Looks like Apple has announced a new Nehalem based Mac Pro with a starting price of $2,499. The new systems feature your choice of a single core 2.66GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon 3500, or a dual 2.26 GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon 5500, start with 3GB of memory, a 640GB hard drive, and the NVIDIA GeForce GT 120 with 512MB of RAM.

The new systems should be available next week online and in stores, so break open your piggy banks and get your credit cards ready.

A French newspaper, Liberation, has published claims that some Mac Pros have been releasing toxic odors. Apple is apparently investigating claims that its the desktop is full of “seven volatile organic contaminants,” like “styrene, benzene and its derivatives.” The odor apparently takes a few different forms, described as everything from “new car smell” to “cannabis”.

The culprit is believed to be the result of a resin coating on some circuit boards and disappears after a period of time. Apparently once the product has burned in. The phenomenon seems to be only in systems built before this year. Liberation cited an anonymous researcher from the French National Centre for Scientific Research, who had his Mac Pro desktop tested for toxins after he smelled some strong odors emanating from the machine.