One of the Main problems with multitasking is that sometimes you miss an important notification, which grinds things to a halt. Sure, you can arrange all your windows so that they’re all viewable, but unless you have a pair of 30-inch displays, that method gets cluttered very fast. However, there’s another great little utility that works quite well.

Growl is a system extension that keeps an eye on your applications and notifies you of important updates with an unobtrusive window.

Many popular programs are supported by Growl, including perennial favorites like Toast, Firefox, Adium, and  StuffIt Expander. There are also add-ons that add notifications for Safari, Mail, iChat, iTunes, iCal, and a host of others. There’s even a command-line tool to allow you Terminal jockeys out there to add Growl notifications to your shell scripts.

At first, I resisted installing this notification system. Then, I actually started using it. Now, I get notifications as soon as files are done downloading, when I get emails or instant messages, and various other bits of information that are happening that I should know about, but am not actively monitoring.
Has really made my work flow more efficient, and it may do the same for yours.

You can find Growl at the author’s Web site, or in the “System Enhancements” folder of the Shareware collection included with every OWC and Newer Technology Storage Solution.

If you run Windows on your computer, you may want to get up to speed on Conficker, the computer worm that has been spread all over the Internet. According to various sources, estimates claim as many as 10 million computers may have the worm. While it is inactive now, it can be passed on, and the variant Conficker-C is supposedly scheduled to receive instructions on April 1st. It seems no one really knows what the worm will do, because it depends on the instructions it receives. Whether this is an April Fool’s hoax remains to be seen.

Recommended Sites/Links

You can watch an informative 60 Minutes interview on the CBS News Video page to learn more about viruses in general and specifically, the Conficker worm. Lesley Stahl interviews Symantec VP, Steve Trilling, Google VP, Vince Serf, and Don Jackson, Dir. of Threat Intelligence at SecureWorks. If you can’t load the video, the text of the interview is also online.

Symantec Corp. provides a page of useful information, including what to do if you’re infected with Conficker. Their Threat Explorer page keeps daily track of all risks and vulnerabilities, posts the name of each threat, and assesses threat severity. This page is very useful if you want to keep tabs on future potential problems.

CNET has a Conficker FAQ, titled FAQ: Conficker time bomb ticks, but don’t expect boom, including history of the worm and what Microsoft has done to avert the threat.

PC Magazine’s Security Watch blog has also posted The 7 Most Important Things to Know About Conficker. This simple and straightforward page covers how to avoid Conficker and how it works.

The most comprehensive information lies in Wikipedia, complete with a surprising list of affected agencies worldwide, under the Impact paragraph. The Conficker page specifies:  “This article documents a current event. Information may change rapidly as the event progresses.”

Linux/Mac Users Immune

While Linux and Mac users are generally immune to worms of this nature, and specifically immune to Conficker, if you use Windows through BootCamp, Parallels, or VMWare Fusion, you may be vulnerable and should take appropriate precautions. OWC sells the Mac OS X 10.4 and 10.5 compatible, Virus Barrier X5 from Intego, which includes a year of virus definition updates. We also sell Parallels and VMWare Fusion, but you might want to wait until April 2nd to install. Symantec has the software you need to protect your Windows install.

Everyone knows that the speed of your Mac’s processor is not the only factor to consider when you need that power to process graphics, sound, or video. How much RAM you have installed is also a critical factor. The new “Nehalem”-based Mac Pro models are no different, and the stock configurations offered don’t maximize your RAM. OWC to the rescue!

Twice The RAM vs. Factory Options

OWC offers up to three 4GB module-based upgrades not offered by the factory for the Mac Pro Quad-Core and 8-Core that allow you to pump up your RAM to 12GB (3-4GB RAM sticks), 16GB (4-4GB RAM sticks), or even 24GB (6-4GB RAM sticks, 8-Core Mac Pro models). The 16GB kit from OWC offers double the memory of the highest factory installed option (8GB) for the Quad-Core models. These high performance multi-channel 1066MHz DDR3 72-bit ECC memory upgrades represent a savings up to 70% on similar upgrades available from factory installs. Choose the RAM you want from our Qualified Upgrades for Apple Mac Pro web page.

Save up to $4300

For example, the 32GB factory installed memory upgrade for the Mac Pro 8-Core costs $6,100, compared to the $1799.99 OWC 32GB Memory Kit  - a savings of $4,300. In addition to the increased choices and savings offered by OWC Memory Upgrades, Mac Pro owners can retain their original factory memory modules for future use or send the modules to OWC for a cash back trade-in of up to $20 per Apple factory memory module.

