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Mac Pro expandability Questions.

D

dingdongbubble

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jun 1, 2007
538
0
Which parts ina Mac Pro can you not upgrade?

Can you upgrade the:
1. Processors(and are there any setbacks or problems)
2. Graphic Cards(lets say I have a 7300GT and i want the X1900XT)
3. Sound Card

Can you REMOVE your existing graphic card?

Are these upgrades supported by Apple? Do you get complete kits do some upgrades like the graphic card?
 
dingdongbubble said:
Which parts ina Mac Pro can you not upgrade?

Can you upgrade the:
1. Processors(and are there any setbacks or problems)
2. Graphic Cards(lets say I have a 7300GT and i want the X1900XT)
3. Sound Card

Can you REMOVE your existing graphic card?

Are these upgrades supported by Apple? Do you get complete kits do some upgrades like the graphic card?
Click to expand...

1. You can upgrade the processors, but you will void your warranty and it requires a high level of computer expertise. Not something you would want to mess up. The processors need to be supported.

2. Yes you can upgrade the graphics card. However for it to work on Mac OS X it needs to be an Apple supported card, which means your only other option is the X1900XT or the Quadro FX 4500, and they need to be the Mac versions.

Yes you can remove whatever graphics card you get, its uses a PCI-e.
 
Cool

Arent the graphic cards soldered on?

So I can buy a 7300GT now, use it and when I feel I need an upgrade, I go an buy the Mac X1900XT and put it in right?

Upgrading the proccs would not be an issue after 3 years of APP right? Because the MP would not be in warranty anyways.

Do you think that Intel will roll out Xeons with the same socket as the MP, 3 years down the lane?

Are there people out there who actually do these upgrades for you? Or can I give them the guide from macdouille.com?

As fr as I know, if you buy a PC and upgrade its proc, its warranty goes void, but people still do it, so in that case Apple is not the only company which voids the warranty right?
 
http://www.anandtech.com/mac/showdoc.aspx?i=2832&p=6

"We grabbed a pair of 2.4GHz Clovertown samples and tossed them in the system, and to our pleasure, they worked just fine. Our samples used a 1066MHz FSB, although we're expecting the final chip to use a 1333MHz FSB, but the most important part of the test is that all 8 cores were detected and functional.

We ran a handful of stability tests on the Mac Pro equipped with two Clovertowns and didn't encounter any crashes with the processors, so it would seem that Clovertown will work in the Mac Pro's motherboard. We can't say with 100% certainty that you will be able to upgrade to Clovertown when it comes out, but so far the results are looking good.

For the performance of Clovertown you'll have to wait a bit longer as we're not allowed to disclose it just yet, but we wanted to let you know that so far it's looking like you'll be able to upgrade your Mac Pro to 8 cores in the not too distant future."
 
dingdongbubble said:
Can you upgrade the:
1. Processors(and are there any setbacks or problems)
2. Graphic Cards(lets say I have a 7300GT and i want the X1900XT)
3. Sound Card
Click to expand...

The previous poster seemed to answer all the questions except the third. You can't "upgrade" the existing sound card as it's soldered onto the motherboard, but you can add a sound card, either PCIe, USB or firewire. Currently, I don't think there are Mac compatible PCIe sound cards, though, so you would have to go with USB or firewire. The main reason to add a sound card on the Mac would be to get additional sound I/O ports. The Mac Pro, itself supports 5.1 surround sound which can be outputted via the toslink or optical audio out port (surround sound is suportted by DVD player).


dingdongbubble said:
Arent the graphic cards soldered on?

So I can buy a 7300GT now, use it and when I feel I need an upgrade, I go an buy the Mac X1900XT and put it in right?
Click to expand...

Graphics cards are only soldered on, on hte laptops, iMac, and Mac Mini. The Mac Pro has PCIe slots which use Mac compatible PCIe cards.

dingdongbubble said:
Are there people out there who actually do these upgrades for you? Or can I give them the guide from macdouille.com?
Click to expand...

Any computer tech probably could do it as it standard PC parts. Although the motherboard may be customized (firewire 800 ports, etc.), it's virtually the same as a PC motherboard with the same standard parts.
 
If you don't know that the graphics isn't soldered on, you don't need to buy a Mac Pro let alone try to upgrade one.
 
As a musician I can tell you it is easy to upgrade the sound card.

Most cards are now audio interfaces that use firewire, but there may be some PCI express options out there too. :)
 
Lol

suneohair said:
If you don't know that the graphics isn't soldered on, you don't need to buy a Mac Pro let alone try to upgrade one.
Click to expand...

I dont think that all Mac Pro owners or possible owners were born with unseen and complete knowledge of the Mac Pro.
 
Thanks everyone for answering my questions.

Do you think that a PC technician would look at me with a 'hes a nutcase' look?
 
dingdongbubble said:
I dont think that all Mac Pro owners or possible owners were born with unseen and complete knowledge of the Mac Pro.
Click to expand...

No, but most people who are even entertaining the possibility of upgrading processors most likely know SOMETHING about computers. It has nothing to do with knowledge of the Mac Pro specifically but just basic computers really. I wasn't trying to knock, I just think you need to take yourself a computer course or buy a book before you start trying to upgrade things.
 
Basic knowledge. You dont know me in person. All my friends ask me for help regarding computers including doubts, upgrades etc. I think I have enough basic knowledge.

The reason why I asked if the graphic card was soldered on or not was because I know it is on the iMac and I just wanted to make sure that it wasnt.
 
I don't know you. But a tad bit of research and historical data of pro towers could have answered all your questions. Thats all.
 
dingdongbubble said:
The reason why I asked if the graphic card was soldered on or not was because I know it is on the iMac and I just wanted to make sure that it wasnt.
Click to expand...

With how unbearably slow Apple updates its products (more specifically the Mac Pro), the damn video card might as well be soldered on :rolleyes:
 
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