Figure 2-1: The About This Mac window identifies the processor and amount of RAM.
Selecting Processors for Your Mac Servers
To get a particular type of processor in a Mac, you have to select the Mac model. For any given model, Apple offers choices in clock speed. The Mac Pro provides the most options in processors at purchase time, giving you a choice of different processors and a choice of having a second processor.
Processors with multiple cores act as multiple processors. Two dual-core processors are equivalent to one quad-core processor, which is why processing power is sometimes described in terms of the number of cores rather than the number of processors.
You don’t need a brand-new Mac for Mountain Lion Server. An older Mac is perfectly fine — as long as it has a 64-bit Intel processor. When in doubt, check the About This Mac window (see Figure 2-1), accessible from the Apple menu. This window also reveals how much memory you have in the machine.
For most Mac models, you can’t upgrade a processor. You can upgrade a processor in Mac Pro, but doing so is difficult and voids the warranty. For a Mac Pro no longer under warranty, check out this website: www.everymac.com/systems/apple/mac_pro/faq/mac-pro-mid-2010-westmere-how-to-upgrade-processors.html. Here, you can find information for various releases of the Mac Pro from 2008 and earlier to more modern models.
Get OS X Mountain Lion Server For Dummies now with the O’Reilly learning platform.
O’Reilly members experience books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.
