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[Pics] Mac Pro Up Close!

Grimace

Grimace

macrumors 68040
Original poster
Feb 17, 2003
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with Hamburglar.
Hey all, I just wanted to show those who haven't yet seen the Mac Pros up close what they look like -- especially the RAM slots. Apple RAM is the slot that looks like a fortress. Datamem (2x1GB) is the other. Both work great so far!

Of note: there are THREE antenna wires. Bluetooth...802.11G...802.11x? :D
 
iGary

iGary

Guest
May 26, 2004
19,580
7
Randy's House
I've never understood the single FW400 port in the back. So annoying.

I don't understand the RAM thing, and I'm lazy - whats with the drawers and RAM with heatsinks?

And how does Aperture run with the stock card?

Congrats on the new toy. :)
 
J

Jopling

macrumors 6502
Jul 14, 2004
363
0
Why do all you people like to take apart your new Mac Pros? I know as soon as mine comes in I'm not touching anything inside and I'm a certified PC Technician. I would never want to risk harming my baby. I do have to say, you have me jealous for the time being.
 
Grimace

Grimace

macrumors 68040
Original poster
Feb 17, 2003
3,569
237
with Hamburglar.
Yeah, but now there are FW400, FW800 and two USB2 ports on the front!

RAM is now installed on two separate cards that slide in (if you break one you're f'ed). Pairs go on the SAME card, not on opposite sides like on the G5 towers.

Apparently the RAM itself needs to be cooled a lot more. It is smack in the line of the big fans. Maybe that's why Crucial pulled its RAM -- it may have overheated.

Aperture (with 3GB of RAM) is awesome. I will probably add 2GB more when I have the $$. The stock graphics card seems fine, although there are so many new variables (4xCPU, GPU, RAM type, Intel) that it's hard to say if it's better than the "old" stock card in the G5s. I does everything anyone using Aperture needs. Throwing more RAM at the problem does wonders...:p
 
Grimace

Grimace

macrumors 68040
Original poster
Feb 17, 2003
3,569
237
with Hamburglar.
Jopling said:
Why do all you people like to take apart your new Mac Pros? I know as soon as mine comes in I'm not touching anything inside and I'm a certified PC Technician. I would never want to risk harming my baby. I do have to say, you have me jealous for the time being.
Click to expand...
Had to put in a 300GB SATA drive and more RAM! The hard drive setup is idiotproof - the RAM is far more delicate: getting the DIMMs on the card is one thing -- getting the card back into the computer is another.

Lay your tower FLAT on its side and push down on the card, don't install it from the side.
 
iGary

iGary

Guest
May 26, 2004
19,580
7
Randy's House
carletonmusic said:
Yeah, but now there are FW400, FW800 and two USB2 ports on the front!

RAM is now installed on two separate cards that slide in (if you break one you're f'ed). Pairs go on the SAME card, not on opposite sides like on the G5 towers.

Apparently the RAM itself needs to be cooled a lot more. It is smack in the line of the big fans. Maybe that's why Crucial pulled its RAM -- it may have overheated.

Aperture (with 3GB of RAM) is awesome. I will probably add 2GB more when I have the $$. The stock graphics card seems fine, although there are so many new variables (4xCPU, GPU, RAM type, Intel) that it's hard to say if it's better than the "old" stock card in the G5s. I does everything anyone using Aperture needs. Throwing more RAM at the problem does wonders...:p
Click to expand...

Cool - yep I would just like to have my FW from the display and one iPod dock plugged in the back. I'm super anal about cords. Anyway...that RAM is pricey. :eek:

The only trouble I ever have with Aperture is full screen landscape shots, and that is even with the 7800GT, a nice card. Glad to hear that it runs nicely on your machine, though.



When Adobe releases CS3 and Studio I'm jumping on one. :)
 
K

kbonnel

macrumors 6502
Mar 1, 2004
471
2
In a nice place..
carletonmusic said:
Had to put in a 300GB SATA drive and more RAM! The hard drive setup is idiotproof - the RAM is far more delicate: getting the DIMMs on the card is one thing -- getting the card back into the computer is another.

Lay your tower FLAT on its side and push down on the card, don't install it from the side.
Click to expand...

How are those Datamem chips working for you? I have 2 1GB sticks on order, and should have them Monday. The heat sinks look a little small :)

Datamem said they were 100% compatible, and will not cause any issues.

Thanks

Kimo
 
K

ksz

macrumors 68000
Oct 28, 2003
1,679
111
USA
Jopling said:
Why do all you people like to take apart your new Mac Pros? I know as soon as mine comes in I'm not touching anything inside and I'm a certified PC Technician. I would never want to risk harming my baby. I do have to say, you have me jealous for the time being.
Click to expand...
Reminds me of a Volvo coupe whose hood can only be opened by a service technician. It's designed for women by women. When I buy a car, even if I have no idea how to service the engine, I will still open the hood and admire what's inside.
 
macenforcer

macenforcer

macrumors 65816
Jun 9, 2004
1,248
0
Colorado
Jopling said:
Why do all you people like to take apart your new Mac Pros? I know as soon as mine comes in I'm not touching anything inside and I'm a certified PC Technician. I would never want to risk harming my baby. I do have to say, you have me jealous for the time being.
Click to expand...


I don't think this would qualify as "Taking Apart". He just pulled out the ram and HD. Bigg wooop.
 
Grimace

Grimace

macrumors 68040
Original poster
Feb 17, 2003
3,569
237
with Hamburglar.
kbonnel said:
How are those Datamem chips working for you? I have 2 1GB sticks on order, and should have them Monday. The heat sinks look a little small :)

Datamem said they were 100% compatible, and will not cause any issues.

Thanks

Kimo
Click to expand...

They are great. Just popped 'em on the slider card (they go on the SAME card) and you're in business. As posted above, when reinserting the RAM slider cards, make sure your desktop is lying flat on its side -- the sliders take a bit of force.
 
J

Jopling

macrumors 6502
Jul 14, 2004
363
0
ksz said:
Reminds me of a Volvo coupe whose hood can only be opened by a service technician. It's designed for women by women. When I buy a car, even if I have no idea how to service the engine, I will still open the hood and admire what's inside.
Click to expand...

Yeah but you arent taking the engine apart. Hell even Im gonna pop the MP open.
 
K

ksz

macrumors 68000
Oct 28, 2003
1,679
111
USA
Jopling said:
Yeah but you arent taking the engine apart. Hell even Im gonna pop the MP open.
Click to expand...
The OP inserted a new hard drive and checked the procedure for adding more RAM.

Define 'taking it apart'.
 
Grimace

Grimace

macrumors 68040
Original poster
Feb 17, 2003
3,569
237
with Hamburglar.
Adding hard drives and more RAM is something that Apple defines as "user-installable". It's in the manual that comes with the Mac Pro. Other than adding expansion cards inside, there isn't much else you can do to take it apart.
 
Chone

Chone

macrumors 65816
Aug 11, 2006
1,222
0
Jopling said:
Why do all you people like to take apart your new Mac Pros? I know as soon as mine comes in I'm not touching anything inside and I'm a certified PC Technician. I would never want to risk harming my baby. I do have to say, you have me jealous for the time being.
Click to expand...

I´m surprised to hear a "certified PC technician" say that, you must not be such a hardware enthusiast then :)

No offense intended but...
 
M

Makosuke

macrumors 604
Aug 15, 2001
6,748
1,437
The Cool Part of CA, USA
Mmm... Mac Pro photoshoot. Very artistic--I like the extremely tight focal plane.

Not to mention you've answered the question about what the heatsinks on DMS's RAM looks like. Explains why in this particular case it's way cheaper than OWC's "keep the fans quiet" heatsinks, where usually their prices are nearly identical.

Question that I haven't seen the answer to: I know that the new Intel chipset must use paired RAM, but goes even faster if you have four sticks in the same card... but must they all be matched sticks, or do the controller chips in the new FB-DIMMs make that unnecessary? That is, were you to put all of those sticks on the same card, would that kick in the quad-channel memory bandwidth, or no?
 
M

Mr. Mister

macrumors 6502
Feb 15, 2006
440
0
About the RAM heatsinks: Apple does this solely to keep it quiet so the heat can dissipate with minimal prerequisite airflow and thus minimal noise from the fans. You can put any RAM provided that it fits the memory interface spec, but the Mac Pro will detect increased temperature and run the fans a bit faster.
 
J

JoshRtek

macrumors member
Nov 15, 2004
78
0
The Mac Pro manual details replacing the memory, hard drive, optical drive, and the PCI Cards. There's nothing in there about installing your own Airport Express and Bluetooth module though. I talked with a salesman at the Apple store yesterday and he said the AP/BT kit should be arriving soon and they'll install it for free...:)
 
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