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Silver Tower Mac Pro (Dual Optical) Q&A - Revised December 4, 2009
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What are the differences between the "Early 2009/Nehalem" Mac Pro models and the "Early 2008" Mac Pro models that they replaced?
Please note that all models mentioned in this Q&A have been discontinued. The "Early 2009" Mac Pro line was replaced by the "Mid-2010" Mac Pro line on July 27, 2010.
Although they look practically identical from the outside, there are substantial differences between the "Early 2009/Nehalem" Mac Pro models -- the Mac Pro "Quad Core" 2.66 (2009/Nehalem) and Mac Pro "Eight Core" 2.26 (2009/Nehalem) -- and the "Early 2008" Mac Pro models.
Photo Credit: Apple, Inc. (Early 2009 Mac Pro)
Different ports are the immediately noticeable external change. The "Early 2009/Nehalem" Mac Pro models have one Mini DisplayPort and one dual-link DVI port, 5 USB 2.0 ports, 4 Firewire "800" ports, and Bluetooth 2.1+EDR, whereas the the "Early 2008" Mac Pro models have two dual-link DVI ports, 5 USB 2.0 ports, 2 Firewire "400" ports, 2 Firewire "800" ports, and Bluetooth 2.0+EDR. Both lines have dual Gigabit Ethernet ports, optical digital audio Toslink in/out and analog stereo in/out and support AirPort (802.11a/b/g/n) as an optional upgrade.
Internally, the lines use completely different architectures. The "Early 2009/Nehalem" Mac Pro models are powered by a 45-nm Xeon "Nehalem Quad Core" processor or processors, which have a dedicated 256k level 2 cache for each core and 8 MB of "fully shared" level 3 cache for each processor. The "Early 2008" models, by contrast, were configured by default with two 45-nm Xeon "Harpertown Quad Core" processors with 12 MB of level 2 cache (6 MB of cache shared by a pair of cores) and no level 3 cache.
The 64-bit "Nehalem" architecture also has a variety of other improvements compared to earlier systems, including "Hyper-Threading" -- which "allows two threads to run simultaneously on each core", "Turbo Boost" -- which "automatically boosts the processor speed based on workload" (so if an application is only using one core it will automatically increase the speed of the core in use and turn off the unused cores), and perhaps most remarkably, "Nehalem" replaces the 1.6 GHz 64-bit "dual indepedent frontside buses" from the "Early 2008" models with a new "QuickPath Interconnect" (QPI) system described as a "bidrectional, point-to-point connection" that provides "quick access to the disk, I/O, and other Mac Pro subsystems".
Internal expansion does have some similarities -- both lines have four easy access drive bays that support Serial ATA 3Gb/s drives (one occupied by default) and two 5.25" optical drive bays (one occupied by default), but the "Early 2008" models have memory on quick-to-upgrade "riser cards", and the "Early 2009" models go a step further with both the processor(s) and memory mounted on a "slide out" tray.
Additionally, the "Early 2009/Nehalem" Mac Pro models have four PCI Express 2.0 expansion slots (two x16 slots and two x4 slots with one x16 slot occupied by the graphics card by default), compared to two PCI Express 2.0 x16 expansion slots (with one slot occupied by the graphics card) and two PCI Express x4 expansion slots.
These differences, as well as default configuration and identifier differences, are summarized below for your convenience:
Mac Pro |
"Early 2008" |
"Early 2009" |
Default Speed: |
2.8 GHz |
2.66, 2.26 x2 |
Processor Type: |
Xeon 5400 |
Xeon 3500, 5500 |
Processor Cores: |
Quad Core x2 |
Quad Core (x2) |
System Bus: |
1.6 GHz |
QPI |
L2 Cache: |
12 MB x2* |
256k, 8 MB (x2)* |
Memory Type: |
ECC DDR2 |
ECC DDR3 |
Std. RAM: |
2 GB |
3 GB, 6 GB |
Max. RAM: |
32 GB |
16 GB†, 32 GB |
Video Card: |
Radeon HD 2600 XT |
GeForce GT 120 |
Video RAM: |
256 MB |
512 MB |
Standard HD: |
320 GB |
640 GB |
HD Interface: |
Serial ATA (3Gb/s) |
Serial ATA (3Gb/s) |
SuperDrive: |
8X DL |
18X DL |
Display Ports: |
Dual-Link DVI (2) |
Mini DisplayPort |
Firewire: |
2 (400), 2 (800) |
4 (800) |
Bluetooth: |
2.0+EDR |
2.1+EDR |
AP Extreme: |
Optional |
Optional |
Expansion: |
2 PCIe 2.0, 2 PCIe |
4 PCIe 2.0 |
Apple Order No: |
MA970LL/A |
MB871LL/A |
Apple Model No: |
||
EMC No: |
||
Original Price: |
US$2799 |
US$2499, US$3299 |
* The "Early 2008" models have 12 MB of level 2 cache per "Quad Core" processor (6 MB of cache shared by a pair of cores) and the "Early 2009" models have a dedicated 256k level 2 cache for each core and 8 MB of "fully shared" level 3 cache for each processor.
† The low-end Mac Pro "Quad Core" 2.66 (2009/Nehalem) originally officially supported 8 GB of RAM but third-parties were able to upgrade the system to 16 GB of RAM using four 4 GB memory modules. On December 4, 2009, Apple "officially" began supporting 16 GB of RAM as well.
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