Apple uses their own custom SSD blade design. A regular M.2 SSD blade won't work here (just won't fit).

Sadly, the M.2 standard is just too loose. Technically the Apple SSD blade is either a PCIe 2 or 4 lane design (depending on the model) or in the case of the older models a modified SATA interface. They all use custom Apple firmware. So from the specs you would think the Samsung 950 Pro would work and Samsung does make the OEM unit for Apple which is a modified version of the 950 Pro design in the latest version of MacBook Pro's & Airs. Sorry Filip is not correct here. M.2 covers a group of different interfaces so you need to make sure you get the correct drive for the given system based on what the system is expecting. In this case the MacBook Air uses a custom PCIe 2.0 (2 lane) PHY interface with a AHCI drive interface.

You can't use the newer PCIe 3.0 drive as then you would need a NVMe drive interface. I strongly recommend sticking with either Apples SSD or either OWC or Transcend 3rd party SSD's which are designed to work in your system Vs using these M.2 adapters. Our testing a year ago showed they just didn't cut it. Look here: Gilles seems to have done a lot of experimenting and research. I am writing this from a 2015 MBA 11' with a 512MB 960 Pro. I had to create a High Sierra startup disk but it worked fine. You will not be able to use the internet based recovery for this model after upgrade though.

Speed wise the 960 Pro saturates the 4xPCIe 2.0 interface. Giving 1400 MB/s. This is the same speed others are getting with the 960 EVO so it isn't worth spending extra for the PRO. The MBA 2013/2014 reportedly are 2xPCIe 2.0 This limits them to 700MB/s. I saw these speeds when I didn't have the drive seated correctly in my 2015 MBA. If you have a 2013/2014 MBA I expect you can make it work in High Sierra but you will not reach anywhere near the 960 Pro speed potential.

I'd save my money and get one of the cheaper SSD drives. That Mac Rumours thread should help determine which drives are tested working.

. August 7, 2006; 12 years ago ( 2006-08-07) (1st generation). December 19, 2013; 4 years ago ( 2013-12-19) (2nd generation) Intel E5 (current release) Predecessor Related articles, Website The Mac Pro is a series of and computers designed, manufactured and sold by since 2006. The Mac Pro, in most configurations and in terms of speed and performance, is the most powerful computer that Apple offers. It is a high-end model of the four desktop computers in the current lineup, the other three being the,.

The first-generation Mac Pro has a rectangular tower case which outwardly resembles the last version of the, and has similar expansion capabilities. The first Mac Pro offered a dual Xeon processor. It was replaced by a dual Xeon model on April 4, 2007, and again on January 8, 2008 by a dual Quad-core Xeon model. The 2012 Mac Pro is nearly identical to a model that was announced on July 27, 2010.

It features / architecture Intel Xeon processors. These CPUs offer optionally twelve processing cores.

The machine itself at its most evolved is able to accommodate up to four 2 TB hard disk drives or 512 GB solid state drives, as well as the ATI Radeon HD 5770/5870 units, one per slot. The second-generation design of Mac Pro was announced at the 2013 (WWDC) opening keynote on June 10, 2013. Apple states that the new Mac Pro achieves twice the overall performance of the last model.

The redesigned Mac Pro takes up less than one eighth the volume of immediately previous model, being shorter (9.9 inches (25 cm)), thinner (6.6 inches (17 cm)) and lighter (11 pounds (5.0 kg)). The machine supports one central processing unit (CPU) (up to a 12-core Xeon E5 ), four 1866 MHz DDR3 slots, dual AMD FirePro D series GPUs (up to D700 with 6 GB each), and PCIe-based flash storage. There is updated wireless communication and support for six Thunderbolt displays through the Thunderbolt 2 ports; there is also a HDMI port.

Reviews have been generally positive, with caveats. The first generation of the Mac Pro featured an aluminium case that was similar to that of the Power Mac G5, with the exception of an additional optical drive bay, and a new arrangement of on both the front and the back. Apple stated that an Intel-based replacement for the -based Power Mac G5 machines had been expected for some time before the Mac Pro was formally announced on August 7, 2006 at the annual (WWDC). The, and had moved to an Intel-based starting in January 2006, leaving the Power Mac G5 as the only machine in the Mac lineup still based on the processor architecture Apple had used since 1993. 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 in the workstation market.

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 for, which demands storage and memory far in excess of a general desktop machine. Additionally, the used in these applications are generally and highly, which Apple's ProRes white paper describes as scaling almost linearly with additional. Apple's previous machine aimed at this market, the Power Mac G5, has up to two dual-core processors (marketed as 'Quad-Core'), but lacks the storage expansion capabilities of the newer design.

