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Silver Tower Mac Pro (Dual Optical) Q&A - Published June 3, 2013
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What are the differences between the standard "Mid-2012" Mac Pro models? What are the differences between the standard and custom configurations of the "Mid-2012" Mac Pro line?
There are substantial differences between the standard "Mid-2012" Mac Pro models -- the Mac Pro "Quad Core" 3.2 (2012) and "Twelve Core" 2.4 (2012) -- as well as substantial differences between these two standard configurations and the three custom configurations -- the Mac Pro "Six Core" 3.33 (2012), "Twelve Core" 2.66 (2012), and "Twelve Core" 3.06 (2012), which EveryMac.com has documented as their own distinct models for reader convenience.
Photo Credit: Apple, Inc.
External & Connectivity Similarities
Externally, all "Mid-2012" Mac Pro models are the same and have the same connectivity as well.
All "Mid-2012" Mac Pro systems 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.
Identification Differences
All "Mid-2012" Mac Pro models share the A1289 Model Number with the "Mid-2010" and "Early 2009" Mac Pro lines, so this identifier is not precise enough for proper identification.
The "Mid-2012" Mac Pro models share the MacPro5,1 Model Identifier with the "Mid-2010" Mac Pro models, too, although the differences between these two lines are so slight that they often do not matter. To locate the model identifier, select "About This Mac" under the Apple Menu on your computer and click the "More Info..." button. If the Mac Pro is running OS X "Lion" (10.7) or later, click the "System Report" button after clicking "More Info..." as well.
Externally, the "Mid-2012" Mac Pro models can be uniquely identified by the 2629 EMC Number. The EMC number is located on the back of the system in small type and this is the easiest identifier to use. However, EveryMac.com's Ultimate Mac Lookup feature additionally can identify the "Mid-2012" Mac Pro models by their serial numbers.
More information about specific identifiers is provided in EveryMac.com's extensive Mac Identification section.
Internal Similarities & Differences
Internally, all of the "Mid-2012" Mac Pro 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 hard 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, the systems are quite different internally. Specifically, the processor and memory differences are major:
"Mid-2012" Mac Pro |
Processor |
QPI |
RAM Type |
Max RAM |
Quad Core Xeon W3565 |
4.8 GT/s |
PC3-8500 |
48 GB* |
|
6 Core Xeon W3680 |
6.4 GT/s |
PC3-8500 |
48 GB* |
|
6 Core Xeon E5645 x2 |
6.4 GT/s |
PC3-10600 |
128 GB† |
|
6 Core Xeon X5650 x2 |
6.4 GT/s |
PC3-10600 |
128 GB† |
|
6 Core Xeon X5675 x2 |
6.4 GT/s |
PC3-10600 |
128 GB† |
* Apple officially supports 32 GB of RAM. However, these models actually can support 48 GB of RAM.
† Apple officially supports 64 GB of RAM in the "twelve core" models. However, as first noted by site sponsor Other World Computing, it actually can support 96 GB running Mac OS X 10.6 or 10.7, and up to 128 GB, but only when running a 64-bit version of Windows XP or later or Linux. Mac OS X only can support 96 GB of RAM.
Comparison Chart
All differences between the standard "Mid-2012" Mac Pro models -- the Mac Pro "Quad Core" 3.2 (2012) and "Twelve Core" 2.4 (2012) -- processors, architecture, configuration, identifiers, and price -- are summarized below:
| "Mid-2012" Mac Pro | "Quad Core" 3.2 | "Twelve Core" 2.4 |
|---|---|---|
| Default Processors: | 3.2 GHz Quad Core (W3565) | 2.4 GHz Six Core (E5645) x2 |
| QPI Speed: | 4.8 GT/s | 6.4 GT/s |
| L3 Cache: | 8 MB | 12 MB x2 |
| Standard Memory: | 6 GB | 12 GB |
| Maximum Memory: | 48 GB | 128 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: | MD770LL/A | MD771LL/A |
| Intro. Price: | US$2499 | US$3799 |
In the US (and in many other countries), to purchase a used Mac Pro, high-quality storage or memory for the Mac Pro, visit site sponsor Other World Computing.
Please refer to EveryMac.com's Ultimate Mac Comparison feature to dynamically compare any Mac Pro model to any other Mac.
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