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Inside The New Towers It Is Completely Different ... A Pictorial Review Of The Power Mac Tower's Innards

October 24, 2002
There are a few cosmetic differences to the external styling of the new Towers, compared to their predecessors. But for the most

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part they come in the same form factor ... a short tower with handles on each corner.

However on the inside it is a whole different story. Things have been completely remodeled and components have been switched around from where you would find them before. Now the processors are where the PCI slots used to be, and the hard drive is inverted from its previously prone position among other changes. The logic boards of these machines are based on the same architecture as the Xserve, Apple's server solution.

Below we take a detailed look at the innards of the new Power Mac Dual Processor Towers.

Draw bridge down .. a full on gander.

Click on picture for larger more detailed version

Looking at the innards from the back of the machine. You get a good picture of the huge fan that blasts air throughout the system. When going at full bore the fan sounds like there is a vacuum cleaner next to your ear. Luckily the fan only goes to 'full bore' status if your machine is getting extremely hot. Generally the computer will be maintained in its comfort zone by a more gentle hum. The fan is a variable speed type

Click on picture for larger more detailed version

Looking down on the logic board from the top.

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The huge heat sink dominates the logic board. Next to it on the right are the 4 RAM slots, then the graphics card and finally the 4 PCI slots

Click on picture for larger more detailed version

This is looking into the drive bays that are towards the front of the machine. Unless you have had extra drives added, this area will be empty, except for the awaiting cabling. You can have two Ultra ATA/66 installed into this space

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This is the other drive area. Two Ultra ATA/100 drives can fit into this area. One of them comes installed with your machine. The drives are loaded standing up .. as opposed to lying down flat

Click on picture for larger more detailed version

Additional Resources


 

In the center of this picture is the secondary fan which cools the optical drives. In the lower right hand is the Airport slot and in the upper right is the internal modem

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