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Mac Pro CPU Upgradeability Confirmed With Processor Swap
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Perhaps you might have used the words 'less expensive', rather than 'inexpensive'. Also some upgrades could entail shipping to OWC (to and fro), for those squeamish about opening up their pricey new MP, and in that case one forfeits their Apple warranty, to be replaced by OWC warranty, again involving two-way shipping in case of needed service or repair. Walking into an Apple store would arguably be 'simpler'.
But sure, in exchange for the above, one can save some money.
Is it though? Mac Pros have always had upgradeable CPUs. The real question is whether Apple actually wanted this, or if they just did it because that's how Xeon processors are provided; iirc there aren't any non-socketed Xeon processors, not this generation at least.
If such parts were to appear though, it'd be interesting to see if Apple used them, or stuck with the socketed versions. While CPU upgrades have always been possible in Mac Pros, they're definitely not in the realm of user upgrades.
Don't get me wrong, it's great that this generation still has an upgradable CPU, as now I can very seriously consider getting the more affordable four core and upgrading later; I'm hoping the 8-core will eventually come down in price quite a bit, as that would make a nice upgrade that should still be competitive with the next couple of new Mac Pro generations (I hope).
No, the 2012 Mac Pro has LGA 1366 sockets. The new Intel® Xeon® E5-26xx v2 processors use FCLGA2011.
Makes perfect sense that Apple would socket the Xeon CPUs due to their high cost. Imagine frying one of those babies while soldering them to the motherboard? Apple wouldn't chance that so they go the usual route of sockets.
Furthermore, Apple will never offer CPU upgrades for the Mac Pro. That's not their business and they stopped advertising the fact that CPUs were upgradeable many many years ago because they never ended up offering CPU upgrades to customers. This was back in the late PowerPC, early G3 days.
Furthermore, Apple will never offer CPU upgrades for the Mac Pro. That's not their business and they stopped advertising the fact that CPUs were upgradeable many many years ago because they never ended up offering CPU upgrades to customers. This was back in the late PowerPC, early G3 days.
A foolish remark. All current motherboards will not be able to upgrade since none of them are designed with the undefined future socket.
They are not going to go through the trouble for the 15 people that will be doing this.
Upon checking the prices for these CPUs - remember they're already 2-3 years old - they don't devalue much.
And with the mac pro being popular, they're even less likely to devalue much, so we are not really sure about bothering to upgrade. In 5 years time, these CPUs will be cheap, yes. But also a bit long in the tooth.
As always, buy what you need, when you need it.
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I'd prefer 1x 780 ti SC, thanks. Cheaper and faster than dual D700, although can take a mild compute hit.
Xeons are hard to beat for a lot of tasks though, you probably wouldn't find a haswell coming near a 12 core xeon for crunching, even if overclocked like mad (not that haswells overclock very well).
And with the mac pro being popular, they're even less likely to devalue much, so we are not really sure about bothering to upgrade. In 5 years time, these CPUs will be cheap, yes. But also a bit long in the tooth.
As always, buy what you need, when you need it.
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Normal top end CPU
Normal RAM
Two Titans
Thank you
Suddenly the machine appeals to a MUCH wider marketplace.
I'd prefer 1x 780 ti SC, thanks. Cheaper and faster than dual D700, although can take a mild compute hit.
Xeons are hard to beat for a lot of tasks though, you probably wouldn't find a haswell coming near a 12 core xeon for crunching, even if overclocked like mad (not that haswells overclock very well).
Just a straight forward question:
Lets say i buy the quad core config. And would like to upgrade in a year or two...is it just as simple as unscrewing a few screws and just remove the CPU to replace with another CPU and put the screws back on? Or do we need to mess around with cooling paste and stuff to replace the CPU.
In other word scan a complete noob perform a CPU swap on the NMp or is it a bit more complicated than that.
Lets say i buy the quad core config. And would like to upgrade in a year or two...is it just as simple as unscrewing a few screws and just remove the CPU to replace with another CPU and put the screws back on? Or do we need to mess around with cooling paste and stuff to replace the CPU.
In other word scan a complete noob perform a CPU swap on the NMp or is it a bit more complicated than that.
Even at its most complicated, replacing a CPU is roughly as easy as pie. With modern socket design, the chips won't slot in unless you have them in the proper position, then they just fall right into place. It's almost literally unscrew heatsink, lift little lever, take old one out, put new one in, push down little lever, put heatsink back on. Even thermal paste is easy to apply. You just lightly slather it on top of the CPU before reinstalling the heatsink.
The new Mac Pro looks even easier, because you can take the motherboard and Vader grill heatsink out of the case entirely before messing with it. There might be a couple of extra steps, but it all looks like a round peg in round hole affair to me.
Oh yes, but for the price a single 780 would be pointless, it would have to justify it's price and exclusivity, why I said 2 Titans.... It would have to be seen as something to yearn for.
The 90's Power Macintosh's often used a Processor "card" system meaning an upgrade from a G3 to a G4 processor was as easy as swapping a graphics card on PCI!
Strange this method didn't catch on.
So thats user replaceable:
SSD - Check
GPU's - Check
PSU - Check
Daughter board - Check
Fan - Check
Processor - Check
Fancy that, you can replace the entire machine yourself, just like a PC. The only downside seems to be the IO board as all the sockets are on the one board.