It’s so simple, just slide out the processor tray, snap those new sticks in and you’re good to go. If you need help, never fear, our free online instructional video takes you through the upgrade steps; just click the Memory tab.

OWC Memory Upgrade Kits for the 2009 Mac Pro “Nehalem” models are engineered with premium quality components and are designed to meet, if not exceed, Apple Design Specifications, including use of Apple required thermal sensor equipped EEPROM, JEDEC board design, and chip components; and are fully RoHS and JEDEC compliant.

Performance Tested Proven

If more options and huge savings don’t already have you convinced on the value of upgrading with OWC, then check out our performance benchmarks for these upgrades.  Up to 51% faster performance from “the fastest Mac ever!”

Photoshop World, in Boston after a 2-year hiatus, was quite a candy-store for photography enthusiasts and professionals. In addition to hundreds of informative tutorials and speaker-led sessions on Photoshop, Lightroom, design, video, and digital photography, there was a vendor trade show. If you missed Boston, the next conference is scheduled for Las Vegas, in October.

Back in the middle ages of computer shows, companies gave out a hard copy of presentations delivered. As electronic media advanced, most shows now give you a CD or links to PDFs and presentations online. Photoshop World bucks that trend and still delivers a tome of its presenter’s work. This wonderful 900+ page resource includes information from the over 100 classes taught on site during the 3-day training conference. In addition to the conference sessions are pre-conference workshops, Nikon and NAPP (National Association of Photoshop Professionals) theaters, panels, Guru Awards for attendee submitted photographs, portfolio reviews, and late-night events, including and the Photoshop Midnight Madness.

Due to time constraints, I attended the vendor expo and one excellent conference on Color Management for Photographers Using Photoshop CS4, presented by Andrew Rodney. I also attended an amazing 2-hour 7-photographer panel, “The Art of Digital Photography.” This was absolutely riveting. There must have been 1000 people in attendance, and no one walked out in the middle. (I’ve not sat still and so mesmerized by anything since I was under anesthesia!)

Each photographer presented his work, like a testimonial to all that photography can be. While Jim DiVitale’s piece looked like a photographic resume, heavily photoshopped in places, Joe Glyda’s presentation gave us permission to shoot anything. Unlike the others, his photos were all taken during his week in Boston, and the subject was simply shadows, it was humorous and illuminating. Jay Maisel’s offering covered 4 months of everyday photos from Thanksgiving to St. Patrick’s Day and let us glimpse his life. Joe McNally showed us a portfolio of his magazine photography that captured the spirit and beauty in scenes of life, while Vincent Versace’s portraits came alive and each reflected a whole life. John Paul Capinigro brought us back to the artistic edited art, which escaped that photographic look. This was his representation of our environment, while the last presentation of Moose Peterson inserted us into the environment and wrapped us in sprawling vista and up close wildlife.

Photoshop World may seem pricey; tickets range from $149 for valid students to $699 for non-NAPP members), but the sheer volume of available information, tutorials, combined with your direct access to experts makes this a reasonably priced event.

If I’ve perked your interest in photographic editing, you should check out the related resources at OWC. Most importantly, we carry the Adobe Creative Suite 4: Master Collection and the Adobe Creative Suite 4: Production Premium, plus a full selection of Wacom tablets. A number of the photographers also recommended NEC and Dell monitors, which we also carry.

Last week, we showed you how to bump up the memory in the new Mac Pros. This week’s video shows you how to perform the next most popular upgrade –  adding another hard drive.

Adding a hard drive or two to your system is always a good investment. You can use the extra storage for a number of things, including Time Machine backups, Photoshop scratch disks, and just plain old extra storage.

As far as how big of a drive to get… well… that’s up to you. Suffice it to say, though, I’ve not come across a customer who was upset they bought too large a drive.

Regardless of how large or how many hard drives you want to add to your new Mac Pro, the video for the process can be found in our Tech Center or, if you prefer, on our YouTube Channel.

Image Courtesy of Wikipedia

Ada Lovelace Day, a celebration of women in computing, actually caught my attention in Marshall Kirkpatrick’s ReadWriteWeb blog. He posts about how the celebration includes multitudes of bloggers promising to write about a woman in technology they admire on March 24th.

