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Silver Tower Mac Pro (Dual Optical) Q&A - Published August 29, 2010
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What are the differences between the standard "Mid-2010" Mac Pro models? What are the differences between the standard and custom configurations of the "Mid-2010" Mac Pro line?
There are substantial differences between the standard configurations of the "Mid-2010" Mac Pro line -- the Mac Pro "Quad Core" 2.8 (2010/Nehalem) and "Eight Core" 2.4 (2010/Westmere) -- as well as substantial differences between the standard configurations and custom configurations.
Because of major differences in processor architecture and memory type, EveryMac.com has documented the "Six Core" 3.33 (2010/Westmere) custom configuration of the "Quad Core" 2.8 (2010/Nehalem) model and the "Twelve Core" 2.66 (2010/Westmere) custom configuration of the "Eight Core" 2.4 (2010/Westmere) model as their own distinct models.
Photo Credit: Apple, Inc.
Externally, the "Mid-2010" Mac Pro models are the same and have the same connectivity as well. All models have 5 USB 2.0 ports (two on the front and three on the back), 4 Firewire "800" ports (two on the front and two on the back), dual Gigabit Ethernet ports, a front-mounted headphone jack, optical digital audio Toslink in/out and analog stereo in/out minijacks, Bluetooth 2.1+EDR and AirPort (802.11a/b/g/n). By default, all models also have two Mini DisplayPorts -- capable of passing an audio signal as well as video -- and one dual-link DVI port provided by the standard ATI Radeon HD 5770 graphics card.
Internally, all of these models support "Hyper-Threading" -- which "allows two threads to run simultaneously on each core" -- and "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). All models have a "QuickPath Interconnect" (QPI) system described as a "bidirectional, point-to-point connection" that provides "quick access to the disk, I/O, and other Mac Pro subsystems" in lieu of a "traditional" system bus as well, but the speed varies on different models.
Internal expansion for all models includes four drive bays that support Serial ATA 3Gb/s drives (one occupied by a 1 TB hard drive by default), have two 5.25" optical drive bays (one occupied by an 18X DL "SuperDrive" by default), and have four PCI Express 2.0 expansion slots (two x16 slots and two x4 slots with one x16 slot occupied by an ATI Radeon HD 5770 video card with 1 GB of dedicated GDDR5 memory).
Otherwise, internally, the two standard configurations are quite different as are the two custom configurations that EveryMac.com has categorized as their own models.
By default, the entry-level Mac Pro "Quad Core" 2.8 (2010/Nehalem) has a 2.8 GHz Xeon W3530 (Nehalem) processor with support for 1066 MHz PC3-8500 DDR3 ECC SDRAM, but by custom configuration it can be equipped with a 3.2 GHz Quad Core "Nehalem" Xeon (W3565) processor for an extra US$400 or a 3.33 GHz Six Core "Westmere" Xeon (W3680) processor for an extra US$800. This "Westmere" custom configuration also bumps the memory up to 1333 MHz PC3-10600 DDR3 ECC SDRAM and EveryMac.com documents it as its own model -- the Mac Pro "Six Core" 3.33 (2010/Westmere).
The standard high-end Mac Pro "Eight Core" 2.4 (2010/Westmere) has two 2.4 GHz Xeon E5620 (Westmere) processors with support for 1066 MHz PC3-8500 DDR3 ECC SDRAM, but by custom configuration it also can be equipped with two 2.66 GHz Six Core Xeon X5650 processors for an additional US$1500 or two 2.93 GHz Six Core Xeon X5670 processors for an additional US$2700. Both of these systems have a total of twelve cores and use 1333 MHz PC3-10600 DDR3 ECC SDRAM. EveryMac.com considers this BTO configuration its own model -- the Mac Pro "Twelve Core" 2.66 (2010/Westmere).