SSD - Check
GPU's - Check
PSU - Check
Daughter board - Check
Fan - Check
Processor - Check
Fancy that, you can replace the entire machine yourself, just like a PC. The only downside seems to be the IO board as all the sockets are on the one board.
Unlike a PC which use off the shelf components until the parts show up from third parties you still pay Apple for them if they will even stock/sell you aftermarket upgrades, the exceptions being the ram and processors off the shelf...
And SSD, and you can buy Apple spares and upgrades from places other then Apple. Google it. You can practically buy an entire older style Mac Pro in parts from online parts sellers, don't have to touch Apple.
Give it a year and places like this will sell components of the new Mac Pro:
http://www.applemacparts.co.uk/store/index.php
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Yeah and pay Apple + prices to the aftermarket sellers, BTW your link contains exactly zero parts listed for the 2013 model...
That's how it was before. I seem to recall anyone making a hackintosh with a better processor than Apple had already shipped in a Mac was unable to do it because the machine did not recognize the CPU. That was why every new computer Apple put out would require a "special build" of the current OSX when it shipped, until the next x.x.1 maintenance release rolled that change into the general OSX branch.
Because the last thing Apple wants is someone building a computer that runs their OS and performs better than Apple's own hardware, and at a lower price -- kinda like the clones used to before Apple ended that program.
A DIYer Hackintosher crowing about it on the Internet would be as bad.
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G3s, yeah (and G4s, etc, even the Cube, and technically the G5s but that was a different story..) but before then most things were on daughter cards (as with PPC604/604ev/MACH V)... or soldered to the logic board (PPC601 etc). Granted, given that they were on daughter cards, they COULD be upgraded-- they just happened to be soldered to the cards.
But more recently not so much. I was kind of pissed to discover the CPU in my mid-2012 (non-retina) MBP is soldered... I can't ever upgrade from a 2.7 GHz 3820QM to a 2.8 GHz 3840QM if I wanted
(Not that it would be worth it.)
What 2013 model? You mean the new Mac Pro where if you read my comment I clearly stated, 'give it a year', or the old Mac Pro? Plus those prices are not much more then Apple charges.
Yeah and there is the key word...pre-configured. The key difference in the PC world (other than doing a Hackintosh "hack") is that you can easily either build your own PC or have someone do it for you for a reasonable fee. With Apple, they have the notorious "Apple Tax" which really means they just screw the living HELL out of you for the most BASIC of 30 second upgrades like RAM. There's nothing wrong with a fair charge for a service, but they milk the living hell out of this stuff. The price per hour has to be in the hundreds of dollars and plugging a RAM DIMM in is something a kindergartner could do. The only question is how hard is it to get to it and that varies by the Apple model. It's simple on some yet costs the same to upgrade as one that is a PITA.
The point is that Apple has traditionally had a huge markup on "custom" order options. Some of us don't mind doing upgrades our self, but it's still a waste to buy something and then just remove it brand new. Sometimes Apple doesn't even offer certain things PERIOD (e.g. you can't buy a Mac Mini with a 500GB SSD, but you can get one in the after-market. But you have to buy a Mini with SOMETHING in it. For a company that claims to support "Green" computing, they sure do FORCE a lot of WASTE. Why can't you call them up and ask for a 500GB SSD if you need one? No, they just won't offer it period even at rip-off prices. Too bad.
Build your own or build to order is ridiculous? I guess you've never seen a PC, then.
There's a difference between making a profit and making a killing. You either don't know the difference or are trying to defend greed. Defending outrageous levels of greed is precisely why I'm NOT a Republican (and no I'm not a Democrat either). Apple definitely wanders into the greedy category. But hey if you want to pay up the arse for something overpriced by 2-3x what other people are charging, go ahead and more power to you. Just don't expect everyone else in the world to do the same. Some of us don't actually enjoy getting royally ripped off, believe it or not. Some of us aren't what they call "fanboys" on here.
Personally, to me hardware is hardware and most of Apple's Mac line is just standard PC hardware in a pretty case and the fact you can quite easily make a Hackintosh with standard off-the-shelf parts pretty much proves it.
I like OSX better than Windows, but I'd rather pay for the OS and get the hardware I want in a competitive market than just give Apple free license to charge whatever they want for the hardware because they know you can't get it from anyone else. OSX is what is unique, not the hardware running it. They should be charging the premium on the OS, not the hardware. Instead, we have this situation where a lot of people want something like a gaming Mac, but Apple doesn't want to sell that kind of hardware. Well, if they were charging for the OS instead of the hardware, this wouldn't be an issue since then anyone could build what they want. Yes, there is Windows. But Windows sucks and that's all there is to say about it. So I guess that means Hackintosh all the way as the ONLY option for what some of us are looking for since something like this Mac Pro just isn't what we're looking for and neither is any other Mac Apple sells. If what you want is what they offer, great. Get me a Mac Mini with a mid to high-end GPU in it and I'd be thrilled. The Intel 4000HD doesn't quite cut it for some things and I don't like iMacs for reason I don't care to go into here (and even the top of the line iMac is still pushing a mid-grade mobile GPU, comes with an oversized monitor I don't need or want and because of the latter, costs way too much.