According to Wikipedia, Augusta Ada King, Countess of Lovelace (1815 – 1852) is considered one of the first computer programmers, because she wrote programs for Charles Babbage’s yet to be completed mechanical computer, the Analytical Engine. Her modern name has been abbreviated simply to Ada Lovelace.

An AdaLovelaceDay pledge asked for 1,000 people to post on a woman you admire in technology. At the end of the day, they were 20 people shy of doubling the request and the responses were wonderfully positive. Another site posted The Ada Lovelace Day Collection that currently lists over 1100 of the blog posts. Topics range from notes on local teachers, coworkers, and Moms, to women who toiled in World War II breaking code, scientists, and pilots. It is a fascinating history lesson about women in technology from authors all over the world.

If I had to pick one woman in technology I admire, it would be Hedy Lamarr, but then again, I had not heard of Ada Lovelace before yesterday. Thirteen of the blogs cover the beautiful actress Hedy Lamarr, who holds a patent with George Antheil for a frequency-switching system for torpedo guidance. Wikipedia explains, the system “serves as a basis for modern spread-spectrum communication technology, such as COFDM used in WiFi network connections and CDMA used in some cordless and wireless telephones.”

While there don’t seem to be any women in the Mac market that made the Ada Lovelace blog list, two woman I admire for their expert contributions are Sandee Cohen, a graphics program trainer and Dori Smith, a JavaScript expert. Both women appear regularly on dust jacket covers and speak at various conferences. Not to ignore my new home company, I’m also happy to tell you that OWC has an impressive 60-40 split of men and women employees, quite a difference from other companies I’ve worked with in the Mac market.

Please share with us your favorite blog on women in technology in our comments below.

Product reviews are often useful, but lacking are reviews over time. It’s nice to see that Eric Brodeur wrote a blog, Guardian Maximus 13-month redux, about his year-plus experience with a NewerTech Guardian Maximus (G-Max). While this accolade winning data protection solution received much press when it came out, it’s nice to see how well it actually works in the field. Eric’s Webspace even details for us how the G-Max handles rebuiding your data after a failure.

RAID technology can be confusing to home users and techies alike, but OWC simplifies this useful backup strategy right on their Guardian MAXimus page. A handy popup link on the page shows you exactly how the Guardian MAXimus works. In addition, further down on the page you can click an animated graphic to see how a RAID 1 solution works. An OWC FAQ also addresses what is the difference between RAID 0 and RAID 1.

A new Guardian MAXimus eMAX also offers green technology with integrated low power features, so you can be sure you never lose your data and work environmentally friendly at the same time! This 1.0TB x 1.0TB solution delivers maximum data protection, backup, and energy efficient performance while using three drive platters instead of five.

The RAID 1 Guardian MAXimus hardware solutions ship with well-known software installed, including ProSoft Engineering® Data Backup 3, NovaStor NovaBACKUP, and Intech SpeedTools Utilities. Everything you need in one box.

Spring is here, so while you clean up your household or office, it’s time to safeguard your data also. After all, backing up your important files is just another kind of spring cleaning.

Hot on the heels of our well-received 2009 Mac mini upgrade videos, we’ve got another batch of upgrade goodness on the way. This time around, we’re focusing on those shiny new Mac Pros that everybody’s been talking about.

Over the last couple of weeks, we’ve had a number of posts regarding the benefits of upgrading the memory in the Mac Pro. We’ve shown you why to upgrade your memory; now we’ll show you how to do it!

Head on over to our Tech Center or our YouTube channel to check it out, along with all the other how-to videos for upgrading your other Macs.

In response to a recent blog question we received: Yes, you can install a 5th hard drive into the new 2009 Mac Pro ‘Nehalem’ machines.  Simply use the second optical drive bay.  The SATA connection is the same for a hard drive as it is for an optical drive and both run off the same system BUS.

Adapter bracket attached to a 3.5" SATA hard drive.

Now, the only issue you will run into is how to secure the drive. Simply put, Tab A is not supposed to go into Slot B.  How do you get a 3.5″ drive installed into a 5.25″ bay?  You use an adapter bracket.

http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Apple/CLONESLED/

We do carry just such a bracket that will work – originally designed for the Mac clones and PC cases – it does functionally secure your drive in the bay.  However, if you use your Mac Pro in an audio-sensitive manner, be advised that suspended metal-on-metal provides no soundproofing.  While this will work for those that don’t mind the low hum of a drive spinning, this is not a solution for extra storage capacity if your Mac Pro is intended to be in the same room as your audio recording.

