An overview of the Mac tower

Modern Mac tower computers

come in two varieties: those with G5 processors and those with Intel processors. The configuration within can vary somewhat depending on which of these types of computers you have, but the process of getting into the tower is the same with both. First, flip the lever that you'll find on the back of the tower and that will open up the side panel. Slide that out to get in.

Now if you have an

Apple G5 tower

, you'll find a plastic cover that you'll need to remove to get in. The Intel Mac towers don't have this. On the G5 towers, you'll find RAM attached directly to the motherboard behind a fan, while the Intel models have RAM attached to a daughterboard that can be easily removed. For

hard drives

, the G5 can accommodate two drives at the top while Intel towers can support up to four hard drives each on its own removable sled.

Both the G5 and the Intel Mac towers have expansion card slots at the back where the video cards are located. You'll also find

PCI Express

slots on each. The CPUs are hard to access on each model, though they are located in different places. In the G5, the CPUs are found behind the G5 plate and on the Intel towers, they're hidden behind a panel near the front. Both models of Mac towers also have

optical drives

located at the front near the top. These can be slid out and replaced if you are so inclined.