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What are the differences between the logic board in the Mac Pro 2009, 2010, and 2012? In particular, what are the differences in the logic board between the MacPro4,1 and MacPro5,1? When a 2009 logic board is updated to the 5,1 firmware is it then identical to the 2010 and 2012 logic boards? When updated to 5,1, what happens with the SMC firmware?
As mentioned the 4,1 logic board can be upgraded to 5,1 firmware. This allows using 5,1 CPU upgrades and that in turn gives you the same memory speed upgrade.
The only physical difference I am aware of between a 4,1 and 5,1 logic board (other than original firmware) is the fact that the original CPU chips in the 4,1 model do not have heat spreaders fitted and the heat sinks are designed to be used with CPU chips with no heat spreader fitted. The 5,1 logic board does use CPU chips which do have heat spreaders glued on to them which is the far more standard type of CPU chip, this makes the chip slightly taller. If you fit a CPU chip to a 4,1 logic board with the heat spreader still attached then you have to be very, very careful not to crush the chip when re-fitting the heat sink due to the extra height.
This is what a CPU looks like without a heat spreader
This is what a CPU looks like with a heat spreader
Note: The proper way to fit a CPU upgrade to a 4,1 logic board or more accurately its matching CPU tray would be to either buy CPU chips without heat spreaders which are effectively impossible to find, or to unglue and remove the heat spreader from standard chips.
So with a 5,1 you don't have to mess about upgrading the firmware, and with a 5,1 fitting CPU upgrades is much easier.
The only difference between a 2010 and 2012 is the 2012 had faster CPU chips as standard, it was other wise identical to the 2010. I have upgraded my 2010 to the same CPU chips a 2012 would have had so mine is now effectively identical to an official 2012 configuration.
As mentioned the 4,1 logic board can be upgraded to 5,1 firmware. This allows using 5,1 CPU upgrades and that in turn gives you the same memory speed upgrade.
The only physical difference I am aware of between a 4,1 and 5,1 logic board (other than original firmware) is the fact that the original CPU chips in the 4,1 model do not have heat spreaders fitted and the heat sinks are designed to be used with CPU chips with no heat spreader fitted. The 5,1 logic board does use CPU chips which do have heat spreaders glued on to them which is the far more standard type of CPU chip, this makes the chip slightly taller. If you fit a CPU chip to a 4,1 logic board with the heat spreader still attached then you have to be very, very careful not to crush the chip when re-fitting the heat sink due to the extra height.
This is what a CPU looks like without a heat spreader
This is what a CPU looks like with a heat spreader
Note: The proper way to fit a CPU upgrade to a 4,1 logic board or more accurately its matching CPU tray would be to either buy CPU chips without heat spreaders which are effectively impossible to find, or to unglue and remove the heat spreader from standard chips.
So with a 5,1 you don't have to mess about upgrading the firmware, and with a 5,1 fitting CPU upgrades is much easier.
The only difference between a 2010 and 2012 is the 2012 had faster CPU chips as standard, it was other wise identical to the 2010. I have upgraded my 2010 to the same CPU chips a 2012 would have had so mine is now effectively identical to an official 2012 configuration.
I'm trying to decide if should buy a 2009 or 2010 Mac Pro. I need the expandable I/O, I plan to upgrade it to dual X5690s and 128GB of memory, and a disk array.
eBay used pricing is as follows:
The 2009 is averaging $678
The 2010 is averaging $903
The 2012 is averaging $1400
You can upgrade the firmware of the 2009/4.1 to that of the 2010/5.1 and use the same memory at rated sped and same processors as the latter.
The 2010 and 2012 both were shipped with the exact same 5,1 firmware. They are the same machine except for what options could be bundled into a sales number and purchased together.
The four-core versions continued to use the Nehalem series processors, and therefore, the slower memory speeds. The hex and dual hex cores use processors with a faster bus and can use the faster memories. Not sure about the eight cores.
Thank you, yes I'm aware the 4,1 can be updated to 5,1. However, my question is what are the exact differences between the logic board on a 4,1 and 5,1. Are they physically the same board, or are there subtle differences?
There are two different processor shelf boards in each of these models. One accepts a single processor chip and one group of memories, and has an expanded heatsink. The other accepts two processor chips and two sets of memories and has two smaller heatsinks.
The board with one processor chip cannot become a board for two processor chips, and the heatsinks are completely different. So the expense of moving from a one processor board to a two processor board is stupidly expensive.
Thank you for the clarification on the CPU types. I had seen references (Everymac) that the 2010 models had the "lidless" CPUs like the 2009 model. I was sold a 2010 machine that had 2 X5570 4 core processors in it (??). The vendor agreed to send me the correct 6 core replacements for me to fit. The replacement X5670s have heat spreaders and I assumed that I needed to do the risky process of removing them but seeing your post stopped me (thank goodness).
Access to cheaper & easier to get "lidded" processors has to be the biggest advantage of the 2010/12 model over the 2009 if you intend to upgrade the CPU. These models of the Mac Pro have quite some life in them yet. I now have a machine (2010, 12 x 2.93, 64G RAM + PCIe SSD) that will render at nearly the same speed as a current top line Mac Pro for one third of the cost.
Make sure you really have a 2010 model i.e 5,1 and not an older 4,1 that has had a firmware upgrade to make it look like a 5,1 to help confirm the type of CPU chip it will accept.
You can enter the serial number of your Mac Pro in a site like this and it will give you information about your original specification.
Thorough answers to such broad queries would take book-length answers.
Where are you going with this?
Differences between the Mac Pro 2009, 2010, and 2012 Logic Board
