Logitec (no not keyboard and mouse maker Logitech) has just released the new LBD-A12SAK/MW drive, so you can store data and record Blu-ray discs right on your Mac Pro at 12x.

This is really handy if you have to make tons of backups, or just plain like to watch Blu-ray movies on your Mac Pro all the time, otherwise you likely won’t need this one. Nothing on pricing yet, but it should be reasonable.

If you can afford it, the new 12-core Apple Mac Pro stock has arrived on Apple’s online store. Obviously this isn’t your typical Mac and it is priced accordingly.

These 12-core machines start at $4,999, though if you like it won’t be too hard to get the final price to over $20,000, by upping the specs. Off the shelf specs include:

Apple’s Mac Pro hasn’t had an update since September 2009. That was when the Quad-Core model got support for 16GB of RAM. The new rumor is that the Core i7-980X and Core i7-970 processors might be arriving this month. You might remember that Apple was the first to use the Nehalem Xeon, having an exclusive deal with Intel. Should history repeat itself, we might see Apple having exclusivity with Intel’s latest processors. At least for a while.

These new processors will be the first dual-socket, six-core processors from Intel. The processor will feature 6 cores and 12 threads, a dual-processor configuration will mean the i7-980X Mac Pro will have 12 physical cores and 24 logical cores with a top frequency of 3.33GHz.

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.