"The system is packed with high-end components, including:
- 3.7 GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon E5-1620 v2 with Turbo Boost up to 3.9 GHz
- Intel BD82C602J Platform Controller Hub
- Elpida 4 GB DDR3L SDRAM
- PLX Technology PEX8723 PCI-E switch
- Intel DSL5520 Thunderbolt 2 controller
- AMD FirePro D300 graphics processor
- Elpida W2032BBBG 2 Gb GDDR5 VRAM
- Samsung S4LN053X01-8030 (ARM) flash controller
- Samsung K9HFGY8S5C-XCK0 flash storage
- Samsung K4P4G324EB 512 MB RAM
- Broadcom BCM57762 gigabit ethernet controller
- Fresco Logic FL1100 4-port USB 3.0 host controller
- Parade PS8401A HDMI jitter cleaning repeater
- Cirrus 4208-CRZ audio codec"
Insightful, timely, and accurate semiconductor consulting.
Semiconductor information and news at - http://www.maltiel-consulting.com/
Mac Pro Teardown
After making its debut during the WWDC 2013 Keynote, the reimagined, reformulated Mac Pro finally arrived at iFixit's doorstep. Join us as we turn the (very) Late 2013 Mac Pro inside-out.
Step 1
·
The new Mac Pro has
been released, and we've managed to get our hands on the entry-level model,
"inexpensively" priced at $2,999.
·
Tech Specs:
o Quad-Core Intel Xeon E5 with 10 MB L3 cache
and Turbo Boost up to 3.9 GHz
o 12 GB (three 4 GB modules) of 1866 MHz DDR3
ECC memory
o Dual AMD FirePro D300 graphics processors with
2 GB of GDDR5 VRAM each
o 256 GB PCIe-based flash storage
o 802.11ac Wi-Fi wireless networking and
Bluetooth 4.0 wireless technology
Step 2
·
Contrary to popular
belief, the new Mac Pro is closer in design to an aluminum beverage can than a trash can. (Not that there's anything wrong with trash
cans—some of our favorite astromech droids areshaped like
trash cans.)
·
The back side (if a
cylinder can have a back side) contains the power button and electrical inlet,
as well as a tidy array of ports:
o 3.5 mm speaker and headphone jacks
o Four USB 3.0 ports
o Six Thunderbolt 2 ports
o Dual Gigabit Ethernet ports
o HDMI 1.4 out
·
Looks like neither
trash nor fixer can get in through the top of this bin. Time to investigate
that enticing lock switch...
Step 3
·
Here's a strangely
un-Apple-like design choice: simply sliding the lock switch allows us to remove
the outer casing of the Mac Pro. No stubborn pentalobe screws here!
·
What other improved
repairability features will we find in this soda
can desktop computer? Only time and spudgers will tell.
o We're sincerely hoping it's more cowbell.
Step 4
·
With the cylindrical
cover removed, we get our first peek inside the Mac Pro.
·
The dual graphics
cards dominate the initial view. Their symmetry is broken only by the SSD cage
nestled up alongside the second graphics card.
·
Giving the Mac Pro a
little spin, we find neatly positioned vertical RAM slots at either side of the
I/O panel.
Step 5
·
Good news,
everyone! The RAM in the Mac Pro Late 2013 is easily accessible
and replaceable.
·
The 4 GB DDR3L SDRAM
(three for a total of 12 GB) modules are labeled as Elpida EBJ04EG8BFWB-JS-F.
·
According to Apple,
the RAM in the Mac Pro is configurable to 16 GB (four 4 GB), 32 GB (four 8 GB)
or 64 GB (four 16 GB).
Step 6
·
With a twist of a T8
screwdriver, the SSD assembly is easily removed from the device.
o For those playing along at home, we have only
removed one screw, and the SSD is out. (Side note: the screw wasn't even
proprietary!)
·
On board we find some
rather familiar friends:
o Samsung S4LN053X01-8030 (ARM) Flash Controller
o Samsung K9HFGY8S5C-XCK0 Flash Storage
o Samsung K4P4G324EB 512
MB RAM
·
This combination of
hardware makes the Mac Pro's SSD suspiciously similar to those we've seen in
the latest refresh of MacBook Pro
Retina and MacBook Air.
o To the point that only the last few digits of
the model numbers are any different. Hmmm...
