Intel W3540 Quad Core For Mac

• Intel Quad Core
• Intel Quad Core Q6600
• Intel Quad Core Processor Comparison

An item that has been used previously. The item may have some signs of cosmetic wear, but is fully operational and functions as intended. This item may be a floor model or store return that has been used. See the seller’s listing for full details and description of any imperfections. Seller Notes: “ Fully Tested and backed by our 30 day Warranty ” Brand: Intel Clock Speed: 2.93GHz Processor Type: Xeon L2 Cache: 8 MB MPN: W3540 Cooling Component(s) Included: None/Processor only Number of Cores: 4 UPC: Does not apply.

The Mac Pro is an Intel Xeon-based workstation computer manufactured by The Mac Pro, in most configurations, is the fastest computer that Apple offers, and is one of three desktop computers in the current lineup, the other two being the. The machine is also the basis for the Mac Pro Server, which bundles the Mac Pro hardware with Mac OS X Server as a replacement for the line of servers.

Outwardly, the Mac Pro resembles the last version of the Power Mac G5, and has similar expansion capabilities. An Intel-based replacement for those machines had been expected for some time before the Pro was formally announced on August 7, 2006 at the annual Apple Worldwide Developer's Conference. The first Mac Pro was based on dual Dual-core Xeon Woodcrest processors. This was replaced by a dual Quad-core Xeon Clovertown model on April 4, 2007, and again on January 8, 2008 by a dual Quad-core Xeon Harpertown model. The current model Mac Pro was announced on July 27, 2010 and features Intel Xeon processors based on the Nehalem/Westmere 2013 Mac Proarchitectures. A 'speed bumped' version was released in 2012. These systems offer options of up to 12 processing cores, up to four optional 2TB hard disk drives/512GB solid state drives and ATI Radeon HD 5770/5870 graphics.

Upgrading the CPUs in the Nehalem Mac Pro. Let’s say you get over the $3299 price tag of the 8-core Mac Pro but aren’t really happy with the paltry 2.26GHz clock speed of the quad-core. My Mac Pro is a single-CPU, quad-core 2.93Ghz model (Intel Xeon W3540) with the ATI Radeon HD 4870 video card. Over the years I’ve upgraded it with several SSDs and to 16GB RAM. Find best value and selection for your Apple Mac Pro CPU Board Intel Quad Core Xeon W3520 2 66GHz w 6GB RAM 820 2482 A search on eBay. World's leading marketplace.

Intel Quad Core

The original 2006 Mac Pro and its 2007 update are not officially supported to run, which will only run on 2008 and newer Mac Pros. However, people have had success booting Mountain Lion on early Mac Pros using newer video cards and the bootloader. Contents Overview An Intel-based replacement for the Power Mac G5 had long been expected prior to the release of the Mac Pro.

The, and had moved to an Intel-based architecture starting in January 2006, leaving the Power Mac G5 as the only machine in the Mac lineup still based on the. Speculation about the G5's eventual replacement was common. Rumors initially expected the machine to differ physically from the existing G5 and considered a number of different possible internal configurations based on different chipsets, but the coincidence of Intel releasing a new Core 2-based Xeon workstation platform just prior to the 2006 (WWDC) made it fairly obvious that the resulting machine would be based on it. Even the naming was 'obvious'; Apple had dropped the term 'Power' from the other machines in their lineup, and started using 'Pro' on their higher-end laptop offerings.

As such, the name 'Mac Pro' was widely used before the machine was announced. The Mac Pro is a workstation similar to other workstations such as those previously manufactured by Sun Microsystems.

Although the high-end technical market has not traditionally been an area of strength for Apple, the company has been positioning itself as a leader in non-linear digital editing for high-definition video, which demands storage and memory far in excess of a general desktop machine. Additionally, the codecs used in these applications are generally processor intensive and highly threadable, speeding up almost linearly with additional processor cores. Apple's previous machine aimed at this market, the Power Mac G5, had up to two dual-core processors, but lacked the storage expansion capabilities of the newer design. In general, the Mac Pro has been well received in the press.

