Apple’s new Mac Pro on sale for $2,999, shipping by December 30th

Apple previewed its new Mac Pro at WDDC 2013 and priced it in October, and it’s now revealing it will finally go on sale tomorrow. The tiny desktop computer, that looks more R2-D2 than PC, will ship with the latest Intel Xeon E5 processors, up to 64GB of RAM, dual AMD FirePro graphics chips with up to 6GB of dedicated memory, and up to 1TB of PCI Express solid-state storage. While Apple has paid a lot attention to the raw power inside, the chips and memory are stored within a cylindrical housing that’s coffee-maker inspired. With the outside casing removed it looks like a miniature robot, a big move away from the recent Mac Pro design that featured anodized aluminum in a traditional tower casing.

This latest Mac Pro doesn’t look like the average desktop PC you’ll find in Best Buy, and it’s largely designed for professionals who need access to speed and storage. It’s also not your average priced PC either. At $2,999 you’ll get a 3.7GHz quad-core Xeon processor, 12GB of RAM, dual FirePro D300 graphics, and a 256GB SSD. A variant with a 6-core CPU, dual FirePro D500s, and 16GB of RAM is also available, priced at $3,999. The new Mac Pro is made in the United States and Apple claims it’ll be as quiet as a Mac Mini during use. It’s available to order tomorrow from Apple’s retail and online stores, and ships with Apple’s latest OS X Mavericks operating system.

Update: The Mac Pro has now gone on sale at Apple’s online store, with shipping promised “by December 30th.” Apple CEO Tim Cook has also shared an image of the new desktop machine’s assembly line in Austin on Twitter: