The Mac Pro still has four internal cable-free hard-drive slots, using a sliding tray to attach the drives directly to the motherboard. The memory design no longer requires the large heat sinks. The quad-core Mac Pro has four memory slots that ship with 3GB, 6GB, or 8GB of 1,066MHz DDR3 SDRAM modules the eight-core Mac Pro has eight DIMM slots for a maximum of 32GB of RAM. The memory modules are no longer installed on two sliding trays-instead, the memory and processor all rest on a sled at the bottom of the case, which you remove by releasing two latches.

Upon opening the case, you immediately notice major changes in the layout of the components. The new Mac Pros have been remodeled on the inside to provide for easier access to components. On the graphics card, one of the two dual-link DVI connectors at the rear of the system has been replaced with a Mini DisplayPort connector, which lets you connect either to Apple's 24-inch LED Cinema Display or, with adapters (not included), to a second DVI display. The five USB 2.0 ports, two on the front and three on the back, remain. First, the two FireWire 400 connectors from previous generations have been replaced with backward-compatible FireWire 800 ports, bringing the number of FireWire ports to four-two on the front and two on the back. There are some minor changes to the exterior, though-specifically in the type and number of connections. Also new to the Mac Pros are Nvidia GeForce GT 120 graphics cards and a revamped interior designed to ease user access for upgrading internal components.Īside from the second optical-drive slot on the front, the Mac Pro continues to use the same big-handled, aluminum case as the Power Mac G5, introduced nearly five years ago. This year, there are two models: a quad-core system with a 2.66GHz Nehalem Xeon processor, and an eight-core model running two quad-core Xeon processors at 2.26GHz. Last year's standard Mac Pro featured a 2.8GHz eight-core Intel Xeon processor based on the Harpertown/Penryn architecture. However, they have lower clock speeds than their predecessors. The two tower models pack a brand-new processor and video system, and feature a reorganized internal design. Though you wouldn't know by looking at it, Apple's new tower, the Mac Pro, has just received a major overhaul.

Quad core or 8 core mac pro