooth 2.0+EDR for US$29, or both for US$79.

The Mac Pro "Eight Core" 2.8 (Early 2008) shipped with pre-installed Bluetooth 2.0+EDR and the "Early 2009/Nehalem" models ship with pre-installed Bluetooth 2.1+EDR. Neither of these lines shipped, or ship, with AirPort Extreme (802.11a/b/g/n) pre-installed, but are capable of supporting wireless networking at additional cost.

The always excellent XLR8YourMac also has posted information on how to install an older Bluetooth 1.1 module in the original Mac Pro. Please note that this is an unsupported "hack" and consequently not recommended or endorsed by EveryMac.com.