Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

4,1 to 5,1 CPU question

T

thestickman

macrumors regular
Original poster
Nov 21, 2010
219
18
Jacksonville, FL
Looking to buy a refurbished 2009 4,1 DP 2.26 because of the upgrade ability this machine offers at a great price. I've read through this forum & think I have a good grip on the Firmware App & the physical process of actually changing the CPU's.

What I am uncertain of is if a pair of this flavor Xeon will do the job:
71Y9043 IBM Intel Xeon X5650 Six Core 2.66GHz 1.5MB L2 Cache 12MB L3 Cache 6.4GT S Qpi Speed Socket FCGLA1366 32nm 95w Processor

I know the x5680 would be a better CPU but not gonna have the $$$ for that<shrug>. Just trying to plan properly & don't want to burn money for the wrong CPU.

Thanks for your time. Peace :)
 
That will be a bit faster than what you have. Does what you do benefit from have twelve cores rather than eight? When I upgraded to my X5688s I was looking for the max CPU speed rather than the number of cores. For me, 8 cores is plenty.

If I were you, and I am not, not knowing what your workload is. I would look for CPU speed rather than the number of cores. And, IMHO, going from 2.26GHz is only a minor speed bump to 2.66GHz.

But, on the other hand, when I upgraded from my W5590s (3.33GHz) to my X5688s (3.46GHz) I could feel the subtile difference.

With all that being said, the biggest noticeable speed bump would be going from an HDD to an SSD, and more so to an SSD mounted on a PCIe card.

Lou
 
Last edited:
flowrider said:
That will be a bit faster than what you have. Does what you do benefit from have twelve cores rather than eight? When I upgraded to my X5688s I was looking for the max CPU speed rather than the number of cores. For me, 8 cores is plenty.

If I were you, and I am not, not knowing what your workload is. I would look for CPU speed rather than the number of cores. And, IMHO, going from 2.26MHz is only a minor speed bump to 2.66MHz.

But, on the other hand, when I upgraded from my W5590s (3.33MHz) to my X5688s (3.46MHz) I could feel the subtile difference.

With all that being said, the biggest noticeable speed bump would be going from an HDD to an SSD, and more so to an SSD mounted on a PCIe card.

Lou
Click to expand...

This will be my music studio computer. The extra cores + hyperthreading will make for a nice bump. SSD is sitting here, waiting to be used. There is no doubt a pair of 3.33 ghz would rock & next year that could well happen. Just looking to bump things up by moving to 12 cores. Will also gradually load up on RAM along the way.

Just wanted to make sure a pair of those CPU's I listed would work.
 
I agree with Flowrider, though I think he means X5677 instead of X5688. (And of course the speed is in the GHz range, not MHz! :))

These are going for bargain prices on eBay right now. $50 - $70 each. That's a great deal; I kind of wish I'd opted for these instead of the X5680s I upgraded to recently.
 
thestickman said:
Just wanted to make sure a pair of those CPU's I listed would work.
Click to expand...

They will work as those are the exact same processors as Apple used in the 5,1 12 core model which is the firmware you will need to flash onto the machine to be able to use them. Any of the X56xx series should work once the firmware is updated. If you ever get the ram not being detected in their respective slots on the board once it has booted when you have done the processors switch try to loosen/tighten the heat sinks a little bit more/less, this is what happened to me when I did the same upgrade you are about to attempt. I did not have them correctly tightened down enough so only six of the eight slots were working until an extra partial turn on the hold down screws was done.
 
  • Like
Reactions: thestickman
^^^^The X5687 4 core 3.6GHz CPU also will not work in a 4,1 or 5,1 Mac Pro:(

+1 pm the Pindelski Guide images.jpeg



Lou
 
Is this supported CPU info stored in the EFI? Since the firmware flash make the 4,1 able to run the Westmere CPU. Just wonder is it possible to add support for X5687 or X5698 via firmware hack (like the undergoing NVMe project?).
 
In theory, yes. But I think it involves Intel microcode. They keep their stuff opaque, like Apple they know best for their parts and don't want you over clocking chips they didn't list as "unlocked".

Lots of things could happen if the NVME project works out.
 
What would really be Great, is if there was a way to re-identify a 56XX chip that will not run on a cMP to another 56XX CPU that will!

Lou
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back