Apple Mac Pro shows solution to Intel's memory-cooling problem

[Bob Crabtree]

With the Mac Pro, Apple has completed its desktop migration to Intel CPUs and come up with a system case that looks to set the standard for other FB-DIMM, Woodcrest-based PCs.

Apple will likely have set a design benchmark for other companies to match and demonstrated that Intel's recommendations for the cooling of FB-DIMMs can actually be implemented without using large numbers of stupidly noisy fans.

Lots of details (and lots of speculation, too) in this HEXUS.headline.

[DR]

Very clever way they have done the Wind tunnel approach to keep the FBDIMMs cool - these things run *real hot.

I hope its as quiet as previous Macs!

[mull]

Decent shots of the fancy heatsinks on the daughterboards here.

[Bob Crabtree]

Mac rumours has links to various sites with images and there's one link that's especially worth checking out. It's to a video by CNET.

This confirms our assumption that the CPUs are located to the front of the RAM bay.

But we still don't know whether the Mac Pro has an interior air-wall like the one used on the G5 to keep various air-flows to their own channels.

[Thorburn]

Interesting, so that removes the possibility of user memory upgrades then?

[directhex]

Interesting, so that removes the possibility of user memory upgrades then?

nah, they'll just be forced into buying overpriced mac-specific memory straight from apple, or more likel crucial.com

[TheAnimus]

this is somewhat similar idea to btx?

But its very good to see the manifacturers (all be it not the big boys, here is looking at you dell!) actaully using wind tunnels to cool components.

A dell workstation failed at work today, dead cooling fan on the HDDs caused an overheat.

[GingerNinja]

Pitty they didn't include 2 x16 PCI-E slots for some SLI or Crossfire fun. Then I would be certain to get one especially now that they can run Windows. I could finally ditch all my boxes and have the best of both worlds.

So come on Apple get with the program, this is a step in the right direction but still needs more work. And whats with the 7300 GT ? For a machine of this spec I would have expected at least a 7900GT in the base spec or at least as an upgrade option. And why 3-5 weeks if you want the ATI 1900XT ? A change of card takes this long for Apple to do !!!!
Wheres the 7900GTX or the 1900XTX cards ?

[Stoo]

I hope its as quiet as previous Macs!

According to some of the reports I've read it's pretty much silent

[Bob Crabtree]

A whole bunch of new pics on PowerMax (in addition to the ones that went up the other day).

These show some good stuff such as the CPU heat sinks (massive).
Still no indications about that inner air wall, though.

[Bob Crabtree]

So, I had to go to an event in NW London today and, on the way back to HEXUS.east, thought I'd stop off at Oxford Circus and toddle down to the Apple Store in Regent Street.

I struggled to find any Mac Pros and then was amazed to realise that there were only two of them on show (and no eye-catching P-o-S material to point me to where they were).

They'd only come in yesterday I was told.

I was also told that they didn't currently have any for sale (ie to take away) but were expecting stock tomorrow (Friday 11th) - though no promises on that.

Managed to get a look inside, though, and contrary to my assumption there is no inner air-wall.

The aluminium side wall itself looks to do that job.

This has stuck to it a thin layer of squidgy material that I reckon acts as sound proofing and might also help seal off each chamber - especially the memory chamber - to keep the various air paths separate.

It's just as well that my words are worth a thousand pictures, too, cos the poor droids that work there wouldn't let me take a shot of it!

Really, they wouldn't.

The guy on the shop floor was very worried by the idea and said he'd have to ask "the manager".

So, we strolled over to the back counter on the ground floor, waited for the manager to finish with the customer he was dealing with, then droid minor(DM) - with my business card in hand - explained the situation.

The manager (and I guess he was just the floor manager) said to DM, though not quite in these words, "more than my job's worth" you'll have to ask X downstairs (I didn't catch the name of X).

So DM disappeared out the back, trying to give me back my business card before doing so - but I suggested it was a good idea for him to take it with him.

I probably could have returned to the display, opened the system box and taken the picture now that DM was out of the way but didn't think that was playing the game.

Anyway, all it would have shown was the inside of a side panel with a bit of squidgy material on it.

And, of course, I felt this was shaping up to become interesting and I didn't want you all to be deprived.

So I hung around up the back waiting.

Five minutes later DM reappeared, sad look on face.

No, he explained, it wouldn't be possible to take a picture. I'd have to ring someone to get authorisation.

I didn't recognise the name he showed me on a piece of paper (which also had the number on it) and said so.

I told him that I thought I knew everyone in their PR dept (though that's probably a porkie) and that that name rang no bells.

This was the top dog, I was assured.

I was a bit hacked off and instead of doing the sensible thing and taking the bit of paper he gave me with the name on (and which I've now forgotten, of course), I just walked out.

Though not before drawing his attention to the news story I'd written for HEXUS - a laptop had come free while I was waiting, so I'd gone on line to get up the article.

