- White boxThe default graphic card is well integrated, and might be even difficult to spot. Barefeats already started to test the new Mac Pro. The most impressive test is performed with a Photoshop CS4 setting, with the new high-end (expensive) model being almost three times faster than the previous Octo Core 3.2 GHz. To conclude on this aspect, the new Radeon HD 4870 seems to be compatible with Mac Pro 2007 and 2008 as long as you can install the Mac OS X shipped with new the Mac Pro.
- Finally some space around HDs to easily swap them.
- Apple colored graphic cards
- Airport card in a drawer below the processor
- vented brushed metal enclosure around HDs to improve thermal management
- holding and fixing system for long PCIe extension cards
When looking at the technical specification of the new Mac Pro, we noticed two interesting points. First, this Mac does NOT sport any PATA connector anymore. All peripherals, even the SuperDrive, are now using SATA ports. The second point is linked to its architecture based on a small motherboard on which is plugged a huge daughter card. The latest includes CPUs, RAM modules as well as most of the important components. So, the daughter card seems to define the specification of the computer.
If the CPU can be removed or swapped, one will not be able to add a second CPU to the model featuring only one CPU, or you will have change the entire daughter card:
- The daughter card of the single CPU model features only one CPU socket.
- The single CPU model is using a Xeon CPU not designed to in pairs
So, one will not be able to easily upgrade the single CPU Mac Pro model, and for sure not to add a second CPU. It could then be more advisable to purchase the entry level dual core (Octo Core) having in mind to replace both CPU with faster ones in the future, if their retail price becomes low enough to be financially interesting.
