Every time it updates its professional-level workstation, Apple brands the new Mac Pro as "the fastest Mac ever." It's an interesting dilemma for the company, because the boast -- albeit true -- is both exciting and humdrum. Wouldn't it bum you out if the latest top-of-the-line Mac weren't also the fastest?

Don't worry. The latest update for the Mac Pro pretty much lives up to expectations. In some ways, the basic quad-core 2.66-GHz Mac Pro that Apple sent over for review screamed. But it falls short of last year's version when it comes to great expectations of across-the-board performance leaps.

With this iteration, the Mac Pro takes a significant step forward by moving to Intel's new Nehalem processor, leaving behind the previous model's Harpertown and Penryn chips. (Yes, they're all officially Intel Xeon processors, but Intel's nomenclature is so arcane that it's better to go by those code names to keep the models straight.) For $2,499, the entry-level Mac Pro offers a quad-core 2.66-GHz processor, 3GB of DDR3 EEC memory, a 640GB hard drive, an 18x double-layer SuperDrive, and an Nvidia GeForce GT120 video card. For $800 more, you get two 2.26-GHz quad-core processors (for a total of eight cores) and 6GB of RAM. It's a hefty price bump, mostly for the additional CPU; Intel's newest processors still command a premium cost. There are also a variety of CPU options: Moving to a 2.93-GHz single quad-core Xeon adds $500 to the price of the base model -- or you can get two of them for $2,600 extra in the top model.

Apple's new Mac Pro sports the same as before. It's shown with Apple's 24-in. LED display.

If those prices seem high for a personal computer, they are. Granted, these Mac Pros approach performance numbers previously seen in Unix workstations costing in the five figures. And they offer Apple's traditional build quality, not to mention the vertical integration of hardware and software that can avoid driver updates and conflicts. But price does focus attention on value and on whether those Apple advantages are worth the cost.

Various commodity PC makers are starting to roll out their own Nehalem offerings at much lower prices. Lenovo, for instance, has put out workstations with Nehalem-based Xeons; its single-CPU, quad-core S20 starts at $1,070, with the eight-core, dual-CPU going for $1,550. Of course, these are bare-bones prices, with the features and expandability that are already built into the Mac Pros sure to cost extra elsewhere. But the ability to order a bare-bones model is something that has always been attractive to businesses. So tote up the balance sheet if you're comparing this workhorse with others.

Nehalem, yes, but lower clock speeds

Don't be misled by the lower clock speeds of the new Mac Pros compared with their predecessors, which offered CPUs ranging from 2.8 GHz to 3.2 GHz. Those processors had two dies and shared cache memory, while the new 64-bit, 45nm Nehalem processors are designed purely as quad-core chips. The single-die/four-core Nehalem has 256KB of dedicated Level 2 cache memory for each core, and 8MB of Level 3 cache for each processor. With multithread-aware applications, this more than makes up for any missing megahertz.

In addition, each Nehalem processor has an integrated memory controller, which obviates the need for a separate I/O chip; according to Apple, that gives the new Mac Pro much faster access to memory data, reducing latency by up to 40%.

All of this allows for some interesting internal magic, complete with hot-rodding code names. Hyper-Threading manages two computing threads running simultaneously on a single core. Turbo Boost overclocks a single core and turns off the others when an application accesses only one core. The QuickPath Interconnect system ties together the hard drives, I/O and two processors (in the high-end model) much more efficiently than the previous model's dual independent front-side buses.

About that video card...

The standard video card, the Nvidia GT 120 with 512MB of RAM, is a competent option for everyday work, though it compares poorly in benchmarks against the previous generation of Mac Pros, which came with an Nvidia GeForce 8800 GT. As a result, for professionals and most other power users, the $200 upsell of the ATI Radeon HD 4870, also with 512MB of RAM, is worth the money.

In a Call of Duty 4 time demo, our test machine delivered more than double the frame rate when moving from the GT 120 to the Radeon HD 4870. In fact, the Mac Pro with the GT 120 didn't even match published frame-rate numbers for an iMac with an 8800 GS graphics chip. (The 8800 GS is related to the GT.) Swapping in the Radeon HD 4870, though, made the Mac Pro the handy winner.