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 US listed the 'Mac Pro at $2499', the price for the mid-range model. The system 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 pre-2013 Mac Pro was Apple's only desktop with standard expansion slots for and other expansion cards. Apple received criticism after an incremental upgrade to the Mac Pro line following the 2012. The line received more default memory and increased processor speed but still used Intel's older Westmere-EP processors instead of the newer E5 series. The line also lacked then-current technologies like III, USB 3, and, the last of which had been added to every other Macintosh at that point. An email from Apple CEO promised a more significant update to the line in 2013.

Apple stopped shipping the first-generation Mac Pro in Europe on March 1, 2013 after an amendment to a safety regulation left the professional Mac non-compliant. The last day to order was February 18, 2013.

The first generation Mac Pro was removed from Apple's online store following unveiling of the redesigned second generation Mac Pro at a media event on October 22, 2013. CPU The 2009 and later Mac Pro systems were available with one or two (CPU) with options giving four, six, eight, or twelve. As an example, the eight core standard configuration Mac Pro uses two Quad core ×8 Intel E5620 Xeon CPUs at 2.4, but could be configured with two Intel Xeon X5670 CPUs at 2.93 GHz. The 2008-2009 model CPUs use the socket, while the 2010 and later use the socket, meaning either can be removed and replaced with compatible 64-bit Intel Xeon CPUs; however, it should be noted that as a 64-bit EFI firmware was not introduced until the MacPro3,1, earlier models can only operate as 32-bit despite having 64-bit Xeon processors. The newer LGA 1366 sockets utilize Intel's (QPI) integrated into the CPU in lieu of an independent; this means the 'bus' frequency is relative to the CPU chipset, and upgrading a CPU is not bottlenecked by the computer's existing architecture.

Memory The original Mac Pro's uses 667; the early 2008 model uses 800 MHz FB-DIMMS, the 2009 and onward Mac Pro use 1066 MHz ECC for the standard models, and 1333 MHz ECC DIMMs for systems configured with 2.66 GHz or faster CPUs. In the original and 2008 models, these modules are installed in pairs, one each on two. The cards have 4 DIMM slots each, allowing a total of 32 of memory (8 × 4 ) 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 installation of a single FB-DIMM, the peak is 8 /s, but this can increase to 16 /s by installing two, one on each of the two buses, which is the default configuration from Apple. While electrically the FB-DIMMs are standard, for pre-2009 Mac Pro models Apple specifies larger-than-normal heatsinks on the memory modules.

Problems have been reported by users who have used third party RAM with normal size FB-DIMM heatsinks. 2009 and later Mac Pro computers do not require memory modules with heatsinks. Hard drives. An example of a Mac Pro's hard drive tray The Mac Pro had room for four internal 3.5' in four internal 'bays'. The hard drives were mounted on individual trays (also known as 'sleds') by captive screws. A set of four drive trays was supplied with each machine. Adding hard drives to the system did not require cables to be attached as the drive was connected to the system simply by being inserted into the corresponding drive slot.

A case lock on the back of the system locked the disks trays into their positions. The Mac Pro also supported solid-state drives in the 4 hard drive bays via an SSD-to-hard drive sled adapter (mid-2010 models and later), and by third-party solutions for earlier models (e.g., by an adapter/bracket which plugged into an unused slot). Various 2.5-inch SSD drive capacities and configurations were available as options. The Mac Pro was also available with an optional hardware card.

With the addition of a controller card or SAS controller card, SAS drives could be directly connected to the system's ports. Two optical were provided, each with a corresponding SATA port and an port. The Mac Pro had one port and could support two PATA devices in the optical drive bays.

Apple Mac Pro Pcie Blank Cover For Macbook Air

It had a total of six SATA ports – four were connected to the system's drive bays, and two were not connected. The extra SATA ports could be put into service through the use of after-market extender cables to connect internal optical drives, or to provide ports with the use of an eSATA bulkhead connector. However, the two extra SATA ports were unsupported and disabled under. A built-to-order Mac Pro could be configured with up to 8 of storage (4 × 2 TB disks) or 2 TB (4 × 512 GB ).

Expansion cards Early 2008 Early 2009, Mid 2010+2012 Slot 4 04× 04× Slot 3 Slot 2 16× 16× Slot 1 (2 Slots wide) 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 of power in total. The first slot was double wide and intended to hold the main, arranged with an empty area the width of a normal card beside it to leave room for the large 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' held the cards in place, which is itself held in place by two 'captive' that can be loosened by hand without tools and will not fall out of the case.