Step 7
·
Regulatory markings
have been relegated to the bottom cover/air inlet, where we find a few more
informative tidbits:
o The Mac Pro Late 2013 is identified as model
A1481 with an EMC Number of 2630...
o ...and it's rated for 100-240 volts AC, making
it a willing international travel partner.
·
There can only be one fan.
The Mac Pro is vented by a single fan, which pulls air from under the case,
through the core, and out the top of the case.
Step 8
·
Teardown
update: You asked, we
answered. We popped the plastic roof off the fan module and found a whole new
stash of precision engineering.
·
Snug in a nest of
antennas, the AirPort card fits onto a small adapter board that also connects
to the fan below.
·
Those three large
screws secure the fan, with vibration-dampening rubber bumpers, like we've seen
in iMacs.
Step 9
·
More deja vu as we
uncap the AirPort card and find what looks to be the same configuration found in
most Apple products today:
o Broadcom BCM4360 5G
Wi-Fi 3-stream 802.11ac gigabit transceiver
o Broadcom BCM20702 single-chip
Bluetooth 4.0 HCI solution with Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) support
o Skyworks SE5516 dual-band
802.11a/b/g/n/ac WLAN front-end modules
Step 10
·
The gold antenna array
pops out, and sees all.
·
With the fan released,
it looks to be powered by a Nidec brushless DC motor, model number AG720K01.
·
The motor controller
IC reads A5940LPT.
·
We noticed a few
cavities around the edges of the impeller filled with some sort of epoxy (on both sides).
We suspect it's for fine-tuned balancing, to keep the fan running smooth and
quiet.
Step 11
·
A view from above: The
Mac Pro utilizes a giant triangular heat sink ("Thermal Core"),
shared by the dual graphics cards and CPU.
·
Looks like the Mac Pro
has taken some design pointers from the recent AirPort Extreme and Time Capsule bodies:
a thin, vertical design with individual boards on separate sides.
·
We use our spudger to
pry the graphics card data connectors from their sockets. This FCI Meg-Array
connector is the same type used for the G4 & G5 PowerPC processor
daughtercards, and looks to be a fully custom way of hooking up PCI-E, with
many pins in a pressed-in connector.
Step 12
·
With the Mac Pro's
structure dominated by the central heat sink, we'd best start by peeling parts
off.
·
A clamp and four
screws hold each of the dual AMD FirePro D300 graphics cards in place.
·
Amidst the usual
processing power and cost comparison with a similar home-built desktop PC,
these graphics cards may be the key to Apple finally undercutting homebrew
systems on a pure power basis.
·
While this stacks up
fairly well for current Apple GPU offerings, the proprietary nature, and lack
of an elegant external GPU option, may age this device before its time.
Step 13
·
The back side of each
graphics card contains:
o AMD FirePro D300 graphics processor
o Elpida W2032BBBG 2
Gb (8 x 2 Gb = 16 Gb = 2 GB) GDDR5 VRAM
o Intersil ISL 6336 6-Phase PWM Controller with Light Load
Efficiency Enhancement and Current Monitoring
·
The front side has the
following ICs:
o Fairchild Semiconductor DD30AJ
o IR C F3575 CCIRP
Step 14
·
But wait, there's more.
Just one more: a second, slightly different FirePro card.
·
This GPU—same make and
model—hails from Taiwan, unlike its Chinese-made twin.
·
The other important
difference to note is that this card (and only this card) hosts the slot for
the SSD. This seems to us like a potential opportunity for expansion—perhaps
higher storage configurations make use of two of this variety, for doubling up
on SSDs?
Step 15
·
The FirePro bone's
connected to the... um...
·
A novel disc-shaped
daughterboard ties everything together at the base of the machine. Having
spudgered away the ribbon cables, we flip it over for a closer look.
·
Dominated by
inscrutable proprietary connectors, we can only hope the ICs on this
interconnect board will tell us more about its purpose.
Step 16
·
The logic board, dual
graphics cards, and I/O port board all connect to this single board.
