Mac Pro Early 2008

The Mac Pro "Eight Core" 2.8 (Early 2008) features two 2.8 GHz Quad Core 45-nm Intel Xeon E5462 (Harpertown/Penryn) processors with 12MB of L2 cache per processor (each pair of cores shares 6 MB), a 128-bit SSE4 SIMD vector engine, and 1.6 GHz "64-bit dual independent frontside buses." Through custom configuration, this model could be configured with a single 2.8 GHz Quad Core Xeon E5462 processor, two 3 GHz Quad Core Xeon E5472 processors, or two 3.2 GHz Quad Core Xeon X5482 processors.

The standard configuration featured 2GB of 800 MHz DDR2 EEC "fully-buffered" FB-DIMM memory, a 320 GB (7200 RPM, 8 MB cache) 3Gb/s Serial ATA hard drive, a double-layer 16X "SuperDrive", and an ATI Radeon HD 2600 XT graphics processor with 256MB of GDDR3 memory and two dual-link DVI ports.

Expansion includes two external 5.25" "optical" bays (one available by default), four internal 3.5" "cable-free, direct attach" hard drive bays (three available by default), two PCIe x4 slots, and two PCIe 2.0 x16 slots (one free with one graphics card installed). Port selection includes dual Gigabit Ethernet, five USB 2.0 ports, two Firewire "400" ports, two Firewire "800" ports, and optical digital audio in/out, and more. Bluetooth 2.0+EDR comes standard, AirPort Extreme (802.11g/n) and a modem are optional.

In comparison to the original Mac Pro which it superseded, the Mac Pro "Eight Core" 2.8 employs an enhanced architecture with improved speed and efficiency processors with larger L2 caches, a more advanced vector engine, faster frontside buses (1.6 GHz instead of 1.33 GHz), faster memory (800 MHz instead of 667 MHz), compatibility with optional faster Serial Attached SCSI drives (with the installation of the Mac Pro RAID card), and two 16-lane PCIe 2.0 slots.

This model, known as MacPro3,1, introduced the 45-nm "Harpertown/Penryn" processors, which offered improved power efficiency and thermal performance over the previous generation. [5, 11] Key features included the adoption of faster 800 MHz DDR2 FB-DIMM memory and PCIe 2.0 slots, which significantly boosted I/O performance. [5, 31] This solid, incremental upgrade refined the original Mac Pro design, delivering robust and reliable performance for the demanding applications of the time. [11] Its multi-core performance was particularly well-regarded, establishing it as a dependable workhorse for many professionals. [8]