Now, I don't don't know about anyone else but what this little story says to me - apart from shoot first and ask questions later - is that, top to bottom, the people who work at the Apple Store are far less knowledgeable about the products than Apple would like us to believe.

If that wasn't the case, they'd already have done what all the true Mac lovers did in advance of this afternoon, and been online and see all the pictures of the Mac Pro that are available on the net, and known that there are no longer any secrets about the Mac Pro's system case or build.

Okay, perhaps that's unfair.

Maybe they are avid Macophiles and have seen all the pictures and it's just that these poor sods are, actually, just totally unable to take any decisions at all for themselves.

If so, that shouldn't come as a surprise because Apple is one of those top-down companies where, in my experience, no one at all ever risks an original thought or action unless they are up close to the top of the feeding chain - the dangers of doing so are just too extreme.

[joshwa]

The Xeon chips they use - where do they fit in the Intel Family? Are they the same as the new Intel Core Duo 2 chips but with more cache?

[directhex]

The Xeon chips they use - where do they fit in the Intel Family? Are they the same as the new Intel Core Duo 2 chips but with more cache?

that and SMP-capable

xeon 51xx chips are based on core2 duo, and codenamed "woodcrest"

[Bob Crabtree]

The Xeon chips they use - where do they fit in the Intel Family? Are they the same as the new Intel Core Duo 2 chips but with more cache?

Check out this link (from the second page of the news piece):

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_C...roarchitecture

[Mike Fishcake]

I have to be honest, if I was working in a store where someone with a "don't-you-know-who-i-am" attitude was insisting on taking press shots , I'd be tempted to send them on their way as well...

Calling them 'droids' is just patronising and makes it sound like you're throwing a tantrum.

Also, I don't know if you're aware how mind-bendingly thorough the Apple Store scerening/interview process is, but it's insane. A guy that used to work where I work got a job at the Apple Store in the Trafford Centre recently, and he's a serious apple enthusiast (thankfully though not a fanboy), and they're pretty damn keen on making sure their staff know what they're talking about.

I don't know how you can expect anyone in any store selling anything ever to allow you to take photos, on a totally unannounced visit just because you threw a business card at them.

Not everyone involved in tech has heard of DV Doctor or Hexus, you know.

[Bob Crabtree]

I have to be honest, if I was working in a store where someone with a "don't-you-know-who-i-am" attitude was insisting on taking press shots , I'd be tempted to send them on their way as well...

I worked in electrical retailing from 1972-1980, so I know VERY well what the pressures are like in store.

However, at no point did I take any kind of holier-than-thou attitude.

That absolutely is not my style.

I asked the guy on the shop floor without in any way being pushy and didn't blink or say anything untoward when he told me he couldn't make that decision.

The same was true when the next guy up the feeding chain said the same thing. However, when it got escalated to the next stage and even that person was unable to make a decision and wanted to pass things higher up still, I think I was entitled to start questioning why this was becoming such a big issue.

One of the BIG problems I've seen with Apple over the years is the way that so little decision making is delegated downwards.

That has to be a bad thing.

Calling them 'droids' is just patronising and makes it sound like you're throwing a tantrum.

I picked that word quite carefully and used it because the truth is these poor sods are not allowed to think for themselves. Doing so is a high-risk business and the same is true of the people who work for Apple in Europe in quite different areas, including sales, marketing and PR.

Also, I don't know if you're aware how mind-bendingly thorough the Apple Store scerening/interview process is, but it's insane. A guy that used to work where I work got a job at the Apple Store in the Trafford Centre recently, and he's a serious apple enthusiast (thankfully though not a fanboy), and they're pretty damn keen on making sure their staff know what they're talking about..

You miss the point, I feel. The real point here is that the people in store are not allowed to think for themselves - just like those working in other areas of Apple.

I don't know how you can expect anyone in any store selling anything ever to allow you to take photos, on a totally unannounced visit just because you threw a business card at them.

I don't understand why you would think that taking a photo of the side wall of a computer case constitutes any sort of problem - whether in the taking of it or the results of the picture that might be taken.

Are you thinking about the time that would be wasted by the staff who'd be allowing me to do this?

Are you imagining that, somehow, what I was doing was showing something that needed to remain a secret?

I'd have taken the shot in a minute and there was absolutely nothing about that element of the computer that was contentious - which, from what you are saying, the three people involved in this decision must have known.

Not everyone involved in tech has heard of DV Doctor or Hexus, you know.

Believe it or not, I probably know that a WHOLE lot better than you do.

I spend a lot of time explaining to PR and marketing people - who in my view should already know all about HEXUS - precisely what we do and where we stand in the grand scheme of things.

I do that willingly and I do it without any form of rancour.

I understand, therefore, that there is no great likelihood that Mac enthusiasts working in an Apple store would have any kind of clue about HEXUS, especially since what HEXUS.core covers is mostly to do with the hardware in Windows PCs.

Mind you, since Macs are now Windows PCs, too, perhaps some of these Mac enthusiasts need to broaden their horizons.