On the original Mac Pro introduced in August 2006, the PCIe slots can be configured individually to give more to devices that require it, with a total of 40 'lanes', or 13 GB/s total. When running, the Mac Pro did not support or, limiting its ability to use the latest 'high-end gaming' products; however, individuals have reported success with both CrossFire and SLI installations when running, as SLI and CrossFire compatibility is largely a function of. 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 Early-2008 and later Mac Pros had PCIe slots hardwired as follows: External connectivity. The backs of a Power Mac G5 (left) and a Mac Pro (right) show the differences in arrangement. Note the twin fans on the Power Mac and the single fan on the Mac Pro as well as the new I/O port arrangement. For external connectivity, the Mac Pro included five ports, two and two (Late 2006 until Early 2008), respectively four FireWire 800 (Early 2009 until Mid 2012) ports.

Was supported with two built-in ports. A/b/g/n support required an optional module in the Mid 2006, Early 2008 and Early 2009 models, whereas in the 2010 model and later Wi-Fi was standard. Also required an optional module in the Mid 2006 model, but was standard in the Early 2008 and newer models. Displays were supported by one or (optionally) more graphics cards.

More recent cards featured two connectors and one dual-link (DVI) port, with various configurations of on-card available. Digital ( optical) audio and analog 3.5 mm stereo for sound in and out were included, the latter becoming available on both the front and back of the case. Unlike other Mac computers, the Mac Pro did not include an receiver (required to use the ). In, could be accessed on the Mac Pro (and other Macs) using the (⌘)-.

A comparison of the internals of the Power Mac G5 (left) and the Mac Pro (right). From 2006 through 2012, the exterior of the Mac Pro's aluminum case was very similar to that of the Power Mac G5, with the exception of an additional optical drive bay, a new arrangement of on both the front and the back, and one less exhaust vent on the back. The case could be opened by operating a single lever on the back, which unlocked one of the two sides of the machine, as well as the. All of the for memory, PCIe cards and drives could be accessed with the side panel removed and no tools were required for installation. The Mac Pro's processors generated much less heat than the previous dual-core, so the size of the internal cooling devices were reduced significantly. This allowed the interior to be re-arranged, leaving more room at the top of the and doubling the number of internal. This also allowed the elimination of the large clear plastic air deflector used as part of the cooling system in the Power Mac G5.

Less heat also meant less air to move out of the case for cooling during normal operations; the Mac Pro was very quiet in normal operation, quieter than the much noisier Power Mac G5, and proved difficult to measure using common sound pressure level meters. The handle on and cooling air intake configuration of the has caused Macintosh enthusiasts to refer to the 1st generation as the ' Mac Pro. Operating systems The Mac Pro comes with 1.1, a successor to Apple's use of and the wider industry's use of. Apple's provides BIOS backwards compatibility, allowing dual and triple boot configurations. These operating systems are installable on -based Apple computers:.

and later., and & (hardware drivers are included in Boot Camp). Other x86 operating systems such as, and This is made possible by the presence of an x86 Intel architecture as provided by the CPU and the BIOS which Apple has provided on top of EFI.

Installing any additional other than Windows is not supported directly by Apple. Though Apple's Boot Camp drivers are only for Windows, it is often possible to achieve full or nearly full compatibility with another OS by using third-party. Mac Pro in late 2013 with its aluminum cylinder cover removed, as shown at the Apple Senior Vice President of Marketing presented a 'sneak peek' of the completely redesigned Mac Pro during the 2013 keynote.

The video revealed an overhauled case design, a polished reflective aluminum cylinder built around a central thermal dissipation core and vented by a single fan, which pulls air from under the case, through the core, and out the top of the case. Apple states that the second generation Mac Pro achieves twice the performance of the last model. The model is assembled in Austin, Texas, by Apple's supplier on a highly automated line.

Apple released the new Mac Pro on December 19, 2013. The cylindrical thermal core was unable to adapt to changing hardware trends and left the Mac Pro without updates for over three years, leading Apple to make a rare admission of a product's failure in April 2017 when it detailed the issues surrounding the design and promised a totally redesigned Mac Pro. The design of the second generation Mac Pro has received mixed reviews, which has been described as appearing like a 'small black trash can', or or 's helmet. Hardware The redesigned Mac Pro takes up less than one-eighth the volume of the immediately previous model, being shorter at 9.9 inches (25 cm), thinner at 6.6 inches (17 cm) and lighter at 11 pounds (5.0 kg). It supports one central processing unit (CPU) (up to a 12-core Xeon E5 ), four 1866 MHz DDR3 slots, dual AMD FirePro D series GPUs (up to D700 with 6 GB each), and PCIe-based flash storage. There is a 3× antenna system for the unit's networking interface, to facilitate close-range wireless functions such as music transfer, keyboards, mice, tablets, speakers, security, cameras, and printers. The system can simultaneously support six, or three.