In other benchmarks, the review unit's quad-core 2.66-GHz racked up a Geekbench 2.1 score of 8350, an Xbench score of 214, and a Cinebench R10 multicore score of 14857. These numbers place this model squarely in line with the previous generation running two 2.8-GHz CPUs. This year's Mac Pro might not bury the older generation, which is selling at a discount now, but the Nehalem-based new Mac Pros look like they'll grow the gap soon. More about that later.

32GB of RAM will cost you

Looking to add RAM? The more the better, of course. Mac OS X, even the relatively mature Leopard version, loves RAM. But maxing out the Mac Pro's RAM (to 8GB on the quad-core model and 32GB on the octo-core) costs a premium if purchased through Apple. In the most extreme instance, 32GB of RAM configured from Apple costs $6,100, while the same RAM from a major Mac reseller is a third less.

Whatever amount you end up with, though, it's best to configure it in sets of threes, rather than in pairs. Since there are three memory channels per Nehalem processor, this allows saturation of all three for the best performance.

As a longtime Mac user, I can tell you that even with the "base" quad-core model, the sum total of the parts works, and works well. Boot times are on the order of "glance out the window" quick, and I've yet to see a spinning beach ball -- though I haven't had time to put this Mac Pro through months of production-line work and application installs -- the kind of general cruft build-up that can affect any computer.

I'm not a fan of a lot of the interface tweaks in Mac OS X 10.5, but overall, Apple has done a great job of further refining the OS so that it's a great companion to the powerful hardware. And if for some reason you want or need to run Windows, the Mac Pro, like all Intel-based Macs, can use Boot Camp or maturing consumer virtualization software such as Parallels Desktop or VMware Fusion.

The metal cheese-grater look remains

The Mac Pro is designed to be user-expandable.

The Mac Pro hasn't had a significant exterior overhaul for a while -- the new model's "cheese grater" case looks almost indistinguishable from the Power Mac G5 that usually sits under my desk. A few changes to the available ports are the most obvious differences: On the front there are two USB ports versus one, two FireWire 800 versus one FireWire 400 and an extra slot for a second optical drive. Out back, there are three rather than two USB ports, two FireWire 800 -- mine has one FireWire 400 and one FireWire 800 -- and a second gigabit Ethernet port. That's about all that separates them visually.

The internal hardware is arrayed in a similar way, though there was little to complain about in the first place. The Power Macs had an incredibly minimalist interior design, with most components cleanly arrayed with plenty of space around for airflow and fingers. The Mac Pro keeps the easy-access Serial ATA hard drive trays, allowing quick, cable-free configuration of up to four drives. (Apple also offers a $700 RAID card that allows you to set up a more secure, faster internal storage array.) Making things even easier is a new slide-out tray for the RAM and processors.

Since the Mac Pro is the only user-expandable Mac, you'd expect the options here to be good. They are, with four PCI Express 2.0 slots, two of which are x16 (one populated by the video card by default) and two x4. There may be more expandable monsters out there, but the Mac Pro offers a good trade-off between design and versatility.

As for the included low-profile keyboard, which follows the design lead of Apple's laptops, and the Apple Mighty Mouse, neither would be my first choice. Not having some sort of adjustable tilt for the keyboard will require many people to muss up their design-conscious desk with a magazine or something else as a prop. And the mouse is just a mess: The shape doesn't feel ergonomic, and it's way too easy to hit the wrong button (and tricky to hit the right one). But many Mac users are no doubt fine with the keyboard and mouse; it's a highly personal decision.

Also note that the Mac Pro does not ship with Wi-Fi capabilities by default. An internal AirPort Extreme card is a $50 option; most pros would rather take advantage of the high bandwidth and security of the Gigabit Ethernet ports. But it seems odd that this is the only Mac without wireless connectivity by default.

Greenpeace will be pleased

After Greenpeace pointedly hit Apple over environmental concerns in 2007, the company has made great strides toward eliminating toxins and maximizing recyclable materials in its hardware. (It also will take in defunct computers at Apple stores for recycling). Apple bills this as the "greenest Mac Pro ever" -- though, of course, no splash of color defiles the cool aluminum casing.