·
Wrangling all that
data requires a small posse of ICs. We find:
o Intel BD82C602J Platform
Controller Hub
o R4F2113 NLG A02 AE03376
o ICS 932SQL435AL 3817528F
o Texas Instruments LM393 Dual
Differential Comparator
o MXIC 25L6406E 64M-BIT CMOS Serial Flash
·
The back of the
daughterboard features the same
mysterious 980 YFC LM4FS1BH found in the Mid 2013 MacBook Air
refreshes.
Step 17
·
Pulling up a black
cover grille, we discover where Apple hid the power supply: it's sandwiched
between the I/O panel and the logic board.
·
The power supply's
connecting cables are cleverly conceived, but a bit tricky to remove. Our handy
Torx driver is helpful here...
·
...and with that, the
I/O board and power supply peel away as a unit.
Step 18
·
The logic board is the
next logical step. The CPU is the last to go, left clinging to the side of the
heat sink via a thin smear of thermal paste.
·
After teasing it away
with a spudger, we decipher its markings:
o Quad-Core Intel Xeon E5-1620 v2 with 10 MB
L3 cache, clocked at 3.7 GHz, Turbo Boost up to 3.9 GHz.
·
While it took a bit of
a trek, a CPU upgrade appears entirely possible—and well worth it, with an alleged cost savings of $1050 for an upgrade to 12 cores.
Step 19
·
Let's identify the ICs
on the rear of the logic board:
o LGA 2011 (Socket R) CPU socket
o SMSC 1428-7 3233E5A
o IR C F3575 3X3YP
o NXP PA9517A Level
Translating I2C-Bus Repeater
o Texas Instruments 58872D
·
The front side of the
logic board:
o Intersil ISL 6367 Hybrid Digital Dual PWM Controller
Step 20
·
Hard to port! Port
board, that is.
·
Notable ICs on the
back of the port board:
o Broadcom BCM57762 Gigabit Ethernet Controller
o Intel DSL5520 Thunderbolt 2 Controller
o Fresco Logic FL1100 4-port
USB 3.0 Host Controller
o Parade PS8401A HDMI Jitter Cleaning Repeater
o Delta 8904C-F
·
The front side of the
port board:
o PLX Technology PEX8723 PCI Express
Switch
o Intel DSL5520 Thunderbolt 2 Controller
o Cirrus 4208-CRZ Audio Codec (seen in theMacBook Pro 15" Retina Display)
o Intersil 14AIRZ F335QV
o Texas Instruments 58888D
o Texas Instruments 58872D
·
Also along for the
ride is a standard BR2032 CMOS battery.
Step 22
·
With a rated output of
12.1 Volts and 37.2 Amps, we're looking at a 450 Watt power supply. The power
supply has no dedicated cooling, and relies on the main system fan to keep
cool—allowing the Mac Pro to idle at a whisper-quiet 12 dBA.
o For comparison, we found a 450 Watt PSU in our
recent Steam Machine
teardown. The Steam Machine's SilverStone power supply featured a
"silent running 80 mm fan with 18 dBA minimum."
·
And a quick look at
what's left on the behemoth of a heat sink: Heavy gauge, flat power cables run
from the PSU to the logic board and graphics cards, and remain intertwined in
the heat sink.
Step 23
·
With the I/O panel
cover belly-up, we spot one last trio of unidentified ICs, labeled as follows:
o Two M430 V380 H 39K CX88 G4
o One M430 V380 H 39K CX7S G4
·
We speculate they may
be Texas Instruments MSP430 16-bit Microcontrollers.
Step 24
·
Mac Pro Late 2013
Repairability Score: 8
out of 10(10 is easiest to
repair)
·
For being so compact,
the design is surprisingly modular and easy to disassemble. Non-proprietary
Torx screws are used throughout, and several components can be replaced
independently.
·
The easily-opened case
is designed to make RAM upgrades a snap.
·
The fan is easy to
access and replace.
·
While it will require
a bit of digging, the CPU is user-replaceable—meaning intrepid fixers should be
able to save considerably by upgrading from the base-level processor
configuration.
·
There is no room, or
available port, for adding your own internal storage. Apple has addressed this
with heaps of Thunderbolt, but we'd personally rather use the more widely
compatible SATA if we could.
·
With some proprietary
new connectors and tight cable routing, working on this $3,000 device without a
repair manual could be risky.
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