Processor upgrade 1.1 macpro. is it worth it?

Thanks for the reply. I wonder if anyone else knows the answer.

A few things guys, ive been reading along with you guys after my earlier contrabution, i ended up with a 2.8ghz "octo core" 3,1 '08 model. a few things:

A. what ever model SSD you get, you are going to be limited by the sata II 3gb/s which is more or less about 300MB/s, if you have an older model mac pro. so sorry your not gonna get 400+MB/s speed

B. even if they do make a sata 3 6gb/s card(which i would so buy) our pci card slots only go up to about 5GB/s 😟

C. I ended up with an OWC 3g ssd, 60 GB means that i used symlinks to keep things like my steam lib, itunes lib and other things on other drives. i think this was a really good option

Heres my recomendation for all those out there worried about lion

1. Buy a new SSD (if you dont already have one) 60-120 GB or so should do

2. clone your boot drive onto it, i would recoment carbon copy cloner

3. boot from it and download and install lion

4. if you dont have any problems, congrats, your running lion, and you have a really fast boot drive, if you do have a problem, just reclone your old boot disk onto your SSD and congrats, even though your not running lion, you still sped up your mac pro 😉

hope all this helps

the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Intel_Xeon_microprocessors#.22Clovertown.22 _.2865_nm.29 doesn't list "'QWTH' version of the X5365" spec code??? Not sure if that means that there isn't such a beast, but I'd double check the code.

QWTH usually indicates an engineering sample and the ones I have seen are still stepped SLAED or SLAC3.

And for what it is worth Benjamin, OWC techniocians strongly advise against cloning, which copies any defects from a platter drive ton the SSD. They brecommend clean system install and then use Migration Assistant to transfers applications, network settings etc. acroos, and the current system software, or Combo, update.

Thanks for your replies, harryb and Kim Hansen1.

harryb, it looks like you might have a litle bit of knowledge on this subject. Would you say that it is safe to purchase the engineering samples and then use them in the Mac Pro 1,1? Would there be any possible bad outcome of this?

harryb wrote:

QWTH usually indicates an engineering sample and the ones I have seen are still stepped SLAED or SLAC3.

And for what it is worth Benjamin, OWC techniocians strongly advise against cloning, which copies any defects from a platter drive ton the SSD. They brecommend clean system install and then use Migration Assistant to transfers applications, network settings etc. acroos, and the current system software, or Combo, update.

Kim Hansen1 wrote:

the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Intel_Xeon_microprocessors#.22Clovertown.22 _.2865_nm.29 doesn't list "'QWTH' version of the X5365" spec code??? Not sure if that means that there isn't such a beast, but I'd double check the code.

Engineering samples arel ike beta versions of the hardware. They are provided to mabnufacturers for testing much like beta software is available for download and assessment. Here Wikipedia explains it much better:-

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Engineering_sample

Have not personally installed these samples, always matched pairs of X51xx and X53xx CPU's but other I know have purchased them when nothing else was available, particulalr for the X5365 3GHz version which are rarer than the 2.66 and of course much dearer.

Have heard of no negative reports on these samples, but still and all would look for matched pair of non-engineering samples personally. May take a few more weeks but better to be safe than sorry. Apple does not support CPU upgrades for the obvious reason so perhaps these posts may vanish somewhere along the line.

Thanks for the reply. I appreciate it, and I'm guessing/hoping others do, too.

It sounds like you have a lot of experience in this modification, so I have yet another question for you: can a person in my shoes (1,1 with original dual 2.66 GHz processors) simply opt, be it temporarily or permanently, to remove those original processors and replace only one of them? I ask in the context of those who don't want to drop a ton of cash on the upgrade at one time by buying two processors in one purchase. Like, if they wanted to only buy one X5365 for now, then buy another later as the budget afforded it. If this is an option that will work, I would strongly consider it for my own setup. Of course I know by now that you have to have matching processors for when you do have two in there, so one would have to be careful when buying that second one, but if that works it would be a great way to ease into the mod from a financial standpoint, yet still get your foot in the door with the quad.

Breett that is not something I would recommend doing running the Mac Pro with one 5300 processor and one 5100. There are reports of folks doing this, but suggest the best way is to purchase a matched pair when you want to go this way. Matched pairs come with identical serial numbers and of course have the same stepping.

Thanks, harryb. I think I must've been a bit unclear in my message, though. Sorry about that. What I had actually meant was removing both original processors, and then only putting in one quad. The original processors would never go back in; not one. That means the computer in this state would only have one processor powering it: the new quad.

Then, when the finances allow, buy the second quad processor. Obviously in this case you would have to make sure that you get same stepping.

Is that doable?

@mikecorp how did you fix these problems

"1- got error during install and reboot, NTFS tuxera did not work anymore. Solution -> Upgrade all OTHER system preferences!!!!

2-About this mac will show you Unknown Processor, App "about this mac 2" did not work for me. Solution -> Find the kext utility described by Harryb bit earlier in this discussion. Works after restart.

3-I had several crashes of Safari, Mail but not a big concern

4- I run the geekbench after 7.1 upgrade. ;( well do not know what it means, but my score is less then before."

As you posted b4 you have had these problems. But, some things i just have never had to do for instance "Upgrade all OTHER system preferences!!!!" i solved how to do number 2 and how did you fix number 3. Thx hope you reply soon

Okay Brett misunderstood sorry mate.

Running one CPU is not something I would do personally, but having said that Google shows many reports of folks doing just that, particularly this link and the thread by Purple Patch:-

http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/lofiversion/index.php/t123604.html

Dell,HP and IBM of course offer single CPU X5355/5365 so there would be not great danger in it that I could see. Only thing to be doubly sure of when it comes time for the additional CPU< get the same step model.

Be interesting to see performance differences between the 2.66GHz Dual Core and the X5365 3GHx Quad with only one processor.

Steve pleased you got the Kext Utility up and goind. Does it shows 'Processors 2 x 2.66GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon'?

STATUS UPDATE! So Mikecorp i have finanally done the upgrade i got the cpu's today and all is well more then excpected so far i am running 10.7.2 11C40 and have a RAID, Little Snitch, and all other things i am running that may have caused a KP. So far so good but the only problem i see potentially is the Artic Silver #5 and the heat temp is idling at 36 C and 97 F hopeflly this changes soon. Otherwise all is well "knock on wood" for no KP's

i was using quicktime and perian earlier no problems or KP's so far. Also no RAID CARD using soft. And strangley from the reports i have yet to hear any ticking but will be sure to look out for it. Also i was going to install bootcamp and its good to no as of yet no problems.

But, i think some of these problems are resovled in 10.7.2 i am on the beat version of that mabye thats why no problems. Who nows till apple offically tells us what the update does other then icloud.

Also, after the upgred do the X5355's run a little hotter?