Hard Drive installed into the 2nd optical bay of a Mac Pro

For those audiophiles among you who must have a zero ambient noise environment, don’t fear … we’re working on it. Currently, we’re waiting on delivery of additional bracket systems and when we’re satisfied with their performance, we’ll be offering one or more solutions to you.  Watch the blog for developments on this and if you haven’t already, sign up for OWC Larry’s newsletters where the latest and greatest products are usually first announced.

UPDATE (4/17/9) - Well, the good news is that we have found a very elegant solution for installing 3.5″ drives into the optical bay of the Mac Pro that does reduce the hard drive noise as I mentioned back on the 6th of this month. The bad news is we’re still a few weeks out before we’ll have any stock on them. However, you can check out the X-Swing by (((NoiseBlocker))) and even pre-order.

X-Swing installed pics:

The optical and one hard drive installed.

Two hard drives installed.

Note:

Only the above two configurations will fit in the optical drive bay of the Mac Pro.  Two hard drives plus one optical drive combined is too large for the space.

In initial testing on the base processor speed of the new 8-Core Mac Pro, we’ve seen a much faster performance, up to 40%.

We used the TotalBenchmark product, developed by Media-Motion.TV. This test uses Adobe After Effects CS4 with multiprocessing enabled in the After Effects Preferences and no other programs running in the background. While the test was designed originally for After Effects 6 and updated for After Effects 7, it still runs under CS3 and CS4.

We also partnered with Bare Feats to push the new Mac Pro machines through speed tests for all five models. Bare Feats contends that six memory sticks are faster than eight in the 8-core Mac Pro, in terms of raw memory throughput as shown by the DigLloydTool memory stress test. The six sticks are 15% faster consistently.

That difference, however, doesn’t show up in the real world unless the application’s demand for memory transfers exceeds the bandwidth available. Rob at Bare Feats finds that “putting memory in the first three slots of each memory bank produces faster memory transfer speeds than filling all four slots on each bank.”

Bottom line: If you want the fastest rendering performance – get the most cores and upgrade memory to the max. As we’ve shown, certain applications, such as After Effects and Compressor, use subprocesses to grab as much as 3GB per core to deliver maximum performance. Take this a step further and you can run more applications and more processes concurrently. So, say goodbye spinning beach ball and hello to the local beach!

Today, Apple hosted an iPhone related press conference. Unfortunately, I couldn’t be there in the flesh, but I did scour the web for notable details to deliver to you.

Quality of coverage on the web is varied and I’m ashamed to admit that the best text coverage I found is not on a traditional Apple site. Eric Savitz in the Tech Trader Daily section of Barron’s Online types like the wind and caught everything delivered from the stage. Although the text is very sparse on TechCrunch, they did link to video of the event from Sam Levin. Ars Technica also had live coverage, but I was unable to access the site. I did notice after the event, Ars has some nice photos though.

The real news, delivered by Scott Forstall, SVP for iPhone software, is the new operating system: iPhone OS 3.0. The iPhone SDK, released a year ago, includes tools and frameworks to build great iPhone apps. This next generation of the SDK includes 1000 APIs for developers. For example, requested features such as magazine subscription applications and the ability to add game modules from within a game, in short, the ability to sell add-ons from within an application; called In App Purchase, is now possible. This is all tied into the iTunes Store purchasing system. The developer still sets the price and 70% of revenue goes to the Developer monthly. Selected features include:

Peer to peer connectivity: A standard system panel will find others who are using the same application in near proximity and form a connection; so you can now play Backgammon and other games with other users. They claim this is seamless with automatic discovery wirelessly over Bluetooth, no pairing for developer and end user. Bonjour is the technology behind it. It works for any peer-to-peer application, not just games.

Accessories: Speakers are among the most popular. The new SDK allows developers to build applications that talk to the accessories. For example, you can use an Equalizer if the speaker manufacturer builds that in or an FM transmitter that automatically find the best FM station to use.

Maps: Using Google maps, service developers can embed maps with multiple views.

Push Notification: Instant Message apps really take a toll on battery life; but with push notification, you can choose text or audio alerts to notify you of incoming messages. This helps with battery life and overall iPhone performance.

Apple invited a variety of vendors to show off new applications, such as Meebo for instant messaging, games from Electronic Arts, Oracle with business indicators, ESPN to deliver media, and health-related glucose monitoring from Johnson and Johnson’s Lifescan company, and more.

