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Mac pro tech specs and how do apple hardware upgrades work?

Hello guys,


My pc modding colleague just got a mac pro and i've just read its specs about 5 minutes ago and i found out it has xeons, ecc ram, and firepro on it. I never touched apple products before, and i dont know how they work. So i came here for your help.


I see similarities of the msi vortex with the mac pro. Are the motherboards the same?even if they are, anyone have full specs on the mac pro?

- The moterboard's chipset?

- What socket does it use?

- Number of pcie 16x slots?

- Onboard psu output wattage?

- Number of fan headers on the motherboard?

- Does it support hotswap and raid?

- MOST IMPORTANT: how do i get into the bios???


Main question:

I wanna try to swap and kit out the insides of the mac pro with whats on the test bench for a random project and to see benchmark scores on apple os and etc. will this work? (Like i said, got 0 experience on apple stuff)


*hardware i wanna swap into the mac pro: there's a reference 980ti and sticks of hyperx ddr4 ram on the test bench

Custom pc-OTHER, Windows 10, lga775, b81, z170, x99

Posted on May 1, 2016 1:22 PM

Reply
8 replies

May 1, 2016 1:50 PM in response to NLM custom PC mods

This shows/tells what is inside

https://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/Mac+Pro+Late+2013+Teardown/20778

http://eshop.macsales.com/MyOWC/Upgrades.cfm?model=483&sort=pop&type=Processor

- The moterboard's chipset? See teardown

- What socket does it use? See

http://eshop.macsales.com/MyOWC/Upgrades.cfm?model=483&sort=pop&type=Processor

- Number of pcie 16x slots? None

- Onboard psu output wattage? 450 watts which is enough for all components. SInce no PCLe slots and extra storage space it is not limited by PSU

- Number of fan headers on the motherboard? One for the one fan it has

- Does it support hotswap and raid? Not internally. There is only one slot for one blade storage device. See the teardown

- MOST IMPORTANT: how do i get into the bios??? There is not way to get into "bios". Macs do not have a bios. They have EFI firmware which is not accessible by the user

May 1, 2016 1:59 PM in response to NLM custom PC mods

- There is storage blades available to replace the one that came with the mac. There is only one socked for storage.

- The processor can be upgraded

- There are four memory slots and there are third-party places that sell memory. It can handle 128 GB (4x32)

- You can only use Apple D300, D500 and D700 cards. No others.

- There are third party places that sell internal storage up to 2 TB.

The OS and EFI support those changes

May 1, 2016 6:48 PM in response to NLM custom PC mods

The late 2013 Mac Pro (dark cylinder) claim to fame is that it already contains TWO hot graphics cards, and high-end Xeon processor, Error Correcting Code large memory, and it manages to run it all and not melt down. It has an SSD boot drive and your drives are added via ThunderBolt (or a few by way of USB-3).


It is not a hobbyist's computer. Parts are not particularly interchangeable. It is for folks who want to turn it on and go, go, go.


The hobbyist's computer was its predecessor, the Silver Tower Mac Pros.

Mac pro tech specs and how do apple hardware upgrades work?

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