As part of that boast, Apple claims that it has reduced idle power consumption by 15%, met EnergyStar 4.0 and the upcoming 5.0 standards, eliminated the use of PVC and BFR, and considered recycling issues when designing its hardware. I can vouch that the Mac Pro is a lot quieter, whether at idle or under load, than a dual-G5 Power Mac, though video card fans can be a large part of the noise production.

I mentioned multithreaded applications earlier, and the new Mac Pros' advantage in this arena will most likely become even more pronounced in the future, as Apple pushes the Grand Central technology slated to debut with Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard. This not only makes the coming Mac OS X multicore-aware, but the technology includes tools for developers to add multicore threading to existing and future applications. In other words, the more cores you have, the more boost you'll see in future OS X releases. This makes the $800 price for the dual-Xeon Mac Pro -- which sports 16 cores! -- the cost of future-proofing.

And while it's too early to tell, the Radeon HD option might also add some future-proofing to your workstation investment (and at this price range, the Mac Pro is definitely more a workstation than a personal computer, and it's certainly an investment). Another piece of tasty tech promised for Snow Leopard -- OpenCL -- is designed to allow applications to offload some general computing tasks from the CPU, no matter how many dozens of cores there are, to the GPU, which lies relatively idle for most tasks. This isn't automatic, as developers would have to introduce this code into their applications. But even if this doesn't pan out as planned, opting for the Radeon video card seems to be a worthwhile upgrade.

Final thoughts

The updated Mac Pro is an appropriate refresh ahead of the anticipated release of Snow Leopard. Both the hardware and software look familiar superficially but hold within them the promise of significant advances when they team up later this year.

Depending on what applications you rely on for work, your frequency of machine turnover, and what sort of deals you can find, the 2008 Mac Pros still offer a lot of value and power. A top-of-the-line '08 will offer similar performance in most areas to the newer ones; they have more RAM capacity and a slower SuperDrive, but Apple is offering ATI Radeon HD 4870 kits for the 2008s.

Apple deserves some kudos for being perhaps the first computer manufacturer out of the gate with Nehalem-based workstations, but that may have come at the cost of, well, cost. As Intel amortizes its development costs, we may see price drops on the new Xeon line. But early adopters have always paid that kind of price to get the newest and shiniest. And the new Mac Pros are, indeed, "the fastest Macs ever."

Dan Turner has been writing about science and technology for over a decade at publications such as Salon, eWeek, MacWeek and The New York Times.

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One of the wonders of the modern computer is its modular nature. And at times like this, when money may be tight, it's more tempting than ever to open up your PC's case and effect an easy upgrade instead of spending much, much more on a new system.

Some extra memory will improve your machine's ability to multitask, while a faster hard drive will enhance file writing. The proposition changes a little if your system is a laptop – but it needn't. Your notebook computer is in many ways just as easy to upgrade as your desktop. All it takes is a little more preparation.

Here we pass on the tips that we've learned from cracking open the shells of numerous notebook computers, from picking the best tools for the job to finding the right guide to help you do things properly.

Upgrading a laptop is very different to upgrading a desktop PC. Whip off the case of a standard tower and the motherboard is instantly exposed, with the slots, CPU and drive all easily accessible. In a notebook, the components are crammed into a much smaller space and are often layered on top of each other. Some forward-thinking manufacturers design their machines to provide easy access to the parts that are most likely to be upgraded.

On the back of a Toshiba Satellite Pro, for example, you'll find cutaway hatches for accessing the RAM, Wi-Fi card slots and the hard disk. Other machines hide their wares, requiring you to remove the keyboard and sometimes even other components before you can get at a part to upgrade it.

Why bother upgrading?

There are three good reasons for upgrading your laptop. The first, and most important, is cost. You can easily eke out the effective life of a laptop with a cheap upgrade or two.

Another reason for cracking open your laptop case is to make repairs. Notebooks are prone to drops and knocks; components can come loose and elements with moving parts are easily broken. You'll save yourself a bundle in labour costs if you're confident enough to replace an ailing optical drive or sticky keyboard.

Our third reason for carrying out some DIY upgrades is to make your notebook a better, stronger and faster device. Adding the latest Wi-Fi card or a solid state drive to speed up data access could transform your notebook from a mobile standby into an effective desktop replacement.

