Power Mac G5 CPU Upgrade?

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Level 2

289 points

Power Mac G5 CPU Upgrade?

I have always been told that there are no CPU Upgrades available for any of the Power Mac G5 machines.

Earlier today, I was in the Apple Store in Altamonte Springs, Florida. The young gentleman who was helping us told me that it was possible to upgrade to a faster processor. He continued by saying that it was even possible to upgrade a single CPU machine to a dual CPU machine.

This goes against everything I have ever been told. Does anyone know the real story on this?

G5 Tower (1.8GHz single CPU "Late 2004"), Mac OS X (10.4.11), 3.0 GB RAM, Pioneer DVR-112D, 2 TB Storage

Posted on Mar 1, 2009 6:10 PM

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Answer 1

Mar 1, 2009 7:19 PM in response to Craig Kaplan

The "young gentleman" is mistaken. It may be possible to swap the entire motherboard and heat sink assemble between same generation Power Mac G5 machines; that's about it and not cost effective. There are no third-party CPU upgrade products, like with G4 Power Macs. The main reason is placement of the CPU on the motherboard directly. The G4 Power Macs have the CPU on a daughter card, so it can be swapped out without the need to replace the entire motherboard.

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Answer 2

Craig Kaplan Author

Level 2

289 points

Sep 5, 2009 6:15 AM in response to Craig Kaplan

Obviously, this guy has no business working at an Apple store. Thanks for the replies.

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