Mac Pro

The Mac Pro is the higher-end computer in Apple's product line. The prices range from $2,220 to $27,000.

Description

 * The specifications below are from Apple's "tech specs" page or developer notes, except where noted.

Processors
The Mac Pro uses either one or two Xeon 5400 "Harpertown" 64-bit CPUs for a total of four or eight processor cores]]. Each CPU chip has 12 MB on-chip cache shared among its processor cores. Each processor slot has its own independent 64-bit 1600 MHz front side bus, offering an aggregate throughput between the CPUs and the "northbridge" of 21.3 GB/s.

Memory
The original Mac Pro's main memory used 667 MHz FB-DIMMs; its successor uses 800 MHz FB-DIMMs. These modules are installed in pairs, one each on two riser cards. The cards have 4 DIMM slots each, allowing a total of 32 GB of memory (8 x 4 GB) to be installed. Notably, due to its FB-DIMM architecture, installing more RAM in the Mac Pro will improve its memory bandwidth, but may also increase its memory latency. With a simple install of a single FB-DIMM the peak bandwidth is 8 GB/s, but this can increase to 16 GB/s by installing two FB-DIMMs, one on each of the two buses, which is the default configuration from Apple. While electrically the FB-DIMMs are standard, Apple requests that users use larger-than-normal heatsinks on the memory modules that they install. Problems have been reported by users who have used third party RAM that had normal sized FB-DIMM heatsinks. (see notes below).

Hard drives
The Mac Pro has room for four internal hard drives, in sizes up to either 1TB running at 7200 rpm or 300GB running at 15000rpm, each with its own SATA-300 port. The hard drives are mounted on individual trays, provided with the machine, by captive thumbscrews similar to the one used for the PCIe slots. There are no cables to be attached, the SATA and power connectors are firmly attached to the case, and the drive is connected to them simply by pushing it in. The case lock on the back of the machine locks the trays into position. The Mac Pro now offers hardware RAID circuitry. Two optical drive bays are available, each with a SATA-300 port and an ATA-100 port. Many optical drives still use the older ATA ports, including those currently being shipped with the machines. The Mac Pro also has two internal SATA ports that are not connected to drive bays; these can be put into service through the use of after-market extender cables.

Expansion cards
For internal expansion the Mac Pro has two PCI Express (PCIe) 2.0 expansion slots and two PCI Express 1.1 slots, providing them with up to 300 W of power in total. The first slot is intended to hold the main video card, and is arranged with an empty area the width of a normal card beside it in order to leave room for the large coolers modern cards often use. In most machines, one slot would be blocked by the cooler. Instead of the tiny screws typically used to fasten the cards to the case, in the Mac Pro a single "bar" holds the cards in place, which is itself held in place by two "captive" thumbscrews that can be loosened by hand without tools and will not fall out of the case.

The PCIe slots can be configured individually to give more bandwidth to devices that require it, with a total of 40 "lanes", or 13 GB/s total throughput. When running Mac OS X, the Mac Pro currently does not support SLI or ATI CrossFire, limiting its ability to use the latest "high-end gaming" video card products; however, individuals have reported success with both CrossFire and SLI installations when running Windows XP.

The bandwidth allocation of the PCIe slots can be configured via the Expansion Slot Utility included with Mac OS X only on the August 2006 Mac Pro. The Mac Pro (Early 2008) has its slots hardwired as follows.

External connectivity
For external connectivity the system includes five USB 2.0 and four FireWire ports, two of the latter being FireWire 800. Networking is supported with two built-in Gigabit Ethernet ports, while 802.11 a/b/g/draft-n Wi-Fi is supported via an optional AirPort Extreme card. Bluetooth is now standard. Unlike other recent Mac products, the Mac Pro does not include the infrared receiver needed to use the Apple Remote. However, Front Row is available on all Mac Pros running Mac OS 10.5 (Leopard) or later, and is accessible using the normal ⌘-Esc key combination. The system also provides both digital (optical) and analogue "headphone jacks" for sound in and out, the latter available on both the front and back of the case.

Case
The exterior of the aluminum case is very similar to that of the Power Mac G5, with the exception of an additional optical drive bay, and a new arrangement of I/O ports on both the front and the back. The case is somewhat larger than another PC of the same generation, at 20 × 18½ × 8 inches, compared to another desktop PC (the Dell Dimension 9100) at 17½ × 17½ × 6½ inches. Some of the difference in height is due to the "handles" on the top and bottom of the case. The case can be opened by operating a single lever on the back, which unlocks one of the two sides of the machine, as well as the drive bays. All of the expansion slots for memory, PCIe cards and drives can be accessed with the one panel removed, and require no tools for installation.

The Xeon processors generate much less heat than the previous dual-core G5s, so the size of the internal cooling devices has been reduced significantly. This allowed the interior to be re-arranged, leaving more room at the top of the case and thereby allowing the drives to double in number. Less heat also means less air to move out of the case for cooling during normal operations; the Mac Pro is very quiet in normal operation, quieter than the already-quiet Power Mac G5, and proved difficult to measure using common decibel meters.

Specifications

 * Processors: One (2.8 GHz) or two (2.8, 3.0, or 3.2 GHz) Quad-core Xeon 5400 ("Harpertown") processors.
 * Memory: Standard 2 GB 800 MHz DDR2 fully-buffered ECC RAM (upgradeable to 32 GB), in eight FB-DIMM slots
 * Bundled Graphics: bytes, i.e., 1 GB ATI Radeon 2600 XT 256 MB, nVidia 8800 GT 512 MB or an nVidia Quadro FX 5600 1.5 GB
 * Storage: Four drive bays for Serial ATA (500 GB, 750 GB, 1 TB) or SAS (300 GB) hard disks: included disks have 16 MB cache (32 MB on the 1 TB hard drive) and run at 7200 RPM (15,000 RPM for the SAS drives.) Maximum Supported: 4 TB SATA, or 1.2 TB SAS). Optional hardware RAID card available with 256 MB of battery-backed cache that allows for RAID levels 0, 1, and 5. SAS drives only available when using the hardware RAID card.
 * Optical Drive: 16&times; SuperDrive (multiple DVD) write formats) (Pioneer DVR-111D or Sony DW-D150A), optional second drive. Optical bays support ATA/100 and SATA.
 * Networking: two Gigabit Ethernet ports, Bluetooth 2.0 built-in, optional AirPort Extreme 802.11 a/b/g/n
 * I/O: five USB 2.0 (two on front), two FireWire 400 (one on front), two FireWire 800 (one on front), optical audio input and output, 3.5 mm stereo audio input and output (one output on front)
 * Software: Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard, iLife '08, OmniOutliner, various trial software.