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Djreversal

macrumors newbie
Nov 16, 2007
29
0
So, it looks like everything is a card or on a card of some sort. In theory couldn't apple just upgrade the CPU daughter card when a new chipset comes out and thus making upgrading this machine with future CPU's a lot more cost effective?

Same with the GPU's, looks like they just plug into the central board. Apple (or a 3rd party) could probably just build replacement card with newer GPU's on them.

Since pretty much everything else is external, this could, in theory, be the most upgradable Mac yet. Of course, thats assuming Apple either comes out with the upgrades or releases specifics on how the hardware works. (one can always hope)




thats exactly what they would do.. all the future chip designs will take on this shape I'm sure... this device will be around for at least another 5 years i would guess.. so the next few generations of CPU / GPU I'm sure apple will offer. which makes it even nicer that you can probably upgrade this thing endlessly for the most part, or until apple changes its design. That is if the PCI bus remains the same that connects all the cars... but i still think with this form factor you could probably just upgrade anything
 

macuser1232

macrumors 6502a
Jan 20, 2012
668
4
So CPU is removable/upgradable, RAM is upgradable, SSDs are upgradable, and GPUs have the possibility of being upgradable. What was that about the Mac Pro being useless because it can't be upgraded and thus will quickly be obsolete?
 

wiz329

macrumors 6502a
Apr 19, 2010
509
96
So, it looks like everything is a card or on a card of some sort. In theory couldn't apple just upgrade the CPU daughter card when a new chipset comes out and thus making upgrading this machine with future CPU's a lot more cost effective?

Same with the GPU's, looks like they just plug into the central board. Apple (or a 3rd party) could probably just build replacement card with newer GPU's on them.

Since pretty much everything else is external, this could, in theory, be the most upgradable Mac yet. Of course, thats assuming Apple either comes out with the upgrades or releases specifics on how the hardware works. (one can always hope)


Apple probably wouldn't want to waste resources engineering a NEW daughterboard to fit with an EXISTING system and everything that is going to connect with it, particularly since they would be losing profit.
 

fixmymac

macrumors regular
thats exactly what they would do.. all the future chip designs will take on this shape I'm sure... this device will be around for at least another 5 years i would guess.. so the next few generations of CPU / GPU I'm sure apple will offer. which makes it even nicer that you can probably upgrade this thing endlessly for the most part, or until apple changes its design. That is if the PCI bus remains the same that connects all the cars... but i still think with this form factor you could probably just upgrade anything

Not a massive deal.....

The Audio Jacks are also on a separate, replaceable board! Handy if you ever manage to snap a jack in there.
 

Gudi

Suspended
May 3, 2013
4,590
3,264
Berlin, Berlin
So everything in this none user upgradeable Mac Pro is removable? Nothing is soldered on the board? RAM and CPU are standard components you can get later for cheaper? Interesting.

Still, I want my sata port, my optical drive and my floppy drive back. :D
 

5590982

macrumors member
Jul 12, 2013
97
106
So does this mean if we buy a single quad core we can load it with the 6, 8, or even 12 at our own dispense?

$64,000 question - right here.

If any enterprising Mac journal worth its salt is reading this - it will be planning a way to find out if you can buy the baseline model and upgrade it to the 12 core and if it works, compare performance between the factory 12 core and the user-upgraded machine.
 

rGiskard

macrumors 68000
Aug 9, 2012
1,800
955
Nice to get confirmation, although the upgradable CPU was expected.

Those GPUs are still a problem.

For those incllined (Apple prices are for upgrading from base CPU), and assuming motherboard or firmware differences aren't blocking the upgrade:

3.0 GHz 8-core Xeon E5-1680 v2:
Apple: $2000
Retail: $1850

Aftermarket value of replaced stock CPU from Mac Pro
3.7 GHz 4-core Xeon E5-1620 V2:
ebay: $350

$1850 - $350 = $1500

So a DIY upgrade to 8 cores saves $500.

How about a 12 core upgrade?