Judging from responses online to various live blogs and an iPhone twit, the new customer features, such as cut, copy, and paste are the hit of the press conference. Other requested features implemented include Landscape mode for all applications, plus support for MMS (multimedia messaging service), so you can send your photos or contact info. easily, CALDav for Calendar app, and Spotlight Search.

The iPhone 3.0 SDK works for all the iPhones and iPod touch; but not all the features are available, depending on your model. While the iPhone 3.0 SDK is available now, the end-user software should be available this summer.

How do the developers like this new software? Well, StuFF mc, Lead iPhone Developer at Pomcast.biz in Germany told me: “We’re thrilled with the new possibilities that the iPhone OS 3.0 offers us. As a matter of fact, we are already seeing tons of ways we can make one app we developed better, thanks to the Email panel and the Push notification services. We’re also very happy about the new streaming possibilities and the Pay in App. As day to day users of the iPhone, we’re also very happy about Copy, Paste, and other very neat stuff Cupertino just gave us a sneak peak at!”

Now, I’m not there to confirm or deny any of the above, but I’ve tried to give you the basics of today’s announcement for your reading pleasure. Please comment below if I missed your favorite new feature.

Oh, and the latest news: Apple has posted a video of the press conference online!

Lloyd Chambers of diglloyd.com has posted a comprehensive upgrade guide to the newest Mac mini (Early 2009), titled: Apple Mac Mini 2009 — the Green machine. This new Mac mini offers the NVIDIA GeForce 9400M integrated graphics card, the same as was introduced with the aluminum “Unibody” MacBooks.

Apple touts it as “the world’s most energy efficient desktop, drawing less than 13 watts of power when idle.” Lloyd takes it out for a ride and confirms the lower power use when the base RAM is installed, but notes energy consumption is a bit higher when you max out the memory.

The article gives you all the information you need to turn your new Mac mini into a server or to upgrade it with a faster hard drive and more RAM. We make it easy to do these upgrades with a one-stop-shop page complete with installation videos.

The best news is the missing MacBook FireWire ports are found as an 800-FireWire port on the new Mac mini. Using all the OWC tools, RAM, and hard drive updates options; this machine comes highly recommended for many types of needs.

Plus, if you’re missing FireWire 400 ports for those legacy desktop accessories, no problem, our miniStack line gives you plug and play connectivity for those devices plus external storage.

Just as we mentioned last week, we’re putting together a bunch of new instructional videos for upgrading the Macs released this month. They will be released over the coming weeks. This week, we’ve managed to pump out not one, but two instructional videos for you!

Head on over to our Tech Center or our YouTube channel and learn how to upgrade both the memory and the hard drive in that perennially upgrade-challenged Mac: the Mac mini. We must warn you: this upgrade is not for the faint-of-heart.

Don’t worry, though. If, after seeing the videos, you decide that you’d like to have the upgrade, but without the fuss of doing it yourself, we’ve got you covered there, too. Check out our upgrade service, where you can have these upgrades performed by our crack in-house technicians. You can think of them like personal trainers for your mini.

In the meantime, we’re going to keep cranking out the videos, so you can learn how to upgrade the rest of the updated Macs.

Our back room gurus tested the NVIDIA GeForce GT 120 and the ATI Radeon HD 4870 graphics cards from the early 2009 Mac Pro in the 800MHz and 667MHz Mac Pro models with varying success. The quick results are: GT120 functions, in both ports, in 800MHz Mac Pro.

Mac Pro ‘800MHz Memory Bus Models:
———-
4870 – Works A-OK via its DVI port. No-go via the miniDisplay Port.

GT120 – Works like a champ with both DisplayPort and DVI Port.

Mac Pro ‘667MHZ Memory Bus Models:
————
No go with either of Video Cards from the new Mac Pros.

We’ll have more details later, but there’s a preliminary first look summary. If you have an 800MHz Mac Pro now – the GT120 ought to become a nice option all around… And the 4870 maybe too for those wanting that super video performance while not needing it to support two displays.

Update note 3/17/09 should note that testing was done under OS X 10.5.6 and was done with a Mini DisplayPort straight into a new display.

Apple says the new Mac mini is good for up to 4GB RAM max. Maybe you’ve read of people who’ve put 8GB in it. Well – yes, it will boot with 8GB installed, but 4GB is the true limit of these latest Mac minis. As soon as the system tries to use more than 4GB, everything goes to molasses. There are plenty of examples where Apple states one limit and you can actually go beyond said limits – But, this is not one of them. Anyway – you can check out all of the ‘right stuff’ for any generation of Mac mini with OWC’s Mac mini guide.