Before you start

It's important to begin with the right tools. While modern desktop cases are held together with quick-release catches, you'll need at least a small Philips screwdriver to tackle a laptop case. A cheap, basic set of electrical screwdrivers should be fine, although in some cases we've had to resort to a powered screwdriver to loosen tightly fitted screws.

Some laptops – notably Dell and Apple notebook computers – have Torx screws to deal with, which have a star-shaped slot at the top. It might well be worth investing in a set of screwdrivers for those as well. You shouldn't have to pay more than £4, and they'll come in handy for small hex socket screws too.

In rare instances you may need a soldering iron, but only to repair any damage you've wrought by being over-eager with your modifications. You'll find all the tools that we've mentioned here in your local DIY shop or online at www.amazon.co.uk/tools.

These are standard tools, but we've found that a couple of other bits and pieces come in handy too. A telescopic magnetic pick-up tool can be useful for grabbing small screws that have fallen down cracks: Silverline do one for around £2. A pair of pincers or tweezers will help you when removing small ribbon cables or motherboard connectors.

You'll also find that many laptop cases click together with plastic clips. A plastic putty spreader is often the right size to get between gaps and strong enough to give you some leverage without causing too much scratch damage to the exterior case. Of course, you'll only need something like this if you're planning on fully disassembling your machine – and hopefully it won't come to that.

No laptop model is the same as another. You can expect notebooks in the same family to be broadly similar, but it's never guaranteed that all the screws are in the same place, or that the hard drive always slots into a handy bay on the side. Sometimes you have to remove the keyboard to get to a screw, or take off the back to access the hard drive.

Before you start, flip over your machine and take a good look at the bays and ports on the back and sides. If it's not clear how to easily access a component, don't go blundering in: read the manual first.

Some laptop manufacturers provide service manuals online, including Dell and HP. Websites dedicated to 'take-apart' guides – documents created by enthusiasts that detail disassembly procedures – are also helpful.

If you have a Toshiba laptop, try www.irisvista.com. MacBook owners are well served by iFixit. The largest repository of guides we've found is Repair4Laptop, which hosts a list of guides for laptops from around 100 manufacturers. If none of these sources comes up with the goods, try 9 Manuals. Here you'll find a splendid set of official service guides in PDF format that you can download for $5.99.

Gathering tech specs

The main difference between a service manual and a take-apart guide is that the former will give you a full, official overview of the components in your machine. That's important when considering upgrades. An official guide should answer all sorts of questions, like what kind of memory you need, if there are any spare USB or PCIe ports in the machine and whether the optical drive is of a standard size.

If you don't have access to a full service manual, you can interrogate your notebook's architecture using free software tools. We recommend System Information for Windows, a freeware program that interrogates your computer and digs out valuable hardware and software information. It can tell you what drives you have installed and what the interfaces are, what kind of RAM is present and more. You can even use it to retrieve software licenses and passwords, which will come in handy for your pre-upgrade back-up routine.

A similar program, PC Wizard 2008, is also free. It supplies you with sufficient data to attempt upgrades, though in less detail and with no software information. It also includes a handy benchmarking tool, so you can measure any improvements in performance after you've upgraded.

Some guides recommend a BIOS update before upgrading. We think that's only really necessary in two specific circumstances: if your machine is having problems that diagnostic tests suggest are BIOS related, or if you want to install components that your current BIOS won't support. We say this because flashing your BIOS is a procedure that can turn your laptop into an unbootable brick if done badly. It's also trickier to carry out on notebooks than on desktop PCs, because most lack a floppy drive.

One way around this is to boot into Windows using an old install disc and then access the BIOS upgrade – available from your motherboard manufacturer – from a CD-RW. Alternatively, and more safely, try www.bootdisk.com for DOS and Windows boot discs, including a bespoke 'Flash CD' with BIOS upgrade instructions.

Carrying out the upgrades

Now that you have the right tools, have correctly identified the part that you want to replace and have a service manual or disassembly guide to work with, you're ready to begin the upgrade process.

As with desktop upgrades, your machine shouldn't be plugged in to the mains – that's just common sense. Ensure that the system is fully powered down – not just hibernating – and then remove the main battery. This step is vital. If you miss it, you could damage your system or get a shock when you open up the machine.

