Motherboard Upgrade? Mid 2010 Mac Pro?

The way you do upgrades like that is the same way you upgrade your car to a bigger engine -- sell the one you have and buy one that better fits your needs.

Mid-10 is the most recent model available, its still used in the MacPro today, 3 years later.

You aren't going to be more recent from an i7 if it has a different socket.

I assume you want the next LGA 2011 Ivy Bridge-E that while still 2011 is not backward compatible.

What you can do is drop in a W3690 (or W3680) for 6-core 3.4GHz.

Games don't yet use more than 4-cores if that so a 4-core 3.x probably is best for now.

Add to that Sonnet 6G PCIe SSD card ($300 + cost of a pair of say Samsung 840 Pro 240GB)

Top it off GTX 680 or something -

Build a PC and Intel should have some new post-Sandy Bridge chips - Xeons to follow but later this year.

Games don't yet use more than 4-cores if that so a 4-core 3.x probably is best for now.

Incorrect.

Any program that can utilize 4 cores can use any number of cores available. OSX distributes load across all CPUs as evenly as possible.

they are not coded or from my non gaming reading on eVGA site forum the recommendations have always been and boiled down to.,.,., you don't need 6-cores, but you probably do want 4.5GHz on that 4-core, and a pair or more of GTX in SLI.

YMMV

If cost is no impediment, there IS a no-risk upgrade path for Mac Pro 5,1 (2010 model) and later ONLY.

A processor shelf swap. Starts at US$899:

http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/turnkey/MacPro/2010_Xeon_Processor

.

stop right there.

I have the same exact model sitting with me that I still play on.

Don't make the switch with Xeon - i7

Xeon. Made to never fail, they were used in banks to keep money from glitching.

I have one processor, fine.

That switch from 1 to 2 boards on the bottom of the computer is WAY to expensive for a gamer.

Don't take a famous Mac for granted,

P.S the mac pro is so extendable

I have the same model, don't get mixed up with the new one.

Games are typically more affected by the speed of the graphics card rather than the CPU so your best bet is to get a newer video card. See - http://www.macvidcards.com

While some i7 chips may fit the same socket used in the MacPro5,1 that you have I have not heard of anyone doing this successfully, it is therefore not believed possible although this maybe down to people not willing to gamble with the considerable cost of a suitable i7 chip. It is possible to fit a faster Xeon chip as mentioned by The Hatter, I did this myself to my own dual processor MacPro. It is also possible but extremely expensive to trade-in your single CPU processor tray for a dual-processor tray.

Note: For what its worth the official designation for the CPU socket type used in the classic Mac Pro is a LGA1366 aka FCLGA1366 aka Socket B. As an example the i7-960 also uses this socket type. It is my understanding that the i7 does not support dual CPU configurations and that this is only possible with Xeon chips although some Xeon chips are also only usable in single CPU boards. I believe Xeon chips beginning with a W are single CPU only, and those beginning with an X are dual CPU cable. My Mac Pro therefore has two X5675 chips and I would guess yours has one W3530.

Warning: Some people advertise dual CPU trays on eBay as being for a MacPro5,1 but sometimes they are cheating and they are from a MacPro4,1 which has had the 5,1 firmware installed, as a result they are not fully compatible with a real MacPro5,1.

The following link lists most of the possible CPU upgrade permutations for your Mac although you may find these upgrades cheaper elsewhere. See - https://eshop.macsales.com/shop/turnkey/MacPro/2010_Xeon_Processor this is a well trusted reseller of Mac upgrades.