The combination of high performance, reasonable expandability, very quiet operation and the quality of its mechanical design makes it routinely appear as the comparison system against which other systems are measured. The Xeon platform is, however, Intel's “high end” system and not aimed at more general purpose use. Nevertheless, current-generation Xeons are priced competitively with their high-end desktop platforms, allowing Apple to sell a very powerful system at prices that are considered quite competitive, even by reviewers who do not normally review Apple systems. Original marketing materials for the Mac Pro generally referred to the middle-of-the-line model with 2 × dual-core 2.66 GHz processors. Previously, Apple featured the base model with the words 'starting at' or 'from' when describing the pricing, but the online listed the 'Mac Pro at $2499', the price for the mid-range model.

The base model could be configured at US$2299, much more comparable with the former base-model dual-core G5 at US$1999, although offering considerably more processing power. Post revision, the default configurations for the Mac Pro includes one quad-core Xeon 3500 at 2.66 GHz or two quad-core Xeon 5500s at 2.26 GHz each. Like its predecessor, the Power Mac G5, the Mac Pro is Apple's only desktop with standard expansion slots for graphics adapters and other expansion cards. Description The specifications below are from Apple's 'tech specs' page or developer notes, except where noted. Processors The current Mac Pro is available with one or two processors with options giving four, eight, or twelve cores. As an example the eight core standard configuration Mac Pro uses two Quad core x8 Intel E5620007 Xeon processors @2.4 GHz, but can be configured with two Hexacore Core Intel Xeon Processor X5670 @2.93 GHz. All current Mac Pros have processors supporting Hyper-Threading which allows two threads to run on each core.

The four core versions come with 8MB of Intel Smart cache (L3 cache) while all others come with 12MB for each processor. All current Mac Pro processors are capable of Intel's Turbo Boost technology, which dynamically boosts the clock rate of a core in intervals of 133 MHz if the CPU temperature is below average conditions. Memory The original Mac Pro's main memory used 667 MHz DDR2 ECC FB-DIMMs; the early 2008 model used 800 MHz ECC DDR2 FB-DIMMS, the current Mac Pro uses 1066 MHz DDR3 ECC DIMMs for the standard models, and 1333 MHz DDR3 ECC DIMMs for systems configured with a 2.66 GHz or faster processors. In the original and 2008 models, these modules are installed in pairs, one each on two riser cards. The cards have 4 DIMM slots each, allowing a total of 32 of memory (8 × 4 GB) to be installed.

Notably, due to its FB-DIMM architecture, installing more RAM in the Mac Pro will improve its memory bandwidth, but may also increase its memory latency. With a simple install of a single FB-DIMM the peak bandwidth is 8 /s, but this can increase to 16 GB/s by installing two FB-DIMMs, one on each of the two buses, which is the default configuration from Apple. While electrically the FB-DIMMs are standard, for pre-2008 Mac Pro models Apple requests that users use larger-than-normal heatsinks on the memory modules that they install. Problems have been reported by users who have used third party RAM that had normal sized FB-DIMM heatsinks.

Mac Pro computers made in 2009 and later do not require memory modules with heatsinks. The mac pro 2009/2010 and 2012 can take up to 128Gb of memory ram Hard drives The Mac Pro has room for four internal 3.5' SATA-300 in 4 internal 'bays'. The hard drives are mounted on individual trays (also known as 'sleds') within the bays by captive thumbscrews similar to the ones used for the PCIe expansion slots. A set of four drive trays is supplied with each machine. Adding hard drives to the system does not require cables to be attached as the drive is connected to the system simply by inserting it in the corresponding drive slot. A case lock on the back of the system locks the disks trays into their positions. The Mac Pro also supports Serial ATA solid-state drives (SSD) in the 4 hard drive bays via an SSD-to-hard drive sled adapter (mid-2010 models and later), and via 3rd-party solutions for earlier models (e.g., via an adapter/bracket which plugs into an unused PCIe slot).

