Amber Neely
iFixit has performed a complete teardown of the new 2019 Mac Pro, highlighting how easy it is to access various components when the time comes to repair or replace them.
A few key things uncovered by iFixit have shown that Apple has truly tried to make the Mac Pro a reparable, upgradable, and sustainable machine.
The case quickly lifts off with no proprietary screws or adhesive. Upon removal, power to the machine is cut off for safety.
iFixit has also uncovered just how easy it is to replace the RAM, and the process requires no tools. Additionally, the repair firm praises the handy diagram that showcases which DIMM slots can be populated with different amounts of memory.
Inside the machine, it turns out many of the parts are labeled with numbers, indicating in what order they should be repaired.
Due to the nature of the Mac Pro's modular design, iFixit has given it an extremely high repairability score - a 9 out of 10. For many repairs and upgrades, users won't need any tools, and for the repairs that do, a basic repair kit is all that is needed.
The only major deduction to the repair score came with the solid-state drives. The SSD are slotted and modular, but they're also linked to the T2 security chip. In the event an Apple-provided SSD needs to be removed and replaced, users need to get it done at an Apple Authorized Service Provider.
Mac Pro prices start at $5,999 and can climb to up to $53,000 — but the entire lineup is competitively priced with Windows workstations.
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54 Comments
"The SSD are slotted and modular, but they're also linked to the T2 security chip." Very nice and secure feature. This should make it more difficult for people to steal just the SSD or replace it with a malware-laden SSD. This is a feature Apple should advertise. Of course iFixit sees it as an issue.
As far as their stupid video showing them grate cheese against the case, iFixit has finally gone too far and should be banned from any AI reporting. They used to be a very good repair site but now they've turned into a website that constantly criticizes every thing Apple does just because they're losing business because Apple is making products that don't fall apart and require repair like the other products they review.
This MacPro sounds truly awesome. If only I had a real use for something this powerful.
What I could really use is a 14" MBP with 32GB RAM for around $2000.
This is definitely a step in the right direction. Now they need to give the same thinking to other Macs. It can be done.
Avon B7. I agree. Time will tell. the only issue is that their Laptops are thin and it's difficult to make them easy to upgrade and maintain their thinness. Some iMacs can have user upgradeable RAM, some can't. The issue is over the T2 chips with SSDs because their SSD's are specially tied to the T2 chip and it's for security purposes mainly. Do you want someone being able to take your SSD's out and hack into them? That's why they have to be tied to the T2 chip, it's to prevent hacking. It's just one of those situations where Apple's putting security as a priority over upgradeability since I don't think third party SSD's will work with theT2 chip, unless you know otherwise..
and the big question in my mind, is the CPU replaceable, or does the motherboard firmware tie it to a specific clock rate etc?