AppleInsider Staff
Following its teardown of Apple's new Mac Pro, Other World Computing has supposedly confirmed the cylindrical desktop's processor is user-upgradeable, meaning owners may have the option to keep their machine up to date as new CPUs hit the market.
In a post to its blog, the team at OWC said it was able to replace the Mac Pro's stock Intel Xeon 6-core 3.5GHz chip with a Xeon E5-2667 V2 8-core unit clocked at 3.30GHz with 25MB of cache. The aftermarket parts firm discovered the Apple-installed CPU was removable in December, but did not attempt to replace the silicon until Friday.
As expected, an ensuing Geekbench benchmark test resulted in a single-core score of 3,715 and a multi-core score of 27,005, a fairly substantial gain compared to the stock configuration, which managed single- and multiple-core scores of 3,638 and 20,777, respectively. All testing was conducted with 64GB of OWC-branded memory installed.
The numbers come out to a 30-percent speed boost for the particular metrics Geekbench tests. The upgraded machine also outperform the previous generation Mac Pro's 12-core configuration.
Currently, Apple offers the following Mac Pro configurations:
- Intel Xeon E5 3.5GHz 6-core with 12MB of L3 cache — stock
- Intel Xeon E5 3.0GHz 8-core with 25MB of L3 cache — additional $1,500.00
- Intel Xeon E5 2.7GHz 12-core with 30MB of L3 cache — additional $3,000.00
The Intel Xeon chip OWC used in its user-upgrade is priced at around $2000.
While the CPU may technically be replaceable, it is unclear how such a modification would affect Apple's hardware warranty. Aside from the processor, current user-upgradeable options are limited to system memory. The Mac Pro's dual graphics cards have been designed to fit in the cramped aluminum chassis, while the SSD hooks up via a proprietary interface.
Instead of focusing on internal part swapping for expandability — one of the main draws of legacy Mac Pros — Apple has decided to include a bevy of ports to its latest pro desktop. These include six Thunderbolt 2 ports, four USB 3.0 ports, two Gigabit Ethernet jacks and an HDMI 1.4 slot.
William Gallagher
Christine McKee
Chip Loder
Malcolm Owen
30 Comments
"reportedly confirmed"? If it's reportedly, then it's not confirmed. Pick one.
"reportedly confirmed"? If it's reportedly, then it's not confirmed. Pick one.
The body says "supposedly confirmed". How about "reportedly rumored to have supposedly confirmed in an unverified report"?
Apple's Xenon is $1,500 and OWC's is $2,000. What's the advantage? 0.3GHz?
Something like that. And of course it’s only upgradable as long as the same socket is used in future CPUs.
More than 32 MB L3 cache would be nice (current max. is 30 MB).
But so would dual processors, and the new design will never sport two.