Various 2.5-inch SSD drive capacities and configurations are available as an option on new machines. The Mac Pro is also available with an optional hardware RAID card. With the addition of a SAS controller card or SAS RAID controller card, SAS drives can be directly connected to the system's SATA ports. Two optical drive bays are provided, each with a corresponding SATA-300 port and an ATA-100 port. Many optical drives require the older style ATA ports, including those currently shipped with new machines.

The Mac Pro has one P-ATA port and can support two P-ATA devices. It has a total of six SATA ports – four are connected to the system's drive bays, and two are not connected. These extra SATA ports can be put into service through the use of after-market extender cables to connect internal Optical drives, or to provide eSATA ports with the use of an eSATA bulkhead connector. However, the two extra SATA ports are currently unsupported and disabled under Boot Camp. At the current time, a built to order Mac Pro can be configured with up to 8 TB of storage (4 × 2TB disks) or 2 TB (512 x4 SSD). Expansion cards For internal expansion the current Mac Pro has four PCI Express (PCIe) 2.0 expansion slots. The 2008 model had two PCI Express (PCIe) 2.0 expansion slots and two PCI Express 1.1 slots, providing them with up to 300 W of power in total.

The first slot is double wide and intended to hold the main video card, arranged with an empty area the width of a normal card beside it to leave room for the large coolers modern cards often use. In most machines, one slot would be blocked by the cooler. Instead of the tiny screws typically used to fasten the cards to the case, in the Mac Pro a single 'bar' holds the cards in place, which is itself held in place by two 'captive' thumbscrews that can be loosened by hand without tools and will not fall out of the case.

The PCIe slots can be configured individually to give more bandwidth to devices that require it, with a total of 40 'lanes', or 13 GB/s total throughput. When running, the Mac Pro currently does not support SLI or ATI CrossFire, limiting its ability to use the latest 'high-end gaming' video card products; however, individuals have reported success with both CrossFire and SLI installations when running, as SLI and CrossFire compatibility is largely a function of software. The bandwidth allocation of the PCIe slots can be configured via the Expansion Slot Utility included with Mac OS X only on the August 2006 Mac Pro. The Mac Pro (Early 2008) has its slots hardwired as follows. Default Slot 4 4x Slot 3 4x Slot 2 16x Slot 1 (Double-Wide) 16x External connectivity For external connectivity, the Mac Pro includes five USB 2.0 and four FireWire 800 ports.

Networking is supported with two built-in Gigabit Ethernet ports, while 802.11 a/b/g/n support is built in. Required an optional module in the Mid 2006 model, but is standard in the Early 2008 and newer models.

Displays are supported by one or (optionally) more PCIe graphics cards. Each card has two connectors and one dual-link Digital Visual Interface (DVI) port, with various configurations of on-card graphics memory available.

Digital (TOSlink optical) audio and analog 1/8' stereo mini jacks for sound in and out are included, latter becoming available on both the front and back of the case. Unlike other Mac computers, the Mac Pro does not include an infrared receiver (required to use the Apple Remote).

Intel Quad Core Q6600

Beginning with Mac OS X Leopard, Front Row can be accessed on the Mac Pro (and other Macs) using the Command (⌘)-Escape keystroke. Case The exterior of the aluminum case is very similar to that of the Power Mac G5, with the exception of an additional optical drive bay, and a new arrangement of I/O ports on both the front and the back. The case can be opened by operating a single lever on the back, which unlocks one of the two sides of the machine, as well as the drive bays. All of the expansion slots for memory, PCIe cards and drives can be accessed with the one panel removed, and require no tools for installation.

Intel Quad Core Processor Comparison

The Xeon processors generate much less heat than the previous dual-core, so the size of the internal cooling devices has been reduced significantly. This allowed the interior to be re-arranged, leaving more room at the top of the case and thereby allowing the drives to double in number. Less heat also means less air to move out of the case for cooling during normal operations; the Mac Pro is very quiet in normal operation, quieter than the much noisier Power Mac G5, and proved difficult to measure using common sound pressure level meters.