Apple's Mac Pro - A True PowerMac Successor
by Anand Lal Shimpi on August 16, 2006 12:27 PM EST- Posted in
- Mac
With no fan assembly we could remove the CPU heatsinks and replace the socketed CPUs, but we'll talk more about that in the next part of our series. You'll note that the heatsinks on the Xeon processors are significantly smaller than those on the G5s:
Mac Pro 2.66GHz Heatsinks
PowerMac G5 2.0GHz Heatsinks
Keep in mind that what you're looking at are the heatsinks used on the 2.0GHz single core G5s, the 2.5GHz processors used an even larger heatsink assembly with integrated water cooling.
Taking the Mac Pro apart is by no means an easy task, and while our job would've been easier had we not run into the standoff snag with the memory cage it's still not all that easy to gain access to the motherboard or CPUs in this case. That being said, it's the price you pay for having such a cleanly laid out system. Installing memory, drives and cards in the PCIe slots are all easy.
It looks like Foxconn makes the motherboard for the Mac Pro
As a whole, the design is a huge improvement over the PowerMac G5 despite looking very similar. The PowerMac G5 was lacking severely in its drive expansion options and external USB ports, both of which the Mac Pro addresses with certainty.
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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.