Next, touch something metal to dissipate any static in your body and bear in mind that you should continue doing this periodically if you're going to be working on the machine for a long time. It should go without saying, but proceed carefully.

Once you're into the case, remove elements slowly and keep an eye out for ribbon cables and small wires. Unless you have to access the motherboard or PSU, it's rare that you will have to fully disassemble your laptop.

Take care with where you put the screws as you remove them from the case. The best way to keep track of them is to write down where you retrieved them from on a piece of paper and stick the corresponding screws next to the description with tape.

For example, if you're removing five screws from the back panel, write down 'Back panel – five screws'. It doesn't take long and will save you a lot of time when you come to the reassembly stage. Better still, some notebooks have a unique identifier printed next to each screw.

Memory first

RAM is simple to upgrade in tower PCs, and the same is often true for notebooks. In many cases you can access RAM slots without taking your machine apart at all; many modern laptops have memory access ports that are covered by a single plate.

As for finding out what kind of RAM to buy, try Crucial's Memory Advisor or visit Kingston's memory tools web page. Both will tell you what kind of RAM you need and the maximum amount that your system can use.

Adding RAM increases system performance by reducing swap file and virtual memory requirements. The more RAM that's available, the more effectively programs will run.

An even cheaper way to improve memory handling for Windows Vista users is ReadyBoost, which uses flash memory as a drive cache. Vista's not fussy about the kind of flash memory used, so for about a fiver you can effectively add 4GB of virtual memory to your machine with a single removable USB key.

Intel's Turbo Memory system – codenamed Robson – takes this technology a step further. It uses flash memory on a PCI Express mini card to reduce the load on your hard disk by moving your frequently accessed files to an onboard solid state drive. This is an integrated upgrade that's installed into a slot on your motherboard. Intel says that having this cache located close to the CPU significantly boosts disk performance.

The PCI Express mini card slot is mostly used in modern laptops for Wi-Fi provision. Chances are that if your old machine has an accessible slot, there'll already be a Wi-Fi card in it. Some modern notebooks may have a spare second slot, so check your documentation as this can offer some of the most interesting upgrade routes available to laptop owners.

As well as Wi-Fi and Turbo Memory, digital TV tuner cards such as the Avermedia A306 and internal GPS systems such as the AzureWave GPS Module can also be installed into this slot. There are even consumer 3G cards lurking just beyond the horizon.

Hard and optical drives

Although laptop hard drives are fairly generic and conform mainly to a specific 2.5in form factor, you'll find several variations in the way that they're fitted. Some are accessed through a panel on the bottom of your notebook, while others slide into a bay on the side in a similar way to your optical drive. The hard disk could even be buried under several other components and require a partial disassembly – as is the case with the early iBook – before you can access it.

Still, once you've found it, replacing a hard drive is a fairly easy procedure. Take a look at our 'Upgrade your hard disk' walkthrough overleaf for an easy-to-follow guide to the process.

For peace of mind, make sure that you back up the contents of the old drive before proceeding. Just backing up documents is never quite enough to ensure that you've got all your data, so try the free tool CloneZilla and make a full copy of your hard drive. CD and DVD drives are similarly generic, with a standard 5.25in device fitting into most machines.

However, there are exceptions to this, so it's worth checking that the drive you're buying is compatible with your machine before you proceed. You'll also need the right fittings, including the correct faceplate and runners. If you're replacing an old optical drive then you should be able to reuse those parts from it, but there's always a chance that things won't work out so, again, it's best to check first.

In most cases, replacing the optical drive is a fairly easy upgrade, with the device fitting into a bay in the side of the machine. It's often a case of undoing a couple of screws, sliding out the old part carefully and then sliding in the new one, making sure that the connectors are pushed home.

Replacing an old CD drive with a DVD-RW one is now a fairly cheap and worthwhile upgrade to make – you'll find drives for around £30 at www.saverstore.com.

Upgrading your laptop will require a lot of preparation and patience, but if you carefully pick the right approach, do your research first and always proceed with caution, you can add years to the effective lifespan of your trusty machine.

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First published in PC Plus Issue 280

Like this article? Then check out How to overclock your notebook

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