Apple's Mac Pro - A True PowerMac Successor
by Anand Lal Shimpi on August 16, 2006 12:27 PM EST- Posted in
- Mac
The only remaining visible item is the memory upgrade area at the bottom right of the case. In this cage you'll find two FB-DIMM riser cards; since FBD uses a serial interface it can be high speed, support many devices and be routed onto easily removable risers like you see in the Mac Pro. This flexibility does come at a pretty steep performance cost but we'll get to that shortly.
If you remove both riser cards you can get a glimpse at the heatsink covering Intel's 5000X MCH (Memory Controller Hub). The 5000X features a quad-channel FBD memory controller, with two channels going to each riser card. Apple's diagram should help illustrate the configuration of the memory channels:
Apple recommends that you install FB-DIMMs in pairs starting with slots 1 and 2 on Riser A. Next you'd want to populate slots 1 and 2 on Riser B, followed by 3/4 on Riser A and then 3/4 on Riser B. The process is diagrammed on the back of the side panel of the case for quick reference.
Note that the FB-DIMM risers are in the thermal shadow of the CPU but are also cooled by a fan at the rear of the case.
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plinden - Saturday, August 19, 2006 - link
No point in arguing with this guy - he's shown just how much he knows about the subject. How could someone regularly read AnandTech and not know about EFI? And then profess to have confused it with some obscure mobo manufacturer?Oddly enough, I can't find any motherboards for sale manufactured by a company called EFI - either it's very obscure or he's making it up. I wonder which one it is?
michael2k - Friday, August 18, 2006 - link
EFI isn't a manufacturer, it stands for "Extensible Firmware Interface", see the link in the other post.Lian Li had an aluminum case first, but Apple's design was COPIED by Lian Li. Read the Anandtech article in which half the comments for the case review claim "G5 ripoff".
plinden - Friday, August 18, 2006 - link
I laughed out loud at this. You're absolutely right, EFI is no DFI or ASUS, not even close.
You've just proved you know fuck all about this. I suggest you read up on EFI (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extensible_Firmware_I...">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extensible_Firmware_I... before posting about this in the future.
I'm not going to tell you makes the Mac motherboards. I'll leave that up to you to research.
Petoschka - Wednesday, April 1, 2020 - link
Well, my Junk Pro from early 2008 is still running.pervisanathema - Wednesday, August 16, 2006 - link
I want one. :otakeshi7 - Tuesday, January 7, 2014 - link
Just a small correction on page 2: The Power Mac G5 PCI-E also has 3 USB 2.0 ports on the rear panel.