A previous blog post by M. Chris Stevens gave you a tip to create your own portable HTML-based photo gallery using a keychain USB flash to tote around your photos. I also do that, but use already available solutions. I actually keep a tiny USB stick attached to my iPod case, which is a well-padded fabric case made by Booq. (My purse can be a dangerous place to store anything breakable!)

I love the Crucial Gizmo! Flash Drives that OWC sells and for carrying photos, a 2GB flash drive for $11.95 or 4GB for $17.49 are great deals. They easily can be put on a key chain also.

Funny thing though, LaCie just started selling keys with flash drives built-in. They’re supposedly scratch resistant, very sturdy, and comes in 3 different styles. One even uses micro-SD cards, so that you can interchange them. I got the imakey, which looks just like my car key without the computer rubber housing. The fob is very heavy though. It came with a small plastic cover over the USB connector, which I’m sure I’ll lose. Only time will tell whether it can survive my purse. In the meantime, the lighter-weight Crucial Gizmo wins out.

Oh, and by the way, if you prefer to show your photos in a slide show, complete with music, check out FotoMagico by Boinx Software, which is included in the new Roxio Toast 10 Titanium Pro and that is very cool. Of course, it’s Mac only, but a very easy to use tool to show off your photos in an entertaining way! I’ve tossed together long family slide shows in under an hour complete with my son’s original music. It came in very handy for a retrospective on my Dad’s life which I showed at his memorial service. Simple tools, fast solutions, things that work — don’t ya love it?

We already noted in a previous blog post that page 56 of the Mac Pro (early 2009) manual may not correctly explain in which RAM slots new DIMMs should be placed, but there is another issue RAM issue too.

While some memory looks like it should work in your new Mac Pro, it may not, because there are specific requirements for memory to meet Apple’s full RAM specifications.  Don’t waste your time and money by purchasing RAM that doesn’t meet Apple’s specs.

The screen shot here shows the Apple Hardware Test (version 3A153) error results when incorrect RAM is used in the new Mac Pro.

Apple requires a special EEPROM on their RAM modules that isn’t standard in the industry. This EEPROM and its design requirements add to the module cost, but are necessary for the RAM to properly operate in Apple’s latest flagship machines. OWC’s Memory for Macs is built adhering to Apple’s design requirements, which saves you time and unnecessary headaches both up front and down the road too.

For complete RAM specs and cautions from Apple, read page 41 of the Mac Pro (early 2009) manual, linked as a PDF here.

While our gurus are hidden away in our back offices; neck deep in bench testing and capturing the new 2009 Mac Pro, I thought it might be nice to provide a pictorial glossary of this new beast. Many of us make the mistake that it’s obvious which shiny silver pieces hide the different drive bays and RAM slots; but I suspect lots of folks nod their heads knowingly with no idea what pieces go where. Apologies to those many Mac gurus who most certainly know all this stuff as far back as the Mac 128.

For the rest of us, I offer you a color-coded diagram of the 2009 Mac Pro:

The blue rectangle surrounds the two Optical Bays. They use SATA drives (3Gb/s Serial ATA) and not the abandoned IDE/ATAPI drives. The top bay already contains an optical drive, but you can easily put in a Blu-ray reader/ burner in those bays. These devices will not play Blu-ray movies though, but that’s an issue for another blog. OWC sells a variety of SATA Blu-ray and other optical drives, some bundled with Roxio Toast.

The green rectangle surrounds the four SATA hard drive bays, which allow you to install up to 4TB of storage when using 1TB 7200-rpm Serial ATA drives. OWC offers a variety of compatible drives from which you can choose to pump up your hard drive space.

The red square shows the 4 PCI Express slots, one of which holds the NVIDIA GeForce GT 120 with 512MB of GDDR3 memory video card.

The magenta rectangle highlights the Processor and Memory boards. The RAM goes into a slide-out tray, but the positioning differs slightly between the 4-core and 8-core Mac Pro models. OWC has all the memory upgrades you need for reasonable prices; plus a trade-in rebate on Apple RAM, if you decide to replace the original memory too.

Apple has posted the full technical specifications of the Mac Pro (Early 2009) in their support area, or you can download the manual from this PDF link.