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.

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

Apple reports that the 16X double layer DVD+R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW SuperDrive in the original Mac Pro "writes DVD-R discs at up to 16x speed, writes DVD+R DL discs at up to 6x speed, reads DVDs at up to 16x speed, writes CD-R and CD-RW discs at up to 24x speed, [and] reads CDs at up to 32x speed."

The Mac Pro "Eight Core" 2.8 (Early 2008) also ships with a 16X double layer DVD+R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW SuperDrive, but it is capable of writing DVD+R DL discs at up to 8x speed, and is otherwise identical.

What options are available for the second "optical drive bay" on the Mac Pro?

To date (see top of page), the only option Apple offers for the second 5.25" external Mac Pro "optical drive bay" is a second 16X SuperDrive. However, it is all but certain that a Blu-ray drive will be offered in the future. Site sponsor Other World Computing sells a variety of optical drives that are compatible with the Mac Pro.

Also see: "Will Apple support HD-DVD or Blu-ray on the Intel-based Macs?" from the "Macintel" Q&A.

What ports are provided by the Mac Pro?

All Mac Pro models have dual Gigabit Ethernet, five USB 2.0 ports (two on the front panel and three on the back), two Firewire "400" ports (one on the front and one on the back), two Firewire "800" ports (one on the front and one on the back), and optical digital audio in/out, among others. For complete information, please refer to the ports pages for the original and "Early 2008" 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) ships with pre-installed Bluetooth 2.0+EDR, but not AirPort Extreme (802.11a/b/g/n), which can be added for US$50.

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.