New Mac Pro: How Upgradeable is it? (Late 2013 Hands On)

Updated: January 13, 2014

Most PC fans hear the word Apple and automatically turn on hater mode but the new Mac Pro is actually impressive. It might not be for everybody and I am in no way suggesting that you need one but at the end of the day, it’s a beautiful piece of engineering.

The immediate reaction aside from the trash can jokes are that ” I can build a more powerful machine for 1/4 of the price”. The problem here though is that these are workstation class components, so comparing it to a 4770K and 780 setup isn’t a fair comparison. If all you plan on doing is gaming, then by all means, for the money a custom built PC will be the much better option for you but this isn’t geared to be a gaming machine, it’s an editing machine.

Configurable from a four to twelve core Xeon machine, the much smaller and compact Mac Pro we got a hold of also features 256GB of insanely fast PCIe flash storage (maxes out at 1TB), 16GB of 1866MHz RAM (maxes out at 64GB) and twin AMD D500 FirePro GPUs. As you probably noted, because of the small form factor this is designed to be expandable through it’s 6 Thunderbolt 2 ports which can drive up to four 4k monitors, or plenty of super fast RAID arrays.

So jokes aside and again this may not be for everyone but for those looking for an extremely powerful desktop workstation, the new Mac Pro is a fantastic option. Hope you enjoyed our first look and definitely stay peeled for more coverage. If there’s anything specific you’d like covered or you have any questions, don’t hesitate to join in on the conversation below!

TheMetalSgt

Fantastic machine. Form factor, power and good price aside, just looking at it is like looking at a work of art. Amazing engineering. Some of the best minds in design definitely work at Apple, that’s for sure. Only other computer that has grasped my attention as much is a prototype “Christine” from Razor. Either way, the 1990s way of building PCs is getting old. It’s 2014, and the Mac Pro looks the part. Maybe it’s not as upgradable, as you can’t just slot a new GPU in.. but why would you? If you buy this you aren’t immediately going out to upgrade it. After 5 years of good use you might sell it and get a new one, or maybe still be completely fine after a ram upgrade. There are tons of people still rocking older Mac Pros that they’ve had for 6 years, and they are still working well for them. “Christine” and the Mac Pro are two concepts of designs that are the future. On one hand, ultra powerful and portable machine, and on the other you have a ultra easy upgradable system that takes the stone age design of modern PCs and 1 ups them in every way.
- kris
  
  A modern pc doesnt cost 9 grand, so it is quite interesting to see you state that a mac would “one up” a PC that is 1/10th of the Mac Pro. Here ill go ahead and state this too Ps4 one ups n64 in every way possible.
  - TheMetalSgt
    
    I was talking about the Razor one upping the aging design of the PC.
- rogamers
  
  It is a feat of engineering, but you give Apple too much credit. The review done by Anandtech exposed just how hot the GPU and the CPU can go up to in heavy workloads, just about bordering around what the Tahiti core can take(88 degrees celcius!) and at worrying levels for the Intel Xeon. And since this is workstation type machine which would constantly be put under heavy workloads, the temperatures and that “cooling core” that Apple touts about are in my opinion, piss poor in performance. The conventional as you say it “1990′s way of building PC’s” is still the most efficient in terms of keeping the temperatures down as evidenced even by the last generation Mac Pro.
Fooad Taha

man for haters try to build fresh one i will cost you away more money !!!
sysfailure0x5a

So how do you upgrade the video cards? You know, since the CPU is becoming less important than the video cards.