Mac Pro Engineering Sample

Question

Level 1

11 points

Mac Pro Engineering Sample

Hello everyone! I now have a 2009 Mac Pro 4,1 with dual 2.26ghz Xeons. I want to upgrade these to 3ghz+ CPUs.

I read that the Xeon X5677 is the fastest compatible processor for my model, at 3.4ghz.

Today I found a seller on eBay who sells many Engineering Sample xeons, and has the X5677 for $300 shipped versus $600+ for retail processors from other sellers. My question is simple. Can I use the ES models for my Mac Pro and save the $600 for the pair, or would there be huge incompatibility problems? I've read that I might be fine, and I also shouldn't do it, yet I've seen no posts about what actually goes wrong. Thoughts? Thanks!

Posted on Mar 7, 2013 11:20 PM

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Answer 1

bubbamj Author

Level 1

11 points

Mar 7, 2013 11:23 PM in response to bubbamj

Fastest quad core**

I know the X5690 is the fastest in general.

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Answer 2

ssls6

Level 4

2,879 points

Mar 8, 2013 9:57 AM in response to bubbamj

Just be aware that engineering samples don't always work. Often they are for just fit. I would not buy one for my computer (and I've shipped hundreds of engineering samples in my life "not intel chips").

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Answer 3

The hatter

Level 9

60,980 points

Mar 8, 2013 10:17 AM in response to bubbamj

There is a thread or two on forums.macrumors Mac Pro about cpu upgrades for 2009

incl best 4-core (5500 series)

I would zvoid those, later stepping and firmware on the chips, and you want to apply Mac Pro 5, 1 firmware as well

most that bought dual 2.26 did so due to high cost of 4GB DDR3 RAM at the time and were hurt by the slow cpu clock speed

Even a W3690 can be a very nice upgrade single cpu socket and no trouble

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Answer 4

Mar 9, 2013 4:19 AM in response to bubbamj

Anyone selling Engineering Samples is selling stolen property.

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