2.7 GHz 12 Core Xeon E5-2697 V2:

Retail: $2800
Apple: $3500

Aftermarket value of replaced stock CPU from Mac Pro
3.7 GHz 4-core Xeon E5-1620 V2:
ebay: $350

$2800 - $350 = $2450

DIY upgrade to 12 cores saves $1050! :p

It's probably wise to keep the old CPU so it can be swapped back in if warranty work is required. In that case, only the 12-core upgrade is worth doing for a nice $700. Not enough to add the four HDD bays missing from the nMP, but a start.
 

rGiskard

macrumors 68000
Aug 9, 2012
1,800
955
So everything in this none user upgradeable Mac Pro is removable? Nothing is soldered on the board? RAM and CPU are standard components you can get later for cheaper? Interesting.

Still, I want my sata port, my optical drive and my floppy drive back. :D

RAM and CPU, yes. GPUs? You can remove the old ones, but good luck finding a new one to drop in.
 

tkatz

macrumors 6502
Dec 14, 2009
258
208
Still, I want my sata port, my optical drive and my floppy drive back. :D

Good riddance to the lot of 'em… I have the USB optical drive for my rMBP and think I've used it all of one time. Can't recall the last time I used the optical drive on my mac pro.

I can't wait to finally be rid of my esata/usb3 expansion card which mostly works but sometimes likes to drop connection to the esata enclosures or panic if I plug a usb3 card reader in that it doesn't like.

Got my Pegasus2 R4 sitting here waiting to be connected to the new Mac Pro that should arrive sometime (hopefully) in January :D
 

mdelvecchio

macrumors 68040
Sep 3, 2010
3,151
1,149
I'm sure people will be happy to hear this... Apple seems to be keeping the professionals in mind as far as upgradability goes..

pro workstations are not purchased w/ CPU updatability in mind, i assure you. we buy workstations, we use them for a number of years, and then we retire them. we are not sitting here dorking around w/ DIY CPU upgrades...thats an activity for enthusiasts.
 

KindredMAC

macrumors 6502a
Sep 23, 2003
975
218
This is awesome news! In two to three years after your Apple Care runs out, just upgrade your processor and it'll be like you have a brand new machine again!

This just seriously changed my mind about what to get. Knowing that I can upgrade the processor down the road I think I will be picking up the low end Mac Pro instead of the high end iMac and then be set for a great many years!
 

proline

macrumors 6502a
Nov 18, 2012
630
1
To the haters who jumped to the conclusion that the CPUs would not be upgradeable, feel free to post your apologies here. A little claim chowder is good for the soul.
 

kwikdeth

macrumors 65816
Feb 25, 2003
1,141
1,714
Tempe, AZ
LG Socket 2011 though will be depreciated once Haswell based xeon's are released too wont they? i'm not versed that well in intel's roadmap, but isn't it sort of late to this particular socket iteration?

though, the fact it's a standard CPU socket without any customization which allows for you to put your own CPU in there is absolutely an awesome inclusion.

now...

how bout those GPU cards :p

so far the e5 haswells (46xx series) have all been LGA2011, but there's no guarantee that wont change.
 

tkatz

macrumors 6502
Dec 14, 2009
258
208
To the haters who jumped to the conclusion that the CPUs would not be upgradeable, feel free to post your apologies here. A little claim chowder is good for the soul.

While people were wondering about the CPU, I believe the biggest issue are the GPU's. While it looks like they can be removed relatively easy, it still remains to be known if anything resembling an upgraded version will ever be made available (by either Apple, AMD, or whoever)
 

Djreversal

macrumors newbie
Nov 16, 2007
29
0
pro workstations are not purchased w/ CPU updatability in mind, i assure you. we buy workstations, we use them for a number of years, and then we retire them. we are not sitting here dorking around w/ DIY CPU upgrades...thats an activity for enthusiasts.



yea that makes sense... I'm not a business or office.. so for me to get the 6 core loaded up now make my money to pay my self back for it, then purchase the 12 core at that time which could be 6 months later.. who knows.. its just a side hobby for me, not to mention an educational tool. This year is learning maya, houdini and vray as well as working with 4k Raw camera. Never done it.. see how it goes :confused:
 

nexusrule

macrumors 6502a
Aug 11, 2012
623
758
LG Socket 2011 though will be depreciated once Haswell based xeon's are released too wont they? i'm not versed that well in intel's roadmap, but isn't it sort of late to this particular socket iteration

This is true of any computer ever made. You can't use a socket that still doesn't exists to host the CPU.
 
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