Processor upgrade 1.1 macpro. is it worth it?

OWC ships but can't tell anymore where, what hardware etc like the old AD forums. Crucial UK and Kingston (Europe) are quality and probably going to be easier and competitive. So for you, I'd say Kingston.

Compiled some links for parts for EU region.

ALTERNATE Europe

Kingston Mac Pro RAM

OWC SSD Europe

And that assumes you need 24GB. The ideal is still going to be 4 x 4GB, to use 4 DIMMs (two per Riser), or if you must, 8 DIMMs (4 x 2GB for 2nd quad-set).

While aimed at the 2009/2010s, any well done upgrade is worth studying.

Photos, where to find long torx

W3670 Upgrade photos

Good work Mike.

Not that difficult was it? Was lucky getting a 12" Torx driver found on a hardware clearance site in the US and had it mailed here to Australia. Regarding memory suggest OWC. Had 2x2GB modules fail, and as they offer a lifetime gurantee, had 2 new modules here in 14 days ~ brilliant.

Found best upgrades after the CPU's was a SSD drive and an ATI Radeon HD4870 1GB graphics card. All work smoothly with both Snow Leopard and Windows 7 Ultimate under Bootcamp.

Has anybody that's upgraded the CPU in their MacPro 1,1 installed Lion or even 10.6.8 yet?

I upgraded to E5345 and they've been running well for months until I upgraded to 10.6.8 and started getting lots of kernel panic reboots. I used TC to roll back to 10.6.7 and it's stable again. I even installed Lion on a fresh RAID array and that kernel panics too.

I notice that the AboutThisMac app no longer works with Lion so back to having "unknown" CPUs. I've not tried putting my original CPU back in yet but that's the next step.

Funny that you should mention this. I've a MacPro 1,1 that was running with a pair of E5345s for almost 2 years now that was perfectly stable. Since DP4 was so stable on my MacBook I decided to install DP4 on my MacPro and started experiencing a ton of KPs. I figured it was the DP, but the KPs reoccured with RC and ultimately with the retail release. I installed on a fresh drive from scratch using the DMG method and still KP. Went back to 10.6.8 on a fresh drive and still KP. Finally pulled the procs and replaced with the original 5150's that came in the machine and I've been running Lion without a single KP or reboot now for a week. Of course, CPU bound tasks are now pokier but the machine is stable.

I'd not tried to roll back to 10.6.7 specifically. That's an interesting observation...

Lion works a treat on my upgraded Mac Pro 1.1 to Quad Core with X5355 processors. Fast and rock steady. Also Snow Leopard OS X.6.8 was very good also. Upgrade presents no problems.

Regarding Apple System Profiler not showing processor details, Google for a littlre utility called 'AboutthisMac.pkg'. Fixed mine Profiler to read "2.66GHz Xeon Quad X5355 Processors." Had to re-apply after Lion upgrade however.

Harryb I had used the "AboutThisMac.pkg" to make it show the correct CPU details in 10.6.7 and it works in 10.6.8 but after installing a fresh copy of Lion "AboutthisMac.pkg" doesn't seem to do anything for me.

mikecorp I've been using Bluetooth in my MacPro 1,1 for a few years with the Might Mouse, Magic Mouse and now with the Magic Trackpad as my only device. My Bluetooth module info is below.

NOTE - When I fisrt installed the BT and WiFi cards (both bought from Apple) the Signal on both was quite poor. It turns out my antenna cables may have been labelled incorrectly. See this post http://forums.macrumors.com/showpost.php?p=2888144&postcount=14

Apple Bluetooth Software Version: 2.4.5f3

Hardware Settings:

Address: 00-16-cb-21-9f-03

Manufacturer: Cambridge Silicon Radio

Name: MacPro

Firmware Version: 1965

scoopz 'AboutthisMac.pkg' has now done the very same thing to me. Downloaded a fresh copy, and the installer ran and has now reverted to ' Processor 2.66GHz unknown' . Have posted a thread on this at mediafire and if there is ever any answer will post it back here.

The problem with Airport leads being wrongly identified as cables 1,2 and 3 was well documented by Apple. My Mac Pro 1.1 was purchased on 30 July 2007 as a Refurbished Model direct from Apple at Elk Grove ca and never had this problem so it must have been sorted out by Apple before then.

Oky here is how to show Processors under the new Apple System profiler.

Go to this link at MacRumours,

http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=865267&page=2

post number 40, and download the CPUInjector file, listed as Download 1.1 when that page opens, and the Kext Utility file. Double click Kext Utility and it opens to a box like looking icon. Double click CPUInjector file or click Open and drag the file dated October 2009 to the desktop, and drag that file onto the KEXT icon and it will run.

On completion About this Mac will read as:-

Processor 2 x 2.66GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon

or whatever as the case maybe.

I’ve recently upgraded my Mac Pro 1,1 with X5365 and have had a similar run of kernel panics as mentioned by Scoopz. Am also on Snow Leopard 10.6.8 and wondering what the issue might be so very interesting to read your experience (first I could find of anyone having a similar problem).

I seem to have lessened the frequency of panics by upgrading Little Snitch. I had an older version installed that after a bit of reading I found had issues that could cause kernel panics. Still having issues on a daily basis at present though, so please share any additional info or solution you find! Guess my next step is to try find a 10.6.7 backup to play with…

Would be really interested to hear what fan RPMs and CPU temps you have going on Scoopz.

@allthepoo - I've not got any closer to finding a solution yet, I currently have 2 suspects:

1. Apple Software RAID. I've only ever tried installing onto RAID arrays that have been created with Apple's Disk Utility so I'm going to break apart one of the RAIDs and try installing on a non-RAID drive. I noticed in my fresh Lion install that Disk Utility Repair Permissions bugs out when I try and repair the Lion drive it's on so it could be a suspect.
   
2. My graphics card is the original 7300GT and the fact that the Lion install hung on "Installing" over and over when I had dual monitors connected makes me thing my GPU or GPU drivers could be at fault. After removing the 2nd 19" Dell monitor and just leaving the 30" Cinema display the installing flew threw. Yesterday I order an Apple 5770 upgrade kit from Apple. Granted it's not "officially" supported in the MacPro 1,1 but from what I've read it works perfectly, even with Lion (although the mini display ports might not work but I use DVI) and the card arrived today so I'll be trying that out this evening.

I've created a postthat I'm updating on my site about this regularly but I'll try and remember to post back here too with any findings.

@harryb - thanks for the update on changing the CPU description in About This Mac, I'll give the new method a try.

All the information I come across seems to be from naughty people running OS X on non-Apple hardware (so called hackintoshes) and point towards a kext file "ACPI_SMC_PlatformPlugin.kext from IOPlatformPluginFamily.kext " which I have seen faulting in my KPs every now and again so not sure if there's something in that?

http://tonymacx86.blogspot.com/2011/07/get-ready-for-os-x-lion-update-to-1068.ht ml

But I am using genuine MacPro1,1 just with upgraded cpu but thought I'd put this out there in case it does help.