Compatible processors mac pro mid 2010

from what?

W3680 $619

build or just buy a PC and use Wibdows, a nice US$1200 system, based on $300 or less Sandy Bridge cpu

You must be kidding Hatter, The most intrusive os in 17 years Windows 8. Lots of eye candy and no real improvements in security. No thanks Hatter.

Willp

Unless you are doing rendering, these Macs (including yours) are rarely limited by compute-power. They are most often I/O limited.

If you have not already created a separate Boot Drive, with only System, Applications, Library, and the hidden unix files including Paging/swap on it, you should do that right away. It will make everything faster because it reduces competition for the drives.

Move the user files off, using a recipe like this one:

Japamac's Blog: Make space for performance -- Moving the Home folder

Do you have 3x8GB RAM?

Two disk drives may not be enough.

Invest in scratch disk for one thing.

Make sure the system is not used as primary scratch volume for each app.

I said go PC because they do have cheap fast Sandy Bridge and later processors

I've used Windows 8 for a year. I never touch the candy, never different and only better than 7 was in 50 ways. Serious. It is just an OS on top of the hardware and for your apps. Lots and lots of choices and sources for hardware in Brazil that you won't find for Apple products and upgrades, off the shelf. Computers are tools. If Linux can work for you fine. And those that are desperate enough go hackintosh. I don't and can't recommend it.

Make specifically what? more RAM and disk arrays help. PCIe SATA for faster and more storage. SSDs even - not just for system but scratch or Aperture library

You won't see or feel difference in RAM in real world More RAM usually until the system can't cache and CS6 or other apps don't. But less than 16GB you probably do.

Wish there was a mandatory list of hardware, software used, upgrades. Generic "want faster" doesn't tell the story.

Hey Gols,

If you're looking for the jump in performance I do believe you can upgrade to any chip that's listed as optional on the Mac Pro specs. You'll want the 2x6 core chips for the 1333Mhz speed bump in Ram, which are the W3680, the X5650, the X5670 and the X5675. All of which should work with your '2010' Mac Pro as all of the Mac Pros 2009-2012 share the Intel X58 chipset/mainboard.

Again, don't follow my words like scripture, there could be some inherant compatibility with certain chips. I'm in the same boat as you with a 2010 Pro and will probably be doing something similar later this year.

Cheers,

The 5000 series are used in Macs with Dual Processor chips. If you do not have Dual processor chips already, you cannot use those.

You have not convinced me that your problem is a lack of processing power. Many Mac Pros are Input/Output bound due to not enough drives working at once. Many more do not perform because they do not have enough memory for the tasks running at the same time, and they are simulating RAM with s-l-o-w disk Reads and Writes..

First determine if you have enough real RAM. This article will help you:

Using Activity Monitor to read System Memory and determine how much RAM is being used

Then determining if you have enough processing power. This article is a start, but Activity Monitor also has a floating bar graph that you can invoke.

Runaway applications can shorten battery runtime, affect performance, and increase heat and fan activity

Both articles are available in other languages if you prefer to read them in Portuguese, for example.

So buy what is available on t he PC market. They run great and stable and because t here are more users out there. We have had someone from Brazil with exact complaints.

And US$600 for any 6-ccore from Intel is darn cheap for i7 or W3xxx though you can get fully outfitted 'gaming' systems with excellent specs for $US1200. Whether you use Windows or not or something else is up to you. But if $600 seems prohibitive then workstations aren't for you to begin with is how I see it. They may be relics for all but more demanding and a 2013 iMac might be suitable. Maybe there is a good used market for yours.