Mac Pro setup The second generation Mac Pro has a redesigned configuration of. It has a port, dual ports, six ports, four ports, and combined digital Mini-TOSlink optical / 3.5 mm stereo mini jack for audio output.

It also has a headphones mini jack (the two are distinctly selectable within the Sound System Preference panel, Output tab). There is no dedicated port for inputting audio. The system has a low-fidelity internal mono speaker. The Thunderbolt 2 ports support up to thirty-six Thunderbolt devices (six per port) and can concurrently support up to three. This design requires two GPUs to support the seven display outputs (HDMI and six Thunderbolt). The I/O panel illuminates itself when the unit senses it has been moved to make it easier for the user to see the ports.

Unlike the previous model, it has no FireWire 800 ports, dedicated in/out ports, a, DVI port, 3.5-inch drive bays for replaceable storage drives, or changeable internal PCIe slots. Instead, there are six ports to connect high-speed external peripherals, including enclosures for internal PCIe cards.

Apple's website mentions only as user-serviceable, though third party tear-downs show nearly all components can be removed and replaced. A lock switch on the aluminum casing allows for easy access to the internals, as well as fitting a security lock with its own cable, and components are secured with standard screws. The flash storage and GPUs use proprietary connectors and are specially sized to fit into the enclosure. Unlike the rest of the Macintosh line the is not soldered to the logic board and can be replaced with another socket processor, including processor options not offered by Apple.

The type of RAM modules that Apple supplies with the late-2013 Mac Pro are either unbuffered on the up to 8 GB modules (shown on each module as PC3-14900 E). The optional 16 GB modules are ECC registered modules (shown on each module as PC3-14900 R). The higher-capacity 32 GB modules that some third-party vendors offer are also RDIMM. The UDIMM and RDIMM module types cannot be mixed.

Apple publishes recommended configurations to use. Operating systems Apple's provides BIOS backwards compatibility, allowing dual and triple boot configurations. These operating systems are installable on x64-based Apple computers:. and later., and (hardware drivers are included in Boot Camp). via Linux installers (Boot Camp does not yet provide Linux support in the same way it does with Windows) Specifications Model Late 2013 Component Release date December 19, 2013 Model numbers A1481 Model identifier MacPro6,1 mode EFI64 mode Intel C602J.

4x 3.0. Built-in mono speaker. 6×. Audio output/optical digital audio output. Headphone Video out 1.4 and Reception Reception of the new design has been mixed, initially receiving positive reviews, but more negative in the long term. The performance has been widely lauded, especially handling video tasks on the dual GPU units, with some reviewers noting the ability to apply dozens of filters to realtime in. Drive performance, connected via, is also widely mentioned as a strong point.

Technical reviewers praised the API under which the machine's powerful twin GPUs and its multi-core CPU can be treated as a single pool of computing power. However, in late 2013 through early 2014, some reviewers have noted the lack of internal expandability, second CPU, serviceability, and questioned the then-limited offerings via ports. By 2016, reviewers started to agree that the Mac Pro was lacking in functionality and power, and should be updated by Apple. Apple later revealed in 2017 that the thermal core design had limited the ability to upgrade the Mac Pro's GPUs and that a new design was under development, to be released sometime after 2017. On September 18, 2018, the Mac Pro surpassed the 's production life record for an unchanged Mac model, with the Plus having remained on sale unchanged for 1,734 days.

Apple Mac Pro Desktop

3rd generation In April 2018, Apple confirmed that a new redesigned Mac Pro will be released in 2019 to replace the 2nd generation Mac Pro. The, released in December 2017, serves as a stopgap release between the two generations, also bridging the gap between the iMac and the current Mac Pro. Mac Pro Server On November 5, 2010, Apple introduced the Mac Pro Server, which officially replaced the line of Apple as of January 31, 2011. The Mac Pro Server includes an unlimited license and an Intel Xeon 2.8 GHz Quad-Core processor, with 8 GB of DDR3 RAM. In mid-2012, the Mac Pro Server was upgraded to an Intel Xeon 3.2 GHz Quad-Core processor. The Mac Pro Server was discontinued on October 22, 2013, with the introduction of the second-generation Mac Pro. However, the software package can be purchased from the Mac App Store.

References.