All models have the processor(s) and memory mounted on "slide out" trays for easy upgrading. However, the entry-level Mac Pro "Quad Core" 2.8 (2010/Nehalem) and the BTO "Six Core" 3.33 (2010/Westmere) option have a single processor and single tray with four RAM slots. Although they officially support a maximum of 16 GB of RAM, as first noted by site sponsor OWC, they actually can support 32 GB of RAM, but of PC3-8500 and PC3-10600, respectively.
The standard high-end Mac Pro "Eight Core" 2.4 (2010/Westmere) and the BTO "Twelve Core" 2.66 (2010/Westmere) option have two processors and two trays with eight RAM slots altogether. These models officially support 32 GB of RAM, but again, OWC has confirmed that they actually can use 64 GB of RAM. As noted earlier -- like the entry-level model -- the standard high-end configuration uses PC3-8500 memory and the BTO options use faster PC3-10600 memory.
The differences between the standard configurations -- the Mac Pro "Quad Core" 2.8 (2010/Nehalem) and "Eight Core" 2.4 (2010/Westmere) -- are summarized below:
| "Mid-2010" Mac Pro | "Quad Core" 2.8 | "Eight Core" 2.4 |
|---|---|---|
| Default Processors: | 2.8 GHz Quad Core (W3530) | 2.4 GHz Quad Core (E5620) x2 |
| QPI Speed: | 4.8 GT/s | 5.86 GT/s |
| L3 Cache: | 8 MB | 12 MB |
| Standard Memory: | 3 GB | 6 GB |
| Maximum Memory: | 32 GB* | 64 GB* |
| Memory Slots: | 4 | 8 |
| Video Card: | Radeon HD 5770 | Radeon HD 5770 |
| Video Memory: | 1 GB | 1 GB |
| Hard Drive: | 1 TB | 1 TB |
| Optical Drive: | 18X DL "SuperDrive" | 18X DL "SuperDrive" |
| Order Number: | MC250LL/A† | MC561LL/A |
| Price: | US$2499 | US$3299 |
* These models officially support 16 GB and 32 GB, but third-parties have confirmed that they actually support 32 GB and 64 GB, respectively.
† On Apple's marketing documentation for this model, the company lists the Order Number as MC250LL/A. However, in the Online Store, the company uses MC560LL/A. This may or may not need to be corrected.
The differences between all four "Mid-2010" Mac Pro configurations that EveryMac.com has "highlighted" as well as additional custom processor options are as follows:
| "Mid-2010" | "Quad" 2.8 | "Six" 3.33 | "Eight" 2.4 | "Twelve" 2.66 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Processor: | W3530* | W3680 | E5620 | X5650** |
| Speed: | 2.8 GHz x4* | 3.33 GHz x6 | 2.4 GHz x8 | 2.66 GHz x12** |
| L3 Cache: | 8 MB | 12 MB | 12 MB | 12 MB |
| QPI: | 4.8 GT/s | 6.4 GT/s | 5.86 GT/s | 6.4 GT/s |
| Std RAM: | 3 GB | 3 GB | 6 GB | 6 GB |
| Max RAM: | 32 GB† | 32 GB† | 64 GB† | 64 GB† |
| RAM Type: | PC3-8500 | PC3-10600 | PC3-8500 | PC3-10600 |
| RAM Slots: | 4 | 4 | 8 | 8 |
| Radeon Video: | HD 5770 | HD 5770 | HD 5770 | HD 5770 |
| Video RAM: | 1 GB | 1 GB | 1 GB | 1 GB |
| Hard Drive: | 1 TB | 1 TB | 1 TB | 1 TB |
| SuperDrive: | 18X DL | 18X DL | 18X DL | 18X DL |
| Price: | US$2499 | US$3699 | US$3499 | US$4999 |
* This model also can be configured with a 3.2 GHz Quad Core "Nehalem" Xeon (W3565) processor for an extra US$400.
** This model additionally can be configured with two 2.93 GHz Six Core Xeon X5670 processors for an additional US$2700.
† These models officially support 16 GB and 32 GB, but third-parties have confirmed that they actually support 32 GB and 64 GB, respectively.
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