Re: a new wacky observation on "new" Mac Pro's

they are NOT 10.6.8 disks. It is an OEM OS X 10.6 disk. You put in the OS X 10.6 disk (not a restore disk from a Mac Pro - the actual OS X disk from Apple). The computer usually builds to OS X 10.6
Then you do your Apple Software updates, which then via the web, goes to 10.6.8. I have done this countless times. But on the most current version of the 5,1 Mac Pro (the ones that you buy right now) - this no longer works. So yes, if you have an OS X Snow Leopard restore disk from a Westmere 5,1 computer, I am sure that this would work.

My point is that as recently as January 2012, I have used this OEM Apple OS X 10.6 disk on 5,1 Westmere computers to pop in a new boot drive, and build a new Snow Leopard drive (10.6, then update to 10.6.8) - and in Jan 2012, they were shipping 5,1 Mac Pros with Lion - but NOW, it seems like the same disk won't work. So I now have to create a clone drive to get 10.6.8 on a new 5,1 Mac Pro, or I have to find an "old" restore disk that had Snow Leopard on it. For the record, I think the last 5,1 restore disk that Apple distributed was OS X 10.6.4 - and then you ran the update to 10.6.8.
There was NEVER a printed 10.6.8 DVD from Apple - ever.

Bob Zelin