DDR3 in next Mac Pro?

[evildede]

I know that Penryn Mac Pros are just around the corner, and I have been reading on these forums that it won't support DDR3 RAM. But just today, I saw on Alienware's website here (http://www.alienware.com/product_detail_pages/Area-51_ALX/B3FEE5C2-BFFD-45c7-9B48-3BF6C1D4E12C.aspx?d=0&SysCode=PC-AREA51-ALX-R7&SubCode=SKU-DEFAULT) that they will have DDR3 in that computer and as far as I can tell it is, in fact, a penryn based computer. It also says it supports DDR3 Ram with clock speeds of 1333 and 1600 Mhz.

I just wanted to know if someone with more technological knowlegde could explain this one to me. Thanks!

[Sun Baked]

The Skulltrail systems that have been out for testing show FB-DIMMs, and those are variants of the Intel 5400 workstation chipset (i think that is the one) that Apple will likely be using.

likely the one after that.

[Peace]

I don't know but man.$5500 for that machine..

[peejack]

I don't know but man.$5500 for that machine..

Crickey and they say apple are expensive :eek:

[Kosh66]

Why don't these newbs get the right processor. Core 2 Extreme is NOT a Xeon. Mac Pro uses Xeon. Go back to CPU school.

[evildede]

It's not a Xeon, but still, it's part of Intel's next CPU upgrade for desktops coming this january. If the desktops support it, I'd expect the workstations to do too. That's why I am asking.

And why are you insulting me Kosh66, c'mon!

[peejack]

Why don't these newbs get the right processor. Core 2 Extreme is NOT a Xeon. Mac Pro uses Xeon. Go back to CPU school.

Calm down boffin.

[evildede]

Is Penryn attributed only to the Xeons or to the whole lineup of CPUs coming out as a whole?

And by the way, I think that for that price, that is one darn good gaming machine, and it will probably outperform whatever the Mac Pro can in that regard. But 3Ghz overclocked to 4Ghz!!! How do they do it?

[Umbongo]

Is Penryn attributed only to the Xeons or to the whole lineup of CPUs coming out as a whole?

And by the way, I think that for that price, that is one darn good gaming machine, and it will probably outperform whatever the Mac Pro can in that regard. But 3Ghz overclocked to 4Ghz!!! How do they do it?

Penryn is essentially Core 2 version 2, all the new processors use the penryn architecture. They overclock easily, all core 2 processors do. The one they are selling is also intended by Intel to be overclocked.

Also, desktop systems support DD3 now, workstations won't until Nehalem. The new Mac Pro will either be using the current 667MHz or newer 800MHz DDR2 FB-DIMMs.

[Kosh66]

Calm down boffin.

Hey, I didn't use exclamation marks. If I was really aggrevated I would have use exclamation marks. Like this!!!

It's just every month someone brings up some news (sometimes news we already heard) which applies to the Core 2 Duo desktop 6xxx series and then thinks it applies to the Xeon 5xxx series which is used in the Mac Pro.

[ksz]

The Skulltrail systems that have been out for testing show FB-DIMMs, and those are variants of the Intel 5400 workstation chipset (i think that is the one) that Apple will likely be using.

likely the one after that.
That about sums it up. Apple will use the 5400 chipset which does not support DDR3. With Nehalem, however, it's likely that some variant of non-error-correcting, non-buffered DDR will also be supported on workstation-class machines.